Which discount type fits which goal?

1 Higher order value: tiers by cart value

If your customers usually buy one item, cart value is your lever. A tier like 5% off orders of $50 or more and 10% off orders of $80 or more gives carts just below a threshold a next goal that is often just one item away.

In Shopify, an order discount has exactly one minimum purchase amount. Natively you build several tiers as several automatic discounts. If they aren't set to combine, Shopify applies the best one for the cart. That works, but it takes several of the 25 slots for active automatic discounts.

2 More units per order: volume discount

If you sell something people need more than once, such as coffee, filters or socks, reward quantity: 10% off 3 or more units and 15% off 5 or more. That fits better than cart value because it targets exactly the product you want to sell more of.

Natively, a product discount has one minimum quantity, so one tier. Shopify has real quantity price breaks only for B2B customers. For several tiers in a regular store and a table on the product page you need an app.

3 Selling add-ons: bundles

You want the memory card to go along with the camera? Then discount the combination, not the single item. Shopify Bundles, a free app by Shopify, builds fixed bundles as their own product.

If you want customers to choose, say, one item from group A and one from group B, a bundle discount across product groups is the more flexible route. More in the guide on the bundle discount without a bundle product.

4 Crossing a threshold without cutting prices: free gift

A free gift with orders over $60 doesn't lower any price. That protects your price anchor, and the gift only costs you what you paid for it, not its retail price.

Shopify's Buy X get Y makes the gift free. According to Shopify's Help Center, though, the customer always adds it to the cart manually; it is never added automatically. Customers who miss it don't get it.

5 New customers, newsletter, partners: unique codes

For sign-ups, influencers or a win-back email, codes are the right tool, ideally unique ones. One code for everyone ends up on coupon sites sooner or later. One code per person can be limited to a single use and tracked on its own.

Shopify lets you limit usage per discount, including once per customer. Hundreds of unique codes at once are easiest with an app.

6 Shipping costs as the hurdle: free shipping above a threshold

If shoppers drop off at the shipping cost, no product discount helps. Shopify has its own discount type for free shipping, optionally with a minimum purchase amount. You can set that up without an app.

What's missing is the note in the cart that tells customers how far they are from free shipping. That is exactly what a progress bar is for.

7 Clearing stock: discount on specific products, with an end date

For discontinued or clearance items, a native discount on selected products or a collection with a start and end date is enough. You don't need an app for that.

If you sell in the EU and show a struck-through old price, the EU price indication rules apply: the old price shown has to be the lowest price of the last 30 days.

8 When you shouldn't discount at all

If your margin is thin, a percentage discount quickly eats most of your gross profit. At a 30% margin and a 20% discount you have to sell three times as much to keep the same gross profit. A free gift with a low unit cost or free shipping above a threshold is often the better choice then.