Online Ordering Discounts & Promotions

Overview

Direct Orders Discounts allows you to create custom discounts and promotions to provide eaters with deals when ordering from your restaurant’s direct online website. 

Creating these promos and discounts help reward loyal customers and can draw eaters to order directly through your website vs a third-party delivery partner. 

You can create different discounts to offer to eaters:

• Item Level Discount

  A discount offered on a specific menu item.

• Order Level Discount

  A discount offered on the entire order total.

• Buy One Get One

  A discount offered on an item for purchasing another item (also referred to as BOGO).

Creating a Discount

When creating a discount within the Otter Dashboard, you can customize the discount by:

• Naming discount
• Choosing a discount type (item or order level discount, or BOGO)
• Setting dollar amount or percentage discount
• Creating a discount code or have it auto-generated for you
• Selecting date range for discount to run

Steps to Create Discount

Follow the steps below to create a Direct Order discount for your online website.

• Step	Process	Image
  1	You can navigate to set up discounts from two different paths from the Otter Dashboard: Apps > Direct Orders > [Manage discounts] button Apps > Marketing > Direct Order Discounts tab	From Direct Orders App From Marketing App
  2	Click [Create discount].
  3	Enter a Name for the discount. Note: This is only an internal name and will not be seen by eaters.
  4	Select to Apply discount to all storefront or individually select storefronts to apply to.
  5	Select Item discount for Discount Type.
  6	Choose the menu item to apply discount to from the Item drop-down.
  7	Select from Type drop-down Fixed amount or Percentage discount type. Enter dollar or percent Discount amount.
  8	Enter Minimum basket amount required to apply discount to order. For percentage discounts— enter Maximum discount dollar amount that can be applied to an order. Check to limit one redemption per customer or leave unchecked to allow eaters to use on multiple orders.
  9	Enter Discount code that eaters will use to apply the discount to their carts. Click Generate it for me to auto-generate a unique code.
  10	Toggle OFF or ON to choose Distribution type (how the code will be shared to eaters).
  11	Set date range for discount availability or check Does not expire to keep discount running.
  12	View Discount preview shown to see how discount will be presented to eaters. Click [Create] to confirm discount creation.

• Step	Process	Image
  1	You can navigate to set up discounts from two different paths from the Otter Dashboard: Apps > Direct Orders > [Manage discounts] button Apps > Marketing > Direct Order Discounts tab	From Direct Orders App From Marketing App
  2	Click [Create discount].
  3	Enter a Name for the discount. Note: This is only an internal name and will not be seen by eaters.
  4	Select to Apply discount to all storefront or individually select storefronts to apply to.
  5	Select Order level discount for Discount Type
  6	Select from Type drop-down Fixed amount or Percentage discount type. Enter dollar or percent Discount amount.
  7	Enter Minimum basket amount required to apply discount to order. For percentage discounts— enter Maximum discount dollar amount that can be applied to an order. Check to limit one redemption per customer or leave unchecked to allow eaters to use on multiple orders.
  8	Enter Discount code that eaters will use to apply the discount to their carts. Click Generate it for me to auto-generate a unique code.
  9	Toggle OFF or ON to choose Distribution type (how the code will be shared to eaters).
  10	Set date range for discount availability or check Does not expire to keep discount running.
  11	View Discount preview shown to see how discount will be presented to eaters. Click [Create] to confirm discount creation.

• Step	Process	Image
  1	You can navigate to set up discounts from two different paths from the Otter Dashboard: Apps > Direct Orders > [Manage discounts] button Apps > Marketing > Direct Order Discounts tab	From Direct Orders App From Marketing App
  2	Click [Create discount].
  3	Enter a Name for the discount. Note: This is only an internal name and will not be seen by eaters.
  4	Select to Apply discount to all storefront or individually select storefronts to apply to.
  5	Select But one get one for Discount Type.
  6	Choose the menu items to apply discount to from the Item and Get drop-down.
  7	Select from Type drop-down Fixed amount or Percentage discount type. Enter dollar or percent Discount amount.
  8	Enter Minimum basket amount required to apply discount to order. For percentage discounts— enter Maximum discount dollar amount that can be applied to an order. Check to limit one redemption per customer or leave unchecked to allow eaters to use on multiple orders.
  9	Enter Discount code that eaters will use to apply the discount to their carts. Click Generate it for me to auto-generate a unique code.
  10	Toggle OFF or ON to choose Distribution type (how the code will be shared to eaters).
  11	Set date range for discount availability or check Does not expire to keep discount running.
  12	View Discount preview shown to see how discount will be presented to eaters. Click [Create] to confirm discount creation.

Discount Distribution

When a discount is live for eaters, it can distributed through an SMS text message and/or by displaying it as banner on your restaurant’s direct online ordering website.

Learn more about each distribution option below. 

• When creating a discount (link to above), toggle ON for Share discount via text message under Distribution section.

  You can customize:

  Audience: Type of eater you want to target

  Send Date: When selected eaters will receive this notification

  Message: Add to the discount message template to make it personalized

  You’ll also be able to see a preview of the text message eaters will receive with your specific discount details.

  

   

• When creating a discount (link to above), toggle ON for Display a menu banner under the Distribution section. This will make it so eaters see a banner promoting the discount on your direct ordering website.

  You’ll also be able to see a preview of the banner show to eaters while on your direct ordering website.

  

Editing a Discount

Once a discount is created, you can edit discount settings from the Direct Orders Discounts page. 

You can:

• Edit Active discounts
• Reactivate & edit Inactive discounts
• Deactivate a discount

Check out more information about each action below.

• To edit a discount, just click on the discount listed, or click the 3 dots next to the discount and select Edit discount. From there, you can make changes to desired settings and click [Save] to implement changes.

  

• To reactivate a discount, select the 3 dots listed next to the discount. Then select Reactivate discount to make the discount Active again.

  

• To deactivate a discount, select the 3 dots listed next to the discount. Then select Deactivate discount to make the discount Inactive

  

Discount Reporting

You can monitor your discounts performance at a glance from the Direct Orders Discounts page. There, you can see the numbers from the past 30 days on:

• Storefronts applied
• Redemptions made
• Total sales
• Sales from discount
• ROI (return on investment)

Click on a discount listed to view overall statistics for that promotion.

For more reporting on discounts, you can view the Marketing Overview page for more analytics on promotions. Learn more about that here.

Eater Discount Experience

Eaters will be able to apply active discounts at checkout on your direct ordering website. Once the eater enters the discount code at checkout, they will see the discounted value, and the discount line item displayed— the discount will also display on their receipt for that order.

FAQS

• No— This feature is included in the cost of your Direct Orders subscription.

• Customers can only receive 1 message every 2 weeks maximum— this provides prevention of overwhelming eaters with notifications and promotion communications.

• There may be a few reasons someone isn’t able to use the discount code. First, check that:

  - Discount is not expired

  - Order meets basket requirements

  - Discount hasn’t already been redeemed by eater (if one use per customer)

  If all of the above checks out still and the discount isn’t applying to eligible orders, deactivate the discount and create a new one to replace it.

   

Still need help? Reach out to our team:

Live Chat		Text/SMS Message
Chat with support by clicking the chat icon in the bottom right corner of the Otter Dashboard.		+1 (888) 681-8837 Send us a text to the number above for assistance over text message.

Updated March 31, 2025 20:32