Zen Cart Discounting

Discounting 101

If are not familiar with the basic discounting mechanisms that are available in Zen Cart, please read my overview article.

The Manual

If you haven't done so already, please purchase the manual e-Start your Web Store with Zen Cart. This will give you a strong foundation in the native (built-in) discounting mechanisms in Zen Cart.

Matrix-o-discounts

Don't worry - you can enter the matrix without having to take the blue pill.

What you want to do	What to use
Discount one item	No extra software required; this is what Specials do. See p. 229-230 in the manual.
Discount a category of items	No extra software required; this is what Sales do. See p. 233-235 in the manual.
Discount the total order price to specific customers	No extra software required; this is what Group Discounts do. See p. 235-237 in the manual.
Provide coupons for free shipping OR a discount	No extra software required; a coupon mechanism exists in the cart. See p. 311-321 in the manual.
Automatically create coupons based on purchase total	Use Spender AutoCoupon.
Automatically create coupons when specific items are purchased	Use Chooser AutoCoupon.
Provide coupons for free shipping AND a discount	Use Big Chooser - Conditional Discounts.
Provide a discount to people who subscribe to your newsletter	Use Newsletter Discount.
Provide a discount to members of the military	Use Military Discount.
Provide a discount for items made by one particular manufacturer	Use Big Spender or Big Chooser - Conditional Discounts.
Provide a discount for items made by one particular manufacturer, which requires a coupon to use	Use Big Spender or Big Chooser - Conditional Discounts.
Save if you buy in bulk	If you're only doing this on one or two products, you can use the native Quantity Discounting mechanism (p. 231-233 in the manual). If you're doing it across the board, or grouping dissimilar items (so that quantities two different items count towards a discount), you should use my Quantity Discounts contribution. To see a breakdown of the differences between the native Quantity Discounts module and my code, click here.
Buy one, get one free	This is what Better Together does.
Buy A, get B at a discount	This is what Better Together does. does.
Buy 2 of A, get B at a discount Buy 3 of A, get B at a discount Buy 2 of A, get a third A at a discount	This is what Combination Discounts does.
Buy A and B, get C at a discount	This is what Combination Discounts does.
Buy A, B, C, D ... get Z at a discount	This is what Combination Discounts does.
Buy 1 of A, 2 of B, 3 of C, ... get unlimited Z at a discount	This is what Combination Discounts does.
Spend over $100, get a gift	This is what Big Spender does.
Spend over $100, get a discount off A	This is what Big Spender does.
Spend over $100, get a discount off some combination of A, B and C	This is what Big Spender does.
Spend over $100 from category X, get a discount on A	This is what Big Spender does.
Spend over $100, get a your choice of two items from category 1 and 2 items from category 2	This is what Big Spender does.
Spend over $100 from category X, get a discount off the entire cart	This is what Big Spender does.
Buy items A, B, C, get a discount off some combination of D, E and F	This is what Big Chooser - Conditional Discounts does.
Buy items A, B, C, get a your choice of a discount off D, E or F	This is what Big Chooser - Conditional Discounts does.
Buy items A, B, C, get a your choice of two items from category 1 and 2 items from category 2	This is what Big Chooser - Conditional Discounts does.
Buy items A, B, C, get a discount off the entire cart	This is what Big Chooser - Conditional Discounts does.

A more detailed comparison of Combination Discounts and Big Chooser is available to assist you.

Add-Ons and Interoperability

Tool	Add-Ons
Quantity Discounts	Discount Preview
Better Together	Discount Preview Better Together Admin panel Checkout Candy Buy Both Now Better Together Offers on Listing Pages
Combination Discounts	Discount Preview Checkout Candy for Combination Discounts Buy The Set Combination Discounts Admin Panel Combination Discounts Offers on Listing Pages
Big Spender	Discount Preview Big Upsell
Big Chooser	Discount Preview Big Upsell

All my discounting modules each have their own Promotional Pages. There is also an integrated promotional page if you wish to display all discounts on one page.

Trying to decide between Big Chooser and Combination Discounts? They have a lot in common; here's a comparison.

Do you have a discounting plan you need implemented? Describe it to me and I'll give you a quote.