How to issue "something" to give controlled price changes

This article is still being written and fact checked. Final versions may change

Background

Retailer wants to do a marketing program with another business, such that the other business can give out a voucher/coupon etc for their products. In this case they want the product to be free, but other times retailers have similiar but different requirements.

This retailer sells nationally and the price varies around the country, but the offer is still "free" to the customer. They also need tracking and recording of each instance as the items are of high value.

In this article we outline many options that can be used. Not all of these are practical for this case, but bringing all options together can be useful for general reference purposes.

Considerations

How is the price to be implemented? Are you reducing the price of the item, ie $100 down to $0, or are you applying a payment, ie item cost $100 but something else is 'paying' for the item.

Item  $0
Payment Due $0

Or

Item  $100
Payment - Marketing special

If the item has a value, then sales taxes (GST/VAT/MWST etc) will probably apply and show in the customer receipt/invoice. Taxes are derived using items sold is not affected by how those items are paid for.

Options

Option	Method	Serialised	Once per sale	Notes
Pricemaps	Price	Yes	No	More info
Kits/Combos	Price	Yes	Yes	Requires 2+ different items. Not exactly suitable for retailers question but included for future reference. See notes below
Coupon Offer	Price	No (?)	Yes	More info
Repeat voucher	...	...	...
Negative value voucher	...	...	...
Gift Card	Payment	Yes	N/A
Payment Voucher	Payment	Depends	N/A
Scripted	...	...	...
Manual Discount	Price		Yes

KEY
Method - Does it change the selling price, or add a payment to the sale. Payment methods are usually fixed amount
Serialised - Can this technique issue individual serialised/tracked coupons. This means you can implement 'one coupon, one offer', and/or track customers.
Once per Sale - Once activated does this apply to all items sold, or just one item. Typically pricing rules apply to all items on a sale, so if the offer is "just one" per sale, you might inadvertently sell 2+ at the reduced price.

Pricemaps

Pricemaps are ideally suited to this requirement and should be your goto method. To use a pricemap:

• Create a pricemap giving the product, start and end dates and (in this case) set the discount applied to 100%
• Enter a trigger barcode or trigger word (trigger words are not available in all implementations). This ensures the pricemap only applies when the barcode has been scanned. If you are wanting individual serialised offers (ie each "coupon" can only be used once) then enter a seperate pricemap for every trigger barcode.
  And yes, trigger barcodes can be QR codes that point to your marketing/T&C's page, they don't need to be classic 1D "ladder" barcodes
• Create a "coupon" to give to the customer. This coupon needs to be presented and the barcode scanned in store.

A pricemap sets the price of the item, you can use it too

1. Set the price to a specific value (eg set to $12)
2. Apply a percentage discount to the derived price (eg apply 50% reduction)
3. Apply a delta to the price (eg $20 off)

Payment Voucher

Fieldpine has several types of payment vouchers and this section applies generically.

A payment voucher is for a fixed $ amount. Payments cannot (well, not commonly) be linked to items sold. A payment voucher can be considered to be identical to actual cash of that value, and should be treated as cash when being handled.

Manual Discount

If you have only a small number of times this offer will be used, then manual options under staff control may be quicker. Of course all tracking and reporting is also manual. Simply print a "coupon" and require the physical coupon to be presented at sale time. Staff manually change the price in the POS, and deface the coupon so it cannot be re presented.

This method opens many pathways to potential fraud however. For example, you cannot email the coupon to customers, as they can simply forward it to all their friends - you need to manually verify it has not already been used.

Other Considerations

If the customer can potentially bring a barcode to scan on their mobile phone, then make sure your store scanners can read barcodes from a phone screen. If not then make sure there is an easy alternative for the person selling.

While reducing the price of the item is typically a safe action in most countries (you are typically free to sell at whatever price you wish), if you are receiving payments from somewhere else, you may still have tax implications. Ensure with your accountants that the flow of money is handled correctly for tax purposes.

If the price offer is free, and you are using a price changing technique, then you will have what is known as a zero price sale in the POS. Zero price sales may need a extra step to "complete" as just because there is $0 owing doesn't mean the sale is finished. Typically you just add a $1 cash payment and POS will apply $1 Change. However some Fieldpine implementations have a "sale complete" button that can be used. Basically, make sure you test this before releasing to the stores.

If you have developed your own selling application (web page, mobile app, etc) you may need to verify it can handle the method chosen. Fieldpine APIs (should!) allow all these options to be used, but things like trigger barcodes involve state management in the selling application.