Guide
Create discounts in one sentence instead of filling in forms
On the Pro plan of Hand-E Discounts you describe a discount in one sentence. The AI assistant looks up the matching products and collections, suggests the complete discount, and creates it after your click, inactive until you remove the end date in the admin.
Many fields for a simple idea
5% off from 3 packs of tea, 10% off from 6 packs. The idea fits in one sentence. In the form it turns into a row of decisions: discount type, scope, finding the right collection, counting mode, tiers, title.
Whoever creates discounts rarely misses a field easily, or reaches for the wrong discount type. Whoever creates them often clicks the same paths again and again, for every seasonal promotion for instance.
An assistant can take over the translation from sentence to form. What matters is that you see exactly what will come out of it before anything is created, and that nothing goes live unchecked.
Without an app: the form or Sidekick
Shopify offers two routes itself. For simple discounts, both are enough.
- Discount form: For a single percentage discount, a discount above a minimum purchase amount or free shipping, the form is filled in quickly, and you see every setting right there.
- Shopify Sidekick: Shopify's assistant in the admin helps with creating discounts, according to the help. As an example, Shopify names a discount code for 15% off a summer collection, one use per customer, ending on Sunday.
- Buy X get Y: you create it in the Shopify form. The assistant in Hand-E Discounts does not build this discount type.
- Where it breaks: Several tiers in one discount, bundles made of several groups, or a counting mode you can choose are not something Shopify's discount form covers in a single discount. For those you need the discount types of an app, and they have longer forms of their own.
How to create a discount with the AI assistant
The assistant does not write the configuration itself. It understands your sentence and searches your store, and tested code builds the discount from that.
- Open the assistant in Hand-E Discounts (Pro plan) and describe the discount in one sentence, for example: 5% off from 3 packs, 10% off from 6 packs on the Tea collection.
- The assistant looks up the Tea collection in your store and picks the discount type. If something is unclear, such as the currency of an amount, it asks.
- Check the complete suggestion: title, discount type, scope, counting mode and tiers.
- Confirm the suggestion with one click. Nothing comes into being in your store before that.
- The discount is created inactive and shows as expired in the admin. Remove the end date under Discounts in the Shopify admin, and it applies.
- For another discount you write a new sentence. The assistant does not create two discounts in one go.
Example: from the sentence to a discount that calculates
Sentence: 5% off from 3 packs, 10% off from 6 packs on the Tea collection. Suggestion in this example: Volume tiers, scope the Tea collection, counting mode everything in scope together, two tiers. One pack costs $8.90, and the discount per pack is truncated to the cent.
| Cart | Tier | Discount per pack | Total discount | To pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 packs, $17.80 | none | $0.00 | $0.00 | $17.80 |
| 4 packs, $35.60 | 5% | $0.44 | $1.76 | $33.84 |
| 7 packs, $62.30 | 10% | $0.89 | $6.23 | $56.07 |
Limits of the assistant
- The assistant is part of the Pro plan.
- One discount per request. For two discounts you write two sentences.
- No Buy X get Y. You create that one in the Shopify form.
- Every discount comes into being inactive. Whoever leaves the end date in place wonders why nothing applies.
- Check the suggestion as thoroughly as a form, above all scope and counting mode. A sentence such as from 5 items leaves open whether to count per product or across everything.
- Whether the discount applies alongside others is something you set afterwards on Shopify's Combinations card.
Common questions
Does the AI assistant create discounts without my confirmation?
Does the AI write the discount settings itself?
Why does a discount from the assistant show as expired in the admin?
Which discount types can the AI assistant create?
Related problems
Multiple quantity breaks don't fit in one discount
In Shopify's discount form you pick one minimum purchase requirement with one value, which means one threshold per discount. For 10% off 5 or more items and 15% off 10 or more, you need two separate automatic discounts natively, or an app that keeps every tier in one discount.
Read moreHundreds of unique discount codes are needed
One Shopify discount can carry many codes, and up to 20 million unique codes are allowed per store. Hand-E Discounts generates up to 200 codes per campaign on the Starter plan or 1,000 on the Pro plan with your own prefix, creates them as one Shopify discount and gives you a CSV file.
Read moreThe discount is set up but does not apply at checkout
When a Shopify discount does not apply, start with its own conditions and with Shopify's rules for how discounts interact: combinations, minimum purchase requirements, customer eligibility, active dates, and the limit of 25 active automatic discounts. Walk through the points in order, then check the result with a test order.
Read more