How to restrict and stop users from purchasing a specific offer or variant

Purchase Restriction BI Query

To stop a specific set of users from purchasing a specific offer or variant, you will need to create a BI query to be used for purchase restrictions. Because this query will run directly on the frontend, it must be constructed efficiently. 

The BI filter must have the radio button set to Yes for Purchase Restriction.  This is displayed when you create a new BI filter or when you edit an existing one by clicking on the name.

When a BI filter has been created and it is set to be used for purchase restriction, it can then be added either at the product variant level to restrict one variant in an offer or at product offer level to restrict access to all variants in the offer. The dropdown list will only display BI filters that have Purchase restriction set to yes.

Efficient BI Query

Your BI query should not contain any output columns as it is only being used as a selection query instead of for a report.

We suggest keeping the query simple by selecting users with a flag such as a source code that is applied to a specific order or party, or a custom attribute that is added via auto-segmentation.

A BI filter that mixes different areas of major ADvance functionality (e.g. demographic and web activity records) will be significantly slower than one that addresses a single major area (e.g. subscriptions). Therefore auto-segmentation should be used where you want to target complex user activity such as the most engaged users.

Using Latest (such as Latest Company or Latest Email Address) in the filter section of BI will be slow and should not be used, as each comparison in the filter is performed once per row of data returned. 

We have included a use-case example in the next section to showcase how to construct a simple BI query.

Use case: Promotional offer that users can only purchase once

In this use case, you have a promotional offer that a user can purchase across multiple variants:

• Purchase for £1, before moving to a full rate monthly price
• Purchase for £1, before moving to a full rate annual price

You will want to stop both the bill payer and the recipient from purchasing both of these variants, as well as any similar promotional variants that exist on other product offers. This can be achieved by using auto segmentation to flag the bill payer and recipient with a custom attribute.

In this scenario, we suggest using a source code that is used to flag the special offer and added to all variants that you want to group as part of being under the same special offer. This will then be added to all orders processed under the variant.

Auto segmentation

Auto segmentation lets you assign a custom attribute to users that qualify in a BI filter. You must use a new custom attribute for this, existing custom attributes should not be used in auto segmentation.

To set up a new custom attribute for auto segmentation:

Add a new Category (if required)

Go to Custom attributes > Custom attribute management and select ‘New Category’.

Add the category name and description.

Add a new Custom Attribute

• Firstly – add a new element

Add the Title (name of the custom attribute) and the Code– which must be unique – and select the Element type ‘Lookup’

• Next, select new option on the top right hand side
• We are going to create a custom attribute that will be added to the billing party. Input the required flag in the Display text and add the Code which must be unique. Click finish.
  

• Next, select another new option on the top right hand side.
• We are now going to create a custom attribute that will be added to the recipient party. Input the required flag in the Display text and add the Code which must be unique. Click finish.

You should now have two custom attributes for both billing and recipient in your special intro offer element. Select save and finish.

Create a BI filter for auto segmentation

The other requirement for auto-segmentation is a live BI filter which identifies the parties to be flagged with a custom attribute.

Navigate to Audience Reporting > Business Intelligence and select ‘New filter’. We are going to create a filter that selects all billing parties.

Add a filter looking for the source code that is on all of your special offer orders. To target the billing party you will need to ensure you navigate to the Orders folder, eg. Orders > Source Codes > Source Code Type. Select the required source code in the filter dropdown. 

Hit save and finish.

Create another ‘New filter’, this one will select all recipient parties.

Add a filter looking for the source code that is on all your special offer orders. To target the recipient party you will need to ensure you navigate to the Subscriptions folder, eg. Subscriptions > Source Codes > Source Code Type. Select the required source code in the filter drop-down.

Hit save and finish.

Set up auto-segmentation

Go to Configuration > Auto-segmentation and select ‘New auto-segmentation definition’ in the top right of the screen.

You will need to create a definition per custom attribute, one for the billing and one for the recipient.

• Name – the name of this particular segmentation
• Answer code– must match exactly to the corresponding custom attribute option code that was set up before
• Select BI filter from the list

Once you have completed setting up the auto segmentation definitions, the system procedure will run each night and will update individual party records with the appropriate custom attributes.

Create BI filter to exclude from purchasing the special offer

We can now create the BI filter that targets the billing and recipient party of the special offer. 

Navigate to Audience Reporting > Business Intelligence and select ‘New filter’. Give it a name and ensure Purchase restriction is set to yes. 

Add a filter looking for all parties flagged with the custom attributes that we set up for the special offer. Eg. Custom Attributes > Auto Segmentation > Special Intro Offer. 

Add the BI filter to your product offer and/or product variants

Now that you have created the BI filter that identifies the users who should not qualify for your special offer, you can add it to a product offer and/or product variant. 

If you have a product offer and you want to exclude someone from ordering any product variant in it, you can add the BI filter at the product offer level under Basic details and select Stop orders for BI filter.

If you only want to exclude someone from ordering a specific variant or set of variants within a product offer, you can add the BI filter at the product variant level by going into the variant and selecting Stop orders for BI filter at the bottom.

You can apply the same BI query across multiple product variants within multiple product offers.

Setting up the messaging that the user will see

When a user who qualifies for the BI filter is logged in and tries to purchase one of the special offer variants, they will be presented with a page that is controlled by the Forbid Multiple Orders text asset.