Coupon applied before check-out?

Has anyone thought about or customized ZC to be able to apply a coupon earlier in the process-- so that all prices are adjusted (like a sale but only when the coupon is applied)?

We'll be distributing coupon codes at specific marketing events and other venues and methods. The designer is requesting that I allow new customers to apply the coupon asap, preferably on a specific product page and have the prices shown change.

Suggestions?
Thanks,
Dan

Actually I realized what the designer is looking for is to enable specific "Special" pricing when a "Coupon" is entered in the product page (with multiple special pricing corresponding to each coupon). There is currently no restriction on who sees a special price, right?

Currently, the Discount Coupon shows the discounts during checkout ... not on the individual pages throughout the category ...

Yes, I know this. This is exactly what the designer does not like-- they want the prices on the product page to change. It's a completely different sales approach and philosophy of how to present pricing than a simple discount coupon. More of a promotional code which adjusts the store to you.

Ajeh:

Currently, the Discount Coupon shows the discounts during checkout ... not on the individual pages throughout the category ...

You could go rewrite the price display function but I think you are going to run into issues where you may run into penny errors etc as it is not yet setup to manage this at this time ...

But that would be one approach ...

NOTE: there are no overrides for the function files ...

Thanks for the suggestion, yes I was looking into this and am concerned about doing this in a way that will avoid major work after an upgrade/patch (or at least minimize it). I'm thinking about a coupon that enables special pricing rather than simply applies the existing coupon function .. ..but I haven't decided yet. The former would be more in line with the designer's wishes, the latter might be easier to do (and I could deal with round-off errors).

Ajeh:

You could go rewrite the price display function but I think you are going to run into issues where you may run into penny errors etc as it is not yet setup to manage this at this time ...

But that would be one approach ...

NOTE: there are no overrides for the function files ...

I'm thinking in order to do this correctly, I need:

-- a new coupon code for "M" Marketing Promotions (it's a flag like the
free shipping flag)
-- an additional new restriction type for this type of coupon to "Specials"
-- a flag in a "Special" that it indicates not to use it without a Marketing Promotion
-- add ability to "apply" the marketing promotion in the discount page or any
of the products restricted to the promotion
-- modify the 'pricing' function to skip Specials indicated as a promotion unless
their promotion code is applied during the session

Did I forget anything?

..........

I implemented most of this last night. Nearly working, but it's a fairly pervasive change which makes me very uncomfortable. I also had to add the extra field for the Special flag to that table and the Special restriction to the coupon restrict table.

Overall, the designer is going to very pleased, but I'm not sure I can release it in it's current form. One night's work isn't enough reflection on appropriate design ;-)

So I'm treating this as a prototype. My first impression is that this feature should be a separate menu item under "Coupon admin" such as "Promotion Admin" and eliminate the restriction of a promotion to category and product because that connection is make through the special. It would still use the new coupon type 'M' however.

This needs to sit and gel for a bit.

Hmm, seems that I can't create multiple specials per product (even when they're all status=off).