Automatic Discount Rewards

Discounts are a sure way to incentivize customers to increase their order value or quantity to unlock them. Here's how you can set up discount rewards with Shopify's automatic discounts in EliteCart, including three powerful strategies: monetary thresholds, quantity-based discounts, and advanced product exclusion techniques.

EliteCart supports two discount types: Advanced fully managed discounts; and legacy Shopify-managed discounts. For most scenarios EliteCarts fully managed discounts are advantageous, easier to handle and offer more possibilities.

Discounts are a reliable way to incentivize customers to increase their order value or quantity to unlock them. In Rewards V2 you have two ways to run a discount reward in EliteCart:

1. Discount (advanced) — recommended, new. EliteCart sets up and applies a Shopify automatic order discount for you. You configure the percentage or fixed amount directly inside the reward in EliteCart — no Shopify-side discount setup required. This is the fastest path and what we recommend for new rewards.

2. Discount (legacy) — the original approach. You create an automatic discount in Shopify Admin yourself, and the EliteCart reward bar visualises progress toward it. Use this if you need to reuse an existing Shopify-side discount, need discount-combination semantics that advanced discounts do not support, or need a discount type other than "amount off order" (e.g. "Buy X get Y", which has to be set up in Shopify).

Both types remain fully supported and can coexist in the same reward bar.

Path 1 (Recommended): Discount (advanced)

When you click Add reward in EliteCart, pick Discount (advanced) from the reward-type modal (it carries a "New" badge). This reward type uses a Shopify Function that EliteCart provisions for you — no merchant-side Shopify discount needs to exist.

Setup flow

1. In Cart designer → Rewards → Rewards tab, click Add reward.

2. Pick Discount (advanced) from the modal.

3. Set the Threshold — the cart value (or item count) customers need to reach.

4. In the new Discount configuration card:

   • Toggle between Percentage and Fixed amount.

   • Enter the discount value. For fixed amount, enter it in your store's base currency — EliteCart converts it to each customer's presentment currency automatically at checkout.

   • Set the Discount title — the label customers see at checkout (e.g. "10% off your order"). Translatable per language.

5. (Optional) Under Apply discount to, restrict the discount to specific collections (include mode) or exclude certain collections.

6. (Optional) Uncheck Don't apply this discount to subscription items if you want the discount to also apply to subscription line items. By default subscription lines are excluded.

7. (Optional) Use the reward's Conditional visibility, Shopify Markets, and Visibility scheduling cards to further restrict when / where / for whom the discount applies.

8. Click Save. EliteCart creates and activates the corresponding Shopify Function-based automatic order discount for you. There is nothing to do in Shopify Admin.

How stacking works for advanced discounts

Only one advanced discount applies per cart, even if the customer qualifies for multiple. Shopify's native MAXIMUM selection strategy automatically picks the single highest-value qualifying reward, so tiered progressions just work:

• Example: Reward 1 — Spend $50, 5% off. Reward 2 — Spend $100, 10% off.

• A customer with a $60 cart gets the 5% discount. A customer with a $110 cart gets the 10% discount (not 5% + 10%). No additional configuration needed.

Collection filtering (advanced only)

If you want the discount to apply to only part of the cart — for example, "Spend $100 on skincare, get $20 off skincare" — use the Apply discount to → Specific collections mode inside the Discount configuration card and pick the collection. EliteCart's Shopify Function applies the discount only to the matching lines. You do not need to use product tags or create Shopify-side product-scoped discounts for this anymore.

Subscription exclusion (advanced only)

By default advanced discounts are not applied to subscription line items (recurring or prepaid), so you don't cannibalise recurring revenue. Uncheck Don't apply this discount to subscription items in the Discount configuration card if you want the opposite.

UTM-targeted advanced discounts

Advanced discount rewards support UTM-parameter conditional visibility via a cart-attribute bridge to the Shopify Function. You can run something like "customers who arrive via ?utm_campaign=vip-gift get 15% off" — see the UTM section in the Setting Up Rewards V2 article for how to configure it.

Path 2 (Legacy): Discount (legacy) with a Shopify-managed discount

The rest of this article covers the legacy path, where you set up an automatic discount in Shopify Admin → Discounts yourself and then link the reward bar to it by adding a Discount (legacy) reward in EliteCart. Everything below is unchanged from the original workflow.

Understanding Shopify Discount Types

Shopify offers several discount types:

• Amount off products: Discounts specific products or collections

• Buy X Get Y: Customers buy certain products to get other products free or discounted

• Amount off order: Discounts the entire order total

• Free shipping: Removes shipping costs

Automatic Discount Types for Different Scenarios

*we generally recommend creating separate free gift products rather than using discounts.

Key Insights:

1. Amount off order: For discounts on the ENTIRE order

   • Works with quantity thresholds (order X items)

   • Works with monetary thresholds (spend $X)

   • Most versatile and commonly used

2. Amount off products: For discounts on SPECIFIC products only

   • Also works with quantity thresholds (order X specific items)

   • Also works with monetary thresholds (spend $X on specific items)

   • Use when discount should be restricted to certain collections

3. Buy X get Y: Only for free product offers

   • Use with EliteCart's Gift reward feature

   • Consider using separate free gift product instead.

4. Free Shipping: Don’t use discounts

   • Configure in Shopify's shipping settings

Creating Automatic Discounts in Shopify for EliteCart

The EliteCart reward bar can work with multiple discount types depending on your strategy:

For Standard Discount Rewards:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Discounts and click "Create discount"

2. Choose one of these discount types based on your needs:

   • Amount off order: For simple percentage/fixed discounts on entire order

   • Amount off products: For more targeted discounts (can work with or without product restrictions)

3. Switch the Method to Automatic Discount to ensure automatic application

For Gift Rewards:

We generally recommend creating separate free gift products rather than using discounts.

If you're offering a free product as a reward (using EliteCart's gift reward feature):

1. Choose Buy X Get Y as the discount type

2. Set up the qualifying conditions (what customers must buy)

3. Specify the gift product that EliteCart will automatically add

4. Set the discount to “Free”

5. Set number of maximum uses per order to 1

Discount Implementation Strategies

Strategy 1: Order-Wide Discounts (Amount off Order)

Use "Amount off order" when you want the discount to apply to the ENTIRE order.

Quantity-Based Examples:

• Order 3 items, get 10% off

• Order 5 items, get 15% off

• Order 10 items, get $50 off

Setup in Shopify:

1. Create discount → Select "Amount off order"

2. Choose "Automatic discount"

3. Set discount value (percentage or fixed amount)

4. Under Minimum purchase requirements:

   • Select "Minimum quantity of items"

   • Enter quantity (e.g., 3)

Monetary-Based Examples:

• Spend $50, get 5% off

• Spend $100, get 10% off

• Spend $200, get $30 off

Setup in Shopify:

1. Create discount → Select "Amount off order"

2. Choose "Automatic discount"

3. Set discount value (percentage or fixed amount)

4. Under Minimum purchase requirements:

   • Select "Minimum purchase amount ($)"

   • Enter amount (e.g., $100)

You can stack multiple rewards in this way. E.g. “order 3 items, get 10% off”; “order 5 items, get 15% off”; “order 10 items, get 20% off”. Even if discounts are set to combine, Shopify will automatically choose the highest possible discount.

Strategy 2: Product-Specific Discounts (Amount off Products)

Use "Amount off products" when you want the discount to apply ONLY to specific products/collections.

Quantity-Based Product Discounts:

Example: "Order 3 shoes, get 10% off shoes"

Setup in Shopify:

1. Create discount → Select "Amount off products"

2. Choose "Automatic discount"

3. Under Apply to, select specific collection (e.g., "Shoes")

4. Set discount value (10%)

5. Under Minimum purchase requirements:

   • Select "Minimum quantity of items"

   • Enter quantity (3)

   • Note: Only items from the selected collection count

Monetary-Based Product Discounts:

Example: "Spend $100 on skincare, get $20 off skincare"

Setup in Shopify:

1. Create discount → Select "Amount off products"

2. Choose "Automatic discount"

3. Under Apply to, select specific collection (e.g., "Skincare")

4. Set discount value ($20)

5. Under Minimum purchase requirements:

   • Select "Minimum purchase amount ($)"

   • Enter amount ($100)

   • Note: Only spending on the selected collection counts

EliteCart Configuration for Both:

• Use Discount reward type

• Match thresholds exactly

• Apply the following tag to all products that are not part of this collection _elite_exclude_from_reward_calculation. That way EliteCart will not take them into account when calculating the reward progress.

• Clear messaging:

  • Quantity: "Order 3 shoes for 10% off shoes"

  • Monetary: "Spend $100 on skincare for $20 off"

Strategy 3: Free Product Rewards (Buy X Get Y)

Use "Buy X get Y" when offering free products as rewards.

Important Note: While this is entirely possible, we generally recommend creating separate free gifts rather than using discounts to not limit yourself in regards to discount combinations and usage of discounts in other ways.

Option A: Quantity-Based Free Gift

Example: "Order 3 items, get free socks"

Setup in Shopify:

1. Create discount → Select "Buy X get Y"

2. Choose "Automatic discount"

3. Under Customer buys:

   • Minimum quantity of items: 3

   • Any items from: All products

4. Under Customer gets:

   • Quantity: 1

   • Specific product: Your gift product

   • At discounted value: Free

Option B: Monetary-Based Free Gift

Example: "Spend $100, get free tote bag"

Setup in Shopify:

1. Create discount → Select "Buy X get Y"

2. Choose "Automatic discount"

3. Under Customer buys:

   • Minimum purchase amount: $100

4. Under Customer gets:

   • Quantity: 1

   • Specific product: Your gift product

   • At discounted value: Free

EliteCart Configuration for Both:

• Use Gift reward type (not discount reward)

• EliteCart automatically adds the gift to cart

• Shopify discount makes it free

Strategy 4: Free Shipping

Do NOT use discount types for free shipping.

Correct Setup:

1. In Shopify, go to Settings → Shipping and delivery

2. Edit your shipping zones

3. Add rate with conditions:

   • Name: "Free shipping"

   • Price: $0

   • Conditions: Minimum order value (e.g., $100)

EliteCart Configuration:

• Use Shipping reward type

• Set threshold to match shipping settings

• Message: "Spend {amount} more for free shipping!"

Important: Discount Combination Rules

Shopify has strict rules about discount combinations that affect all strategies:

Key Limitations:

• Discount Combinations: Several order discounts cannot combine, even if they are set to combine. Shopify will always show the highest discount only.

• Test Combinations: Always test how discounts interact before launching

For Buy X Get Y Gift Rewards:

• Be especially careful as these can conflict with other discount types

• Consider whether the gift discount should combine with order discounts

• Test thoroughly to ensure the gift is properly discounted when conditions are met

Read more about combining discounts at Shopify's help center.

Best Practices

1. Test Different Strategies: Try various approaches over time (stacked order discounts, category-specific, gift rewards, combinations) to find what works best

2. Keep It Simple: Don't overwhelm customers. Keep it simple and easy to understand.

3. Clear Communication: Ensure messaging clearly indicates which products count toward rewards

4. Consider Combinations: Be mindful of discount combination rules and conflicts

5. Make Thresholds Achievable: Set realistic goals that encourage additional purchases

6. Update Seasonally: Adjust your discount structure during peak seasons or sales events

7. Use Shipping Settings: For free shipping, use Shopify's shipping settings rather than discounts