Before publishing a rule —and to resolve support questions— use the Simulator. It lets you build a test cart and see exactly which discounts apply and why, without touching real data or affecting any customer.
What you can simulate
You build a complete scenario:
- Customer: pick a real customer or set up an imaginary one (price list, segment, tenure, number of previous orders).
- Test cart: add imaginary products with their quantity and price.
- Timing: date and time (you can simulate a Saturday, a Black Friday date, etc.) and time zone.
- Coupon: optionally enter a code to see what it unlocks.
You click Test and the engine runs against that scenario.
What it shows you
- Applied rules: which discounts fired, how much each granted, and on which products.
- Totals: subtotal, total discount, and total to pay.
- Per product: the final price of each line.
- Opportunities: what the cart would need to unlock more (next tier, missing amount, incomplete combo).
"Why didn't it apply?"
This is the most useful part. For each rule, the simulator explains its evaluation step by step and, if it didn't apply, exactly which condition failed:
| Status | Means |
|---|---|
| Applies | The rule fired and granted the discount. |
| Doesn't apply | It was evaluated but the condition wasn't met (amount/quantity not reached, incomplete combo, etc.). |
| Excluded | It doesn't fit this scenario (audience doesn't match, outside the active period, coupon missing, cap reached). |
| Overshadowed | Another non-stackable rule won over this one. See Stacking. |
Typical reasons you'll see: "Audience doesn't match", "Outside active period", "Coupon missing", "Amount not reached", "Quantity not reached", "Incomplete combo", "Cap reached".
Test a real cart
Beyond the imaginary scenario, you can start from a real customer or an existing cart (by its identifier) to reproduce exactly what a buyer is seeing. This is the way to resolve a support ticket like "the discount isn't showing up for me".
Recommended workflow
- Create the rule and save it.
- In the Test step (or from the Simulator), build the scenario where it should apply and confirm that it applies with the correct amount.
- Build a scenario where it shouldn't apply and confirm that it's excluded for the right reason.
- Only then, activate it.
That way you publish with confidence and avoid promos that don't fire or that fire too much.