Working with free shipping offers

You can use free shipping offers to provide free shipping to your selected customers.

You can configure free shipping offers to apply only if specified rules (macro conditions) are fulfilled. These rules use properties of the shopping cart, and can include shopping cart content, billing/shipping address, order currency, order amount, etc. You can also specify periods of validity for free shipping offers.

For example, you can provide free shipping to all eligible customers who wish to have their purchased product/s sent to Texas between November 15 and December 23.

The system binds free shipping offers to specific sites, for example to the sample E-commerce Site.

If you run multiple sites and want to use free shipping offers, you thus need to define dedicated free shipping offers for each site.

Adding free shipping offers

You can add free shipping offers in the Free shipping offers application.

You can combine the free shipping offer limitations.

For example, you can provide free shipping to all your registered US customers who placed their orders throughout January.

Adding free shipping offers limited by periods of validity

To add free shipping offers limited by periods of validity:

  1. ClickNew Free shipping offer.

  2. Enter the free shipping offer properties.

    You need to specify the properties in the Duration section:

    • Valid from - specifies the start of the period of validity.
    • Valid to - specifies the end of the period of validity.                   
      Specifying properties in the Duration section

If you leave both properties in the Duration section empty, the offer has unlimited validity.

If you enter the Valid from property but leave the Valid to property empty, the offer has validity unlimited towards the future. The period of validity starts as specified in its Valid from property.

If you enter the Valid to property but leave the Valid from property empty, the offer has limited validity. The period of validity starts upon the offer’s adding to the system and finishes as specified in its Valid to property.

  1. Click Save.

The system creates a new free shipping offer. The system provides free shipping only during the offer’s period of validity (if active).

If you open the Free shipping offers application, you can see that the system displays for each listed offer its status:

Status

Description

Active

The free shipping offer is enabled in the system (the Enabled property is turned on).

If duration is specified for the offer (the Valid from, Valid to properties), the offer is currently effective.

Disabled

The free shipping offer is not enabled in the system (the Enabled property is turned off).

If duration is specified for the offer (the Valid from, Valid to properties), it has no effect.

Not started

The free shipping offer is enabled in the system (the Enabled property is turned on), and its duration is specified (the Valid from, Valid to properties).

The offer is currently ineffective because its period of validity has not started.

Finished

The free shipping offer is enabled in the system (the Enabled property is turned on), and its duration is specified (the Valid from, Valid to properties).

The offer is currently ineffective because its period of validity has finished.

Adding free shipping offers targeted on selected customers

To add free shipping offers targeted on selected customers:

  1. Click New Free shipping offer.

  2. Enter the free shipping offer properties.

    While entering the offer’s properties, make sure you change the value of the Only for these customers property in the Customers section:

    • All - all customers are eligible for the offer; the default option.

    • Registered users - only registered customers are eligible for the offer.

    • Selected roles - only customers in selected roles are eligible for the offer. To add roles:       

      1. Click Select roles.

        • This opens the Select roles dialog.
      2. Select the required roles.

      3. Click Select.

    You can enter roles directly by typing in their code names separated by semicolons, e.g. _authenticated_;Members.

    You can add registered customers to roles in the Customers application while editing a selected customer on the Roles tab.

    Specifying properties in the Customers section

  3. Click Save.

The system creates a new free shipping offer. The system provides free shipping only to the selected customers.

If you need to add free shipping offers targeted on custom groups of customers, for example on selected users, contact groups, etc., please refer to Configuring discount rules.

Adding free shipping offers limited by conditions

To add free shipping offers limited by conditions:

  1. ClickNew Free shipping offer.

  2. Enter the free shipping offer properties.

    While entering the offer’s properties, make sure you specify the values of the properties in the Free shipping conditions section:

    Specifying free shipping offer conditions

    Specifying the minimum order amount

    • Enter the minimum order amount in your on-line store main currency.
      Selecting the discount rules
    1. Click Edit to edit the Further conditions property.

      • This opens the Edit macro condition dialog on the Rule designer tab.
    2. Select the required rule in the right part of the dialog.

    3. Click Add rule () to add the rule to the condition.

    4. (Optional) Repeat Steps b. and c. to add more rules.

      Selecting the discount rulesSpecifying the rule parameters

    5. Click the underlined part of the rule in the left part of the dialog.

      • This opens the Set parameter value dialog.
    6. Select the parameter.

    7. Click OK.

      • The system closes the Set parameter value dialog. The Edit macro condition dialog is open for editing.
    8. (Optional) Repeat Steps a. through c. if the rule contains more parameters, or if you added more rules.

      Specifying the rule parameters

    9. Click ****Save & Close****.

      • The system closes the Edit macro condition dialog and saves the condition limiting the offer’s application.
  3. Click Save.

The system creates a new free shipping offer. The system applies the offer only if the specified conditions are fulfilled (if active).

Modifying free shipping offers

You can modify free shipping offers in the Free shipping offers application.

  1. Select a free shipping offer and click Edit ().
  2. Modify the free shipping offer properties as required.
  3. Click Save.

You can now use the free shipping offer with its updated settings.

Configuring the pages to display the remaining amount to receive free shipping

The Kentico E-commerce Solution allows you to configure the pages to display the amount that remains for the customers to receive free shipping for their orders (if eligible).

  1. Open the Pages application.

  2. Select the required page in the content tree.

  3. Switch to the Edit -> Design tab.

  4. Add the Remaining amount for free shipping web part to the selected web part zone.

  5. Enter the web part properties as required.

    The web part’s Text for remaining amount property allows you to specify text that the system displays if the customers need to spend more to receive free shipping.

    Use {0} instead of the remaining amount, for example Add product items for at least {0} to receive free shipping.

  6. Click OK.

The system adds the Remaining amount for free shipping web part into the page. If your customers add products to their shopping carts, the system informs them how much more they need to spend for the products to receive free shipping (if eligible).

Displaying the shipping costs in the invoice

To display the total shipping costs in the invoice:

  1. Open the Store configuration application.

  2. Switch to the Invoice tab.

  3. Add the following code into your invoice template:

    
    
    
     {%TotalShipping.Format(Currency.CurrencyFormatString)#%}
    
    
     

    Invoice template

  4. Click Save.

If you now review an existing order on the Invoice tab, you can see that the invoice includes information about the shipping costs. The value is 0 if no shipping is charged for the selected shipping option, or if free shipping is provided to the customer.

Invoice - free shipping offer applied

Managing access to free shipping offers for selected users

In Kentico, managing access to free shipping offers for selected users is managing corresponding E-commerce Solution permissions for the roles to which the users are assigned.

  1. Open the Roles application.
  2. Select the required site.
    • The system displays a list of all roles available on the selected site.
  3. Edit () the selected role.

Adding the users to the role

First, you need to make sure that the selected users are in appropriate roles. This is because you cannot add permissions directly to the users but to the roles to which the users are assigned.

  1. Switch to the Users tab.
  2. Click Add users.
    • This opens the Select users dialog.
  3. Select the user(s).
  4. Click Save & Close.

The system closes the Select users dialog and adds the selected user(s) to the current role. Now you can manage access to free shipping offers for the selected user(s) by assigning / unassigning the corresponding E-commerce permissions for the role.

Alternatively, you can add registered customers to roles in the Customers application while editing selected customers on the Roles tab.

Assigning / unassigning permissions for the role

  1. Switch to the Permissions tab.

  2. Select Module (Permissions for, left).

  3. Select E-commerce (Permissions for, right).

    • The system displays a list of all E-commerce permissions available for the current role.
  4. Enable/disable the permissions as required.

    Permission

    Description

    Read discounts

    Allows users in selected roles to access discounts and free shipping offers.

    Modify discounts

    Allows users in selected roles to create, modify and delete discounts and free shipping offers.

    Read configuration

    Allows users in selected roles to access E-commerce configuration, i.e. the on-line store settings, discount rules, etc.

    Modify configuration

    Allows users in selected roles to modify E-commerce configuration.

The system allows/restricts for all users in the current role the selected permissions. The users now have / do not have the permissions and can / cannot access free shipping offers.

You can hide free shipping offers from the administration interface for selected users by disabling the corresponding UI elements for the roles to which the users are assigned.

Please refer to Reference - Managing UI elementsfor more details.

Removing free shipping offers

You can remove free shipping offers from your on-line store in the Free shipping offers application.

  1. Select a free shipping offer.
  2. Click Delete ().
  3. Confirm that you want to remove the offer (OK).

The system removes the free shipping offer from your on-line store.

Reference

General

Name

The name of the free shipping offer used in various parts of the system’s administration interface, e.g. in free shipping offers lists.

Code name

The string identifier of the free shipping offer object used by developers in the code. Unless there is a reason to set a particular value, you can leave the default (automatic) option, and the system generates an appropriate code name.

Description

To make the free shipping offer easier to use and maintain, you can add an explanation about the scenarios for which the offer is intended, etc.

Enabled

Indicates if the free shipping offer is enabled in the system (active).

While calculating the total price of the order, the system skips disabled free shipping offers.

Free shipping conditions

Minimum order amount

Here you can specify a minimum price of the order for the system to apply the free shipping offer.

Further conditions

Here you can enter further condition(s) that must be fulfilled for the system to apply the free shipping offer. By utilizing rules (user-friendly representations of macro expressions), you can write any condition according to your specific requirements.

Clicking Edit opens the Edit macro condition dialog, which allows you to add rules through a graphical interface. You can click Clear to remove the current content of the condition field.

Example:

Shipping option is Postal Service

and

Shipping address state is Texas

The condition ensures that the free shipping offer is only applied if the customer selects postal service as shipping option, and have their purchased product(s) sent to Texas.

For details about available macro options and syntax, please refer to Macro expressions.

Coupons

The customer must enter a coupon code to receive Free shipping

Here you can specify whether the system applies the free shipping offer only if the customer enters an appropriate coupon code.

You can manage the free shipping offer’s coupons on its Coupons tab.

Duration

Valid from

Indicates since when the free shipping offer is valid. You can click Now to insert the current date and time or you can click  to choose the date and time from the calendar.

For unlimited validity, leave the field empty.

Valid to

Indicates until when the free shipping offer is valid. You can click Now to insert the current date and time or you can click  to choose the date and time from the calendar.

For unlimited validity, leave the field empty.

Customers

Only for these customers

Allows you to specify customers eligible for the free shipping offer:

  • All - all customers are eligible for the offer.
  • Registered users - only registered customers are eligible for the offer.
  • Selected roles - only customers in selected roles are eligible for the offer.