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The 5 things every merchant needs to know about using Shopify discount codes

4 min read
created Jan 31 2018
The 5 things every merchant needs to know about using Shopify discount codes

Last week we discussed how you can run Shopify sales in your store by adjusting the price and compare at price of items. Adjusting the price of your items is a simple yet effective way to run a site wide sale within your Shopify store.

But what if you want to limit your sale to specific products or customers?

Perhaps you want to run a sale on just your slow movers to get them selling faster.

Or maybe you want to offer a discount code to reward a specific group of your best shoppers.

This is where Shopify discount codes can really shine. Shopify discount codes give you much greater control over running sales within your store.

In today's post, I'd like to discuss the 5 things every Shopify merchant needs to know about creating and using discount codes within Shopify.

We'll cover:

  1. The types of discounts can you run using Shopify discount codes
  2. Specifying which products to include in your Shopify discount code
  3. Choosing which shoppers are eligible to use your Shopify discount code
  4. Limiting the number of uses of your Shopify discount codes
  5. Setting the timeframe your Shopify discount codes are valid

1. The types of discounts can you run using Shopify discount codes

Shopify discount codes come in three varieties:

  • Percentage discount
  • Fixed amount
  • Free shipping

Percentage discounts let you specify a percentage off of the products normal retail price. This lets you run sales such as 20% OFF for qualifying orders.

Fixed amount discounts let you offer a fixed dollar amount off the total order value. This lets you run sales such as $20 OFF for qualifying sales.

Free shipping discounts let you grant free shipping for an order.

You can also specify a minimum order value for this discount code to qualify. For example, you can specify $20 off when you spend $100+.

2. Specifying which products to include in your Shopify discount code

You can also limit which products are eligible for this discount code. There are three options available for limiting the products that are part of this discount:

  • Everything
  • Collections
  • Products

Everything will behave as a site-wide discount. Use caution with this option if you sell gift cards since they will also be included.

You can also choose one or more collections to limit your discount code. For example, you could choose your Clearance collection to discount your slower moving products.

You can also hand-pick specific products to include in your discount codes.

3. Choosing which shoppers are eligible to use your Shopify discount code

Shopify discount codes also let you choose which shoppers are eligible to qualify for the discount.

There are three options for specifying which shoppers can use a Shopify discount code:

  • Everyone
  • Customer groups
  • Specific customers

If you are taking advantage of Shopify's customer groups, you can offer discounts by group such as VIP Customers.

You can also hand-pick specific customers to offer a discount to.

4. Limiting the number of uses of your Shopify discount codes

Shopify discount codes provide a couple of options for limiting the usage of these discounts:

  • Limit number of times this discount can be used in total
  • Limit to one use per customer

For example, you can run a sale that is only available to the first 100 customers by using the first option.

You can also limit this discount code so it can only be used once by each of your customers. Keep in mind this is easily worked around if your customer creates additional customer accounts.

5. Setting the timeframe your Shopify discount codes are valid

You can specify the specific start time and optionally end time for when your discount codes can be used. If you don't specify the end time, your discount code will be eligible forever.

The ability to specify when your discount codes start and end is a great way to time your discounts exactly based on when your sales should run.

This feature makes Shopify discount codes far easier to manage vs adjusting the price and compare at price of all of your sale products.

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Summary

That wraps up our discussion on the 5 things every merchant needs to know about using Shopify discount codes.

To recap, you can use Shopify discount codes when you need more control over your Shopify sales.

With Shopify discount codes, you can specify:

  • The type of discount: percentage, fixed amount and free shipping
  • The collections or products to include
  • The eligible customers
  • The number of uses allowed
  • The start and optionally end dates

To learn more about Shopify discount codes, you can check out the Shopify discount code help guide.