E-Commerce Online Store Discount Coupon System How the customer uses a Coupon Customers can enter the discount coupon at any time before they checkout. If the coupon is valid, the coupon discount is applied to the order and appears as a separate line item in the order confirmation form. How the merchant defines a coupon The merchant defines a coupon by adding a record to the Coupons table. This is done using normal ASP Online Store administration facility. The coupon is then immediately available or a date when the coupon starts can be specified. Multiple different coupons can be valid at any one time. There is no limit. Coupon Expiration Coupons can expire in two ways.
The first is an expiration date. The coupon expires immediately at the end of the day.
The other method is to use a “use count”. ASP Online Store records each time an order has been completed and a coupon has been used. The next time a shopper enters the coupon name, if the use count has exceeded the limit, the customer is notified that the coupon is no longer valid. Coupon Discounts Discounts can either be a percentage of the total order or a fixed amount Coupon Limitations Coupons can be limited to specific products or categories. In the coupon table there are two fields
CouponCategories: This is a list of category numbers to which the discount applies. For example 1,55,3,2
CouponProducts: This is a list of product catalogids numbers to which the discount applies. For example 7,3,13,77,22,1 Creating A Coupon A coupon is created by adding a record to the Coupons Table using the administration. Go to Occasional Tasks -> Addons -> Coupons and then click Add a Record 
| CouponName | Can be anything. This is what the customer enters | | CouponAmount | The amount of discount. It can be a $ amount or left empty | | CouponPercent | The percent discount in the form .10 or for currencies that use comma as decimal point ,10 | | CouponStartDate | Must be entered. | | CouponEndDate | If left empty, the coupon has no expiration date | | CouponLimit | The number of times the coupon can be used. If left empty, there is no limit | | CouponCategories | A list of categories to which the discount applies. If empty and the next field is also empty, it applies to all products | | CouponProducts | A list of catalogids to which the discount applies. Can be left empty | | CouponUsedCount | Updated by ASP Online Store | | CouponLastUsedDate | Updated by ASP Online Store | | CouponComment | Unused by ASP Online Store | | CouponOther | Unused by ASP Online Store | | Couponcustomers | A list of customerids such as 33,66. Coupons can only be used by these customers | | Couponminimum | A number representing the minimum product purchase | | CouponAffid | If you want this coupon to be linked to an affiliate ID, then enter the ID here. This means that when a customer enters this coupon, the purchase will also be linked to the affiliate and they will get a commission | Associating Coupons with Affiliates You can associate a coupon with an affiliate so that any purchase made with the coupon is attributed to the affiliate and they will get a commission. When you create your coupon, there is a field called 'CouponAffid'. In this field enter the affiliate id of the affiliate that you want to associate with the coupon. | 
