Stackable Discounts

February 12, 2025 06:50

Discount stacking refers to the ability to apply multiple discounts on a single transaction, item, or cart. This allows businesses to offer layered promotions that provide additional savings to customers. Different types of discounts can be stacked, depending on the retailer’s settings and policies.

Zero POS offers the ability to apply multiple discounts to a cart, providing merchants with flexibility in pricing and promotional strategies.

Example of Discount Stacking

A customer buys a pair of shoes with an original price of $100. The store offers various discounts that can be stacked:

Item-Level Discount 1 (Percentage-Based Discount: 10%)
- New Price: $100 - ($100 × 10%) = $90
Item-Level Discount 2 (Fixed Amount Discount: $5 off)
- New Price: $90 - $5 = $85
Loyalty Discount (5% off for members)
- New Price: $85 - ($85 × 5%) = $80.75
Transaction-Level Discount (10% off total purchase)
- Final Price: $80.75 - ($80.75 × 10%) = $72.68

Total Savings: $100 - $72.68 = $27.32

Here's how stackable discounts work in Zero POS, including rules, UI behavior, and how various types of discounts can be applied.

Discounts Available for Stacking

The following types of discounts can be stacked, allowing for flexible pricing and promotions:

Item-Level Discounts (Can be stacked up to 5 times per item)
- Amount-Based Discount (e.g., $10 off)
- Percentage-Based Discount (e.g., 10% off)
- Fixed Amount Discount (Reduces the item price to a specific value)
- Cost + Preset Discount (Reduces the price based on a cost-plus model)
Transaction-Level Discounts (Only one per transaction, but can stack on item-level discounts)
- Cart Value Discount (Applied based on total transaction value)
- Percentage-Based Transaction Discount (e.g., 10% off total cart)
- Amount-Based Transaction Discount (e.g., $20 off total cart)
Pricebook Discounts
- Customer Pricebook Discount (Takes priority over store price book)
- Store Pricebook Discount
Loyalty Platform Discounts (Can stack on item-level discounts but not transaction-level discounts)
- retailcloud
- VenueNext
- Fortress
- Venuetize
- Lava

Discounts That Cannot Be Stacked

The following discounts are automatically applied and cannot be stacked with other discounts:

BOGO (Buy One Get One Free)
Tiered Discount (Based on quantity thresholds)
Bundle Discount (Applied when purchasing a bundle)
Multi-Item Discount (Automatically applied for multiple-item purchases)

Item-Level Discounts

Item-level discounts can be applied to individual products in the cart. These discounts are applied sequentially to the price of the item. Zero POS allows up to 5 item-level discounts to be stacked on a single item.

How to Apply Item-Level Discounts

Long press on a cart item to view the available discount options.
The UI will show the applied discounts as chips, so users can easily see which discounts have been applied to each item.
Sequential Discount Application: The discount will be applied to the item price after reducing the previous discount, meaning the first discount applied will reduce the item price, and subsequent discounts will apply on the new reduced price.

Example of Sequential Discount Application

Original Price: $100
Discount 1: 10% → $90
Discount 2: 5% → $85.50
Discount 3: $10 → $75.50
Discount 4: 15% → $64.18
Discount 5: $5 → Final Price: $59.18

In this case, each subsequent discount is calculated based on the reduced amount from the previous discount, leading to cumulative savings for the customer.

Transaction-Level Discounts

Currently, Zero POS does not support stacking more than one transaction-level discount. A transaction-level discount applies to the entire transaction and is usually calculated based on the total purchase amount.

However, transaction-level discounts can still be stacked on top of item-level discounts. This means that you can apply a transaction-level discount after all the item-level discounts have been applied, allowing for additional savings on the entire transaction.

Example

Item-Level Discounts Applied: The item prices have already been reduced through various item-level discounts.
Transaction-Level Discount Applied: A 10% discount applied to the entire transaction amount after item-level discounts have been accounted for.

This method maximizes savings for the customer and gives merchants more control over how discounts are applied to each sale.

Pricebook Discounts

Pricebook discounts are specific to customer groups and store locations. You can configure discounts based on a customer group and location (store or venue).

If a store and customer group pricebook are configured, the customer pricebook will take priority over the store pricebook. This ensures that customers in certain groups (e.g., VIP customers) get better pricing than general customers.

Configuring Pricebook Discounts

Pricebook discounts are configured based on customer group and location (store and venue).
For customers with access to a pricebook, discounts are applied based on their assigned customer group.

To learn more about pricebook configuration and how it can be tailored to customer groups and locations, refer to the following article:
Learn More About Pricebook

Loyalty Platform Discounts

Zero POS also supports the application of discounts that are applied through various loyalty platforms. These platforms include, but are not limited to, the following:

retailcloud (Learn more)
VenueNext
Fortress
Venuetize
Lava

Loyalty-based discounts can be stacked on top of item-level discounts. This allows customers to redeem loyalty points or rewards while still benefiting from other applicable promotions. Loyalty based discounts can not be stacked on top of Transaction level discounts.

How Loyalty Discounts Work

Loyalty discounts are applied sequentially, following the same principles as transaction level discounts which means it will be stacking on top of applied item level discounts .

Stacking Rules Summary

Up to 5 item-level discounts can be applied to each item in the cart.
Discounts will be applied sequentially, reducing the price of the item with each subsequent discount.
Only one transaction-level discount can be applied per transaction, but it can be stacked on top of item-level discounts.
Pricebook discounts can be applied based on customer group and location, with customer group pricebooks taking priority.
Item level and Transaction level discount can be stacked on top of pricebook discount
Loyalty platform discounts (e.g., retailcloud,VenueNext, Fortress, Venuetize, Lava, etc.) can also be stacked on top of item-level discounts
Automatically Applied Discounts (BOGO, Tiered discount, Bundle discount, Multi item discounts) cannot be stacked with any other discounts, including both item-level and transaction-level discounts.

Stackable Discount Matrix
Discount Type	Item Level	Transaction Level	Stacking Order
Percentage Discount	Yes	Yes	Sequential application on reduced price at the item level then applied to transaction level after item discounts
Amount Discount	Yes	Yes	Applied to item and transaction level
Fixed Amount Discount	Yes (at item level)	No	Applied to item level on reduced item price based on previous discount
Cost Preset Discount	Yes (at item level)	No	Applied to item level on reduced item price based on previous discount
Transaction-Level Percentage Discount	NA	Yes	Applied to the transaction total after item-level discounts
Transaction-Level Amount Discount	No	Yes	Applied to the transaction total after item-level discounts
Pricebook Discount	NA	NA	Applied after item-level discounts Based on priority (customer price book > store price book)
Loyalty Platform Discount	Yes (if applicable via loyalty platforms)	No	Applied after item-level discounts but cannot be stacked with transaction-level discounts
BOGO	NA	NA	Automatically applied and cannot be stacked with any other discounts
Tiered discount	NA	NA	Automatically applied based on the total quantity or purchase amount and cannot be combined with other discounts
Bundle discount	NA	NA	Automatically applied when a bundle is purchased, cannot be combined with other discounts
Multi item discount	NA	NA	Automatically applied based on the quantity of items, cannot be stacked with other discounts

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