Flexible Discounts

The Flexible Discount feature allows partners to adjust product prices making them more attractive to different customer segments. There are two types of flexible discounts:

• Percentage Discount: A percentage reduction (e.g., 10% off) is applied to the product's base price.

• Fixed Discount: A fixed monetary reduction (e.g., $20 off) is applied to the product's base price.

Feature Activation and Configuration

Distributors can manage the Flexible Discounts functionality using specific configuration parameters within CloudBlue Connect, which are set at the Marketplace level.

Eligibility

Flexible discounts are offered to all VIP Marketplace customers, even if they already benefit from other price adjustments (e.g., volume discounts or Linked Memberships). Eligibility is still subject to other factors, such as the market segment and country.

Important: Flexible discounts are transparently passed along the entire distribution chain—from providers to resellers, and from resellers to customers.

System Requirements

• BSS 21.25.110 or later

• Rating Engine : 2.2.4265 or later

• Order Management: 1.26.840 or later

Discount Application Methods

Applying Flexible Discounts at Renewal

Flexible discounts can be manually applied to upcoming renewals provided that Auto-renewal is enabled for the subscription.

Note: If a customer disables auto-renewal after a flexible discount has been applied, the discount will be automatically removed.

Option 1: Applying the Flexible Discount in a Sales Order, Change Order or Scheduled Order

To apply a discount to a new sales order, change order, or scheduled change order, expand the product details in your shopping cart and enter your code in the Discount code field.

Note: If the marketplace is configured to allow the discount auto-discovery, the Discount Code field may be automatically populated with a discount code. In that case, you can either use the provided discount code or a different one.

Once the discount code is provided, CloudBlue calculates the eligible discounts and shows the discounted price, customer total and cost in the Checkout screen.

Note: If a scheduled order is not used to change the renewal options and flexible discounts auto-discovery is enabled, the connector applies the eligible discounts to the products in the renewal order; these discounts will then be reflected in the billing order in CloudBlue Commerce.

Option 2: Discovering and Applying Discounts Automatically

When an order is placed (purchase, change or renewal order), and the feature is enabled via the configuration parameters above:

1. The connector calls the Adobe API to retrieve all available flexible discounts for the order items.

2. If multiple discount codes are returned for the same base Offer ID, the connector performs an order preview with each code to determine the value.

3. The connector automatically selects and applies the most favorable discount to the corresponding Offer ID in the order.

4. The discounted prices are calculated by CloudBlue and displayed in the Checkout screen during the ordering process.

   

Option 3: Specifying Flexible Discounts Manually (via API)

Distributors can bypass the auto-discovery process and explicitly define which flexible discounts to apply using an ordering parameter when submitting an order via the API.

Key Behavior:

• Disables Auto-Discovery: Using this parameter always overrides and disables the automatic discount discovery process, even if the allow_auto_apply_flex_discounts parameter is active.

• API Only: This parameter can only be used when submitting an order via the API.

Parameter Structure and Validation

• Structure: The parameter accepts an object where the key is the MPN ID, and the value is an array of zero, one, or multiple discount codes to apply to that MPN.

  	{
  		    "65304768CA": ["ADOBE_ALL_PROMOTION", "EASTER_26"],
  		    "65304768CA": ["ADOBE_ALL_PROMOTION", "BLACK_FRIDAY_20_FAILURE_1"]
  	}

• Validation: The connector uses the Adobe Order Preview API to confirm the validity of all Base Offer IDs and their associated discount codes.

• Application Scope: Discounts are only applied to products corresponding to the MPN IDs explicitly listed in this parameter. Any valid discount found by the validation service for a product not included in the flex_discounts_selected parameter will be ignored.

Note on visibility: The flex_disc_console_available_tiers parameter controls which resellers can view flexible discount information in the Adobe Reseller Management Console. If a reseller's Tier ID is not authorized by the distributor, this information will be hidden.

Note: The connector ensures that applied discount codes persist through additional orders and scheduled quantity updates, though it will discard and re-evaluate codes if a product mix change occurs.

Tracking Parameters in CloudBlue Connect

{ "key": "cb_flex_discount_draft",
  "structured_value": 
  {
    "discounts":
    [
      {
        "mpn": "65304768CA",
        "id": "55555555-8768-4e8a-9a2f-fb6a6b08f563",
        "code": "EASTER_26",
        "application_type": "FULL_CHAIN",
        "discounts": [
          {
            "type": "FIXED_DISCOUNT",
            "values": [
              {
                "discountValue": 26,
                "discountCurrency": "USD"
              }
            ]
          ]
        }
      },
      {
        "mpn": "65304768CB",
        "id": "55555555-8768-4e8a-9a2f-fb6a6b08f564",
        "code": "ADOBE_ALL_PROMOTION",
        "application_type": "FULL_CHAIN",
        "discounts": [
          {
            "type": "PERCENTAGE_DISCOUNT",
            "values": [
              {
                "discountValue": 5
              }
            ]
          ]
        }
      },
    ...
    ]
  }
}

{ "key": "cb_flex_discount_final",
  "structured_value": 
  {
    "discounts":
    [
      {
        "mpn": "65304768CA",
        "id": "55555555-8768-4e8a-9a2f-fb6a6b08f563",
        "code": "EASTER_26",
        "application_type": "FULL_CHAIN",
        "discounts": [
          {
            "type": "FIXED_DISCOUNT",
            "values": [
              {
                "discountValue": 26,
                "discountCurrency": "USD"
              }
            ]
          ]
        }
      },
      {
        "mpn": "65304768CB",
        "id": "55555555-8768-4e8a-9a2f-fb6a6b08f564",
        "code": "ADOBE_ALL_PROMOTION",
        "application_type": "FULL_CHAIN",
        "discounts": [
          {
            "type": "PERCENTAGE_DISCOUNT",
            "values": [
              {
                "discountValue": 5
              }
            ]
          ]
        }
      },
    ...
    ]
  }
}