What Shopware does out of the box and what the plugin adds
Shopware ships with Promotions and supports rules in the shipping price matrix. For discounts that is often enough. For surcharges, free items and notes it is not. Every row here has been checked in the Shopware source code.
| Task | Shopware standard | With the plugin |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic discount when a rule applies | Promotions with "No promotion code required": percentage, absolute, fixed price or free product, controlled by rules. | A discount as an item of its own, percentage or fixed amount. |
| Surcharge when a rule applies | Not in Promotions: their calculators always deduct. With an app script a surcharge can be written in code. | Percentage or fixed amount, set up in the administration. |
| Discount or fee per payment method | Discount through a promotion with the Applied payment method condition. Not a fee, though; see the surcharge row. | Both, one item per payment method with its own rule. |
| Costs tied to the delivery | A shipping method's price matrix supports rules. The result appears in the shipping costs. | A surcharge or subsidy as a line of its own next to the shipping costs, for instance per bulky product. The shipping costs themselves remain the shipping method's business. |
| Put a product into the cart automatically | Promotions change the price of products that are already in the cart. "Free product" is a 100% discount on such a product. | A Shopware product is added automatically, with its price or free of charge, with stock reduction. |
| A free insert as a visible line | No setting for this, see above. | A pseudo product at €0.00, with image or symbol, removable if you like. |
| Quantity per product in the cart | A discount can be applied to certain products. | The item's quantity follows products, product groups or tags, per piece or per position. |
| Limit per customer | "Max. uses per customer" on the promotion. | "Maximum purchase per customer", summed over all quantities across previous orders. |
| A note in the product page buy box | No setting on promotions or rules that places a message in the buy box. | In three places, in four colours, for selected products, groups or tags. |
When Promotions are enough.
If you only want to give discounts, Shopware's standard features will get you a long way. A promotion with "No promotion code required" is applied automatically as soon as its conditions are met. It can work with a percentage, an absolute amount or a fixed price and can be limited per customer.
Where the plugin comes in.
As soon as something is to be added rather than deducted: insurance, a fee, a surcharge, an insert, a whole product. In the source code the Promotions calculators always deduct, and they only change the prices of products already in the cart.
With app scripts a developer can write surcharges and discounts in code. The plugin turns that into settings in the administration, with notes and quantity.
Only with the pluginRule Builder
- Applied payment methodIs one of Cash on delivery
Cash on delivery fee €5.00
Both can be combined: discounts keep running through Promotions, surcharges and free items through the plugin. Both use the same rules from the Rule Builder.
Ready to let your cart do the maths?
Put a product into the cart in the demo shop and watch four items appear. Or try it free for 30 days in your own shop.