A great way to get more sales is to offer your customers discount codes but how do you create these in Shopify?
Well, that is what we are going to cover in this short Shopify tutorial, so let’s get started…
Creating a New Discount Code
One great thing about Shopify is that they offer the functionality to create discount codes as one of their standard features and this can be accessed by clicking on the Discounts heading in the main Shopify admin menu and you will be greeted by the following screen.
When you click on the Create Discount button, a popup will appear asking you which type of discount you would like to create and there are 4 options to choose from:
- Amount off Products
- Amount off Order
- Buy X Get Y
- Free Shipping
We are going to cover all of these methods below:
1. Amount off Products & Amount off Order
We have decided to combine these two into one as they are very similar to set up (there is only one difference between the two!).
The first setting is to choose whether you want it to be in the form of a code or an automatic discount, if you want it to be a code, then you must enter a name for it.
You can choose to create your own discount code name (generally best practice from a marketing perspective) or you can click the Generate button and Shopify will create one for you.
The second is to set the value of the discount and you can choose either a percentage discount such as 10% off or a fixed amount such as $10 off.
This is the only section that differs between these two discount types as the Amount off Order doesn’t include the option to choose products, you just enter the value of the discount and move on to the next section.
For the product-based discount, you need to select which products or collections this discount applies to and there are two in which they can be selected, either start typing the name of the collection or product and a popup will appear with all of the options matching what you put.
Or you can click on the browse button and it will show a list of all the products or collections, which you can then select. For these discounts, you can select multiple collections or products and once they have been selected, they will appear below this box.
You can also remove and collections or products that may have been added by mistake by clicking the X icon.
The next set of options related to the requirements for this discount and can be based on order information and/or customer eligibility, which helps you target specific groups.
For the Minimum Purchase Requirements, you can opt for:
- No requirements, meaning it applies to all checkouts on your store
- Minimum purchase amount, this is where you set the minimum order value in order for the discount code to be used
- Minimum number of items, the customer has to have a least this number of items in the checkout in order to use the code
The second options are for customer eligibility and you can choose:
- All customers, so every customer can use the code
- Specific customer segments, if you have created segments for customers, for example, customers who have placed x amount of orders or spent over x amount, then you can select them here
- Specific customer, this is if you know exactly which customers you would like to use the code
The final set of options are for the usage of the code in terms of how many times the code can be used and you can also set a time limit as well, which is great for seasonal promotions.
The options for these are pretty self-explanatory as you select either the number of times and then enter your chosen number or limit it to one use per customer if you want to place a limit on the code.
And for the dates, set the date and time that you want the code the go live and if you want to set an end date, check the box and enter the date and time that you want it to finish.
You can preview all of the settings for the discount code on the right-hand side of the screen and when you are happy, just click save and the discount code will be added to your store.
2. Create a Buy X Get Y Discount Code
The second type of discount is for offers such as buy-on-get-on-free, 3 for 2 or spend X amount and get something free for example and this is slightly different to set up than the last two codes.
The first section of the page is to choose whether this discount comes in the form of a code or is automatically applied to the order.
You can choose to create your own custom discount code name or have Shopify generate one for you.
Next up is configuring the offer settings, which are:
- Customer Buys Settings
- Choose whether it is based on the number of items bought or the amount spent
- Enter the quantity or value
- Choose whether it applies to specific products or collections
- Select the products or collections
- Customer Gets Settings
- Enter the quantity of items that the customer will receive
- Choose whether it is a product or collection
- Select the products or collections
- Choose whether they get a discount on these products or get them for free
- Enter the number of uses per order if applicable
Once these settings have been configured, you can then set up the usage options for these discount codes, which includes:
- Customer Eligibility – whether this applies to all customers, specific customer segments or just for specific customers
- Minimum Discount Rates – this allows you to limit the total amount of times this code can be used and/or limit it to one usage per customer
- Date Range – choose the start time and date and you can also add an optional end date for the discount
3. Free Shipping
The easiest of the discount codes to set up is the Free Shipping one as all you need to do is either create or have Shopify generate a code.
The second option is to choose the countries to which this discount code applies and you can select:
- All Countries – which means it applies to all countries for which you have created shipping methods
- Selected Countries – choose which countries you want this code to apply to (can only choose from countries for which you have created a shipping method)
The final option in this section is to exclude Shipping Rates over a certain amount.
The final options are very similar to those in the other discount codes as you can choose a minimum purchase requirement, which allows you to offer Free Shipping if they spend over a certain amount or buy a certain number of items.
Customer eligibility, choose whether it applies to all customers, certain customer segments or just an offer for specific customers.
Then you set the usage limits if you want to by either selecting the maximum amount of times that this code can be used or choose to limit it to one use per customer.
The final settings are the dates where this code is active and you need to enter a start date and time but you can also set an end date and time if you wish.
Conclusion
Creating discounts on Shopify is pretty straightforward and the only one that is a little bit challenging is setting up the Buy X Get Y one as there are quite a few different options and configurations that you can use but if you spend some time playing around with them, it soon becomes easier to understand.
So if offering discounts is part of your Shopify store’s marketing strategy, then I hope this guide has been helpful in some way as it can be a little bit daunting to start with but when done right, can help you get more sales and improve your store’s conversion rates.
Hi, I'm Paul, the Owner and Founder of EcommerceGold.
I ran my own Ecommerce Business for over 7 years and now help others start their own online retail empires!