Promotions
THE ESSENTIALS
Promotions reduce the cost of physical goods and services by applying either a percentage-based or fixed-amount discount. Discounts can be applied to the entire basket or to specific items within the order.
Promotions are applied automatically when invoicing contacts - during the ordering flow and on recurring billing runs - whenever defined conditions are met. Conditions control eligibility based on the contact, the order location, timing restrictions, and the items in the basket.
Who this manual is for - three roles
🔧 Configurator - there are no settings to configure for Promotions. This manual is primarily for Operators and Integrators.
🖥️ Operator - creates, activates, copies, and manages Promotions in Commerce > Promotions.
🔗 Integrator - manages Promotions programmatically via the Back Office API and surfaces them in front-end apps via the Self-Service API. For full integration guides, schemas, and code examples, refer to the Integrators Hub and the Self-Service SDK.
Key Concepts
🖥️ Operator · 🔗 Integrator
State
A Promotion is either Active - applying its discount when all conditions are met - or Inactive, in which case it is not applied even if conditions are satisfied. Promotions are created in Inactive state and must be explicitly activated.
State | Description |
|---|---|
Active | The Promotion applies to qualifying orders and recurring billing. |
Inactive | The Promotion is not applied, regardless of conditions. |
Availability
The date window during which the Promotion can be applied, i.e. contacts start getting the discounts when placing new orders. A start date is required, the end date is optional - if omitted, the Promotion remains available indefinitely.
Conditions
The criteria that must be satisfied for a Promotion to apply. All configured conditions must be met simultaneously. Any dimension left unconfigured is unrestricted.
Condition | Controls |
|---|---|
Contact | Which contacts or Segments qualify. A specific contact and Segments are mutually exclusive - only one can be configured per Promotion. |
Location | Which merchants, venues, or countries the order is placed at. |
Timings | Which dates, days of the week, months, and/or time windows apply. A fixed sub-period, recurring rules, or both can be configured simultaneously. |
Basket rules | Minimum total order value, minimum item quantity, required payment method type, and/or required supply method (delivery, pick-up, or direct sale). |
Basket product conditions | Which products, product types, brands, or families must be in the basket, with optional per-item minimum quantity, per-item minimum cost, billing cycle, contract period, and prerequisite subscription requirements. Conditions are organised into named groups with AND/OR logic between and within groups. |
Offerings
The discount applied when conditions are met. Each offering defines a discount type (percentage or fixed amount) and a scope - a specific product, product type, brand, family, or the entire basket. A Promotion can carry multiple offerings, each targeting a different scope. For termed services, each offering also requires a discount duration.
The promotion discount is calculated and presented before the order is confirmed. Both the order estimation (self-service checkout) and the back-office invoicing and billing estimation responses return the total discount amount and a per-Promotion breakdown - identifying each Promotion by name and its contributed discount amount.
Promotion Evaluation
When a Promotion is evaluated depends on what is being ordered.
Physical goods and one-time services - evaluated once, at the point of ordering.
Termed services (recurring billing) - evaluated at three points:
On ordering - when the contact subscribes to a new service.
On service change - when an existing subscription is modified (e.g. upgrade, downgrade, or renewal). The Promotion is re-evaluated against the updated service state and applied if conditions are still met.
On each billing cycle - the billing engine re-evaluates every active Promotion targeted at the contact or their Segment during each billing run. If conditions are met and the contact has not yet received that discount, it is applied in the current cycle - with no change to the subscription required.
This means a new Promotion targeting an existing Segment takes effect in the next billing run without any subscriber action.
Termed Subscriber Discounts
Applicable only when a Promotion targets a termed service. Specifies how long the discount persists across billing cycles.
Duration | Description |
|---|---|
One-Time | Applied to a single invoice only - the first invoice after the Promotion qualifies. Does not repeat. |
Period | Applied for a defined number of consecutive billing cycles after the Promotion first qualifies. |
Forever | Applied to every billing cycle for the service's lifetime, while all conditions remain met. |
Variable | The discount amount changes across sequential periods - each defined independently with its own amount and duration. For example, 30% for the first 3 months, then 15% for the following 3. |
The discount continues for as long as all of the Promotion's conditions remain met. If any condition is violated, the discount stops from the next billing cycle and is re-evaluated at each subsequent run.
A promotion is applied at the point of ordering - the order must be placed within the promotion's availability period for the discount to qualify. For termed services, the offering's duration is a separate concept: it defines how long the contact continues to receive the discount on recurring billing after the promotion has first been applied. A contact who orders within the availability window will keep receiving the discount for the configured duration, even after the availability period has ended, for as long as they continue to meet all defined promotion conditions.
Currency
Each Promotion is denominated in a single currency, because a discount is a monetary value. A contact is eligible only if their account currency matches the Promotion's currency exactly. CRM.COM does not perform currency conversion - if the currencies do not match, the Promotion is not applied, even if all other conditions are satisfied.
Example: A contact’s account currency is USD. The only applicable Promotion is configured in GBP. The contact will not receive the discount. The business should set up a new Promotion in USD to start giving discounts to their USD contacts.
In multi-currency setups, the business must create a separate Promotion for each currency it accepts. The Copy function simplifies this by carrying over all conditions and offerings, requiring only the currency to be changed.
Managing Promotions
🖥️ Primarily: Operator
Navigate to Commerce > Promotions to view and manage all Promotions. The summary page lists all Promotions with their state, currency, and availability dates. Filter by state, currency, segment, or tag.
Creating a Promotion
Select Create Promotion from the summary page.
Basic information
Field | Description |
|---|---|
Name | Required. Appears at checkout on the front end and on invoices. Must be unique across all Promotions. |
Image | Optional. Displayed in front-end apps. |
Tags | Optional. Used for filtering and analytics. Configured under Settings > Platform > Generic > Tags - see the Generic Settings manual. |
Currency | Required. Determines contact eligibility. In multi-currency setups, create one Promotion per currency. Defaults to the business’s base currency. |
Availability | Required. The date range during which the Promotion is applied. Start date required, end date optional - leave empty for no expiry. |
Short description | Displayed in front-end apps. Describe which products to include and when to order. |
Long description | Displayed in front-end apps. Additional detail about qualifying conditions. |
Conditions
Set the conditions that must be met for the Promotion to apply. All configured conditions must be satisfied together. Leave any dimension empty to leave it unrestricted.
Condition | Configuration |
|---|---|
Contacts | Target a specific contact or one or more Segments - mutually exclusive. Leave empty to apply to all contacts. |
Locations | Target specific merchants, venues, countries, or other organisation types. Leave empty for all locations. |
Timings | Set a fixed sub-period, recurring rules by day of week, month, and/or time window, or both. Leave empty for all days and times. |
Basket rules | Set minimum total basket value and/or minimum total item quantity. Optionally restrict to specific payment method types and/or supply methods. |
Basket product conditions | Add one or more product conditions. Each condition targets a product, product type, brand, or family, and can carry its own minimum item quantity and/or minimum item cost. For termed services, also optionally set required billing cycle duration, contract period, and prerequisite subscriptions. |
💡 Tip: Basket product conditions support complex logic. Conditions are organised into named groups, with AND/OR operators applied within a group and between groups. Use this to model requirements such as: "must include product A and either product B or product C."
Offerings
Define the discount. For each offering, specify the discount type (percentage or fixed amount) and the product scope. To discount the entire basket, leave the product selection empty. To target specific items, select a product, product type, brand, or family. Multiple offerings can be added to a single Promotion.
For termed services, also configure the discount duration:
Duration | How it works |
|---|---|
One-Time | Applies to a single invoice only - the first invoice after the Promotion qualifies. |
Period | Applies for a defined number of consecutive billing cycles. Set the duration (e.g. 6 months). |
Forever | Applies to every billing cycle for the service's lifetime, while conditions are met. |
Variable | Define sequential periods with different discount amounts - for example, 50% for months 1–3, then 25% for months 4–6. Each period is set independently with its own amount and duration. |
Save the Promotion. It is created in Inactive state.
Activating a Promotion
From the Promotions summary page, open the options menu (⋯) on the Promotion and select Activate. The Promotion begins applying to qualifying orders immediately, provided the order falls within the availability window.
A Promotion can be updated at any point - including after it has already been applied to contacts. Only fields included in the update are changed.
Copying a Promotion
To duplicate a Promotion - for example, to create a version in a different currency - open the options menu (⋯) and select Copy. The operator can retain the original currency or select a different one from the list of enabled currencies. All conditions and offerings are carried over. The copy is created in Inactive state and must be activated separately.
Settings
🔧 Configurator
There are no settings to configure for Promotions.
Good To Know
Promotions and Reward Offers
Promotions and Reward Offers can apply simultaneously to the same order. A contact eligible for both receives both benefits: the Promotion reduces the order amount at checkout, and the Reward Offer awards cashback or credits calculated on the post-discount amount.
Example: A business configures a 10% Promotion on all basket items and a 10% cashback Reward Offer. An eligible contact places an order. The 10% Promotion is applied at checkout. The 10% cashback is then calculated on the discounted amount.
Promotions for Termed Services - Lifecycle Behaviour
For Promotions applied to termed services, the discount persists across billing cycles as long as all conditions remain met. If any condition is violated - for example, a contact leaves the targeted Segment or cancels a prerequisite service - the discount stops automatically from the next billing cycle.
When a contact modifies a subscription (for example, an upgrade), applicable Promotions are re-evaluated and re-applied if conditions are still met.
Example: mid-cycle loyalty discount: A business rewards loyal subscribers with an additional 10% discount for 12 months. It creates a Segment of contacts with an uninterrupted subscription for the past year, then creates a Promotion targeting that Segment with a 10% discount for a Period of 12 months. In the next billing run, every qualifying contact receives the discount applied to their bill automatically - no changes to their subscription required
Analytics
🖥️ Operator
There are no standalone Promotions reports. Applied Promotions surface in two places within the platform's analytics.
Dashboard metrics - The analytics dashboard includes the following Promotion metrics:
Metric | Description |
|---|---|
Active Promotions | Number of currently active Promotions. |
Total Promotion Amount | Total discount value granted through Promotions in the current period, with comparison to the previous period. |
Best Promotion | The Promotion that generated the highest total discount amount in the current period. |
Top 5 Promotions | The five Promotions offering the highest total discount amount in the current year. |
Financial reporting - Promotions appear in financial reports and Insights as named discount lines on invoices, allowing the business to analyse discount impact by Promotion across orders and billing cycles. Assign tags to Promotions to group and filter them in financial breakdowns - a Promotion tagged "Summer 2025" or "Loyalty Tier" can be isolated in reporting to assess its revenue impact.
Integrator: Driving Ordering Flows with Promotions
🔗 Integrator
Promotion conditions and offerings can drive guided ordering experiences in front-end apps - where completing a specific basket qualifies the contact for a defined discount. Configure basket conditions that match the products or services to be incentivised. When building the ordering flow, include those same items in the basket. The Promotion is evaluated automatically at estimation - no separate call is required.
Examples:
Subscribe to a streaming service and receive a set-top box at no cost - combined in a single order basket.
Order 3 or more set-top boxes and receive 5% off a new termed service for the next 6 months - the basket condition requires a quantity of 3 or more on the relevant product, and the offering applies a 5% discount with a Period duration of 6 months.
Use the List Promotions endpoint filtered by item type and product identifiers to retrieve all active Promotions that discount a given product - useful for surfacing applicable Promotions on product detail pages before the contact builds a basket.
Reference Material
Orders · Products ·Reward Offers ·Passes ·Segmentation ·Communications ·Generic Settings ·Glossary
- 1 THE ESSENTIALS
- 1.1 Key Concepts
- 1.1.1 State
- 1.1.2 Availability
- 1.1.3 Conditions
- 1.1.4 Offerings
- 1.1.5 Promotion Evaluation
- 1.1.6 Termed Subscriber Discounts
- 1.1.7 Currency
- 1.1 Key Concepts
- 2 Managing Promotions
- 2.1 Creating a Promotion
- 2.1.1 Basic information
- 2.1.2 Conditions
- 2.1.3 Offerings
- 2.2 Activating a Promotion
- 2.3 Copying a Promotion
- 2.1 Creating a Promotion
- 3 Settings
- 4 Good To Know
- 5 Reference Material