Does anyone have suggestions for a Discounting workaround?

[Interluxe]

[The title of this thread has been edited from the original: Need a Discounting Workaround]

Hi, folks. I've done a lot of searching and can't seem to find a solution. I'm hoping the hive mind might be able to assist.

We have a promotion where if a customer purchases five cigars they can get their choice of a free cutter or free lighter ($15 value). The way we currently work this is that we ring everything up, then have a variable discount code where the cashier rings in a $15 discount.

This isn't ideal, because it's throwing off our margins since it applies the $15 discount evenly over all the products in the entire transaction, instead of just on the cutter and/or lighter.

We tried creating a coupon code that would give the cutter or lighter for free when purchasing five cigars. Although the coupon code essentially worked, it had an unintended consequence: if the customer got the cutter for free but wanted to buy the lighter, having both in the transaction resulted in both the cutter and lighter being given for free because there was no way to specify one or the other. The only way we could get this to work was to ring up the five cigars with the cutter or lighter they were getting for free, then do a separate transaction for the cutter or lighter they were paying full price for. Customers hated this, we hate this and it tanked our average dollar per transaction and other metrics.

Can anyone think of any other solution where we could ring up everything in one transaction but ONLY discount EITHER the cutter OR the lighter by 100%? If we enable the cashier to change the price of a single line item, would we be able to see a record of who did that? We don't really want all the employees able to override pricing for obvious reasons.

Thanks!

[Candlestore · Accepted solution]

@Interluxe ;

I think I may have figured one out.  You may have to create a few automatic discounts tho.

I created a Buy 5 candles get a free lighter.

Customer needs to buy 6 items from My candles Categories and 1 item from the Lighters Category.

Then it automatically applies a Dollar Discount for the Price of the Lighter.

Example Buys 5 candles for $16 and 1 Lighter at $1   So the Dollar Discount is automatically $1 for the Free Lighter.  Only issue I am working on is if a Customer buys 6 candles they get $1 discount also, even with my minimum spend of $74.00 

You would need to add categories for your cigars and different $ amount discounts based on the price of your Free items and change the Item Lighter to your Cutter category also.

Here are 3 screen shots how I have it setup:  

Discount Screen 1

Amount of Discount is the regular price of the Lighter (cutter) that will be free

You need the 5 Items Cigar Category Plus the category of the 1 Free Lighter or cutter.  for a total of the 6 items.

I then scrolled down to make sure someone can not buy 6 lighters and get one free.  Now if they bought 76 lighters at $1 each that would be over the minimum and would get a Free lighter.   You call.

After all this is said and done there might be something I missed but this should get you close and maybe your cashiers can just remeber to turn this discount Off if you spot a loop hole you can not live with.

You would need this for your Lighters and then again for your category of your free Cutters if you have some that do not qualify for the Free with purchase deal.

Again this is not ideal but it may help.

[JK_Fiber_Art]

Square is not a one size fits all solution nor are many other transaction processors - at least that's what we experienced over the years.  Sometimes looking at an issue from a different angle gives ideas.  Personally, we keep things simple - perhaps keeping a display of the both free items nearby so when the customer makes the purchase - you let them pick one.  Ring up the cigar purchase as normal - the customer leaves with their cigars and their free item.  As for inventory - you then ring up a separate transaction for the free item and apply a 100% discount to it.  I would even make up a generic customer for this which gives you another way to track the transaction.  Yep, it's an extra step but, doing so will keep your inventory up to date and keeps the math simple.  As for a cashier changing prices - that's where, Square's Team Management feature comes into play,  whereas you assign different permissions.

[homeprogreen]

Here’s what should work and still let you ring everything up in one transaction. As long as your Square is setup to show you which employee rang up the sale then it will show who did it. What you would do is create a discount for free item with purchase of 5 cigars, in the limits you would set it to either lighter or cutter so it couldn’t be used for anything else. Give it a unique name so it’s easy to remember. Ring up the entire sale with both cutter and lighter, the clerk would then select 1 of those items in the cart and push it to bring up that items details, scroll down and about center it will show discounts, toggle that and select the discount that you created. That way the customer can purchase both on the same transaction but the discount only applies to the single item. There’s no way to setup the discount so it automatically applies for a single item if both are in the cart so it has to be done manually. 

 

[Interluxe]

OK, I think this is probably the way I need to go. But the clarifying question is...am I setting up two different discounts? One where they get five cigars and a lighter and another discount where they get five cigars and a cutter? Name them two separate things, then the employee chooses the right product and discount during checkout?

[homeprogreen · Accepted solution]

No. The clerk chooses which item to apply the discount to. So as example create discount called “ buy 5 get 1” when you’re creating the discount set it to only apply to the cutter and the lighter so it can’t be used for any other items. Customer buys 5 cigar, cutter , and a lighter, clerk selects whichever one of them to apply the discount to and it shows up in the reports as being sold and the discount is named. That way your profit & loss, inventory and sales reports stay correct. Done discount like this for years and it’s worked out very well 

[Interluxe]

The part that I was confused on was that it appeared this discount would have to be setup as an automatic discount. I didn't see a way to create a discount from the Dashboard that didn't require it to be automatic. Now I think I understand that I just simply setup the discount and the only automatic part is that if I establish the list of applicable free items they'll automatically get discounted to zero if the clerk taps on the specific item and applies the discount I created. Thank you VERY VERY much for all of your help with this.

[homeprogreen]

Sure give me a little bit to get down to the shop and get opened up so I can sit down to create a discount and give you step by step instructions on how I do it

[homeprogreen]

You’re welcome 

[homeprogreen]

Yeah they changed it. Just create the discount with the dollar amount of the cutter or lighter and don’t worry about adding the specific item. Then your clerk will just apply it manually to the item. The transaction report will show you the item that the discount was applied to and who did it. Means that the discount can’t be limited to just those items but if they apply it to anything else you will definitely see it in the report and be able to take action. 

[Candlestore · Accepted solution]

@Interluxe ;

I think I may have figured one out.  You may have to create a few automatic discounts tho.

I created a Buy 5 candles get a free lighter.

Customer needs to buy 6 items from My candles Categories and 1 item from the Lighters Category.

Then it automatically applies a Dollar Discount for the Price of the Lighter.

Example Buys 5 candles for $16 and 1 Lighter at $1   So the Dollar Discount is automatically $1 for the Free Lighter.  Only issue I am working on is if a Customer buys 6 candles they get $1 discount also, even with my minimum spend of $74.00 

You would need to add categories for your cigars and different $ amount discounts based on the price of your Free items and change the Item Lighter to your Cutter category also.

Here are 3 screen shots how I have it setup:  

Discount Screen 1

Amount of Discount is the regular price of the Lighter (cutter) that will be free

You need the 5 Items Cigar Category Plus the category of the 1 Free Lighter or cutter.  for a total of the 6 items.

I then scrolled down to make sure someone can not buy 6 lighters and get one free.  Now if they bought 76 lighters at $1 each that would be over the minimum and would get a Free lighter.   You call.

After all this is said and done there might be something I missed but this should get you close and maybe your cashiers can just remeber to turn this discount Off if you spot a loop hole you can not live with.

You would need this for your Lighters and then again for your category of your free Cutters if you have some that do not qualify for the Free with purchase deal.

Again this is not ideal but it may help.