Promotion Best Practices

Planning and Testing

We recommend that you plan and test all promotions before setting them live.

Planning

1. Define seasonal campaigns.
   • Set a schedule with start and end dates and times.
   • Create an overall theme.
   • Develop a list of required creative assets.
2. Finalize the promotions offered.
   • What promotion types? Order, product, or shipping?
   • Which products or categories?
   • Which customer groups are you targeting?
   • Who are your marketing sources, such as affiliates or emails?
   • What is the promotion schedule?
   • Where on the site will promotion messaging show, such as homepage, category pages, checkout?
3. Complete a merchandising promotions calendar.
   • Define a playbook for the season's campaigns and promotions.
   • Include all promotion details.

Testing

Develop and use simple test plans that consider all variations of your promotions. Make sure that:

• Qualifiers work as intended.
• Descriptions appear as intended.
• Discount rules apply only when conditions are met.
• A discount is removed if the qualifying condition is removed.

Test your promotions in the Staging environment using the Storefront Toolkit. The toolkit lets you specify the dates. Make sure that the promotion works correctly in Production after data replication occurs.

• Have the creator and requester test the promotions.
• Test promotions before they go into Production.
• Maintain a main list of coupon, promotion, and source code assignments.

Messaging in the Storefront

To minimize shopper queries, show a message in the storefront that identifies promotion restrictions, limitations, exclusions, or conditions. For example:

• While supplies last
• One discount per order
• Following brands not eligible for this promotion
• In stock-items only
• Only on products over $500

Education and Documentation

The developer must provide the marketing or merchandising team with a clear understanding of how promotions are implemented within their storefront.

Implement and Document the Promotion Workflow

Develop a workflow for the build, review, and release of online promotions. Identify clear roles and responsibilities related to online promotions within your organization.

• Who can add content assets into the system?
• How are requests for online promotions made?
• Who builds promotions?
• Who manages promotions once they go live?
• What signatures are required, at which steps?
• What are the specific timelines and deadlines?