Promotions with AspDotNetStorefront: 4 Examples to Help You Drive Sales

You need to drive more sales.  You have ideas for promotions that can help you do that.  In this blog post we will give you an introduction to the promotions you can run using out-of-the-box AspDotNetStorefront and an add-on that will help you to configure promotions that are not supported by the base software.  You have a limited amount of time to manage your site.  Let us simplify your job by outlining how to implement 4 common promotions using AspDotNetStorefront. 

Free Shipping on orders over $100

Free shipping over a certain minimum cart threshold is available out-of-the-box with AspDotNetStorefront and is available in version 8 and version 9 (MSx).  It can be configured by setting the appropriate values within your AppConfig.  (Don’t forget to Reset Cache before testing it out.)

Spend $50, get 50% off UPS Ground Shipping

Starting in version 9.3, an enhanced promotions editor is available out-of-the-box within AspDotNetStorefront under Configuration –> Pricing and Promotions –> Promotions.  There are many possible configurations of promotions based on different requirements and different discount structures.  The promotions can be automatically applied (see the “Auto Applied” checkbox) without the customer needing to enter a promo code.  Here is an example of how to set up a promotion where if a customer has $50 of product in their shopping cart, they will get 50% off of the cost of the UPS Ground rate.   This can be a great way to discount shipping while controlling the costs of your promotion.  You could also set this up to provide a certain dollar amount off of the shipping rate.

Whenever you set up your promotion, it is important to note how and when in the checkout process users will see the promotion is applied.  Below shows how the promotion would display on the checkout page.  This example is setup on AspDotNetStorefront 9.4.1 using Smart One Page Checkout. If you are using the multi-page checkout (Standard) for AspDotNetStorefront, this promotion would not be evident until after the user chooses UPS Ground as their shipping option.  You can determine the best way to share with them that they will receive 50% off UPS Ground – possibly through a banner on your site or text at the top of your shopping cart page.

Buy product X, Get product Y for Free

If you are interested in running a BOGO (Buy One, Get One) offer, it is available out-of-the-box with AspDotNetStorefront, with some caveats.  You can see this example below where we have set up a gift with purchase promotion, where if a user adds a single 5-gallon container of Evapo-Rust Rust Remover, they will be given a gift of Evapo-Rust Rust Remover 1-Gallon for free.  This is setup per qualifying product, so if a customer orders three 5-gallon containers, they will get three 1-gallon containers.

Here is what the customer sees after they have added one 5-gallon container to their cart.  AspDotNetStorefront automatically adds the 1-gallon product to their cart at a 100% discount and displays a message about the promotion.

What are the caveats? 

A Gift Product with Choices
If the product you want to offer as a gift has more than one variant (in the case of a book, variants are often hardcover, softcover, and eBook), AspDotNetStorefront will automatically gift the user with the default variant, and the user will not have an opportunity to choose which item they will receive as a gift.  This is also true if there are size/color variations on the product.  They won’t have an opportunity to pick which size/color they want.

Choose Your Gift Product
If you want your shopper to be able to pick a gift from a category of products, the out-of-the-box promotions will not work for this.  The intention is that you pick one specific product that doesn’t require any choices for the gift product. 

If these caveats are an issue for you – I have good news!  There is an add-on for AspDotNetStorefront, called the Buy This, Get That – Flexible Promotions Add-on from Vibe Commerce that can meet your needs.  We will be talking about this add-on more in the examples below.

Buy product X, Get any product from Category Y for Free

If you are looking to offer a promotional item that users can pick from a category or another entity (section or manufacturer), then you will want to look at Vibe’s Promo add-on.

In this example, we are going to offer shoppers one free DVD if they buy 2 DVDs.

One thing I like about Vibe’s Promo add-on is that it can provide a reminder message to shoppers regarding the promotion at the top of the shopping cart

Once we have qualified for the promotion, the message changes to show that we qualify for a free DVD, and because of how we set up the promotion, if we click on the link that says “Free DVD”, it will take us to the section of products showing the DVDs we can pick from.

Once we add the third DVD to our cart, we can see that the promotion is applied, and the least expensive of the three DVDs is deducted from the subtotal and is shown in the “Promo Discount” line.

Custom Promotions Needs

There are a lot of great promotions that you can create out-of-the-box and with the Vibe Promo add-on, but due to the fact that everyone’s business is different, we have run into many requests for custom promotions.  The great thing is that, with AspDotNetStorefront, these can be implemented as well with code customizations.

Test Your Promotions

Regardless of how you create your promotions, be sure to thoroughly test your promotions after creating them.  Place a few test orders after you enable your promotion to make sure it behaves as you expect.  Watch orders as they come in using your promotion to be sure things appear correct.  You don’t want to risk losing money on your sale by configuring it incorrectly or aggravating your customer if it doesn’t work as expected.

Here to Help

As always, if we can be of assistance, feel free to give us a call.  You can reach us at 414-425-4069 x150