NCR Silver/ Aloha Cloud - Managing Your Menu: Promotion or a Discount?

NCR Silver allows two forms of discounts to be applied to lines, product groups, or the entire ticket.

In certain scenarios, it may be better to use one of the two types of discount over the other one.

What is the difference between a promotion or a discount?

Discount

A discount can be treated as a dumb discount. For example, it can only be used to apply a discount to a line, or the ticket. You can specify whether it should be restricted to managers or not, or if a set discount amount is applied or if it is open.

Promotion

A promotion is a smart discount. This means that it is used for offers such as a meal deal, combination deals, happy hours or anything similar. You can make these automatic, restrict them to managers or even run them at set times of the day automatically.

When should I use a discount over a promotion?

A discount should be used when there is no need for a "deal" to be involved.

For example, any of the below would be better suited by a discount.

• A full ticket discount, say for a comp or student discount
• A line discount
• Open ticket discounts
• Staff discounts

This is because they can be applied easily without any qualifying rules needing to be met.

When should I use a promotion over a discount?

A promotion should be used when there is a need for qualifying products or if it is a combination deal.

For example, any of the below is to be done via promotions.

• Happy hour discounts
• Meal deals
• Combination deals
• Buy one, get one free
• Multibuy discounts
• Automatic deals
• Automatic deals based on the time of day.

Promotions can be run automatically, for example if you offer a Burger and chips together with a discount of £1, Silver can automatically remove the £1 when the requirements are met without intervention from staff.