This feature utilizes Shopify's cart transform functions to allow any product in your catalog to serve as both a regular purchase item and a gift reward, automatically applying free pricing when threshold conditions are met.
Shopify Plus account (required for cart transform functions)
EliteCart Professional or Enterprise account
Gift rewards configured in EliteCart
Cart transform functions run at checkout, automatically setting gift product prices to $0 when customers qualify. The same product can be:
Purchased normally at full price
Given free as a reward when thresholds are met
Gifts are automatically protected from quantity manipulation, even at checkout
Go to Cart Designer → Rewards & free shipping
Switch to the Settings & design tab
Scroll down to Automatic gift application
Click Enable function
The function will utilize all of your existing reward settings:
Threshold types:
Cart total: Based on subtotal value
Item count: Based on quantity of items
Market-specific rules:
Always show: Available in all markets
Hide specific: Block in selected countries
Show specific: Only available in selected countries
Multi-currency support:
Automatic conversion using presentment currency rates
Thresholds in store currency or market currency
Seamless operation across all markets
The function automatically excludes from threshold calculations:
Addon products (count toward total but not item count)
Gift cards
Gifted rewards themselves
Products with exclusion tag _elite_exclude_from_reward_calculation
This feature utilizes Shopify's cart transform functions rather than discounts. This has the benefit that they reliably work alongside other store discounts without interference.
Operational notes:
Discounts apply both in the cart and at checkout, if the product was added as a gift by EliteCart.
Functions respects all configured market visibility rules
If you allow customers to modify item quantities at checkout, the following applies:
If a customer increases the quantity of a gift to greater than 1, the gift will revert to full price. (It will be discounted again if the customer changes the quantity back to 1)
If a customer changes other items in the cart and goes below a gift's threshold, the gift will revert to full price
If a customer changes their shipping country, market rules for that country will be applied
For technical reasons, EliteCart cannot remove or add gifts during checkout, but only before checkout (in the cart). In the checkout, we can only enforce rules by changing the price of the gift between full price and free.
Discount interaction:
The Cart Transform function runs before any discount — whether it's a Shopify automatic discount, a buyer-applied code at checkout, an app-generated promotion like "Buy 3 get 2", or EliteCart's own Reward Discounts. That means the function always evaluates gift eligibility against the pre-discount cart subtotal, regardless of what discounts are later applied.
Practical consequence: if a customer's pre-discount cart meets the gift threshold, the gift stays free even when the post-discount total drops below the threshold.
Example: You require a $100 cart total for a free gift. The customer's cart is $105, EliteCart adds the gift, and the Cart Transform zeros the gift price. A 20% discount is then applied (in the cart, at checkout, or from another app) and drops the post-discount total to $84. The gift remains free because the Cart Transform already made its decision using the pre-discount $105. We think this is good because it removes potential friction during checkout.
You may also notice that the reward progress bar in the cart drawer shows "not qualified" in this situation (because the bar reflects the post-discount total the customer actually sees in the cart), while the Cart Transform still gives the gift for free. This is expected: the bar is informational and uses post-discount math; the Cart Transform uses pre-discount math because that's the only data Shopify exposes to it.
If you want stricter behaviour — block checkout entirely when a discount drops the cart below the threshold — enable the Gift Eligibility Enforcement function (works on all Shopify plans, available alongside or instead of Cart Transform). Note however that gift-eligibility validation also uses the pre-discount cart total deliberately, so a buyer-applied code at checkout never hard-blocks completion; see the Gift Eligibility Enforcement article for the full rationale.
To disable the cart transform function:
Go to Cart Designer → Rewards & free shipping → Settings & design → Automatic gift application
Click Disable function in gift application section
Confirm deactivation
The function will be removed from Shopify and gift products will return to normal pricing behavior.
Function not activating:
Verify Shopify Plus subscription
Check shop permissions for function deployment
Ensure EliteCart app has required scopes
Gifts not discounting:
Confirm __eliteCartGift property present on line items
Verify quantity is exactly 1
Check threshold configuration in reward settings
Review market visibility settings
Conflicts with other discounts:
Cart transform functions operate independently
No interference with discount codes or automatic discounts
Gift discounts stack with other promotions
