Overview

Cart Promotion, powered by the promotion engine, is a rule-based system designed to dynamically evaluate and apply targeted discounts directly to a customer's active shopping cart in real-time. Unlike static Point-of-Sale (PoS) promotions which are purely focused on driving sales volume, cart promotion applies tailored rewards based on specific conditions such as cart value or product attributes and criteria's like store location or time to offer instant gratification during checkout. By integrating seamlessly with active campaigns and employing ranking strategies, it serves not just to drive immediate transactions, but to deeply engage customers and foster long-term brand relationships.

Benefits of Cart Promotions

Feature	Brand Benefits	Customer Benefits
Personalized Promotions	Granular Targeting: Rules based on cart value, specific products (SKU/Category), or customer segments.Example :A promotion can target a cart with a subtotal ≥ $100 using a `CartCondition`, or target specific items like "Paint Supplies" using a `ProductCondition` with `entity: CATEGORY` and `values: ["Paint Supplies"]`. Discount Optimization: Automated ranking strategies.Example: The API allows setting a `priority` integer (where 0 is highest). If multiple promotions apply, the system processes them based on this priority to determine the final discount. • Diverse Rewards: The API supports various action types: `CART_BASED` for total bill discounts, `PRODUCT_BASED` for specific item discounts, `FREE_PRODUCT` for buy-one-get-one offers, and `FIXED_PRICE` to set a specific price for items.	Instant Gratification: Real-time application of offers during search or checkout.Example :The `POS` promotion type applies automatically at checkout when conditions are met, providing instant savings without manual intervention. Relevance: Offers matched specifically to current shopping behavior. Frictionless Experience: No need to manually search for or enter coupon codes.
Operational Control	A single API request configures all aspects of a promotion: its basic details (name, dates), rules (condition), rewards (action), and limits (promotionRestrictions).	• Faster Checkout: Automatic discount application streamlines the payment process.
Visibility & Engagement	Performance Monitoring: Track redemptions and cart evaluations in real-time. Example : The system tracks metrics like `REDEMPTION` count and total `DISCOUNT` given, which can be used to monitor the performance of a promotion against its defined limits.	• Loyalty Integration: Opportunities to earn or redeem points directly within cart activities. Example: Promotions can be targeted to specific loyalty tiers (e.g., "Gold Tier Exclusive") using `supplementaryCriteria`. The `EARNING` promotion type allows customers to earn rewards (like points or vouchers) based on their cart activity.

Note

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By default, Cart Promotion is not enabled for all the orgs. Raise a ticket to the Product Support team to enable.

Key Features

Real-Time Optimization: Applies the best offer for the customer by automatically evaluating all active offers and picking the one with the highest savings using configured ranking strategies.
Contextual Targeting: Creates tailored offers by checking what's in the cart right now against specific rules, like total spending (CartCondition) or specific items (ProductCondition).
Easy Redemption: Applies discounts automatically at checkout without coupon codes by using 'POS' type promotions that trigger instantly when conditions are met.
Instant Gratification: Gives customers immediate savings while they shop by calculating potential discounts in real-time with every cart update via the evaluation API.
Operational Control: Lets brands manage budgets by setting strict limits on total redemptions or discount amounts using promotionRestrictions at the cart or campaign level.
Strategic Upselling: Encourages customers to buy related items together (like a "laptop + mouse") by using COMBO_PRODUCT rules that reward specific bundles of purchase.
Multi-Dimensional Qualification: Limits offers to a particular time and place by cross-referencing the cart against store location, time-of-day criteria, and the customer's loyalty tier.

Configuring cart promotion redemption strategy

The promotion redemption process supports two strategies for applying discounts to a transaction:

The standard approach involves the promotion engine evaluating a cart and returning a final, calculated set of discounts to be applied.
An alternative strategy offers greater flexibility by separating the evaluation and redemption steps. This flow allows an external system to first request a complete list of all available promotions for the items in a cart. The external system can then apply its own logic to determine the final combination of discounts, and after the transaction is complete, it informs the promotion engine which specific promotions were redeemed.

To configure the cart promotion redemption strategy for your organisation, raise a JIRA ticket to the Capillary Product Support team.

Configuring cart promotion redemption strategy

The promotion redemption process supports two strategies for applying discounts to a transaction:

Redemption with cart validation (REDEMPTION_AGAINST_CART_EVALUATION): The POS system sends the customer's complete and final cart for evaluation. In response, the cart promotion engine returns the available cart discounts along with a secure evaluation ID. To finalize the sale, the POS must submit this ID with the transaction, allowing the engine to validate that the applied promotions are legitimate and untampered before recording the redemption.

Redemption via Post-Transaction Reporting (REDEMPTION_WITHOUT_CART_EVALUATION): Once the transaction is completed and recorded, the POS informs the cart promotion engine of the promotions used by sending the final details to a separate, dedicated redemptions API, which the engine then records asynchronously.

To configure the cart promotion redemption strategy for your organisation, raise a JIRA ticket to the Capillary Product Support team.

Updated 9 days ago