A Look At The Shopify Discount Options

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Merchants that wanted to offer discounts to their shoppers had to use the Discounts API - previously only available to Shopify Plus users. Now, all Shopify users can create discounts straight from your admin.

Discounts and sales are a major strategy for lots of online merchants. In fact, last year one in five purchases from Shopify merchants used a discount code. Coupon codes can be used to grab those who are unable or unwilling to pay full price; or can help in increasing overall order value. They can be used to reward customers who are loyal and keep them coming back, or to entice people who might be hesitant to try you out.

Earlier this year, Shopify released a Price Rules API which allows all Shopify merchants to set up discounts straight from the left sidebar of your admin.

Option 1: Fixed Price Discounts

You can set up a fixed amount discount, like $10 off your customer’s total. Fixed price discounts are good for increasing the total order value that people are spending.

Option 2: Percentage-Based Discounts

Set a percentage discount, like 15% off the total order. This is often used to help grab the interest of new customers.

Option 3: Free Shipping

Offering free shipping is a way to stay competitive, and reduce abandoned carts that come from a jump in price due to shipping. Check out more about shipping strategies here.

Bonus Read: Introducing Buy One Get One (BOGO) & Quantity Discounts!

Keep it contained

You don’t necessarily want an unlimited amount of people to use a discount code, or for your customers to use it every time they shop with you. You can set up a few different parameters so that your discount actually becomes meaningful, such as:

  • The dates the code is active, like a flash sale
  • Certain groups of customers, like if you give a promotion to a partner company or to your wholesale clients
  • The total number of times the code can be used so you don’t mess with your margins too much
  • Restricting the code to one use per customer
  • The products or collections the code applies to
  • Only offering a discount after a minimum spend

Discounts should be used as part of a marketing strategy - not just thrown about for no good reason. It makes sense for your business to offer a discount to introduce a new product, bring back previous customers or get rid of your overstock. It makes less sense to offer a discount on your best-selling products to people who are willing to pay full price.

What are some other ways to set discounts?

Use Kit

If you’ve got Kit, you can use it to set up a discount. Kit makes setting up a marketing plan, including running a discount code, as easy as sending a text to an employee. Be warned though, unless you change the settings, Kit will have your discount open to all customers on all products and run for 7 days. You can change this by telling Kit exactly what you want. Kit will then use your Facebook and Email marketing platforms to inform your customers about the discount code.

Use Klaviyo Dynamic Coupons

If you use Klaviyo as your email marketing client, they can help you set up dynamic coupons for emails - coupon codes that can only be used once and for specific purposes. For example, you can send a 30% welcome coupon to new subscribers, set up directly in Klaviyo.

Make Automatic Discounts

You can install an app to let you send a discount link instead of a code. The app will set up the discount for you, but let you insert a link directly into an email. Following the link will take your customer to your products page, with the discount already applied when they check out. This means your customer won’t have to enter the code (and can’t share it), and you’ll be able to easily send a link to whichever targeted audience you want.

Some more resources

You can learn more about creating a discount code with Shopify’s manual here. You can also take a look at some of these ideas for inspiration about what kinds of coupons you want to offer. Elkfox can help set up a discounting strategy, or incorporate discounts into a loyalty and email marketing platform. Get in touch with us to find out more.