Creating Promotions in Magento 2 with Cart Price Rules (Updated)
May 7, 2018
8mins
builtmighty
Table of Contents
Written By
builtmighty
Reading Time: 8minutes
Smart online retailers know that creating promotions is a great way to garner customer loyalty and bring in return shoppers. Discounts can also be an effective way of rewarding existing customers, especially if you’ve built in a method of broadcasting and promoting that will help drive people to your site. Not only do smartly-run promos encourage sales, but they also persuade customers to sign up for your site, providing you with a valuable method of capturing information. Creating promotions in Magento 2 can help you harness this powerful tool.
Magento 2 offers vendors an almost limitless ability to create various discounts within their online stores. Cart Price Rules are an awesome tool for building promotions, but they can also be a bit confusing at times. Below we’ll walk you through the process of building a Cart Price Rule for your eCommerce site.
Table of Contents
Creating Promotions with Cart Price Rules
Marketing > Promotions > Cart Price Rules. Here you’ll be able to view existing and past rules in a list format
You’ll be able to view the ID number (automatically generated), Rule Name, Coupon Code (if there is one), Start and End date, Status, Web Site, and Priority. You can use any of these fields to search through or sort your rules.
Create a New Cart Rule
Click the Add New Rule button on the upper right portion of the page.
Rule Information: This is the first page that appears once you’ve clicked on Create a New Rule. It will help you define the basic info for your rule.
Rule Name*: Create a name for the rule. Make sure that it’s clear and descriptive as this is the name you will use to track the rule.
Description: Write a description for the new promotion. This is most useful with complex rules as it helps you keep closer track of the rule. For simpler rules, you can ignore this field entirely if you wish.
Status*: Set this field to “Active”. (Though, depending on your process, you might want to consider leaving it “Inactive” until you’ve got everything filled out to your satisfaction. If you do this, don’t forget to switch it back!)
Websites*: If you’re running multiple websites, this is where you select which ones the promotion will apply to. To select multiple stores, hold the Ctrl key while selecting.
Customer Groups*: In this field, you choose which customer groups the rule should apply to. For example: if you’ve created a group for your employees and you want them to receive 25% off on their orders, then highlight the employee group. If you want the coupon to apply to all customers, highlight every group.
Coupon: Set this option to “Specific Coupon”. When you do, you’ll notice that additional fields appear beneath. Setting the field to “No Coupon” applies the discount automatically to orders without requiring a code.
Coupon Code*: Entering a code ensures that only customers who type the code in will receive the promotion on their orders. Promo codes can be fairly simple. Usually a short word “SURPRISE” or a combination of letters and numbers “CAKE311” should do the trick. You cannot use spaces in your coupon code. You can also have the code automatically generated by checking the box next to “Use Auto Generation” below the Coupon Code field.
Uses per Coupon: You can choose whether you’d like the coupon to only have a certain number of uses. For example: if you want to create a sense of urgency and only have it apply to the first 50 orders, type in “50” here. If you want the promo to have an unlimited number of uses, just leave the field blank. If you enter a number here, it will apply whether or not you’ve decided to require a coupon code.
Uses per Customer: If you want to limit the number of times a specific customer can use the promotion, type in that number here. If you’d like the uses to be unlimited, leave the field blank. If you enter a number in this field, it will apply whether or not you’ve decided to require a coupon code.
From Date: Set the start date for your promotion.
To Date: Set the end date for your promotion.
Priority: If you’re running multiple promotions simultaneously, this is where you can determine which promotion will be given priority.
Public in RSS Feed: Set RSS visibility.
Creating Promotion Conditions
Conditions: It is better if, for the sake of clarity, you move on to the Actions section, then come back to visit Conditions. Actions will help you define the kind of coupon you’re building; Conditions create specific circumstances for that coupon. Conditions are the hard part, so trust me, move forward, read Actions, then come back. I’ll wait.
Okay, now that you’re back – we’ll explain a little more. Once you’ve created the shopping cart rule, you have to define all the conditions that activate the rule. The default setting for the first rule is: If All these Conditions are TRUE. If you leave this rule in place and do no further editing, then it means that your Shopping Cart Rule will apply to all products in your store.
A few notes about working in Conditions:
If a word is underlined, you can click on it to access a drop-down menu of possible words to fill that space. For example, if you click on ALL a drop-down menu with the words “ALL” and “ANY” appears. This option helps you more clearly define your condition.
Clicking on the little, green plus button below any condition gives you the opportunity to create a “sub-condition”, further defining your condition.
Delete “sub-conditions” by clicking on the little red x button to the right of the condition.
If you’d like to create separate criteria for your initial condition, click on the leftmost little green button. You can add as many as you like, though be clear whether you’d like the rule to apply to ALL or ANY. This can make a big difference.
Below I’ve included a few different recipes to help you get the idea of working with Conditions:
Let’s pretend that you only want your 10% off shopping cart rule to apply to items in a specific category. For example, a 10% off sale on bobblehead dolls. If ALL of these conditions are TRUE:
Click on “Product Attribute Combination”.
The following text will appear: If an item is FOUND in the cart with ALL of these conditions true:
“Product Attribute > Category”
Category contains…
Click on the …, then click on the little blue list icon that appears next to the field. A list of your categories will appear. Check the “bobble-head dolls” category box.
The empty field will populate with the number of items in this category (also the number of items the discount applies to).
Suppose you decide to also apply the sale to vintage lunch boxes? It isn’t that difficult. All you have to do is change contains to is one of and check the box for “vintage lunch boxes” as well.
Okay, now let’s say that you only want to apply the discount to orders over $30. “Spend $30 and receive 10% off on bobbleheads and lunch boxes!”
Click on the rightmost green plus button to add another sub-condition.
Price in cart is…
Click on is and change it to equals or greater than.
Then, click on … and type “30” into the resulting field.
Creating Actions for Your Promotion
Actions: This section is where you define the kind of coupon you’re going to be building.
Apply: Options include:
“Percentage of product discount”: Choose this if you want to set the promo as a percentage off a product.
“Fixed amount discount”: Choose this option if you’d like to set the promotional discount as a set amount.
“Fixed amount discount for whole cart”: Choose this option if you want the fixed amount off to apply to the full shopping cart.
“Buy X get Y free (discount amount is Y)”: Self-explanatory.
Discount Amount*: Enter in the amount or percentage of the discount (based on the Apply selection you chose). “10” = 10% if you selected Percentage of product discount. “10” = $10.00 if you selected “Fixed amount discount”. Or, if you selected “Buy X get Y free” enter the value of Y here.
Maximum Qty Discount is Applied To: Set the maximum amount for which you want the discount to be applicable. If you enter “3” here, then only the first three products will receive the discount. The 4th will not. This is helpful if you don’t want one customer clearing out all of your stock on an item.
Discount Qty Step (Buy X): The meaning of this field varies based on the selection you chose for Apply.
“Percent of product price discount”: This option sets a minimum quantity before the discount can be applied. So, if you enter “3” in the field, the customer must place three items in their cart before the discount kicks in. If they place four items in their cart, the discount will still only apply to three. When they get to six items, the percentage will apply to all items.
“Buy X get Y free (discount amount is Y)”: This is where you enter the value of X. Basically, you’re setting the amount that a customer must purchase in order to get Y.
Apply to Shipping Amount: Do you want the discount to be taken off the shipping as well as the products in the cart? If so, switch this field to “Yes”. (“No” is the default setting.)
Discard subsequent rules: Stops Magento from applying other rules to the customer’s order. You must set the priority of the rule you want to apply as higher than that of the one you want stopped (in General Information). Entering “No” means other rules will apply in addition to the rule you’re currently creating.
Application of rules can be managed here. This is explained more in Conditions above.
Free Shipping: Gives you the option to offer free shipping in addition to the promotion. You have three options at this step:
“No” (default): No!
“For matching items only”: Free shipping for promo items only.
“For shipment with matching items”: Free shipping for full order when promo is applied.
Labels: Labels are optional. You can use them if you’d like to associate Store View and Default Labels with your new rule. What does this mean? It means when the customer sees the discount applied on the cart page, the text you type here will display. Keep it simple and descriptive!
Managing Coupon Codes
The last section for adding a new price cart rule is Manage Coupon Codes. This is helpful if you need more control over your coupons.
Related Banners: Depending on your edition of Magento, you might also have a Related Banners tab, from which you can upload previously created banners associated with your promotion.
May 7, 2018
8 mins
builtmighty
2018-05-04 
3 mins 
builtmighty 
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