Discount prioritization
Multiple discounts can be applied to a transaction. A large impact on the transaction is based on the sequence of discounts that are applied.
For example, for an order totaling USD 100.00, 25 percent off an order that is already discounted USD 10.00 (USD 67.50) is different than USD 10.00 off an order that is already discounted 25 percent (USD 65.00).
In this scenario, the discounts are the same but they are applied in different sequences and thus yield different results.
Another example is that a 30 percent discount should take priority, and all other configured discounts should be ignored.
The concepts of discount concurrency mode and pricing priorities can help retailers adjust pricing strategies while streamlining configurations.
Discount concurrency mode
Discount concurrency mode determines which discounts compete on a transaction and which discounts are compounded together. The four values for this option are Exclusive, Best price, Compound, and Always apply.
When the value is Exclusive or Best price, only one discount can be applied to a transaction line. The only difference between Exclusive and Best price is the order that the discounts are considered and applied in.
Exclusive discounts are always evaluated and applied before Best price and Compound discounts, if all other settings are the same. Therefore, Exclusive and Best price discounts never compete for the best price. Two or more Exclusive discounts will compete for the best price, as will two or more Best price discounts.
When the value is Compound, the discount can be compounded with any other discount that is also set to Compound. Therefore, two or more Compound discounts will be applied to a transaction line. When multiple Compound discounts are applied to a transaction line, they are applied in the following order:
- Discount price discounts
- Amount-off discounts
- Percentage-off discounts
Compound discounts compete with Best price discounts when both types apply to a transaction line. Therefore, the Compound setting is used to determine which discounts are combined. Depending on the discount concurrency control mode that is used, two or more Compound discounts can be combined and compete with the Best price discounts that apply to the same products. The discount(s) that have the largest total discount amount are applied.
Lastly, we have Always apply discounts. Frequently, retailers want to create new promotions on specific items quickly in order to match prices with their competitors or meet sales targets. Without such an option, if a retailer wants to create a discount that is compounded with existing discounts, they must create a new discount with Compounded as the discount concurrency mode. Given the possibility of other existing discounts on an item marked as Exclusive or Best price, there is no guarantee that this new discount will be applied to all items. In this situation the retailer would want to create a new discount concurrency mode called Always apply, that applies to simple discounts and threshold discounts.
All the discounts that are created using the Always apply mode will get applied on the appropriate items after all the existing periodic discounts are applied. That means they will apply to the exclusive and best price discounts as well. The discounts will apply before manual discounts, though, such as cashier-added discounts.
For more information, see Retail discounts.