How to set up a promotion or sale

If you are running a promotion or a sale on selected products you can indicate this in your catalogue by showing those products in a special category and by giving those products special prices or a discount.

Create the promotion / sale category

The products will appear in their usual categories as well as in the new promotion / sale category. To create the new promotion / sale category:

  • Log in to the Onsight web console at https://web.onsightapp.com/.
  • Click on ‘Catalogue’ in the left-hand side menu.
  • Click on the ‘Manage Products’ menu item.
  • Click on the ‘Action’ button at the top of the page to reveal a dropdown menu.
  • Click on ‘Manage Product Categories’ in the dropdown menu.
  • Click on the ‘Add Product Category’.
  • Fill in a name for the new product category.
  • Upload an image for the new product category.
  • Do not choose a parent category. This will ensure that the new promotion / sale category appears on the front page of your catalogue.
  • Click on the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the page.

Add products to the promotion / sale category

We now configure the products that should be part of the promotion / sale so that they appear in the new category.

Here is how to do this one product at a time:

  • Log in to the Onsight web console at https://web.onsightapp.com/.
  • Click on ‘Catalogue’ in the left-hand side menu.
  • Click on the ‘Manage Products’ menu item.
  • Click on the product that you want to promote.
  • Click on the ‘Additional Categories’ tab at the top of the page.
  • Select the promotion / sale category from the dropdown menu provided.
  • Click on the ‘Add Secondary Category’ button that appears.
  • Click on the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the page.

This is how you can do it for multiple products in one go:

  • Log in to the Onsight web console at https://web.onsightapp.com.
  • Click on ‘Catalogue’ from the left-hand side menu.
  • Click on the ‘Manage Products’ menu item.
  • Click on the ‘Action’ button at the top of the screen and then click on ‘Import Product Hierarchy’.
  • This will open up the bulk upload tool.
  • Click the ‘Download’ to download the product hierarchy data sheet.
  • Open the Excel sheet. You will see all your products listed.
  • Create a duplicate record (a new row) for each item that you want to be part of the promotion. You will have two lines/rowss of the same item on the sheet.
  • For the duplicated record type ‘No’ in the ‘Is Primary’ column and type the name of the promotion / sale category in the Product Category 1 column.
  • Save your file.
  • Go back to the bulk upload tool and click on ‘Select file’ and find your file and choose it.
  • Click on the ‘Import’ button.
  • Once it is done processing, click ‘View and approve the job’.
  • Click on the ‘Approve job’ button and confirm.
  • After a few minutes, the products will start appearing in the promotion / sale category.

Set up the promotion / sale prices by removing the normal selling prices

You can change the prices for each item to the promotion price. This will then offer this item to all customers at the promotional price.

Here is how to do this one product at a time:

  • Log in to the Onsight web console at https://web.onsightapp.com/.
  • Click on ‘Catalogue’ in the left-hand side menu.
  • Click on the ‘Manage Products’ menu item.
  • Click on the product that you want to promote.
  • Change the item’s selling price.
  • Click on the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the page.

You can also change the price for multiple products at the same time. See this article for step-by-step instructions: How to bulk-update products.

If you override the normal selling price, you will need to change the price back to the normal selling price again, at the end of the promotion.

An alternative approach is to set up a special pricing group which only temporarily overrides the normal selling price. Afterwards when you remove the new pricing group, the original selling price will apply again without you having to add it back again. See the next section for how to do this.

Set up the promotion / sale prices using pricing groups and price lists

Instead of removing the normal selling prices, you can set up special customer pricing groups and customer price lists. This allows you to target the promotion at specific customers. Only they will get the promotional pricing. Everyone else will pay the normal price.

To create the new customer group:

  • Log in to the Onsight web console at https://web.onsightapp.com/
  • Click on ‘Customers’ from the left-hand side menu
  • Click on the ‘Manage Groups’ menu item
  • Click on the ‘Add New Customer Group’ button at the top of the screen
  • Fill in a name for the group. Eg. “Promotion customers”.
  • Click on the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the page.

Now we need to assign each customer to that new customer group. For each customer, follow these steps:

  • Log in to the Onsight web console at https://web.onsightapp.com/
  • Click on ‘Customers’ from the left-hand side menu.
  • Click on the ‘Manage Customers’ menu item.
  • Click on the customer you would like to customer group.
  • In the ‘Customer Group’ field select the promotion customer group.
  • Click on the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the page.

These customers are now part of a special group and can now get access to the promotion prices.

To set the promotion / sale prices one product at a time:

  • Log in to the Onsight web console at https://web.onsightapp.com/
  • Click on ‘Catalogue’ from the left-hand side menu
  • Click on the ‘Manage Products’ menu item
  • Cick on the name of the product
  • If you are overriding prices, click on the ‘Price List’ tab, find the promotion group and type in an overriding price that will replace the normal selling price.
  • If you are doing discounts instead of overriding prices, click the ‘Discounts’ tab and fill in a discount that will apply to the normal selling price.
  • Click on the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the page.

You can also change the prices for multiple products at the same time. See this article for step-by-step instructions: How do I bulk update customer pricing?.

If you are doing discounts instead of overriding prices, then follow these instructions for creating discounts for multiple products at the same time: How do I bulk update customer discounts?.

Check your catalogue

Check that the promotion / sale prices are showing correctly.

  • Log in to the Onsight web console at https://web.onsightapp.com/
  • Click on ‘Catalogue’ from the left-hand side menu.
  • You should see a new category for the promotion / sale.
  • Click on the category and you should see the promotion / sale items.
  • If you removed the normal selling prices, the items should appear with the promotion / sale price.
  • If you are using customer groups to selectively give the promotion to specific customers, you need to click on ‘Choose Customer’ at the top of the screen and then select one of the customers that are meant to get the special pricing. Thereafter the promotion / sale price should show.
  • Please note that the promotion category will be visible to all customers, even if you are using customer groups. However, all other customers will see the normal selling price.

End the promotion

The end the promotion, you need to undo all of the steps that were taken previously.

  • First, remove the promotion category from the additional categories for each product.
  • Then delete or make inactive the the promotion category.
  • The promotion category will no longer appear in your catalogue.
  • If you removed the normal selling prices, you have to add them back again for each product.
  • If you used customer groups to selectively give the promotion to specific customers or to specify discounts, you must first remove that customer group from every customer and thereafter you can delete the customer group.