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.
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.
Provide a discount for items made by one particular manufacturer, which requires a coupon to use	Use Big Spender or Big Chooser.
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 does.
Buy items A, B, C, get a your choice of a discount off D, E or F	This is what Big Chooser 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 does.
Buy items A, B, C, get a discount off the entire cart	This is what Big Chooser does.
Discount based on past purchase volume	This is what Frequency Discounts does.

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

Category Handling in Discount Mods

Determining a product's category in Zen Cart can be confusing. Products are initially created in one category, but can be "linked" to other categories. In my mods, the "linked" categories are ignored; products are considered to be in the the parent category in which they were initially created. This value is reflected in a field called "master_categories_id" in the products table, with one such setting per product.

More details on category handling in my mods are provided in this page.

Tool	Category Definition
Quantity Discounts	The parent category id, as determined by the master_categories_id field in the products table. Linked Categories are not used.
Better Together	Same
Military Discount	Same
Newsletter Discounts	Same
Frequency Discounts	Same
Combination Discounts	The parent category id, as determined by the master_categories_id field in the products table, and all parents of that category. Linked Categories are not used.
Big Spender	The parent category id, as determined by the master_categories_id field in the products table, and all parents of that category. Linked Categories are not used.
Big Chooser	The parent category id, as determined by the master_categories_id field in the products table, and all parents of that category. Linked Categories are not used.

Add-Ons and Interoperability

Tool	Add-Ons
Quantity Discounts	Discount Preview Quantity Discounts Promotional Page
Better Together	Discount Preview Better Together Admin panel Checkout Candy Buy Both Now Better Together Offers on Listing Pages Better Together Promotional Page Add both to Cart Images are displayed on the Promotional Page.
Combination Discounts	Discount Preview Checkout Candy for Combination Discounts Buy The Set Combination Discounts Admin Panel Combination Discounts Offers on Listing Pages Combination Discounts Promotional Page
Big Spender	Discount Preview Big Upsell Big Spender Promotional Page
Big Chooser	Discount Preview Big Upsell Big Chooser Promotional Page
Frequency Discounts	Discount Preview Frequency Discounts Promotional Page

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.