You can use discount coupon codes in your store. A discount coupon code is a secret code which a customer can use to get a discount when making a purchase. They are used for sales promotions.

Discount coupon codes are issued by store owners and can be distributed in any way the provider finds convenient (for example, through mail, site news or advertisements on other sites).

1. Go to your Control Panel

2. Open Promotions → Discount Coupons page.

3. Press the "New coupon" button. Fill the necessary fields and press "Save".

Name: add a coupon name for your convenience. Only the store owner can see it.

Code: you can use the "generate" link to create a random code or insert your own code. For example "christmas_coupon". Code is case-insensitive. Your customers will use a code to receive a discount. It can be:

- Valid from date — the date when coupon starts to work

- Valid until date — the date of coupon expiration

- all orders — coupon will be applied to all orders regardless of their totals.

- orders over $N — coupon will be applied only to orders which totals are greater than $N

- unlimited — no limits. Each customer can apply such coupon numerous times.

- once per customer — each customer can apply a coupon only once per e-mail, however the coupon can be applied numerous times. (also a customer can place two orders with such coupon, if he/she specifies different email addresses).

- single use — coupon can be applied only once

- all — no limits by customer type

- repeat customers only — only customers with existing successful orders can apply such coupon

- select one or several products and/or categories a coupon can be applied for.

Design-Editor will show the "Apply a coupon" field on a cart page if your store has at least one enabled coupon.

Discount coupons for Absolute of Percent discount apply to subtotal (sum of items prices for all items in this order without taxes), such discount doesn't apply to shipping cost. The total discount cannot be more than a subtotal.

You can use a single-use discount coupon for Absolute or Percent discount + Free shipping as a gift card - a customer who has a promotion code can apply such a coupon and get a discount plus this product will be shipped for free. Also, if you set a 100% discount for a coupon, an order will actually be free for a customer, you can use it for either attracting new customers or offering a reward to regular ones.

If you decide using 100% discount, you will need to enable the 'Skip payment method selection, if the order total is zero' option in order to prevent warning messages caused by the fact that most of the online payment gateways don’t allow orders with zero total. Please refer to this article for the details: What if order total is zero? Can a customer skip payment methods selection in this case?

Please mind that Free shipping in this case will be applied to all the cart contents. In case the customer wants to use the gift card and also to buy something the shipping for the whole order will be free. ​

Such a warning is displayed when a customer tries to pay with an online payment method for a zero-total order, because most of the online payment gateways don’t allow orders with zero total. In order to fix that, you will need to enable the 'Skip payment method selection, if the order total is zero' option in your control panel.