Discount Conundrum!

[Nick F.P.]

Hi, I wish to create the following promotion:-
Save 20% off the combined price when the customer purchases 3 different items (from different sections) - A ‘Rod’, ‘Reel’ and ‘Fly Line’. – Easy enough I thought, put all the 100’s of rods, reels & lines in to one ‘product group’

The issue is, if all 3 sections are in one ‘Product Group’ the promotion would kick in with a 20% discount if say, 3 ‘fly lines’ were purchased, the idea is that the customer chooses 'one' from each section to get the deal.

Is there any way to make this work professionally within the SellerDeck discount parameters? (At the moment I am using a cashback refund – far from ideal) Or if this has been answered similar elsewhere that I have missed you’d be kind enough to point me in the right direction.
Thank you for reading.

SellerDeck 2013 Business: Version 12.0.2

[leehack]

I don't see how you can achieve that with the limitations of the system. You will perhaps need to offer a buy 3 get cheapest free or perhaps better still as that could still have problems, have something like 'spend more than £150 on a rod, reel and line and get 20% off' type thing'. You will still not be able to ensure that they buy 1 of each, but you will have more control via the overall cost which you can use to set the trigger.

Alternatively if not too many options, setup permutations. On the rods, offer discounted reels and discounted line as options.

Or, use your product knowledge and create triple packs and set the prices as standard.

[Nick F.P.]

Many thanks for quick and constructive reply – the challenge is the combination of values can range from circa £80 right up to circa +£1k – with an almost infinite amount of combinations. We also have many customers purchase +3 fly lines, especially from the continent – these lines are circa £30 - £50 each so is in range of many of the combination deals – we’d be transferring manual work & updates from one to the other.
I really cant see a sensible solution, been trying to find one for a couple of years now, other than the cashback deal we are doing now – but it wont stop me from trying.

[leehack]

I feared the amount of combos might be the killer being a fisherman myself, you won't do it then i'm afraid, or at least i cannot see way of even getting close.

Perhaps your best bet is to introduce tiered discounts then:

up to £200 - 5% off
up to £300 - 7.5% off
up to £500 - 10% off
etc.

It will move away from your ideal promotion, but if we assume you are working on the same margins on most items involved, then whether someone spends £200 on just a rod, or £200 on a rod, reel and line, you're essentially walking away with the same profit. That's all i can think of.

[leehack]

I would however consider a section called discounted packages and over time learn what combos you have sold more than a couple of times and start to create them. I'm sure some people will like the idea of complete packages, particularly if previous customer purchases define them. Just a thought. Been doing something along those lines for a couple of years on a site i run and its slow progress but it definitely works.

[Nick F.P.]

Your solution would be ideal, however the deal is being funded by the supplier, not through our margins (they’d be far too tight if we were to fund), and they are nationally advertising this deal to the consumer through various media outlets, and I fear we would be left behind with our competitors finding solutions on different platforms.
I do have an idea from just thinking this through yet again and your suggestions – perhaps if I set up an individual promotion for fly lines, perhaps buy 3 get a 5% discount, plus the 20% promotion – presumably I can prioritise the ‘fly line’ deal making the ‘20% deal void’ – do you think this would work? Or am I overcomplicating things?

[leehack]

You can do quantity based pricing independent of the discount system, on the pricing tab of the product, you can only do tiered discounts within the same discount as far as i know, mainly because you can only have a product in one discount group, so the tiers need to be on that group discount.

Example of quantity based discounts - http://www.gasproducts.co.uk/acatalo...mm_x_15mm.html

[leehack]

Your solution would be ideal, however the deal is being funded by the supplier, not through our margins (they’d be far too tight if we were to fund), and they are nationally advertising this deal to the consumer through various media outlets, and I fear we would be left behind with our competitors finding solutions on different platforms.

Can you not put all 'ABC Products' into an ABC discount group and have the discounts therefore on just those products?

[Nick F.P.]

Thank you again - I'll have a test & learn session a bit later to see what we can come up with - I'll let you know if we have any success.

[Nick F.P.]

Nope cant make it work - looks like we'll have to stick with the cashback offer which is a shame. But thank you for your advice.

[chris ashdown]

Don't give up, I bet Norman can come up with a solution

[leehack]

I bet he can't, not even Normski can sort that one out.

[NormanRouxel]

You're right, I'm afraid. Runs away screaming....

[BillS]

I can't quite remember 'exactly' how we did this - but it can be done (we deleted the product now...)

It was something like:

ProdRef: ABC123

Component #1: Choice list of Rods

Component #2: Choice list of all Reels

Component #3 Choice list of all Fly Lines

(None of the components are 'optional' - they 'have' to add one of each...)

Then apply the 20% discount to the new ProdRef...

The only problem I found with this solution was that the .CAT file that goes with the product was exceptionally large (500kb) - this is because it has every single product reference/extended info for each combination of products in the Choices....

It's tedious to set up - especially if you have hundreds of choices - but it will do what you want...

The reason we discontinued it? We only sold a couple of that particular product in 5-years! ;-)

KR

Bill.

[Mike Hughes]

That does sound like the best way to do it. Particularly if it's one manufacturer offering a special deal.

Mike