Set up a BOGO Discount

A BOGO discount lets you say "buy one of these, get one of those at a discount" — you choose the products a customer has to buy, the products that get discounted, and how much comes off.

How BOGO Discounts Work

Access requirements. You'll need edit access to the "Promotions" permission for the stores the discount applies to. BOGO also has to be turned on for your account — if the "BOGO" tile doesn't appear under "Discount type" when you start a new discount, it isn't available to you yet.

A BOGO has two product groups. "Customers must buy" is the group that triggers the offer; "Customers get a discount on" is the group that gets the money off. You build both from condition rows, the same way you'd set conditions on any other discount.
It's buy one, get one. Each qualifying item a customer buys unlocks one discounted item from the "get" group. There's no setting for "buy two, get one."
The reward is a percentage off, not a fixed price. 100% makes the item free; anything lower takes that much off it.
The two groups can be the same products. A "buy one Coke, get one Coke free" offer needs two Cokes in the order — one item can't be both the item bought and the item discounted.
BOGO applies at the register. It's an in-store discount, so online orders don't receive it.

Where to Access Each Feature

To…	Go to
Create a BOGO discount	Products → Discounts → + New Discount
Edit, activate, deactivate or archive one	Products → Discounts
See exactly which items are in a group	View items, inside the discount
See who changed a discount and when	History, at the top of a saved discount
Apply a non-automatic BOGO on a sale	Discount Order, on the register's sale screen

Building a BOGO Discount

Click Products in the left menu, then click Discounts.
Click + New Discount.
Under Discount type, choose BOGO — "Buy items from one group, get another group at a percentage off."
Under General info, enter a Discount name. This is the name you'll see in the Discounts list.
Enter a Customer-facing name. This is the name that appears on the discount line at the register.
Add a Description if you want a longer note about the offer.
On multi-location accounts, choose the Stores this discount applies to. Pick at least one — the discount won't save until you do, even though the empty field reads "all stores if none selected."
To limit the offer to certain customers, pick them under Limited to customer groups. Leave it empty to offer it to everyone.
Under Customers must buy, choose All conditions match or Any condition matches. This decides whether an item has to meet every condition row you add, or just one of them.
Click + Add condition, then set the Field, the Operator and the Value for the products that trigger the offer. Add more rows as needed.
Click View items to see exactly which products the buy group matches right now, then close the window.
Under Customers get a discount on, build the group that gets discounted the same way — matching rule, condition rows, and View items to check your work.
Under Discount, enter the Percent off — a number from 1 to 100. Enter 100 to make the item free.
Turn on Apply automatically when conditions are met if the discount should come off by itself. Leave it off and a cashier adds it to the order by hand.
Under Configuration, turn on Start date or End date if the offer should only run for a set period. Leave both off and it runs from the moment you save until you stop it.
Turn on Shelf label viewable if you want this offer to show on electronic shelf labels. This works the same way for BOGO discounts as it does for other discount types.
If you see a Stacks with sales switch, turn it on to let this discount come off on top of a sale price. With it off, only the larger of the two applies.
If you see a Schedule section, use + Add time slot to limit the offer to certain days or times. Each slot is its own rule — set days, times, or both.
Read the plain-language summary near the top of the page. It reads your offer back as a sentence, so you can confirm it says what you meant.
Click Save.

Condition Fields You Can Match On

The buy group and the get group use the same fields.

Field	Operators available
Department	Any of, None of
Price	Equals, Not equals, Greater than or equal to, Less than or equal to, Between
Price ends in	Any of, None of
Style	Any of, None of
Country of origin	Any of, None of
Container size	Any of, None of
Container type	Any of, None of
UPC	Any of, None of, Is blank, Is not blank
Pack size	Any of, None of
Brand	Any of, None of
SKU	Any of, None of

Price is the one field that asks for a number rather than a list. If you choose Between, the row gives you a Minimum and a Maximum instead of a single Value.

What It Looks Like at the Register

An automatic BOGO comes off on its own. Once the order holds the items it needs, the discount appears on the order under the Customer-facing name you gave it.
A non-automatic BOGO is added to the order, not to an item. The cashier taps Discount Order , then picks the offer from Available discount . BOGO can't be applied to a single line.
The register can't preview the amount before it's applied. When a cashier selects a BOGO in that list, it shows "Discount is calculated when the promotion is applied to the cart." in place of a total.
An offer that doesn't qualify yet sits on the order as "Not applied." It starts discounting as soon as the cashier rings up the items that qualify, and only leaves the order when they remove it.
The register decides which items get discounted, not the cashier. When more items qualify for the reward than the offer can cover, the most expensive ones come off.

Here's how a "buy one beer, get one snack free" offer plays out:

In the order	What happens
1 beer, 1 snack	The snack is free
2 beers, 1 snack	The snack is free; the second beer does nothing
2 beers, 3 snacks at $3, $2 and $1	The $3 and $2 snacks are free
1 snack, no beer	Nothing comes off

And a "buy one Coke, get one Coke free" offer, where both groups are the same product:

In the order	What happens
1 Coke	Nothing comes off
2 Cokes	1 is free
3 Cokes	1 is free
4 Cokes	2 are free

Troubleshooting

You don't see "BOGO" under "Discount type": it isn't switched on for your account yet. The tile shows up for everyone who has it, so if it's missing, ask Scotch support to turn it on.
The discount won't save and the page asks for a condition: both groups need at least one condition row. You'll see "Add at least one condition to the buy group" or "Add at least one condition to the get group" until each has one.
The discount won't save and the page asks for a store: on a multi-location account, at least one store has to be selected. Leaving the Stores field empty doesn't apply it everywhere.
"Percent off" won't take your number: it has to be between 1 and 100. Use 100 for a free item.
A customer bought one qualifying item and nothing came off: if the same product sits in both groups, one item can't be both the item bought and the item discounted — the order needs two.
An item that should have been free still charged a deposit: that's expected. The discount comes off the item's own price, so a bottle deposit is still payable.
An item on sale didn't get both the sale and the BOGO: unless "Stacks with sales" is on, only the larger of the two applies. With it on, the BOGO comes off whatever the sale price left.
You deactivated a discount and want it running again: deactivating sets its end date to right now. Activating it again clears that and sets the start date to the moment you reactivate it, so check your dates afterwards.
A discount opens read-only and nothing can be changed: it's been archived. Archived discounts stop applying at the register and can't be edited.