As part of your Templates you may include various types of discounts that are available for customers that make a purchase. The options for redeeming these discounts are more flexible within Square POS vs. Square Online.
To explain the difference let's look at a hypothetical membership program that offers customers 20% off all purchases, and a $10 credit towards the purchase of any item in the Apparel category.
Redeeming in Square POS:
- 20% Off is an unlimited discount and it will apply to the sale automatically when the customer is attached to the order
- $10 credit is a one time use coupon and it will apply to the sale if the cashier manually applies it from the customer profile and an eligible product is present.
Redeeming on Square Online: Square online does not support automatic customer discounts. Even if a customer is logged into their account they will not see any indication of a 20% off discount, or a $10 credit available for use.
- 20% Off can be applied by clicking on a link provided by Submatic (the link can trigger automatic application of a code) or by entering a Discount Code at checkout.
- $10 credit cannot be applied in this case because it is a Category specific discount. If the $10 credit were configured as an item level discount or an all product discount it could be applied visa the use of a Code.
Important Limitations for Square Online:
- An Unlimited Discount may be shared. There is no way to prevent multiple distinct customers from using the same code if that code associated with an unlimited discount. This means that it will be difficult to prevent members/subscribers from sharing their discount codes with non-members. Submatic can generate a unique Discount Code for each customer that is meant to receive one and while this will not prevent sharing, it will at least allow for tracking the number of uses of a specific code.
- Square Online allows a single Discount Code to be applied per order. With the example above if the customer were to purchase 3 products online: one $20 item in the apparel category, and two other $10 items in other categories the customer would have to choose between applying their $10 credit towards apparel (thus making the subtotal $30), or applying their 20% off discount (thus making the subtotal $32). The customer would not be apply to apply both coupons as they would within the POS. To apply both coupons online the customer would be required to place two separate orders.
- Category discounts are not redeemable online. Discounts can be configured to apply to all products, individual products, groups of products (via Item Sets), or categories. Discount that apply for all products or specific items are redeemable online, whereas category level discounts are not.