Rewards Bar with Automatic Discounts

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 only visualizes the discount achievement. EliteCart does not create discounts for you and does not apply discounts to the cart. Instead, you must create automatic discounts in Shopify.

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 gifts 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:

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”. Unless 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: Discounts must be explicitly set to combine in their settings. If not done right, this can lead to very high discount combinations.

• 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