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

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As owners of e-commerce stores, we are always concerned about finding various ways to keep the clientele. One example is providing the consumer with certain discounts. This is where the Shopify customer group discounts comes in, making things easier and more efficient for everyone. It helps increase customer loyalty and stimulate sales while avoiding lagging behind competitors.

But how do you create these discounts and choose the right customer groups?

In this article, we will try to explain different customer segments and how to create discounts for each type of customer group on Shopify. Whether you aim to retain customers or gain more, we will discuss helpful strategies. So, by the time you finish this post, you’ll know how to craft customer group discounts that will drive results to your Shopify store.

1. Exploring Different Types of Shopify Customer Group Discounts

Below are all customer groups that merchants can create for their Shopify stores, including Shopify default segments and segments you can create using the Shopify third-party app.

New Customers

Discounts for new customers can welcome them and encourage a second purchase. For example, offer 10% off their first order to motivate them to explore your products. Creating discounts on first orders is a common method to attract new customers to your store. With Shopify, you can create discounts not only for your online store but also for your local store using the Shopify POS discount system. If you are using the Shopify platform for your e-commerce website, consider using Shopify POS for your local store to streamline your discount offerings across both online and physical locations. This integration can help ensure a consistent shopping experience for your customers and maximize your sales potential.

Returning Customers

As an indication of thanks and in a bid to create customer loyalty, loyal customers should be offered special discounts. For example, a free tote bag should be given to those who made a purchase within the last month.

Newsletter Subscribers

Your subscribers already have a favorable disposition toward your brand. To increase their interest in your products, just assure them that they can buy them at more attractive prices. For instance, offer a 20% discount on a certain range of products.

Abandoned Cart Shoppers

To get back customers, you can offer discounts to those who abandoned items in the cart. For example, you could offer a 10% discount on these items to encourage them to buy.

Wholesale Buyers

If you supply your products to other traders, you can always increase your sales volume and build relationships by offering them a reasonable discount on several units. For instance, you can offer a rebate of 5% of the total price if the order is more than $1000 or 10% if the order is above $5000.

Read more: How to Implement Shopify Wholesale Discount Strategies in 2024?

Discounts Based on Customer Order History

Records of previous customers’ purchases show what they require since the information details their needs. This allows you to offer customized discounts based on their order history – for example, a limited one-time-use coupon of 15% off a previously purchased product category.

You can also offer discounts to customers who have spent a minimum amount, such as 10% off for customers who have spent $500 or more or those who have made a certain number of orders, like 5% off for customers with at least 5 orders. By researching customer order history, your business will attract more repeat purchases.

Geographic Segments

This is important for locations you want to popularize since providing conversion discounts will help increase their sales. For instance, give the consumers of a particular state or country a $10 discount on every order.

Product Subscription

Subscribers should be retained through incentives, as they must keep wanting to be updated and try out new products on the market. For instance, offer free shipping on all subscription orders, a 10% discount on subscription orders, or a 20% discount to customers renewing their subscription.

Specific Customer

Sometimes, a discount to a specific customer can turn a one-time shopper into a loyal patron. For example, giving a personalized discount to a high-value customer named “Alex” can make them feel valued and encourage ongoing purchases, or you can make an exclusive Shopify discount for customers who are students.

Membership discount

Like other types of Shopify customer group discounts, membership discounts on Shopify are important in promoting sales and increasing customer loyalty to your store. For example, you offer a 10% discount to premium loyalty program members, which makes them feel valued and can drive higher average order values. 

Additionally, you can create specific groups, such as VIP customers or frequent buyers, and offer them exclusive deals, like free shipping or early access to new products. It’s a win-win: shoppers save money, and stores get repeat purchases.

2. How do you create a specific Shopify customer group using Shopify customer tags?

Suppose you, as a Shopify merchant, want to create a discount for a customer group that is separate from the categories mentioned above, such as VIP customers, seasonal shoppers, or even inactive customers. In that case, you can use the Shopify customer tag to group all customers based on specific criteria such as age, location, or customers who have recently purchased a specific product or collection. You can tag each customer manually or automate this process by using Shopify flow.

With manually tagging

To do this, follow the steps below:

As you see, manually tagging customers in Shopify allows you to categorize them based on specific criteria for targeted marketing or offers. The pros are that it gives you full control over how customers are tagged, and you can create custom tags tailored to your needs.

However, the cons is that manually tagging can take time, especially with a large customer base. It’s also prone to human error, and you may miss tagging some customers.

Automation using Shopify Flow

Shopify Flow is a free automation platform that allows you to create custom workflows to automate various tasks and processes within your Shopify store and connected apps. One common use case is automatically tagging customers based on certain conditions or events.

To set this up, you must first install the Shopify Flow app. Then, you can create a new workflow with a trigger (like an order being placed), add conditions (e.g., order total above $200), and define the action to add a specific tag to the customer’s account automatically. The given workflow will be implemented in the background, and the trigger event will be looked at, and the tag action will be performed after the specified conditions have been met.

This Shopify Flow guide will be very useful for creating customer tagging workflows and other automation. Let’s check it out!

3. How do you create specific Shopify customer group discounts using Shopify built-in features?

Now that you know which customer segments you can give on Shopify, we will show you how to create discounts for them.

Step 1: Access the Discounts tab from your Shopify Store interface.

Step 2: Click Create Discount.

Step 3: On the Select Discount Type list, you have:

• Amount off products: Reduce the price of specific items by a set amount, like $10 off.
• Amount off order: Take a fixed amount off the total order, like $20 off, with a minimum spend.
• Free shipping: Remove shipping costs, either for all orders or under certain conditions.
• Buy X get Y: Offer a free or discounted item when customers buy certain products or spend a set amount.

Choose any of them based on your marketing purpose. Here, we choose Amount off products as an example.

Step 4: For the discount method, Shopify customer group discounts will only be available when using the ‘Discount code’ method. In this case, you will ask customers to manually apply their discount code during checkout to receive the promotions. So, keep in mind that you will need clear communication to ensure that store visitors are fully aware of it.

Step 5: Next, you will need to set up offer requirements. Each type of offer will have a different setup in this step. While “amount off products” will only be applied to specific products or collections, “amount off order” will be applied store-wide. The ‘Buy X Get Y’ promotion also requires you to choose a product as the requirement and another product as the gift.

After that, navigate to the “Customer eligibility” section and choose “Specific customer segments”. In this section, you can see that Shopify has covered several customer segments to choose, for example if you want to target only new customers, click on “Customers who haven’t purchased.”

Step 6: In the Maximum discount uses section, choose:

• Limit total uses to set a usage cap (e.g., 200 times).
• Limit one per customer to restrict usage to one per customer via email or phone tracking.

Step 7: Set Active dates if needed. Click Save in the upper right corner.NOTE: This feature is limited in that it can only target new customers, returning customers, newsletter subscribers, and abandoned cart shoppers. To expand your reach, you can use third-party Shopify discount apps to create more specific customer group discounts.

4. Recommended Shopify app to create automatic discounts for specific customer groups

Shopify comes packed with a set of default options that let you use tags to create simple customer segments. However, you may need more complex ones to customize your discounts effectively. This is where a Shopify app has advantages.

These apps have already integrated features for various customer groups, such as order history (based on total value or total orders), membership or loyalty discounts (accumulating points to rank up and receive exclusive discounts), and wholesale discounts for bulk buyers.

Regarding support, you will have a specialized team of professionals to help you out at any given moment. It also means that you won’t be spending time trying to identify how exactly you need to navigate through a complicated workflow or how to fix issues with manual segmentation. Still, you can always count on the app support team. This saves you time and makes your customer segmentation strategy easier to work efficiently.

BOGOS Free Gift is a Shopify app that is no longer unfamiliar to those specializing in creating automatic promotions for specific customer groups on Shopify. Here are its core features:

• Rating: 4.9/5 stars
• Reviews: 1,896 reviews
• Price: From $29.99/month (with a 7-day free trial)
• Features: BOGO, Buy X Get Y, Free Gift With Purchase, Product Bundles, Quantity Breaks, and Volume Discounts
• Advantages: Boosts AOV, increases sales and improves customer shopping experiences

With BOGOS.io, you can target many groups of customers, such as wholesale buyers, product subscriptions, specific customers, and especially geographic and order history—something rare in other apps.

The app’s user-friendly interface and advanced customization options make setting up and managing your promotions easier than ever. Plus, its dedicated live chat and technical support ensure you get the help 24/7. Come on & give it a try!

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident that Shopify customer group discounts are a great marketing strategy for Shopify store owners. This can be achieved by using Shopify’s built-in customer group discount features. If the above seems a bit overwhelming, use the BOGOS app, which is the perfect solution for organizing customer groups and discounts. 

6. FAQs