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Differences Between Promotions and Discounts
In the shared product catalog, you can use, adjust, or override the base prices of products in product bundles.
A product has these traits:
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Typically does not expire after a brief limited time, such as three months
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Contains products or quantities of each product that are not necessarily limited
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Is not for a limited group of customers
Promotions consist of individual products or product bundles you create for the following restrictions:
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Time
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Customer group
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Subset of products
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Combination of products
Both promotions and discounts allow applying time-based pricing adjustments in Opportunities, Quotes, or Orders.
The following table summarizes the differences between promotions and discounts.
Promotions |
Discounts |
|---|---|
Allow setting pricing adjustments at product level only. |
Allow setting pricing adjustments at both the product and the catalog or category level. Example: 20% off accessories, where accessories is a catalog record to which multiple products are assigned. |
Are returned, along with products, in a getOffersbyCatalog response of Digital Commerce APIs. |
Are not returned in a getOffersbyCatalog response. |
Allow a mix-and-match of adjustments. Example: A $100 one-time credit toward purchasing an energy efficient appliance, plus 5% off a monthly charge for reducing consumption during peak hours. |
Allow adjustments that apply to all discounted items. Example: 10% off the electricity bill for 1 month. |
Cannot be applied to all items in the cart. |
Can be applied to all items in the cart. Example: 10% off one-time charge for the whole cart. |
Must be defined ahead of time through the Product Console before they can be applied to the cart. |
Can be created on the fly in the cart or defined ahead of time either through the Product Console or through a related list linked to an Account. |
Can't be automatically applied. Must always be added to the cart. |
Account-based discounts can be set up based on contractual negotiation with a customer. These discounts are automatically added to the cart. |
Can’t apply to children of a product hierarchy bundle. Can add multiple root items to the cart. |
Can be applied to root items and child items if predefined. |
Have no approval process. |
Have an approval process linked to discounts created outside of the cart. |
Support penalty rules for promotions canceled before the time plan commitment ends. |
Don't support penalty rules. |
