Give a discount for one payment method in Shopify

1 Why stores reward bank transfer

Every payment method has a price. In the US, a standard online card payment through Shopify Payments costs 2.9% + 30¢ on the Basic plan, and PayPal Wallet starts at 3.49% + 49¢.

A bank transfer, a check or another offline payment is a manual payment method in Shopify. Shopify doesn't process it and, according to its Help Center, charges no transaction fee on it either. What your bank charges for incoming transfers depends on your account.

With an offline payment you ship once the money is in. Until then the order stays open in Shopify, and your customer waits longer for the parcel. A small discount is meant to make that route worth it for them.

2 Check whether the discount pays off

A discount for bank transfer pays off with customers who would otherwise have paid by card or PayPal. On a $100 order, a 2% discount costs you $2.00 and saves you $3.20 in card fees.

It costs you with customers who would have paid by bank transfer anyway: they get $2.00 off, and you save nothing. Your past orders show how many of them you have.

Because part of the card fee is fixed, it weighs more on small orders. On the US Basic plan, 2% stays below the card fee at every order value, and 3% stays below it up to $300. The table uses the order value. The card fee applies to the full amount including shipping, the discount only to the order subtotal.

If offline payment only pays off for you above a certain amount, set a minimum order value on the discount. Below it there's just no button; the customer can still order. A minimum for the whole order is a different thing, covered in the guide to the Shopify minimum order value.

3 What Shopify does without an app

Shopify's own discounts can require a minimum purchase amount or quantity, a group of customers and an active period. A payment method isn't one of the options. That goes deeper than the settings page: according to Shopify's developer docs, the function apps use to calculate discounts doesn't see the chosen payment method either. It knows the cart, the customer, the addresses and the cart's attributes, among other things.

Payment customizations hide, rename or reorder a payment method. They don't change a price. And a discount code you only give to bank transfer customers works with any payment method; you'd have to check every order by hand.

So apps for a payment method discount start before checkout. A button in the cart sets a cart attribute, a discount function grants the discount for it, and a payment customization leaves only the chosen method. You need both together. Without the restriction, a customer could take the discount and still pay with PayPal.

4 The limit that matters most in the US and Canada

According to Shopify's Help Center, payment customizations in the United States and Canada are limited to payment methods other than credit cards, unless the store is on Shopify Plus. A rule that leaves only bank transfer can hide PayPal and other methods there, but not the card.

So the card stays at checkout, and a customer who used the button can still pay by card and keep the discount. In the US and Canada, a payment discount therefore only limits the payment method fully on Shopify Plus or in a store that doesn't offer credit cards at checkout. Shopify names this limit for the US and Canada only.

Rules on discounts and surcharges for payment methods also depend on where you sell. In Germany, for example, a fee for SEPA transfers and most consumer card payments is void, while the German law firm IT-Recht Kanzlei considers a discount for prepayment by bank transfer unproblematic. State the discount and its condition clearly, as a button text like “Pay by bank transfer and save 2%” does. This isn't legal advice.

5 How to set up the payment discount

In Hand-E Checkout Rules the payment discount has its own form. An example: 2% off with bank transfer from $50.

1. In the rule list, click New payment discount and give it a name, for example “2% off with bank transfer”. Your customer sees the name next to the discount at checkout.
2. Under Payment method name, enter what the bank transfer is called at your checkout. Shopify's built-in manual method is called Bank Deposit.
3. Set Discount in percent to 2 and Minimum order value to 50. Below $50 the button doesn't appear.
4. Write the Button text, at most 80 characters, and pick the Look: Outlined, Like the checkout button, Text link or Notice box. Then save.
5. Use Open theme editor to go to the theme editor, turn on Payment method discount under App embeds and save there.
6. In your store, put items worth more than $50 in the cart, click your button and check the discount and the payment method at checkout.

6 Other limits of the payment discount

Besides the credit card rule, a few more limits apply, and Shopify sets most of them, not the app:

• Shop Pay: Shopify doesn't run payment rules there. The restriction to the payment method doesn't apply then.
• Express buttons: PayPal, Apple Pay or Shop Pay on the product and cart pages aren't meant for the discount. Only the discount button sets the choice, and the app takes it back each time a page loads. On the product page, according to Shopify, express buttons don't carry cart attributes anyway.
• Theme: Shopify gives apps no fixed spot in the cart drawer. If the button sits wrong in your theme, you point the app to your checkout button with a custom selector in the app embed.
• Other discounts: if the payment discount doesn't combine with another one, Shopify gives the higher one. The restriction to the payment method still applies. You set combinations on Shopify's discount page.
• Payment method name: if it doesn't match your checkout, the app hides nothing and the discount applies with any payment method. Check it once yourself.