Discounts

Visit provides a number of powerful options for providing discounts on shop orders, in the case that one or more products have a cost associated with them. Discounts may be applied automatically (when certain criteria of an order are fulfilled) or on demand when entering one or more discount codes within the shop basket. Discounts may also be configured to apply automatically if the registrant is registered in the context of being a ‘guest’ of a partner (exhibitor) using the guest invite function.

Overview

• You can define your own codes (or have Visit generate them for you) which a registrant can enter to activate one of more discounts in an order.
• Discounts may apply to some or all of the products in the basket, depending on the discount configuration
• Discounts may be conditional on the selection of one or more other qualifying products
• Promotions can be implemented using discounts, for example buy 2 get 1 free (or 1 discounted) types of scenario
• Discounts can have pre-configured availability times and usage limitations
• Discounts may be manually enabled or disabled at any time (state = active), however an active code may or may not apply depending on other restrictions applied to it.

Before defining a new discount code, you will need to have at least one shop product configured. This is a mandatory field for any discount code.

General

Set the name of you discount code. As with other properties in Visit Create, this is for your own reference in the user interface, it isn’t public facing

Set one or more translated titles for your code. Every event has a default translation available, however there will be the option for multiple entries if several translations are in use. A translation normally relates to a variant of a known language. The title is often closely related to or the same as the name, however it doesn’t have to be. The value of the code itself is not connected directly to its name or title.

Check or uncheck the active setting to enable or disable the discount code. Note that an active code will only apply if any validity logic or rules applied are passed.

Visit supports two types of discount: a traditional amount off (as a fixed amount or a percentage), or a progressive discount, where the registrant is assigned free or discounted products based on other items in their basket. This is termed a buy X get Y discount.

Method

Select whether you’re configuring an automatic code, or a traditional code. Automatic codes get added to the basked with no user intervention, however certain validity requirements must be met, if configured. For a traditional code, this must be entered into the basket’s discount code textbox by the registrant. It’s also possible to pass a discount code to a form, using the URL querystring parameter:

?discount-code=<code_value>

Automatic Codes

To restrict when an automatic code applies, add a rule to define the audience. As with rules elsewhere in Visit, you may check any properties of the registrant, event or system properties such as the current date and time. You may add multiple conditions, and combine them together using AND or OR logic. Keep in mind that when using a shop, often the registrant is midway through a registrant, so limited information is known that can be validated in rules.

With no rule applied, the code will always apply, subject to other validity checks being passed.

Traditional Codes

With this type of code, you control the exact value the registrant needs to enter. This is however restricted to upper and lower case letters, numbers and hyphens, and can be no more than 20 characters long. Alternatively you can have Visit create a randomized code value for you by using the Generate button.

You may also define a series of codes, by selecting the Code range type. In this scenario you define a prefix, and the number of codes you require to be generated. The prefix is subject to the same format restrictions as a single use code.

Normally any registrant can use a discount code, however for the single or code range type (not the automatic type) to apply to guests of selected partners (exhibitors) only. This means that unless the registrant completing the registration form on behalf of one of the event’s exhibitors (through the Visit Connect Guest Invite function), the discount code will not be accepted. Select one or more of the exhibiting companies from your event to add this restriction.

Validity

Normally a discount code is available for the duration of the life of your registration forms. By default this means the code can be used up until the configured end date of the event, however it’s also possible to modify form availability dates based on a setting in the form designer.

Use optional validity dates to control when your discount code is valid. These dates are in the timezone configured for your event, and run from the beginning of the optional valid from date inclusive through to the end of the valid until date

Enter a valid from and/or a valid to date to control when the code can be used. Dates are in the local timezone of the event, and are inclusive from the beginning of the valid from date until the end of the valid until date. It’s possible to clear either date once they have been set.

Note that individual shop products may also have date and time restrictions placed on them being available to select

Maximum uses in total places a limit on the number of times the code may be used overall, the default being unlimited if not configured. In the case of a code range, then the limit applies to each individually generated code.

Discount

The discount properties available are different depending on which of the discount types is being configured, so whether it’s an amount off discount or a buy X get Y discount.

Amount off

Configure which product(s) the discount applies to. You may scope one or more entire catalogs of products (select the Product catalogs option), or individual products configured in your shop (select Specific products). You must configure at least one item to be able to complete the discount code setup.

Configure whether the discount gives a percentage off, or a total value off the total. Note:

• The percentage off applies to the configured catalogs or products only
• An order can never have a negative value – i.e. it’s not possible for the total value to be reduced to below zero.

Select the product-based requirements for the discount to apply. Remember that this relates to the total quantity of added (or total value of added) items from the applicable products or catalogs only. There can be other items in the basket which do not contribute to this requirement check.

Buy X get Y

As with the amount off discount type, set the quantity or value of the qualifying products or catalogs.

Set the promotion the customer gets. The discount can be applied to any products configured in your shop, meaning the discount may or may not apply to the same items triggering the discount. Select the items the discount applies to by product or by catalog.

Set the value of the promotion. This may be a % discount off the value of the qualifying items, or a monetary discount. The resulting value can never be negative.

Set the repeat of the discount, alternatively leave this field blank to allow unlimited repeats.

Discount Examples

Visit supports a wide number of discount workflows; here’s a few worked examples to get you started. Remember you should always test your shops once configured, to ensure that the code setup and any basket validation is functioning as intended.

Example 1

Discount all shop products by 50% to anyone whose registration type is VIP, until 1st November 2026. This discount applies to the first 20 registrants only.

• Set the type to amount off
• Set method to automatic
• Add an audience rule to check for registration type being VIP
• Set the valid until date to 01/11/2026
• Set the maximum uses to 20
• Leave the qualifying items set to minimum 1. Either select all products, or (for simplicity) all catalogs
• Set the percentage off to 50%

Example 2

For anyone buying the upgrade pass, discount two optional workshops by 25%.

• Set the type to amount off
• Set method to automatic
• There’s no need to set the audience, as this applies to everyone
• Set the qualifying items to minimum 1 of the upgrade pass
• Set the applies to products as the two workshop passes
• Set the percentage off to 25%

Example 3

Use the optional discount code OCTOBER50 to save £50 on the total basket value, for orders above £200. The shop is in GBP currency. The code can only be used in October 2026

• Set the type to amount off
• Set the method to code
• Enter the single code value ‘OCTOBER50’
• Set valid from 1st October 2026, valid to 31st October 2026
• Set the minimum spend amount to £200
• Either select all products, or (for simplicity) all catalogs
• Set the fixed amount off to £50

Example 4

Generate 10 codes for a ‘buy 2 get 1 free’ access pass to guests of partner ‘ACME inc’. This promotion can be used multiple times, so buying 4 passes would assign 2 free. Each code can be used once only. The code prefix is ‘PROMO’

• Set the type to Buy X get Y
• Set the method to code
• Set the code type to code range
• Set the code prefix to ‘PROMO’
• Set the number of codes to generate to 10
• Limit the code audience to guests of selected partners only. Select the partner ‘ACME inc’ from the available partners
• Set the maximum uses to 1, meaning each of the codes can be used once
• Set the qualifying items to minimum 2 of the ‘access pass’ product
• Set the customer gets to 1 of the access pass
• Set the discount type to percentage off, at 100%
• Leave repeats setting empty

The generated code values can be obtained from the codes->export function.

Example 5

Have Visit generate a random discount code for you. The code can be used in December 2026 only. If the total order value from all products (except meal vouchers) exceeds £100, the registrant can save £10 on an optional meal voucher. They can purchase any number of meal vouchers through the shop, however the discount only applies to the first.

• Set the type to Buy X gey Y
• Set the method to code
• Select single code; use the generate function to have Visit issue a random code.
• Set valid from 1st December 2026, valid to 31st December 2026
• Set the minimum spend amount to £100. Select all products apart from the meal voucher.
• Set customer gets to the meal voucher product.
• Set the fixed amount off to £10
• Set the repeats to 1