Discounts & Pricing Tiers Tab
UltraCart Discounts and Pricing Tiers
UltraCart offers two distinct methods for creating custom pricing: Discounts and Pricing Tiers. While both allow you to offer reduced prices, they serve different purposes and are configured differently.
This guide clarifies the differences and provides instructions for setting up each.
Volume Discounts
Volume discounts are automatic, public-facing price reductions based on the quantity of a specific item purchased. They are available to all customers and are ideal for encouraging larger purchases of a single product.
How It Works
You define a set of quantity ranges and a corresponding price per unit for each range. When a customer adds an item to their cart, UltraCart automatically calculates the best price for them based on the quantity.
If a customer is also part of a pricing tier, UltraCart will compare the volume discount price to the pricing tier's price and apply the lowest possible price to the item.
Setting up Volume Discounts
Log in to your UltraCart dashboard and navigate to the item you want to edit.
Select the Discounts/Pricing Tier tab for the item.
In the Discounts section, enter the quantity ranges and the unit price for each range.
Use the Add More button if you need more than five rows.
Click Save to apply your changes.
Pricing Tiers
Pricing Tiers allow you to offer custom pricing and special settings to specific, authorized groups of customers (e.g., wholesalers, distributors, VIPs). Unlike volume discounts, these tiers are not available to everyone.
How It Works
Pricing tiers are created and managed separately from item pricing. You can assign a customer to one or more pricing tiers within their customer profile. Once a customer with an assigned tier logs in, they will automatically see the custom pricing you've configured for them.
Pricing Tiers can also include special settings that apply to an entire customer group, such as:
Tax Exempt: Automatically makes a customer's order tax-exempt.
Allow Purchase Order: Allows the use of purchase orders.
Allow COD: Enables Cash on Delivery as a payment option.
Free Shipping: Waives shipping fees for the customer.
Prerequisite: To use Pricing Tiers, you must have Customer Profiles enabled in your store.
Setting up a Pricing Tier
Navigate to Main Menu > Operations > Customer Profiles > Pricing Tiers in your UltraCart dashboard to create a new tier (e.g., "Wholesale" or "Distributor").
After you've created your pricing tiers, go to the item you wish to configure.
Select the Discounts/Pricing Tier tab for the item.
In the Pricing Tiers section, you will find a configuration area for each tier you've created.
For each pricing tier, you can set a specific unit price and tiered volume discounts, just as you would for a public discount.
Click Save to apply your changes.
Volume Limits
Within Pricing Tiers, you can set maximum quantity limits for specific customer groups. This is useful for controlling how much a wholesale or distributor can order.
You can specify:
A maximum quantity for a single order.
An overall maximum quantity across all orders.
Automatic Pricing Tiers
The Automatic Pricing Tier setting on an item is used to flag a product as one that, when purchased, should grant the customer access to a specific pricing tier. This feature is typically used in conjunction with a membership or subscription item.
Note: The "Automatic Pricing Tier" setting does not automatically add a customer to a tier upon purchase. It requires additional logic, often through the UltraCart API or a custom process, to update the customer's profile after the order is completed.