Mix & match offers in LS Central: how they work, setup, and POS behaviour
Mix & Match is the offer type LS Central reaches for when a promotion is really about a combination: pick items from these groups, in these proportions, and something in the basket gets cheaper. It is more versatile than a plain discount offer — and easier to build wrong, because the trigger logic and the benefit logic are set in different places. This guide explains both halves, walks the setup in order, and covers the two operational rules that bite in production: offers only fire when Enabled, and editing a live offer damages its statistics.
What mix & match actually does
A Mix & Match offer can be triggered by a combination of factors: Items, Product Groups, and Variants. The documented examples show the range: a discount when a customer selects 3 different items from 3 selected product groups; a discount on a defined number of DVDs when the customer buys a DVD player. The benefit — the discount side of the offer — can take several forms: a deal price, a discount amount, a discount percentage, the least expensive item, or a benefit specified for individual Mix & Match lines.
The clearest documented worked example: the customer can buy any five of the items listed in the offer's Lines, and then gets the two least expensive for free. Note what makes that a mix & match and not something else — the qualifying items can be different items mixed together, and the benefit lands selectively (cheapest first) rather than spreading evenly over everything scanned. LS Retail's own summary puts it plainly: mix & match manages complex item combinations to give discounts or deal prices.
Mix & Match belongs to the periodic discount family, alongside Discount Offers and Multibuy Discounts. That family matters for one reason: periodic offers carry higher priority in the discount calculation than the pricing layers checked afterwards. When several offers could apply to the same basket, this family is examined early — and within it, priority between overlapping Discount Offer, Multibuy, and Mix & Match offers can be set explicitly.
Mix & match vs the other offer types
| Offer type | Trigger shape | Typical benefit | Reach for it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mix & Match | A combination of items, product groups, or variants | Deal price, amount, percentage, least expensive, or per-line benefits | The promotion mixes different items or groups |
| Multibuy Discount | Quantity of items bought | Tiered levels — documented example: 5% for 5–9 items, 10% for 10–14, 15% for 15 or more; discount amount or deal price types | The same kind of purchase should earn more as quantity grows |
| Discount Offer | Items in the offer lines | A discount percentage assigned to the offer as a whole | A simple percentage off a defined set of items or groups |
| Deal | A selection of items sold together, connected to a POS button | One specific deal price for the selection | A fixed bundle sold as a unit — deals overwrite all other offers |
The decision framework is one question: what has to be true about the basket? If the answer names a mix of different items or groups, it is Mix & Match. If it names only a quantity, it is Multibuy. If it names one fixed bundle at one price, it is a Deal — and because a deal overwrites other offers, choosing it ends every other promotion argument for that basket. If none of those apply, the promotion is probably a plain Discount Offer and does not need mix & match complexity.
Setup procedure
- Open the list. Search for Mix & Match Offer List and create the offer. It starts life Disabled — that is normal; settings can only be changed while an offer is Disabled.
- Build the Lines. In the Lines FastTab, add what qualifies. Each line's Type can be Item for a single item, Product Group, Item Category, All, or a Special Group, with the corresponding value in the No. column. Use the Exclude checkbox to carve exceptions out of a broad line — the documented example is an item discounted except for one variant of it. The Get Items actions import items into the Lines instead of keying them one by one.
- Set the benefit. Choose how the discount lands: deal price, discount amount, discount percentage, least expensive, or benefits specified per Mix & Match line. For a cheapest-free style promotion, the least-expensive form is the one that reproduces the buy-five-get-two-cheapest-free example.
- Set the Triggers. Triggers limit which customers can benefit. If no trigger fields are filled in, the offer is valid for all customers — fill them in only when the promotion is genuinely restricted, for example to a member club or scheme. Triggers can also require a coupon to activate the offer.
- Set the validation period. A validation period can be set on all offer types. With none selected, the offer is not restricted by time — right for a standing offer, wrong for a weekend promotion that nobody remembers to switch off.
- Decide blocking and stores. In the Settings FastTab an offer, when triggered, can block other offer types from also triggering — but only offers examined later in the price calculation can be blocked. In the Store Groups FastTab, define in which stores the offer is valid; offer information is only replicated to those stores, so a store missing from the list will never see the offer at its POS.
- Enable it. Change the status from Disabled to Enabled. Only Enabled offers are triggered on the POS, and enabling is what sends the offer to the POS terminals.
What happens at the POS
There is no cashier action for a standard mix & match: the cashier scans the basket and the POS evaluates the periodic offers as part of the price calculation. The order of that calculation is documented: first the retail price is found, then a periodic offer — this family — is checked and calculated; if the sale is connected to a customer with a special price, that price is compared and the customer gets the better of the two. A Deal, if one applies, overwrites the other offers instead.
One presentation detail matters for cashier training: a discount offer in this family works as a price change, resulting in a changed price at the POS rather than showing a discount from the former price. A customer comparing the receipt against the shelf price sees the reduced price itself. Train staff to expect that, or every promotion launch generates "the discount didn't show" calls that are actually the offer working as designed.
After the sale, the offer's Statistics FactBox shows the total sales and profit triggered by the selected offer. Check it after the first day of any new promotion: an offer that is Enabled, replicated, and never appearing in statistics is an offer whose lines or triggers do not match real baskets.
Changing a live offer without breaking its statistics
Offers follow a strict state discipline. Information and settings can only be changed when the offer has status Disabled. To modify or delete a discount offer, change the status back to Disabled first — and only disabled offers can be archived.
But here is the catch the documentation states outright: statistics on the discount offer cannot be updated if the discount offer is modified, and it is therefore advised to disable an offer you want to modify and create a new one instead. Treat that as the standing change routine for anything already running: retire the old offer, build its replacement as a new offer, enable the replacement. The statistics for each promotion period then stay clean and comparable, instead of one edited offer quietly mixing two different promotions in a single set of numbers.
What success looks like
- A test basket matching the documented example pattern — five qualifying items — prices the two least expensive at zero, and leaves a sixth, non-qualifying item at full price.
- A basket one item short of qualifying prices everything at normal retail: the trigger is a combination, not a per-item discount.
- The offer appears in the Statistics FactBox with sales after the test sales.
- Every store in the Store Groups list receives the offer; a store deliberately left out still prices the same basket at full retail.
FAQ
Why is the offer not firing at one store? Check the boring causes in order: the offer is still Disabled; the store is not in the Store Groups FastTab (offers replicate only to listed stores); or the basket does not actually satisfy the combination in the Lines.
Can mix & match be members-only? Yes — triggers are the mechanism. Filled-in trigger fields limit the offer to the specified customers; left empty, it is valid for everyone.
Two periodic offers overlap. Which one wins? For Discount Offers, Multibuy, and Mix & Match, priority for overlapping discounts can be set. If a Deal applies, it overwrites the others regardless.
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