Thread: Coupon Codes in BV/Paypal - No Way - WAY!

All I wanted was a simple way to promote my product using simple 'coupon codes'. After about 3 months of calls to Paypal Tech Support & BV Forum posts with no success, I finally figured out a way & it’s good for all BV sites no matter what merchant service. (like PayPal)
- Use the ‘Password Protect Directories’ in the BV Control Panel :
1. Set up a new folder (directory) in the FTP Manager (ex. ‘Discounts’)
2. Click on Password Protect Directories in the BV control panel.
3. Select your new folder (‘Discounts’)
4. Set up the “active user” as a discount/coupon code.
Example: user name: ‘bv’
Password: ‘trick’
5. Now make a BV page with the discounts that you want. Name this page ‘index’ and make sure
you publish it under the new directory ‘Discounts’. (Of course you need to set up
(on this page) the discounted costs so they will be added to your shopping cart when selected.
In Paypal, you would set up new ‘BuyNow Buttons’)

6. You can now provide (email) your potential or good customers with the code that you designated
in Step 4 : (‘bv’ & ‘trick’). You must also provide them with the url of the ‘Discount Page’
In this example. It would be www.yoursite.com/Discounts
7. When they enter ‘www.yoursite.com/Discounts’, they will be presented with a Password Screen.
They will enter the ‘bv’ as the username and ‘trick’ as the password and will then have access
to your discount page and the discounts that you are offering…..

To see the example on my site, go to http://www.chewawaygum.com/products.html
Then click on the ‘Promotions – Coupons’ box (upper left)
The code for this month is: username: thank & password: you.
(By the way, you can go into the BV control panel anytime & change or add a new code!)

Hope this helps. Good Luck
Bill
www.chewawaygum.com

OK, that works - but you can only use that for specific items. So, if you want to put something on sale for only some custoemrs, that's a great way to do it.

When I give a discount code to my customers - it's usually a percentage off - and good on all or almost all products. That wouldn't work if I used paypal.

Great to know and definitely will be helpful for some.

Please visit www.dbtechnosystems.com/ABVFP_order.php . This is an online order form that then calculates the relevant amounts and redirects the visitor to a Review page. There a kind of "Invoice" is presented, with the ammounts and the discount. Make an example order, and then enter these two coupons(in the Order Page)

1. VH-10%

2. (in a separate trial) VH-20

The first one will take off 10% the second $20 fixed amount.

The trick is to calculate the discount and then dynamically create the paypal button.

If you go on with the test and arrive up to my PayPal page, you will see that the button has indeed the actual discounted value.

Naval - wouldn't all the add to cart buttons need to be reconfigured for an entire site to use this? As you are having them add to cart AFTER it's on the page with the discount taken. Paypal add to carts aren't used up to that point. So, the Paypal invoice would not have a list of all the purchases made, correct? (As I put 2 items in your cart, and only got one generic item in the paypal cart).

Beth, i tried it with Buy Now buttons, since fwhpita asked about Buy Now buttons. Didn't yet try with Add to Cart buttons. In the case of the Buy now, you don't configure anything: the script looks at the initial price of the item, and then calculates the discount, last it creates new code for the PayPal button automatically.

In the case of my example, it even calculates the total amount (according to the user input) then the discount, and creates both the page content and the PayPal button code.

Oh, and i'm not a fun of an outside issued invoice. Indeed, i will be building an essential but powerfull shopping cart (for a forum member) with dynamic template pages, (as i explained you in my email) that will accept user's purchases, create the code for the payment (item description: the invoice number, amount the total amount calculated), INVOICE AUTOMATICALLY CREATED AND EMailed in PDF format, and all the transaction kept in the database. Reatail and wholesale section, discounts, coupons, etc.

Originally Posted by navaldesign

Beth, i tried it with Buy Now buttons, since fwhpita asked about Buy Now buttons. Didn't yet try with Add to Cart buttons. In the case of the Buy now, you don't configure anything: the script looks at the initial price of the item, and then calculates the discount, last it creates new code for the PayPal button automatically.

In the case of my example, it even calculates the total amount (according to the user input) then the discount, and creates both the page content and the PayPal button code.

Oh, and i'm a fun of an outside issued invoice. Indeed, i will be building an essential but poerfull shopping cart (for a forum member) with dynamic template pages, (as i explained you in my email) that will accept user's purchases, create the code for the payment (item description: the invoice number, amount the total amount calculated), iNVOICE AUTOMATICALLY CREATED AND EMailed in PDF format, and all the transaction kept in tha database. Reatail and whilesale section, discounts, coupons, etc.

And it is going to be fabulous!!!