Coupons are ubiquitous in your local newspaper, magazines, and now even in online stores.  OpenCart allows you to easily create coupons that you can apply to your customers, products or services.  The following article shows how to create a coupon in OpenCart 1.5.

Creating Coupons in OpenCart 1.5

1. Login to the Administrator Dashboard
2. Hover the menu bar where it displays the word SALES. When the drop-down menu appears, scroll down and click on the word COUPONS.  If coupons have already been created then you will see the list here:
   
   
   
   In order to create a new coupon simply click on INSERT and you will see the following screen.
   
   
   
   
   
3. The two mandatory fields for saving the coupon are the first two:  Coupon Name and Code.  These must be filled out with a value in order to save the coupon. The fields for the coupon are defined in the table below:
   
   

   Coupon Name	given name for the coupon (e.g. "Free Shipping Coupon")
   Code	Code that the customer will enter in in order to get discount
   Type	type of discount - percentage or fixed amount
   Discount	Numerical value of discount (percentage or currency amount)
   Total Amount	Minimum cost condition to permit coupon use
   Customer Login	Customer needs to be logged into shop to use coupon
   Free Shipping	Yes/No - is this set for free shipping? (we still have to pay for it, but customer's transaction would be free.
   Category	Category from the products Catalog
   Products	Specific product for which the coupon will apply
   Date Start	Beginning of the discount coupon period
   Date End	End of the discount coupon period
   Uses Per coupon	Maximum number of times that a coupon can be used by a single customer.  If blank, then the number is unlimited.
   Uses Per Customer	Maximum number of times thata coupon can be used by a single customer
   Status	Enabled/Disabled - option to allow for coupon to active

   
   
   
4. Enter a value or select an option as listed in the table above. This creates the contents of your coupon. 
5. When all of the values have been selected click on SAVE in the top right hand corner to save your coupon.

 With the options in the INSERT screen, you can clearly define the coupon.  This allows you to provide discounts to your customer or on a product.  Your coupons should typically have a start and end date.  Additionally, make sure that you use a code for the coupon that would not easily be pre-determined.  To the left is an example of the view that customer sees when using a coupon.