The promotions feature in Retail POS is an easy-to-use discounting tool for running in-store discounts and sales. Promotions let you set up offers on all or selected products in just a few simple clicks, without the need for spreadsheets or manual uploads.

Plus, live promotions automatically update to include relevant products, customers, or outlets as they are added into Retail POS.

When a promotion and price books are active across the same products, customers, outlets, and dates, both discounts will be applied. If you don't want both discounts applied, please adjust either the promotion or the price book.

What can I use promotions for?

• To save time: you can set up new promotions in a few clicks, without having to use spreadsheets or page-by-page changes.

• To set and forget: new products, customers, and outlets are automatically added to relevant existing promotions.

• To boost sales: offer customizable discounts to incentivize customers to increase spending. You can limit sales by time and date to boost revenue in quieter periods.

Adding and editing your promotions

1. Navigate to Catalog > Promotions.

Here you will find a page listing all current promotions. If you've already added a promotion, you can click on this promotion in the list below to expand and edit it.

2. To add a new promotion, click the Add promotion button on the top right side of the page.

3. Give this promotion a name and a short description.

4. Specify the date range for this promotion.

5. Choose which outlet(s) this promotion will apply to. If you select All outlets then any future outlets that are added to your store will also include this promotion.

6. Select the Schedule promotion. 

One-time promotion allows you to have a promotion run over a period of time. Once selected, you cannot change to a recurring promotion. 

You must select a period of time your promotion will be running for.

Recurring promotion allows you to repeat your promotions weekly on a specific day over a period of time. Once selected, you cannot change to a one-time promotion.

You must select your day, time, and time period.

7. Select the Type of promotion

• Basic: Percentage or dollar value discount on all or specific products.
• Advanced: Retailers on Pro, Lean, Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise plans have the option to create advanced promotions. For more information on advanced promotions, refer to our Advanced promotion options guide.

8. Set the percentage (%) discount or a dollar ($) discount of this promotion. This discount will be applied to the current retail price of all products included in this promotion.

9. Specify whether this promotion applies to all products or a specific product set. To include only specific products, click Specific and use the search bar to filter by tag, type, brand, and supplier.

10. Select who will be targeted by this promotion

• Available to everyone: All customers can receive this promotion.
• Exclusive to some: Only customers within a customer group, or with a promo code, can redeem this promotion.

Any new customers or products added will automatically be added to an existing promotion.

11. Select to enable promotion prompt on the sell screen (advanced promotion only).

If this is enabled, when a product is added to the sell screen Retail POS will check if there is an advanced promotion available. If there is, the sell screen will display the first promotion it finds.

The first promotion can seem random. It is based on the product that's in the cart, the amount that the customer will save, and the date the promotion was created.

Because of this, promotion prompts might not always pick the best promotion.

You can optimize which promotions are displayed by tailoring the experience and toggling promotions prompt off for promotions that you don't want to be suggested.

12. Select whether you want customers to earn loyalty from this promotion.

13. Click Save. You will now see this promotion in your promotions list.

You can test this promotion by adding a relevant product or customer group to the sell screen when processing a sale.

When running multiple promotions for the same products and/or customer groups, the following rules apply:

• If you have two or more basic promotions, the larger discount will always apply.

• An advanced promotion will always take precedence over a basic promotion, even if the basic promotion provides a bigger discount.

• If you have two advanced promotions, the advanced promotion that is met first will apply.

Viewing items that are part of a promotion

1. Navigate to Catalog > Promotions and click on a promotion in the list below.

2. Once here, click the View products button to the right of the page.

This will open a list of all the products currently involved in this promotion.

Selling items that are part of a promotion

When you add an item on promotion to the sell screen, the discounted price will be applied. This discount will be reflected in the price of the item, and the name of the promotion will appear below.

Editing either the price or discount amount of a product on the sell screen will overwrite any promotions applied to the product.

When a product is added to the sell screen, Retail POS will check for promotions.

Cashiers can then click on the promotion to view the promotion detail.

Press the Pay button and process the sale as normal, the promotion name and discount(s) will be displayed in the sale summary on the pay screen.

The printed and email receipt will also include the promotion name and discount at a line item level.

Ending a promotion

Your promotion will automatically end on the end date that you've specified. If you need to end the promotion early, click the End early button from the main promotions page. To do this:

1. Navigate to Catalog > Promotions and click on a promotion in the list below.

2. Once here, click the End early button to the right of the page.

3. A pop-up will appear prompting you to end the promotion now or to set a new end date.

Who can add and edit promotions?

Adding and editing promotions will be turned off by default for cashiers. For managers, promotions permissions are turned on by default. An admin user can change these permissions on the user permissions page.

Promotions and price books

If you have one or more active price books and an active promotion for the same products or customers, the promotion will be applied on top of the best price book discount.

In this instance, only the promotion name will be displayed in the sale summary on the pay screen, even though the price book and the promotion discount would've been applied. If you do not wish to apply both discounts to a product, please adjust either the promotion or the price book.

What does this mean for my customers?

This means that if you have multiple price books that contain the same products or customers, Retail POS will always apply the one that will give your customer the best price.

Here's an example:

You have a t-shirt product in your store that is in one price book at 30 dollars, another price book at 20 dollars, and you are offering 10% off all t-shirts using a promotion. In this case, Retail POS will select the lower of the two price book amounts, and apply the 10% promotion.

Searching for a promotion?

The search functionality allows you to find your promotions more efficiently. Either by typing a promotion name, or filtering by date, or outlet, finding your promotions will be a lot faster. The search functionality is available on all promotions dashboards (Current & Upcoming, Past and All). By using the search functionality, you will know how many promotions match your search.

Advanced Promotions

For more promotion choices*, refer to our Advanced promotion options.

*Available on Pro and Enterprise, and Lean, Standard, and Advanced plans only.