Bulk Coupons - Groupons, Living Social, etc.

I've looked all over but can't seem to find a current answer (for the current 1.3.9 version) on gift certificates.

We've been approached for a groupon sale and need to issue a bulk lot of gift voucher numbers. Any ideas on how to do this?

We've got the same situation and they want us to import a .csv file to activate the gift certificate codes. Not sure if it can be done or not. Hopefully someone has the answer.

Anyone? We can't be the only one's who've need of this!

Gift Certificates are like cash and have NO expiration time ...

Discount Coupons can have start and end times and limits on categories/products that they can be used for as well as how many times per user/coupon they can be used ...

Are you giving away Gift Certificates for "cash" to your customers?

Or, are you trying to give away Discount Coupons?

Ajeh:

Gift Certificates are like cash and have NO expiration time ...

Discount Coupons can have start and end times and limits on categories/products that they can be used for as well as how many times per user/coupon they can be used ...

Are you giving away Gift Certificates for "cash" to your customers?

Or, are you trying to give away Discount Coupons?

Which ever is going to be the easiest to do. I don't need to put any limits on the codes. Essentially they need a block of codes to give to their customers who purchase the "30$ of product for $15" deal. So I guess it would be a GC for $30.

Can I import a csv with 500 numbers into the zen_coupons file in the sql database (it shows both coupons and GC's in that file when I browse it) ? I didn't know if this would wipe out the exhisting coupons that were already living in that file.

So you want to give 500 customers $30 each ... for Free ... correct?

And, that $30, should never expire, correct?

If so, then you need to add the 500 unique
coupon_code

to the table:
coupons

with the:
coupon_type

set to:
G

Now, if the Customer enters the Gift Certificate redemption code on your site, they will be credited with a $30.00 Gift Certificate balance that can be applied to ALL Products on your site, up to $30.00 of the charge ...

Importing the file, unless you specifically write something to delete all of the existing records, will not affect them ...

No, what they're really trying to do is sell a $30 coupon (or GV) for $15, but in bulk somehow.

Ajeh:

So you want to give 500 customers $30 each ... for Free ... correct?

And, that $30, should never expire, correct?

If so, then you need to add the 500 unique
coupon_code

to the table:
coupons

with the:
coupon_type

set to:
G

Now, if the Customer enters the Gift Certificate redemption code on your site, they will be credited with a $30.00 Gift Certificate balance that can be applied to ALL Products on your site, up to $30.00 of the charge ...

Importing the file, unless you specifically write something to delete all of the existing records, will not affect them ...

what about:

coupon_active
y/n

does it need to be set to y or n?

coupon_active would need to be Y for Active ...

Make sure that is a capital Y ...

NOTE: Zen Cart is not setup of selling Gift Certificates at a discount, unless you mean walk up and down the street with a handful of Gift Certificate cards worth $30 that people can buy for $15 to then be used on the site ...

NOTE: Discount Coupons cannot be used to purchase Gift Certificates either ...

afo:

No, what they're really trying to do is sell a $30 coupon (or GV) for $15, but in bulk somehow.

Ajeh:

coupon_active would need to be Y for Active ...

Make sure that is a capital Y ...

NOTE: Zen Cart is not setup of selling Gift Certificates at a discount, unless you mean walk up and down the street with a handful of Gift Certificate cards worth $30 that people can buy for $15 to then be used on the site ...

NOTE: Discount Coupons cannot be used to purchase Gift Certificates either ...

Great. No, this is for a social media program. Deal of the day thing. They send the 'deal' out to their members to buy. Basically I'm getting exposure to their customers for the deal. It's usually a 50% off deal (I was just using the 30/15 as an example). Their customers buy the deal through them, they give you the portion of the deal you agreed with through them, the customer gets a 'code' to enter in on your website (thus the block of codes that I need to provide to them).

This should be exactly what I need. Thanks!

Hello,

We have the same need - we need to import the coupon codes that Groupon gives us in the form of a .csv file into the coupon codes database table. My client does not use Gift Certificates anymore in Zen Cart because she can't link that up to her in-store sales (we can't find a way to allow people with a Gift Certificate generated by Zen Cart to make a purchase in the boutique with that Gift Certificate), so she only uses the discount coupon codes online, and does not sell gift certificates online with Zen Cart.

Do I import the .csv with the 1000 numbers Groupon gives us into the coupon codes table and then set the value of the coupon code as the discount amount in the database table, is that it, or are there more settings I need to change or add to that table? I'm not a database person so I need to know how to do this. Thank you!

Discount Coupons need to have entrees for both the:
coupons
coupons_description

tables to create valid Discount Coupons ...

Create a manual Discount Coupon to see what the normal Discount Coupon would generate and then you will have a better idea of what is needed for your import ...

We've gotten several such offers in the last couple weeks. It seems to be a big trend. Apparently we'd need to not only be able to generate a bunch of coupons, but also have the ability to IMPORT a bunch. seems to depend upon how well established the organization is.

For these types of offers, it seems the way to go is to have a coupon with an expiry date, rather than a gift cert.

Just to summarize (and ask a clarification):
1.) For each coupon, we need to add a row to coupons table and to coupons_description table
2.) Coupon types are as follows:
a.) F - fixed amount
b.) P - percentage
c.) G - gift certificate (cannot expire)

Thanks!

Are you sure you need unique Discount Coupons or just limit how many you pass out?

Let's say you want 132 Discount Coupons for $5.00 off anything ...

Make a Discount Coupon
Coupon Amount: 5.00

Uses per Coupon: 132

Uses per Customer: 1

Set dates if needed, keep in mind dates are based on Midnight ...

Example: to be good for Only October 14, 2010 you would set the dates to start on: 14 October 2010 end on: 15 October 2010

Each person buys a Groupon on Groupon's site, pays something like $20 for $40 worth of goods/services and is given a unique coupon code by Groupon. Groupon gives us the csv file with a column of hundreds of codes they have given the purchasers already, and a column of the full names of the purchaser of each code. It also has a column for whether or not the coupon has been redeemed. These people are not necessarily customers of ours yet, and will not have an account with us, so I am guessing I am not importing their names, only the coupon codes.

So, how does this sound - do I have to make columns in the csv file that correspond to the table columns adding all the correct values in the csv file, then import the whole file?

There is a table column in there about whether or not it is restricted for use with a category (we DO want this, the Groupon is only available for Classes we offer, not for products, and we have Classes set up as one category with an id of 15) - I have tried putting the number "15" into that database field for the manual test I created using the interface, but that did not work. I tried typing the name of the category in all caps, then I tried all lowercase, then I tried exactly as it appears, capitalized, none of these worked - it seems I can only import all this stuff and MANUALLY add the category restriction on each one using the coupon admin area in Zen Cart once the import happens?! That can't be right, but once I did manually add the category restriction in the admin, the database table reflected a blank entry - not null, nothing is in that DB field even though the restriction does work in practice. So, it would seem that nothing I could import into those fields of the DB would work - does that sound right?

If I get 10000 groupon sales, it is not acceptable that I would have to manually go through each one after importing the rest of the info into the database, and manually add the category restriction - does anyone know of a solution for this?

ANY help is appreciated - the Groupon goes live on Friday - TWO DAYS from now and I need to be able to quickly import the info on Saturday so people can use it on SUNDAY.

Thank you!

I'm on Zen Cart 1.3.7

You would need to add the Discount Coupon information to the tables:
coupons
coupons_description

Add a Discount Coupon manually, then export the two tables so you can see how the data needs to be added ...

Snowkrash - just curious...were you able to successfully get the bulk coupon code upload to work? I will be needing to do the exact same thing in about a week for a GroupOn that will soon be running for our Internet business. Any further feedback on what you did and how it worked, etc. would be greatly appreciated! I am not technical, so could use all of the help I can get. Thanks! :D

snowkrash:

Each person buys a Groupon on Groupon's site, pays something like $20 for $40 worth of goods/services and is given a unique coupon code by Groupon. Groupon gives us the csv file with a column of hundreds of codes they have given the purchasers already, and a column of the full names of the purchaser of each code. It also has a column for whether or not the coupon has been redeemed. These people are not necessarily customers of ours yet, and will not have an account with us, so I am guessing I am not importing their names, only the coupon codes.

So, how does this sound - do I have to make columns in the csv file that correspond to the table columns adding all the correct values in the csv file, then import the whole file?

There is a table column in there about whether or not it is restricted for use with a category (we DO want this, the Groupon is only available for Classes we offer, not for products, and we have Classes set up as one category with an id of 15) - I have tried putting the number "15" into that database field for the manual test I created using the interface, but that did not work. I tried typing the name of the category in all caps, then I tried all lowercase, then I tried exactly as it appears, capitalized, none of these worked - it seems I can only import all this stuff and MANUALLY add the category restriction on each one using the coupon admin area in Zen Cart once the import happens?! That can't be right, but once I did manually add the category restriction in the admin, the database table reflected a blank entry - not null, nothing is in that DB field even though the restriction does work in practice. So, it would seem that nothing I could import into those fields of the DB would work - does that sound right?

If I get 10000 groupon sales, it is not acceptable that I would have to manually go through each one after importing the rest of the info into the database, and manually add the category restriction - does anyone know of a solution for this?

ANY help is appreciated - the Groupon goes live on Friday - TWO DAYS from now and I need to be able to quickly import the info on Saturday so people can use it on SUNDAY.

Thank you!

I'm on Zen Cart 1.3.7

Can I suggest a social coupon aka Groupon Wiki or Tutorial?

I am currently using 1.3.8 and have been able to upload bulk coupon codes via CSV into the database. However, the start date and end date default to 11/30/2036 despite having unique dates in the csv file. I have tried changing the database "structure" to allow for the csv file date columns I created to upload and have been unsuccessful...they all continue to default to 2036.
I currently have the coupon start_date and expire_date set to:
Type=datetime
Default = As defined:
0001-01-01 00:00
Null = No

I need to be able to not only upload the coupons, but also the correct start and expiration date.

Any help or advice would be great.
Thanks,
Mkopecky

I'm also looking into coupons and gift certificates. Is it possible to have a coupon or gift certificate downloaded from zen-cart and printed out by the customer?

Ajeh:

coupon_active would need to be Y for Active ...

Make sure that is a capital Y ...

NOTE: Zen Cart is not setup of selling Gift Certificates at a discount, unless you mean walk up and down the street with a handful of Gift Certificate cards worth $30 that people can buy for $15 to then be used on the site ...

NOTE: Discount Coupons cannot be used to purchase Gift Certificates either ...