Discounts and promotions that drive behaviour (not just margin loss)

Discounts and promotions that drive behaviour (not just margin loss)

Discounts are a lever, not a lifestyle. Shopify gives you two main promo styles: discount codes and automatic discounts. Both are built in. You can create dollar-off, percentage-off, free shipping, or buy X get Y promotions.

Discount codes are manual: the customer enters a code at checkout (or POS), and Shopify applies it if the cart qualifies. You can target specific products, collections, or customer segments, and you can limit usage. This is great for email, influencers, and paid campaigns because you can attribute performance.

Automatic discounts do the work for the shopper — no code needed. Shopify can auto-apply a promotion like “Spend $150, get 15% off,” “Buy 2, get 1 free,” or “Free shipping over $99,” and show that in cart/checkout. These are perfect for incentivising bigger baskets or clearing seasonal stock. You can run up to 25 active automatic discounts, including app-based ones.

A bonus play: abandoned checkout recovery discounts. Shopify lets you embed a unique incentive into your abandoned checkout email so the shopper gets a “Hey, you left this behind — here’s X% off if you complete now” follow-up. You’re not guessing; you’re rescuing otherwise lost revenue.

We always build discount logic around profit, not ego. If you’re running 20% off without understanding AOV, return rate and fulfilment cost, you’re not “doing marketing,” you’re donating margin.

Want help designing discount logic that increases conversion without training your audience to only buy on sale? Talk to us and we’ll build a promo playbook that makes financial sense.