Promotions and coupons for Daily Deal

I am considering running a daily deal. Customers will be able to purchase coupons for $10 and then will receive $20 off their cart when they apply their coupon.



I will need to generate 1,000 single use coupons and load them into CS-cart. I can make unique coupon codes but do not know how to load them into the system and set up each one as a single use.



Does anyone have any advice on this?

Thanks

I have confirmed with support that there is no way to do this easily. I have figured out a way to create one coupon, to download the two associated tables from the database, edit them in Excel and reupload them.



I need to document that for the future and will post my method here in the next few weeks.



This should really be added to the feature list.

I need to do this too.



Can you document how you did it in the end?



Cheers



Mike

I finally got around to setting up the 500 coupons I needed. It's one of those “not hard once you've figured it out and got it documented” things. Hope it works for you. It's bizarre that you cannot create multiple coupon codes in CS-cart where each code can only be used once but until that feature comes along you can use this.





These instructions are for Mac. There will be slight variations for PC that you will have to sort out as you go but this should put you on the right path.



WARNING: you should backup the two tables mentioned below before messing with them. That way you can easily restore them back to they way the were. Figuring this out took a tremendous amount of trial and error and who knows what glitches you will encounter along the way.


  1. Create the coupon list
    • I use a random code generator in excel but you can do it anyway you want.


  2. Setup one coupon in CS-cart (cart promotion) with settings something like this (if your deal is different set it up the way you need it):
    • Set the period for which the coupon will be valid
    • Coupon code = x
    • Total products in cart equal or greater than y
    • Number of usages equal or less than 1
    • Bonus is an order discount for a set dollar amount.

      NOTE: The coupon must be the same length as the ones you set up in step 1


  3. Goto phpmyadmin – if you don't know how to do that try the control panel of your hosting administrator


  4. Select the table called “cscart_promotions”
    • select “export” tab
    • select “CSV for MS Excel” and then select Excel 2008 / Macintosh
    • Click “go” and the file will download


  5. Open the file in excel
    • delete the first column (this is an auto-count column)
    • delete all but the last row (this is data for the coupon you just created)
    • change the coupon code in column b to whatever you want it to be
    • change the coupon code in column i to match whatever you want it to be
    • copy the row, changing the coupons for each row (I set up a formula to change it to the codes setup in step 1)
    • save the file


  6. Open the file in TextEdit
    • search for “” (two quotation marks next to each other)
    • replace with " (backslash quotation mark)
    • save the file


  7. In phpmyadmin, select the table called cscart_promotions
    • select the import tab
    • choose the file
    • select “CSV using Load Data”
    • change the “fields terminated by” to a “,” (comma instead of semicolon)
    • change the “Lines terminated by” to “\r” (backslash r instead of auto) – NOTE THIS WILL BE DIFFERENT FOR PC USERS
    • Enter the following into column names: company_id, conditions, bonuses, to_date, from_date, priority, stop, zone, conditions_hash, status, number_of_usages, users_conditions_hash
    • Click Go



      YOU HAVE NOW CREATED NEW PROMOTIONS BUT THEY HAVE NO NAME. TO CREATE NEW NAMES CONTINUE BELOW


  8. In phpmyadmin, select the table called cscart_promotion_descriptions
    • select “export” tab
    • select “CSV for MS Excel” and then select Excel 2008 / Macintosh
    • Click “go” and the file will download


  9. Open the file in Excel
    • delete all but the last row
    • copy the last row over so you have the same number of rows as coupons added in the above section
    • change the name of the promotion if you want to
    • save the file


  10. In phpmyadmin, select the table called cscart_promotion_descriptions
    • select “import” tab
    • choose the file
    • select “CSV using Load data”
    • change the “fields terminated by” to a “,” (comma instead of semicolon)
    • Click go



      You should be done. Hope this works for you.

Thanks questioner18 - great documentation that im sure will help a lot of people.



We actually found we needed an easy and efficient way for our client to be able to import codes themselves and have since created a plugin that allows the user to import a csv full of coupon codes and then, through a custom UI, add the name, dates of validity and bonuses etc.



Now the client can easily add the coupon codes in bulk through the cscart admin back end.



Anyone interested in purchasing this as a plugin can contact us at info@swim.com.au - we can also offer an install service.

[quote name='questioner18' timestamp='1342749944' post='141132']

I finally got around to setting up the 500 coupons I needed. It's one of those “not hard once you've figured it out and got it documented” things. Hope it works for you. It's bizarre that you cannot create multiple coupon codes in CS-cart where each code can only be used once but until that feature comes along you can use this.





These instructions are for Mac. There will be slight variations for PC that you will have to sort out as you go but this should put you on the right path.



WARNING: you should backup the two tables mentioned below before messing with them. That way you can easily restore them back to they way the were. Figuring this out took a tremendous amount of trial and error and who knows what glitches you will encounter along the way.


  1. Create the coupon list
    • I use a random code generator in excel but you can do it anyway you want.


  2. Setup one coupon in CS-cart (cart promotion) with settings something like this (if your deal is different set it up the way you need it):
    • Set the period for which the coupon will be valid
    • Coupon code = x
    • Total products in cart equal or greater than y
    • Number of usages equal or less than 1
    • Bonus is an order discount for a set dollar amount.

      NOTE: The coupon must be the same length as the ones you set up in step 1


  3. Goto phpmyadmin – if you don't know how to do that try the control panel of your hosting administrator


  4. Select the table called “cscart_promotions”
    • select “export” tab
    • select “CSV for MS Excel” and then select Excel 2008 / Macintosh
    • Click “go” and the file will download


  5. Open the file in excel
    • delete the first column (this is an auto-count column)
    • delete all but the last row (this is data for the coupon you just created)
    • change the coupon code in column b to whatever you want it to be
    • change the coupon code in column i to match whatever you want it to be
    • copy the row, changing the coupons for each row (I set up a formula to change it to the codes setup in step 1)
    • save the file


  6. Open the file in TextEdit
    • search for “” (two quotation marks next to each other)
    • replace with " (backslash quotation mark)
    • save the file


  7. In phpmyadmin, select the table called cscart_promotions
    • select the import tab
    • choose the file
    • select “CSV using Load Data”
    • change the “fields terminated by” to a “,” (comma instead of semicolon)
    • change the “Lines terminated by” to “\r” (backslash r instead of auto) – NOTE THIS WILL BE DIFFERENT FOR PC USERS
    • Enter the following into column names: company_id, conditions, bonuses, to_date, from_date, priority, stop, zone, conditions_hash, status, number_of_usages, users_conditions_hash
    • Click Go



      YOU HAVE NOW CREATED NEW PROMOTIONS BUT THEY HAVE NO NAME. TO CREATE NEW NAMES CONTINUE BELOW


  8. In phpmyadmin, select the table called cscart_promotion_descriptions
    • select “export” tab
    • select “CSV for MS Excel” and then select Excel 2008 / Macintosh
    • Click “go” and the file will download


  9. Open the file in Excel
    • delete all but the last row
    • copy the last row over so you have the same number of rows as coupons added in the above section
    • change the name of the promotion if you want to
    • save the file


  10. In phpmyadmin, select the table called cscart_promotion_descriptions
    • select “import” tab
    • choose the file
    • select “CSV using Load data”
    • change the “fields terminated by” to a “,” (comma instead of semicolon)
    • Click go



      You should be done. Hope this works for you.

      [/quote]



      I've tried this method. It didn't work for me.

[quote name='swimcommunications' timestamp='1342760334' post='141139']

Thanks questioner18 - great documentation that im sure will help a lot of people.



We actually found we needed an easy and efficient way for our client to be able to import codes themselves and have since created a plugin that allows the user to import a csv full of coupon codes and then, through a custom UI, add the name, dates of validity and bonuses etc.



Now the client can easily add the coupon codes in bulk through the cscart admin back end.



Anyone interested in purchasing this as a plugin can contact us at info@swim.com.au - we can also offer an install service.

[/quote]



I just got this swim plugin installed last week and I love it. They've made it simple to understand and use.

I recommend them for sure if you are looking for a good bulk coupon code upload function.



Best,



Aaron

Does it work on 4.1?



What is the cost?



Thanks.

[quote name='medical' timestamp='1392357396' post='177439']

Does it work on 4.1?



What is the cost?



Thanks.

[/quote]



Hi Medical,



We have sent you a PM in regards to your enquiry about our plugin.



Please feel free to contact us directly at info@swim.com.au



Regards

Is there a way for customers to enter a promo code without having anything in the cart?