[2024] Shopify Automatic Discount: A Comprehensive Beginner’s Tutorial

According to Statista, 57% of U.S. online shoppers used digital coupons (or discount codes) in 2023. Most customers cannot resist the appeal of shopping discounts, which is an effective sales strategy to increase sales and customer satisfaction.

However, its largest downside is the manual work that customers have to put in to claim the promotion. Luckily, the Shopify automatic discount functionality can solve this issue with high automation.

The best way to enhance your customer experience is to provide attractive offers that automatically apply when the order qualifies. Learn how to create and monitor automatic discounts right here.

1. What is Shopify Automatic Discount?

Shopify’s automatic discount is a feature that enables store owners to apply different types of discounts to customer orders automatically. Shoppers can enjoy a streamlined shopping experience without having to use discount codes manually at checkout. Shopify automatic discounts can be used both on your online store and in local stores with the Shopify POS discount system.

This feature works when an order meets specific conditions (e.g., including eligible products or reaching a purchase threshold), and the system automatically applies the discounts per the settings. Shopify merchants can also create and apply multiple automatic discounts on customers’ orders to maximize the effectiveness of promotion strategies.

Some popular use cases to apply automatic discounts for your Shopify store are:

• Volume discounts: Encourage bundle purchases by offering discounts for purchasing multiple items.
• New product launch: Apply an automatic discount on new goods to motivate trials and purchases.
• Seasonal campaigns: Automatically add discounts during holiday campaigns to encourage more sales.

Shopify Automatic discount vs. discount code: Which one is better?

Both features work to trigger discounts for qualified purchases, but the main difference between automatic discounts and promo codes is the automation.

While the first approach is automatically activated during the checkout process, the latter requires manual input from customers at checkout.

Of course, implementing discount codes is still beneficial in certain cases, such as when you want to boost customer engagement. However, Shopify automatic discount is more effective in streamlining the checkout process and increasing conversion rates.

It works best if you want to run site-wide promotions, reducing customer effort by not requiring them to enter a code manually.

Read more: Shopify Automatic Discount is not Working: Troubleshooting Tips

2. Different Types of Shopify Automatic Discounts You Can Create

There are a few automatic discount options available on Shopify that merchants can create to motivate purchases and increase customer satisfaction. Take a look to see which one might contribute to your next sales campaigns.

2.1 Amount off products

When setting up this Cart discount rule on Shopify, the system offers two options: a fixed amount discount and a percentage discount on specific products or collections.

• Fixed amount discount: Provide a specific dollar amount off on specific goods or collections. For example, “Get $20 off on all cargo pants.”
• Percentage discount: Offer a percentage off on selected items or collections, such as “Get 15% off on all shoes.”

Of course, implementing discount codes is still beneficial in certain cases, such as when you want to boost customer engagement. However, Shopify’s automatic discount is more effective in streamlining the checkout process and increasing conversion rates.

2.2 Amount off orders

This Shopify automatic discount works similarly to the amount off products, but applies to orders. It also consists of 2 separate conditions:

• Fixed amount discount on orders: Apply a flat discount on the order’s total value, such as “Get $10 off for orders from $100.”
• Percentage discount on orders: Enable a fixed percentage discount on the whole order. For instance, “Get 20% off your entire order.”

It works best if you want to run site-wide promotions, reducing customer effort by not requiring them to enter a code manually.

2.3 Buy X, get Y

The Buy X, get Y promotion often allows customers to receive a free product when they purchase specific items. Choose between the BOGO or at a discount approach:

• Buy one, get one free (BOGO): Provide a free product when a buyer purchases a specific item. For instance, “Buy one pair of socks, get another pair for free.”
• Buy X, get Y at a discount/Buy X, get Y for free: When the first product is added to the cart, trigger a discount on the second item, such as “Buy 1 T-shirt, get the second at 30% off.”

As intriguing as this promotion is to buyers, they still have to manually add the gift to their cart despite their eligibility. This problem occurs when you create the offer using Shopify’s native functionalities, as they cannot automate this step.

That is why you need a specialized third-party app to enable complex rules, which we will recommend later in this article.

2.4 Free shipping

One of the most popular Shopify automatic discount types is free delivery for qualified purchases. You can enable free shipping discounts for the following two scenarios:

• Free shipping on specific products/collections: Provide free shipping on specific items or collections, regardless of the total order value.
• Free shipping on minimum order value: Enable free shipping when the order meets a chosen threshold, such as “Enjoy free delivery on orders over $120.”

Read more: Shopify Discount: A Completed Guide for Beginners (2024)

3. How To Create Shopify Automatic Discounts Without App

Here is our comprehensive guide to creating Shopify automatic discounts within this platform, using its integrated functionalities.

Step 1:
Visit your Shopify store dashboard > Click Create discount and select one of the 4 discount types below. For example, we will choose a Free shipping offer.

Step 2:
In the Method section, click Automatic discount and name your offer for public display. Next, decide whether to apply free shipping to purchases from all or selected countries.
Regarding the purchase type, trigger this deal for one-time purchase, subscription, or both. If the order is over a certain amount of money, you may exclude the shipping rates.

Step 3:
Automatically, the discount applies to all available sales channels and on Point of Sale per your preference.
For minimum purchase requirements, choose between a monetary threshold (e.g., $75) or a minimum quantity of items (e.g., 3).
The recurring payments for subscriptions come with multiple options. You can apply free delivery to the first payment, multiple recurring transactions, or all future payments.

Step 4:
You need to have existing discounts on products or orders to combine with the free shipping promotion. Set up another discount before creating this one for combinations.
Lastly, set the start and end date for your offer > Click Save discount and Publish.

After the configuration process, you will see certain limitations on this channel. Consider using an external app to set up more complex discount conditions.

4. Shopify Automatic Discounts Additional Settings

Other than the foundational types of automatic discounts, you will find some additional settings during the configuration. They allow store owners to customize the offers and increase their appeal for higher conversion rates.

Target based on customer segment

Customer segmentation involves dividing your buyers into distinct groups based on shared characteristics and behaviors. Shopify’s Discount tool includes several default customer segments that are free to use, such as:

• Customers who haven’t purchased.
• Customers who have purchased more than once.
• Abandoned checkout in the last 30 days.
• Email subscribers.
• Customers who have purchased at least one.
• Specific customers.

To use these segments, select the “Discount Code” method when creating a discount in the Shopify Discounts tool. Then, navigate to the “Customer Eligibility” section to apply the appropriate segment.

If you want to offer an automatic discount to specific customer segments, Shopify’s native tool doesn’t support this feature. The only solution is to use a third-party discount app. These apps provide advanced segmentation options, including:

• Location targeting.
• Customers’ purchase history: Based on the number of orders or spending history.
• Customer tags.
• Mobile app channel (Customers who purchase from Mthe obile app channel)

Read more: Boost Sales with Shopify Customer Group Discounts: A Guide for Targeted Promotions.

Discount link

Shopify’s automatic discount allows sellers to generate discount links, which customers can click on and automatically receive a discount in their cart. This e-commerce platform has a built-in link generator for your convenience.

You can often see such URLs on social media promotions or email marketing campaigns. It lets customers access discounts without manually entering a code, increasing their satisfaction while shopping at your store.

Discount combination

Shopify allows merchants to create and combine multiple automatic discounts within a single order. A common example is combining an order discount with free shipping.

To use this feature, go to the “Discount Combination” section and select the types of discounts you want to combine.

However, with Shopify’s Discount tools, combining discounts that are part of Buy X Get Y promotions is not possible. Shopify will automatically apply the largest discount between the two.

To solve this issue, you can use a Free Gift Shopify app to create Buy X Get Y promotions, as it works independently of Shopify’s native discount tool. This ensures that customers can receive both discounts.

Schedule

Did you know you can schedule an automatic discount in advance on Shopify?

In addition to publishing and activating promotions immediately, it is easy to schedule their start and end times and dates. This is configurable when you create the offer to ensure it activates and deactivates automatically as scheduled.

The scheduling feature is useful for time-sensitive promotions, such as flash sales or holiday campaigns. Thanks to this automation, you can pre-arrange a series of offers at one point.

5. How To Create A Gift With Purchase Automatic Discounts on Shopify

In general, the Shopify discount feature is helpful in many cases, but it fails to apply complex conditions for free gifts with purchase (based on the in-cart product or order value). This is because the buyer must meet a specific requirement to receive this gift.

While you can easily create introductory discounts with Shopify’s native settings, it is better to use an extension for more advanced offers. Consider the BOGOS Shopify Free Gift App for assistance.

So, how exactly does this offer work?

Free gift with purchase is a sales strategy in which customers get a complementary item when they buy specific products or meet purchase criteria. This promotion type helps incentivize purchases and enhance customer satisfaction.

Example: After a customer adds a BB cream to their cart, the system triggers a message notifying them that they will receive a free makeup brush.

There are a few types of free gifts with purchase for your consideration:

• Buy a group of products to get a gift: Offer a gift when customers buy a group of trigger products, e.g., a set of makeup brushes.
• Spend a certain amount to get a gift: Offer a gift when customers spend the minimum requirement, e.g., spend $50 for a free mug.
• Buy a certain quantity to get a gift: Offer a gift when customers buy the same item in bulk, e.g., 3 T-shirts.
• Combination of minimum spend and quantity: Offer a gift when customers buy a group of products that costs the minimum spend, e.g., buy any two bundles for $100 and get a gift.
• Tiered gift with purchase: The higher the order value, the better the gift, e.g., buy $50 for a mug; buy $100 for a carpet. 

Generally, some of its noticeable benefits include:

• Encourage larger purchases: Motivate shoppers to spend more to qualify for the free gift, which is highly effective in increasing average order value (AOV).
• Enhance customer loyalty: Create a streamlined shopping experience that makes them want to revisit your store.
• Promote specific products: Use a free gift to market specific products or categories by requiring customers to buy those items for the gift.

BOGOS Free Gift & Buy X Get Y

BOGOS is a widely trusted discount app that creates Shopify automatic discounts and free gift offers. It is designed to help merchants set up enticing promotions that increase their store revenue and enhance customer experience.

If you are not yet satisfied with Shopify’s native functionalities, BOGOS is the ideal app to generate and manage free gifts with purchase offers. The platform allows you to set up complex gift rules for more powerful campaigns.

BOGOS has some highlight features that can do merchants a great favor:

• Create and run multiple offers simultaneously: buy one, get one, tiered value offers, gift with purchase, and free or discounted gifts.
• Reward unique gifts for specific customer segments to gain better retention and satisfaction.
• Built-in integrations for cart drawers, translate apps, themes, subscriptions, and more.

Shopify rating: 4.9/5

Customer support: Documentation, FAQs, live chat, email, video call

Pricing: $23.99 – $79.99 per month

Create a gift with purchase offer with BOGOS

Step 1: Visit your BOGOS dashboard > Click Create offer and choose Buy X get Y.

Step 2:

Fill in the offer information, including offer title, active dates and time, and whether you want to add a cart message.

Regarding the combination with other offers, set its priority to the highest level (1). 

Step 3:

Select the number of products required to qualify for a gift. Choose whether the condition will apply to selected items or products in specific collections. Some of the sub-conditions are customer locations, specific link addresses, subscription products, etc.

Step 4:

Set the gift discount type to Free by choosing 100% for Percentage or 0 (money currency) for Amount.

Choose the number of gifts your customer will receive > Click Publish.

After meeting the conditions, the customer will be automatically entitled to a free gift at checkout.

The main difference between this approach and Shopify’s integrated features is that the app automates the entire process. This means the free item will automatically be added to the cart rather than customers manually clicking on messages to claim it.

6. Shopify Automatic Discount Best Practices 

Here are some of the best practices merchants can use to optimize their automatic discount activities.

Define your goals

Since Shopify offers diverse types of automatic discounts, you must determine your objectives for the sales campaigns before running them. This is because each promotion serves a different purpose, specifically:

• Increase AOV: Motivate customers to spend more by providing discounts on higher order values.
• Optimize your inventory: Use discounts to clear out excess or old stock, making room for better-selling items.
• Reward loyalty: Incentivize returning customers or loyalty program members with a discount on their orders.

If your store has multiple discounts being active, trigger them using a third-party app to reduce the risk of overlapping.

After that, you need to choose the right type of discount based on your goals. Here is how you can utilize some of them:

• BOGO: Encourage buyers to purchase more by offering extra items at a discount or for free.
• Fixed amount discounts: Provide a specific monetary amount off individual items or orders.
• Percentage discounts: A fixed percentage off is easy to understand and appealing to customers.

Set up conditions and eligibility

Your customers must meet specific promotion rules to qualify for a Shopify automatic discount. You can set up these conditions right within Shopify or a third-party app.

Pay attention to these key conditions for discount eligibility:

• Specific products or collections: Limit the discount to specific products or collections to target certain parts of your inventory.
• Minimum purchase requirement: Encourage buyers to spend more by setting a purchase threshold to earn this discount.
• Customer segments: Offer discounts to particular customer groups, such as VIP customers or first-time purchasers.

One advice is to avoid over-discounting by running too many offers. Make sure these promotions do not overly erode your profit margins, and avoid frequent discounts since they can devalue your products and train shoppers to wait for sales.

You should also display any conditions that apply to this discount to avoid confusion for customers and ensure that the discount practices comply with local regulations.

Market the promotion

After creating attractive automatic discounts, merchants should promote these offers on as many online platforms as possible.

On your store’s website, incorporate sales-triggering widgets like a countdown timer to urge quick decisions. Sometimes, you can surprise shoppers with short, unannounced deals to boost sales and engagement.

Our tip is to use visibility-prominent discount pop-ups and banners to inform website visitors about your active promotions. Also, ensure you clearly highlight the discount and savings on product pages and in the cart.

In addition to the website display, you should market your discounts via other channels, such as social media and email marketing. Communicate how your offers can benefit their shopping experience, even better if you can create a sense of exclusiveness to intrigue them.

Test and analyze performance

With all these practices going on, you ought to set key performance indicators (KPIs) in advance to assess the effectiveness of your discounts.

The following metrics are crucial to track and analyze:

• Conversion rate: The percentage of visitors who purchase using the free gift promotion.
• Average order value (AOV): Check whether the offer increases the average spend rate per customer.
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC): Identify if this promotion reduces the cost of acquiring new customers.
• Return on investment (ROI): Calculate your promotion’s ROI by comparing the generated revenue to the free gift cost.

When you monitor these metrics properly, you will be able to identify any issues and adjust them in a timely manner for optimal performance. Plus, you can conduct regular A/B testing to see which discount works best in your store.

7. Conclusion

In general, the Shopify automatic discount feature enables an automated process that reduces manual work for both merchants and shoppers. Consequently, it contributes to business growth and enhances customer satisfaction.

As you can see, setting up this type of promotion in Shopify is quite simple. It comes with a variety of discount rules to customize your offers and quickly activate them.

Nonetheless, certain advanced settings require the power of external apps like BOGOS, especially to trigger the discount automatically for eligible purchases. Consider your budget to subscribe to third-party software and leverage this discount experience to a new level.

8. FAQs