If you’ve been trying to auto generate Big Commerce coupons using their API lately, you may have come across a major bug. The bug in question has to do with the coupon type. Unfortunately if you want to auto generate coupons using the API you won’t be able to set the coupon type. This is a crippling bug because not many users want to generate coupons that take a % of $ off of each line item in your order. From our experience it’s more common to take a % or $ value off of the entire order.
Fear not, as there is an alternative way to auto generate coupons for your store. It just requires a little php skill and some patience.
In order to successfully generate coupons you’ll have to build a script that makes use of CURL. CURL allows us to post to the admin pages without having to use the API. It behaves exactly like a user would if they were to manually create a coupon. Because of this we can automate the process and circumvent the API coupon bug.
We have already successfully created coupons from spreadsheets and text files for clients for use in large scale promotions. Without this technique the customer would have had to create their coupons manually. Given the particular deadline for one of our valued customers this would have been impossible if not for our custom coupon generating solution.
If you need to automatically generate coupons for your Big Commerce store, please contact us today. We can automate many of the processes that are not available with the API as well. If you are curious about automation and what it can do for you, let’s talk!