How to Automatically Add A Free Gift to Cart on Shopify? Step-by-Step Guide

According to Google’s purchasing behavioral studies, promotions featuring free gifts typically look more attractive to shoppers. That is why a free gift with purchase or Gift with purchase is a proven strategy for e-commerce business owners to maximize their revenues. 

Shopify Native Discount is a very popular tool for Shopify merchants to create “free gift with purchase” promotions. However, its biggest issue is that the free gift is not automatically added to the cart even when the conditions have been met.

In this blog article, we’ll walk you through three primary methods for automating the process and streamlining customer journeys, including:

• Using Shopify Free Gift apps.
• Using the free Shopify Flow app.
• Customizing your Shopify themes

Using a Shopify Free Gift app will be the easiest method, but it will incur an additional fee. The other two methods are completely free to use, but they will require more technical skill.

Let’s dive in!

1. How to automatically add a free gift to the cart on Shopify?

As alternatives to Shopify’s built-in discount feature, there are 3 ways you can automatically add a free product to your customer’s cart. Let’s see one by one below:

Method 1: Using a Shopify Free Gift app

The easiest and most complete way to automatically add free gifts to the cart on Shopify is by using apps. While you’ll pay a monthly fee, the time you save and the features you get are usually worth the cost.

Shopify apps made for free gift offers give you many benefits:

• No coding needed: Set up in minutes, not days
• Easy-to-use dashboards: Create and manage offers with simple clicks
• Smart targeting: Add free gifts based on cart total, products bought, customer groups, and more
• See what works: Track which offers bring in the most sales
• Professional widget: Show free gifts with nice pop-ups and cart messages
• Better inventory control: Keep track of gift stock separate from regular products

Think of it this way: While you might want to save money with do-it-yourself options, apps give you tested features that work right away. When we talk about automatically adding free gifts to the cart, what you can do really depends on which solution you pick.

Among the best Shopify apps for automatically adding free gifts to cart, BOGOS.io stands out for its many features and easy-to-use design. This app is made just for “Buy One, Get One”, free gift offers, bundles & upsell offers, giving store owners powerful tools.

Key Features:

• Many ways to trigger gifts: Give free gifts based on cart value, specific products bought, customer groups, or mix-and-match rules
• Let customers choose: Allow shoppers to pick their free gift from a list
• Smart stock management: Avoid running out of promotional items
• Eye-catching displays: Get more sales with progress bars and nice gift showcases
• Track results: See which offers make the most money

The app’s simple dashboard lets you set up even complex free gift offers without tech skills. Whether you want to give a free gift on orders over $50, add a sample with certain products, or give special gifts to VIP customers, BOGOS.io makes it easy.

The app costs about $29/month, but the extra sales and bigger orders usually pay for this within the first few weeks of using it. BOGOS also offers a 7-day free trial so you can test all its functions.

Below is a step-by-step guide on how to create free gift with purchase offers using BOGOS:

Method 2: Using the free Shopify Flow apps

If you’re looking for a no-cost option to automatically add free gifts to the cart on Shopify, the Shopify Flow app might be your answer. This built-in automation tool can help you set up free gift offers without paying for extra apps.

Shopify Flow is a free automation tool that comes with Shopify Plus (and is now available on most Shopify plans). It lets you create “if this, then that” workflows for your store. Think of it as a way to make your store do things automatically when certain conditions are met.

For example, you can create a workflow that says: “If a customer adds items worth more than $100 to their cart, then automatically add a free gift product.”

Setting up free gift automation in Shopify Flow works in three steps:

• Trigger: Choose what starts the workflow (example: cart value reaches $75)
• Condition: Add any extra rules (example: customer is from the USA)
• Action: Set what happens (example: add a specific free gift product to the cart)

You can create different triggers based on:

• Cart value
• Products in cart
• Customer tags or groups
• Time of day or special dates
• Previous purchase history

Shopify Flow is completely free for all merchants and integrates seamlessly with both Shopify and third-party apps, but it also comes with some drawbacks, like:

• The need for coding skills for complex setups.
• Lack of multilingual support.
• Restrictions on editing third-party app orders and possible workflow failures with unsupported features.

To better understand how the Shopify Flow app works, you can watch this tutorial video:

Method 3: Customize Shopify themes

The third way to automatically add free gifts to the cart on Shopify is by customizing your store’s theme with code. This method gives you complete control over how free gift offers work and look, but requires coding knowledge.

When you customize your Shopify theme, you’re basically creating a pop-up that shows free gift options when customers meet certain requirements, like reaching a specific cart value. The code adds products to the cart automatically when these conditions are met.

The process involves:

1. Accessing your theme files
2. Adding JavaScript code to detect cart conditions
3. Creating pop-up displays for eligible free gifts
4. Writing functions to add the selected gift to the cart

Custom code gives you complete control over how your free gift offers work and look, with no monthly fees and the ability to create exactly what you want without limits. The main drawbacks are that coding skills are required, you’ll need to maintain and update the code yourself, and troubleshooting can be difficult if something breaks after Shopify updates.

To make this process easier, you can follow this helpful video guide from Shopioso that walks through the steps of adding free gift functionality to your Shopify theme:

The method is best for store owners who have coding experience or access to a developer. While it takes more technical work upfront, the long-term benefits include no recurring costs and complete flexibility in how your free gift offers work.

2. How to use a gift slider to add multiple free gifts to the cart in Shopify?

What is a gift slider?

In terms of automatically adding free gifts to Shopify carts, merchants struggle with offering customers a choice between multiple gift options. In many cases, customers just want to select their preferred free items. This key insight has led to the development of the gift slider feature as a solution. 

A gift slider is a type of pop-up that provides products or free gifts based on specific purchase requirements. Although similar to the auto add-to-cart feature, a slider would be more helpful for customers to choose between a set of many items.

In this competitive market of gift apps, BOGOS.io Free Gift BOGO Bundle stands out as a superior solution. This Shopify app provides an internal gift slider tool that acts like a pop-up, showcasing free gifts for customers to select when they meet the specific conditions, such as spending threshold, maximum quantity, or particular products.

3. Best Practices for Managing Free Gift Promotions

Many factors affect the impact of a free gift promotion campaign. To have the most effective one, follow our best practices below.

Choose suitable gifts

The right gift is one of the elements that influence your promotion’s success. You can choose items that complement your main products, which add value to customers’ purchases. Considering products that customers frequently buy together or new items you want to promote is a method of selecting gifts to offer.

The free gifts should also be relevant to your target audience. They should match their interests and needs. If customers don’t prefer the gifts, your promotions’ effectiveness may not be high.

As a merchant running a business, of course, you should choose cost-effective gifts so as not to affect your profit margins. Also, it’s great if you can incorporate your branding factors, like logo design, into the gifts. Take them as a chance for branding!

Clearly communicate the conditions.

You will need to clearly decide the criteria for gifts and communicate such criteria to your customers. Transparent communication is necessary to help avoid customer confusion and ensure a smooth shopping experience. 

Make sure you have worked in detail on the requirements for receiving the free gift. They can be minimum purchase amounts, specific products, or cart totals. Such conditions should be easily accessible and straightforward. 

You may use banners, popups, or product page messages to emphasize the promotion details. Use simple language and display clear product images to make your offer instantly noticeable. That helps your customers find and understand it easily.

Transparency will facilitate your campaign’s effectiveness. It also helps you to build trust and prevents misunderstandings that could lead to dissatisfaction.

Set promotion time wisely.

Timing is also a factor that contributes to a promotion campaign’s success. When setting up a free gift campaign, you can consider your target audience’s purchasing behaviors and seasonal trends or holidays. You may match the promotion with peak shopping periods or relevant events to maximize its effectiveness. 

Besides, carefully calculate the length of promotions. If you run it too long, it may dilute the impact. Instead, you can create a sense of urgency by setting clear start and end dates. Don’t forget to monitor and analyze its effectiveness to identify the suitable timing for future campaigns.

Market your promotion across channels.

Marketing is necessary for conveying your promotion to a broad audience. You can utilize your website, social media, or email newsletters to promote it. Depending on the strategy, you can use paid advertising to widen its reach as well.

For marketing effectiveness, you need to create compelling content and materials. They should highlight the value of the free gift and encourage customers to engage. You may also track the metrics of different channels to assess which ones drive the most traffic, then adjust your strategy accordingly.

Track and analyze performance.

Similar to any other campaign, free gift promotions require tracking and analysis. If you use an app like BOGOS to manage your campaign, its built-in features will provide you with real-time analytics. Thanks to that, you can adjust your strategy for better performance.

You can monitor the metrics like conversion rates, average order value, and total sales to assess the offer’s effectiveness. Besides, collecting feedback from customers is another way to understand their experience with the promotion.

4. Conclusion

Shopify adding free gifts to the cart is a type of promotion that can contribute to your store’s development. You can set it up in several ways; however, utilizing Shopify apps is the optimal one. It’s simple, time-saving, and delivers a smooth customer experience. If you haven’t tried it yet, consider using BOGOS to launch your first free gift campaign!

5. FAQs