Discounts, Vouchers, Gift Certificates

Overview of Pricing

Most classes use a common pricing structure. Therefore, instead of custom per-series pricing, each class or event that has registration requires a Pricing Tier, which defines the base prices for both online registration and at-the-door registration. There is no limit on the number of tiers, so if you need custom pricing for a specific event for some reason, just create a new pricing tier.

When creating a new class/series, you will be able to select from existing pricing tiers, or create a new one by clicking the “Add” button (plug sign) next to the pricing tier field. Additionally, if you ran manage.py setupschool to set up your initial installation, then it is likely that you have already created an initial pricing tier.

Discounts

If you have installed the danceschool.discounts app, then you are able to offer sophisticated discounts based on the content of a customer’s registration. Here are some examples of things that the discount app can handle:

  • x% discount for all first-time customers
  • $y discount for registering for two or more regular classes at once
  • An ‘all-in pass’ price where the user can register for as many classes as they would like for a flat fee
  • An ‘early bird discount’ discount that expires several days before a class series begins
  • A student discount that applies only for HS/college/university students.
  • A temporary “sale price” discount that automatically expires at the end of a period of time.

Discounts are applied automatically, and the lowest-price available discount in each discount category is automatically applied. As of version 0.3.0, combining multiple discounts on the same registration by putting them in different discount categories is feasible as well. If you’re trying to combine discounts, see Notes on Combining Multiple Discounts below.

Creating A Simple Discount

All discounts are determined using a straightforward points-based system. Each pricing tier can assigned both a “point group” (a type of points, defined by you) and a number of points. A customer’s registration is determined to be eligible for a specific discount if the contents meet or exceed the required number of points needed for that discount to apply.

For example, suppose that in your school, you would like to offer a simple discount of $10 off to students who register for two or more of your regular weekly class series at the same time. To implement this discount, just follow these steps:

  1. In the CMS toolbar, go to Events > Related Items > Pricing Tier and select the pricing tier that applies to your regular weekly class series to edit it.
  2. Under “Pricing tier discount groups,” select “Add another pricing tier discount group” to define the point group and the number of points that each regular weekly class receives. For a simple discount such as this, we can simply add a new point group, such as “Individual weekly class series points,” and make each item under the regular pricing tier worth one point.
  3. Return to the CMS toolbar and go to Finances > Related Items > Discounts to access the list of existing discounts, and on the listing page, select the “Add Discount” button to create a new discount.
  4. Fill out the information for the new discount. Give the discount a name and category, ensure that the “Active” box is checked, and under “Discount Type,” select “Dollar Discount from Regular Price.” Then, under “Amount of Dollar Discount,” enter 10 for a $10 flat discount. Under “Required components of discount,” select the point group that you created (i.e. “Individual weekly class series points”) and enter 2 for quantity.
  5. Click save and you’re done! Now, all students who sign up for two or more regular weekly class series at the same time will automatically receive $10 off the regular price.

More Advanced Discounts (Examples)

Discounts Based on Hours of Class

Because of the point-based nature of the discount system, it is easy to create more sophisticated discounts. For example, suppose that you want to provide a sliding discount based on the number of hours of class that a student signs up for. If you have different pricing tiers corresponding to classes of different lengths (e.g. two weeks of class, four weeks of class, etc.), just give each pricing tier a number of points corresponding to the number of hours (e.g. 2 and 4 points, respectively). Then, define discounts that automatically apply based on the number of those points.

All-in Passes

“All-in passes” are also easy to create using the discount system. When entering the required components for an “Exact Specified Price” discount, simply check the “Applies to all within Point Group” box to ensure that the flat price is applied to the given quantity or more or points within the specified point group.

Early Registration Discounts

Creating any type of early registration discount is straightforward. When editing a discount, you will see a field entitled “Must register _ days in advance.” Enter the number of days in advance of the beginning of class that you would like students to register in order for the discount to apply. Then, simply enter the components required for the discount to apply (a simple early registration discount that applies to all of your Series classes, for example, may only require 1 point in your default point group).

Notice also that by default, early registration discounts always close at midnight (in your server’s local time) at the end of the day in which the discount no longer applies. So, for example, if you are holding a class on Friday at 8pm, and you specify that students must register 3 days in advance for the early registration discount, then they will be able to receive the discount until 11:59pm on Tuesday evening.

Notice also that in order to receive an early registration discount, it is not necessary that all elements of a registration be the specified number of days in advance. It is only necessary that the components needed for the combination to apply are satisfied by elements of a registration that are at least that many days in advance. So, for example, a student who signs up for your Friday evening class on Tuesday afternoon, but who also signs up at the same time for a Wednesday evening class, may be considered eligible for the early registration discount, as long as the points associated with the Friday afternoon class are enough to satisfy the components of the discount.

Student Discounts

As of version 0.3.0, the core app no longer provides separate configurable pricing for high school/college/university students. To set up a student discount, you must now use the discounts app. Fortunately, creating a student discount in the discounts app is simple. In the Discount admin interface, just be sure to select the checkbox labeled “Discount for HS/college/university students only”, and also to select the minimum requirements for the discount to apply. Finally, if you wish this student discount to be applied simultaneously with other discounts, be sure that it is defined within its own discount category.

Notes on Combining Multiple Discounts

The discounts app is based on both points (the requirements needed for a discount to apply) and on categories (different types of discount). By default, the app finds the best discount (providing the lowest price) in each category, and it applies that discount. The order in which discounts are applied is determined by the value of “order” for each discount category, with categories having lower values of “order” applied first.

The conditions needed for a discount to apply are always “x or more” points conditions. This is important, because the conditions required for discounts to apply are often progressive in nature. For example, if you have a discount that applies to students who register for two or more classes, as well as a discount that applies to students who register for three or more classes, then of course, technically, a student who registers for three classes will be eligible for both of these discounts. Similarly, a student who registers for four classes will also be eligible for both of these discounts. However, in both cases, it is unlikely to be desirable to give that student both the two-class discount and the three-class discount at the same time. Placing these multi-class discounts in the same category ensures that a customer will not simultaneously receive two or more of the multi-class discounts–only the best discount will be applied. On the other hand, placing these multi-class discounts in different categories ensures by default that a customer will be able to receive two or more of these discounts simultaneously. Therefore, it is important to specify and order discount categories carefully.

There is one exception to the above logic. If you have discounts that you do not wish to be applied along with other discounts, then you may select the option “Cannot be combined” in the Discount Category admin. Discounts in categories with this box checked cannot be combined with any other discount. They will only be applied if they provide a lower price than any other single discount or combination of discounts.

Vouchers

If you have installed the danceschool.vouchers app, then you are able to offer voucher codes, gift certificates, and referral/referree discounts.

Vouchers can be public (e.g. publicly advertised discount codes), or they can be forcibly private (only usable by a specific customer). They can be restricted to apply only to first-time students, or to apply only to prior students. It is also possible to add credits to previously generated voucher codes, which can be useful if you are, for example, providing vouchers to students who volunteer for the school.

Creating Vouchers

To create a new Voucher, just use the CMS toolbar to go to ** Finances > Related Items > Vouchers ** and click the “Add Voucher” button on the listing page. There, you will need to add the following pieces of information

  • The voucher code (must be unique)
  • A name (to be displayed when the customer enters the voucher code)
  • A category (Some basic categories are defined, or you can also create new categories for different types of vouchers you may want to offer).
  • An “original amount” for the voucher.

You can also optionally add the following pieces of information/restrictions:

  • A description (for internal use only)
  • A maximum amount per use. For public vouchers that are meant as discount codes, be sure to enter this field, and to enter an “Original Amount” that is large enough to apply numerous times. E.g. for a $10 discount for the first 100 customers, enter $1,000 as the original amount, and a $10 max amount per use.
  • An expiration date. If no expiration is specified, then the voucher never expires.
  • Restrictions that limit a voucher to a single use, and restrictions that limit a voucher to use by first-time customers (customers not in the database) or existing customers (in the database) only.
  • Restrictions that allow a voucher to be used only for specific dance types/levels, for specific class series (specified by the Class Description), or for specific customers.
  • Additional voucher credits, for “topping up” a voucher.

Note on Voucher Restrictions

If specified, voucher restrictions (e.g. based on dance level) require that all items within a user’s registration meet one of the restrictions specified. So, for example, if I want a customer to be able to use a voucher for either our “Lindy 1” or “Lindy 2” classes, I would specify both Lindy 1 and Lindy 2 as the dance level voucher restriction. Then, if that customer registers for either Lindy 1 or Lindy 2, and they enter the voucher code, they will receive the discount. However, if their registration also includes items that are not Lindy 1 or Lindy 2, then they will be considered to be ineligible for the voucher code.

Gift Certificates

A gift certificate is simply a voucher code. However, if it is enabled by your payment processor (as it is for the built-in Paypal and Stripe integrations), then it is possible to accept online payments for gift certificates. In this case, a voucher code is generated automatically for the amount paid, and the submitting user is sent an email with a PDF attachment that they can choose to print and give as a gift. The system does all of the work for you, so you don’t need to do anything but add the option

To add gift certificate functionality, go to the page where you want to allow users to purchase gift certificates, Edit the page in structure mode, and in the block of the page where you want the purchase button to be located (e.g. “Content”), add either a “Payapl Gift Certificate Form” plugin or a “Stripe Gift Certificate Form” plugin. You will be asked to enter both the default amount of the gift certificate (which can be changed by the customer), and the page to which the customer will be redirected after they have purchased their gift certificate. Save the page, and you’re all set!

Both the default text of the gift certificate email as well as the default text of the PDF attachment are loaded as email templates when the school is set up. To modify their contents, just use the CMS toolbar to navigate to ** Content > Manage Email Templates ** and select either the “Gift Certificate Purchase Confirmation Email” or the “Gift Certificate Purchase PDF Text” templates to edit them. You may also wish to override the template vouchers/pdf/giftcertificate_template.html in your custom app to generate a PDF gift certificate with a different layout, or to add your own logo, etc.

Referral/Referree Program

Some schools like to offer referral discounts to encourage their students to advertise on their behalf. This project provides a simple way of running a referral/referee discount system. If enabled, then each of your customers will automatically be given the ability to refer other customers using a special voucher code. Customers who use this voucher code will receive a “referree” discount when they sign up for their first class, while the customer whose voucher code is used will receive a “referrer” discount.

To enable to the referral program and set the amounts for referree and referrer discounts, use the CMS toolbar to navigate to Apps > Global Settings. From there, select the “Referrals” preference page, where you will find a checkbox to enable/disable the referral program, and the ability to modify the discount amounts.

Accessing a Customer’s Referral Code

In order to access the referral system, your customers must create a user account. Once they have done so, they can login to access the “My Account” page (It is the page that is automatically shown when a user logs in). On this page, they should see a code under “Customer Referral ID.” This is the voucher code that they need to use in order to refer customers. When another new customer enters this voucher code, that (new) customer will automatically receive the referree discount, and the customer whose code is used will receive a referral discount that will be automatically applied against their next registration.

Examples of Usage

  • Send an email to customers including their referral code and encouraging them to sign up their friends using it
  • Give customers flyers with their referral code written on them and encourage them to post flyers to get discounts