Discounts FAQ
Offering discounts helps attract and retain customers. For general information visit Discounts or Creating discount codes. The following guide answers common questions about discount codes.
Questions
-
How do discount codes work with products that have a subscribe and save discount incentive?
- How do I search for my existing discount codes?
- Is it possible to edit the settings for a discount code after it is created?
- Can customers use multiple discount codes on a single order?
- How do expiry dates work for discount codes?
- Can I limit discount code application?
- Can I offer quantity discounts?
- Can I discount an individual product variant?
- How many times do product-specific discount codes apply to a checkout cart?
- How can I apply discount codes on the checkout order for the Shopify Checkout Integration?
- Why can't my customers see the discount code entry field during checkout?
- Can I create multiple discounts at once?
- How is discount usage tracked?
- What happens if a customer enters an invalid discount code?
- Can customers add discount codes via the customer portal?
- Can customers apply discount codes to existing subscriptions via the customer portal if the discount code has a minimum purchase requirement?
- Can I set a discount with a minimum cart amount that only applies to certain products?
- How are discount percentages calculated?
- Can I create a shipping discount?
- Can I apply discounts to collections?
How do discount codes work with products that have a subscribe and save discount incentive?
Discount codes provide an additional discount on top of the incentive discount set when a customer chooses to subscribe and save.
An incentive discount ensures that the price of a product is discounted if the customer decides to purchase the product as a subscription.
If a discount code is used at checkout, it will apply to the already discounted price that the customer received for purchasing the product as a subscription.
How do I search for my existing discount codes?
To search for existing discount codes, select Discounts in the merchant portal and use the search bar to search by code or ID.
To search using code or ID, use the following formats:
- code:newyear2020
- id:1234567
Ensure you are using a colon after code or ID. Do not use spaces in between characters. The discount ID can be found in the Discount Export.
Is it possible to edit the settings for a discount code after it is created?
Yes, discount codes can be edited. See Editing discount codes for more information.
Can customers use multiple discount codes on a single order?
No, only one discount code can be applied to a single order at one time. It is not possible to stack discount codes.
For example, if the customer has a 10% off discount code applied to their cart, the customer cannot also use a "save $10" discount code on top of the existing code.
To offer customers multiple discount codes, create a discount code for the value of the combined discounts.
How do expiration dates work for discount codes?
Discounts with an expiration date expire at 11:59:59 Eastern Time (ET)(UTC-4) on the expiration date.
The expiration applies when the discount is applied to a charge, not when the charge processes.
Can I limit how discount codes are applied?
Yes, you can limit discount codes on a per customer, per charge, and per channel basis using the application limits setting when creating the discount. For more information, visit Creating discount codes.
Can I offer quantity discounts?
Quantity discounts are not supported, however, there are workarounds to provide quantity discounts to your customers. For more information, visit Offering quantity discounts.
Can I discount an individual product variant?
No, discounts apply to all product variants. If you need the code to apply to a specific variant we recommend creating that item as its own product on your ecommerce platform and in Recharge.
How many times do product-specific discount codes apply to a checkout cart?
If a customer orders more than one of a product, the product-specific discount code only applies to the first of that item. For example, if a customer adds 10 of the same product, then the product-specific code only discounts one of the items.
Do discounts in my ecommerce platform work in Recharge?
Recharge Checkout on Shopify or Recharge Checkout on BigCommerce
If you create a discount code within your eCommerce platform, that code will only work for one-time purchases through the platform’s checkout. If your customer checks out with a subscription product, the code created in your ecommerce platform will not work. The discount code must also be created within Recharge in order to apply to subscriptions or mixed carts.
The steps for creating discount codes in Recharge are outlined in the guide Creating Discount codes.
Shopify Checkout Integration
If you create a discount code solely on Shopify, that code will only work for the initial checkout order and will apply to both one-time and subscription products in that order. If you would like the discount code to work on future recurring orders, you must create the discount code in both Shopify and Recharge.
How can I apply discount codes on the checkout order for the Shopify Checkout Integration?
If you are using the Shopify Checkout Integration, Recharge supports all of Shopify’s discount types on the checkout charge. At this time, some discount types are supported for recurring orders with more on the way. See Creating discount codes in Shopify for more information.
Why can't my customers see the discount code entry field during checkout?
The discount code field is only visible if you have created at least one discount code on Recharge. Create a discount code to reveal the discount code field.
If you have an active discount code and the discount field is still not visible, confirm that there is no CSS applied to your checkout settings. To review click Storefront and select Checkout.
CSS interfering with the discount field may appear as follows:
#discount {
display: none;
}
Can I create multiple discounts at once?
Contact Recharge Support to bulk upload 100+ discount codes. Please follow the bulk upload discount instructions to prepare for the upload.
How is discount usage tracked?
By default, discount codes are only tracked during checkout. Discount codes that are manually applied to an existing subscription are not counted into the total number of uses.
Discount usage is tracked on the Discount page in Recharge.
You can also export discount code usage using Exports in the merchant portal or on the Customer Actions dashboard. The Discounts export includes the total number of discounts and how many times they have been used.
To track discount codes that are added manually on the customer portal or through the merchant portal, please reach out to Recharge Support and we can enable a beta feature to track that code usage as well. Keep in mind that this beta feature counts all discount codes when they are applied. If a discount code is applied but never used, ie. if a customer cancels a subscription before it renews, it will still count towards the total.
What happens if a customer enters an invalid discount code?
Customers see an error message if they enter a discount code that doesn't exist, isn't currently active, or cannot be applied to that specific channel.
Can customers add discount codes via the customer portal?
To give customers the ability to add a discount code via the customer portal, enable that option in your customer portal settings.
Can customers apply minimum purchase requirement discount codes to existing subscriptions via the customer portal?
Customers can only apply discount codes with a minimum purchase requirement at the checkout. These types of discounts cannot be redeemed on existing subscriptions via the customer portal.
Can I set a discount with a minimum cart amount that only applies to certain products?
Yes, you can create a discount code with a minimum cart amount that only applies to specific products or collections (collections are specific to Shopify merchants), and requires a minimum spend of those specific products in order to qualify. Create a discount code with a minimum purchase amount and applies to restrictions to get started.
Application and additional information
- If you want the minimum purchase discount to apply to multiple products but not all of your products, you need to create a collection in Shopify of all the products this discount should apply to.
- Minimum purchase discounts can't be applied to a specific type of product. You need to apply the discount to a specific product or collection, not a product type.
- These discount codes only apply to eligible products in the customer's cart, not the full cart. For example, a customer checks out with $25 worth of product, $10 of which is eligible for the discount code. If the customer applies a 10% discount code at checkout, the 10% only applies to the eligible $10, so the customer will save $1.
How are discount percentages calculated?
The discount percentage is applied line by line on orders with multiple products. This is done to account for discounts that only apply to specific products and ensures that tax is calculated correctly.
Can I use automatic promotions or discounts in Recharge?
Automatic promotions or discounts do not require customers to enter a discount or coupon code, as the promotion is automatically applied when they have met the required parameters.
Recharge Checkout on BigCommerce:
We can not guarantee that BigCommerce Automatic Promotions will work with the Recharge Checkout and this is not a supported feature. We recommended that you create an automatic promotion and run a test transaction through the Recharge Checkout to see if it will work as expected.
We can confirm that automatic customer discounts and shipping discounts in BigCommerce will not work with the Recharge Checkout. You can create free shipping discounts in Recharge.
Recharge Checkout on Shopify:
The Recharge Checkout will not work with Shopify's Automatic Discounts and can cause duplicate discounts at checkout if applied. To use automatic discounts with your subscription products, you will need to implement custom code. See Applying discount code to checkout automatically for more information.
Shopify Checkout Integration:
Shopify's Automatic Discounts features does not work with the Shopify Checkout Integration. For more details, see Unsupported Shopify discount features.
Can I create a shipping discount?
Yes. Shipping discount codes will discount the entire shipping amount and cannot be limited to one use per customer. For more information, visit Creating discount codes.
Can I apply discounts to collections?
Yes, Shopify merchants can apply discounts to specific collections. When creating the discount code, in the Applies to section, choose selected collections from the drop-down and then select the collection to apply the discount to.
