How to Create Percentage Discounts in Shopify | The Complete 2025 Guide

Let's be honest, running a Shopify store is a marathon, not a sprint. You’ve perfected your products and polished your store until it shines, but you still see those lonely abandoned carts. You know a good old-fashioned sale could be the nudge those customers need, but your enthusiasm fades when you think about the backend setup.

What if it could be simple, effective, and maybe even a little bit fun? This guide is here to pull back the curtain on how to create percentage discounts in Shopify. We're going to cover everything from the basic manual methods to the advanced, automated strategies that top brands use. By the end, you'll be ready to launch percentage discount campaigns that attract customers, drive sales,

What Are Percentage Discounts in Shopify? (With Real Examples)

A percentage discount is simply that, you discount a product by a certain percentage. You do not say a flat "$10 off," but rather, 20% off. This method is so popular, as it is perceived as being fair, and it works equally well with your entire product line, from a simple accessory to a big-ticket item.

Let's Make It Real: How a 20% Discount Works in Practice

Customers get how percentages work, which makes this type of discount a breeze for them to appreciate. The value of the discount grows with the price of the item, which can encourage them to spend more to save more.

The Big Debate: Percentage vs. Fixed-Value Discounts

So, should you offer "20% off" or a flat "$20 off"? Choosing between them is like deciding whether to give someone a $20 bill or a 20% off coupon for their birthday. Both are great gifts; they just feel a little different.

A percentage-off deal often performs better on higher-priced items, while a fixed-value discount can seem more appealing on less expensive products. Interestingly, one study found limited proof that either strategy is more effective than the other, so they are both used widely in the industry (source: Effects of discount framing in comparative price advertising). The choice often comes down to your marketing goals and what feels right for your brand and your customers.

Types of Discounts You Can Offer in Shopify 

Percentage discounts are a fantastic tool, but they're just one club in your golf bag. Shopify allows for several types of special offers to attract customers and popularize your brand.

Here are a few other popular discount types you'll see:

• Fixed Value Discounts: A specific dollar amount off, like "$10 off orders over $100."
• Buy X, Get Y (BOGO): A classic deal like "Buy one t-shirt, get a second one 50% off."
• Free Shipping: A promotion that removes the shipping cost, which is a huge motivator for many online shoppers.

Juggling all these different promotion types can feel like a lot, which is why many store owners use a single app to manage every campaign from one place.

While this guide focuses on percentages, mastering every type of promotion is a huge advantage.

How to Create Percentage Discounts in Shopify: All Available Methods

There are two primary ways you can go when you need to make percentage discounts in Shopify. It is like cooking: you can cook a meal based on a recipe that you have at home, or you can use a good meal kit that makes the entire process easier. Both get you a meal, but the experience and results can be very different.

Method 1: The Built-in Toolkit (The Manual Way)

Shopify also has its tools that allow you to create discounts out of the box. They are ideal to run simple occasional sales.

Creating a Manual Discount Code

This is the classic approach where you generate a code (like "SUMMER20") that customers have to type in at checkout.

1. From your Shopify admin, go to the Discounts section.
2. Click Create Discount (or "Add discount").
3. Choose the Amount off products or the Amount off orders.
4. In the section on Method, be sure to choose the option of Discount code. Type in the name of your code or press the button "Generate code".
5. In the value field, type the percentage you wish to give (e.g., "20") and then in the dropdown choose "%".
6. Set up the remaining options, such as the products or collections it is applicable to, minimum purchase quantities, and dates of activity.
7. Click Save discount, and you're ready to share your code!

Setting Up an Automatic Discount

An automatic discount is even easier for your customers—it applies to their cart automatically once they meet the conditions, no code required!

1. Follow the same first steps as above, but under the "Method" section, select Automatic discount.
2. Give your automatic discount a clear title that will appear in the customer's cart (e.g., "20% Off Summer Sale").
3. Set the percentage value and all the other conditions, just like you would for a discount code.
4. Save it, and the discount will automatically apply for any eligible customer.

The "Compare At Price" Trick: Want to show a sale price visually on your product page? This is a simple way to do it for a single product.

1. Go to Products in your Shopify admin and select the product you want to put on sale.
2. Scroll down to the Pricing section.
3. In the Compare at price field, enter the original, higher price.
4. In the Price field, enter the new, lower sale price.
5. Click Save. Shopify will automatically do the math and display a sale badge on your product page showing the savings.

Method 2: The Power-Up (Using a Third-Party App)

The second way is to use dedicated apps from the Shopify App Store. This is the meal-kit approach—it gives you all the tools and shortcuts you need to create more sophisticated and efficient discount campaigns.

Why You Should Use Third-Party Apps to Create Shopify Percentage Discounts

The built-in tools of Shopify are like the basic map application that comes with your phone. It is dependable and will take you from point A to point B on easy journeys. However, a dedicated discount application is like having a complete GPS with live traffic, alternative routes, and a search for the best coffee shops on the road. They both work, but one makes the process much easier and more efficient.

The Hidden Headaches of Shopify’s Native Tools

The standard Shopify tools are great, but as your store grows, you might start to feel their limitations.

• The Manual Grind: Applying discounts to products one by one is fine for a handful of items, but for a store-wide sale, it’s a real hassle and leaves room for mistakes.
• The Automation Cap: You can only have a maximum of 25 active automatic discounts at one time with Shopify's built-in settings. For stores that run lots of promotions, this can be quite restrictive.
• The Customization Ceiling: Want to add a countdown timer to create urgency or automatically add sales badges to all discounted items? These advanced features are not available by default.

Unlocking Your Store’s Full Potential: The Benefits of a Pro Tool

This is where a dedicated app changes the game. It’s built to solve these exact problems.

• Bulk Management: Easily create, edit, and manage discounts across hundreds or thousands of products from a single, simple dashboard.
• Unlimited Campaigns: With some third-party apps, the number of discounts you can offer is unlimited!
• Advanced Features: Add countdown timers, customize your sales badges, round your discount prices to the nearest value, and so much more.

This is where a tool like Discounty comes in. It’s an all-in-one discount manager built for Shopify that handles everything we just mentioned, turning complex campaigns into a simple, lovely process. It gives you the GPS, the live traffic updates, and it will probably even find you that coffee shop.

How to Create Percentage Discounts in Shopify with Discounty (Step-by-Step)

Ready to see how fast it can be? Here’s the quick-start guide to creating a percentage discount campaign with Discounty. It’s designed to be so straightforward, you’ll be done in just a few clicks.

Step 1: Install Discounty & Activate the App Embed

First things first, install the Discounty app from the Shopify App Store. Once it's installed, you’ll get a prompt to enable the app embed in your theme settings. Just toggle the switch to "on" and click save. This one-time step allows the app to display its magic on your storefront.

Step 2: Navigate to 'Campaigns' and Create Your New Masterpiece

Once in the Discounty app, you’ll see a "Campaigns" section. Click "Create Campaign" to get started. This is your command center for all promotions.

Step 3: Choose Your Campaign Type (e.g., General Discount, Quantity Tiers)

Discounty will ask what kind of campaign you want to run. You can choose a "General Discount" for a simple percentage-off sale, or get creative with a "Quantity Discount" to set up tiered offers like "Buy 2, Get 10% Off; Buy 3, Get 20% Off."

Step 4: Configure Your Percentage Discount Settings

This is the fun part! Here’s where you’ll define the rules for your discount:

• Set Your Percentage: Enter the discount percentage you want to offer.
• Select Your Products: Use the powerful filters to easily include or exclude specific products, collections, or tags from your sale.
• Schedule It: Set a start and end date for your campaign to have it automatically run and stop.

Step 5: Save, Activate, and Watch the Sales Roll In!

Check your settings again, ensure that the campaign status is set to active, and click on save. That’s it! Discounty will now automatically apply the discounts to the products on your storefront. No more manual price adjustments.

How to Manage Your Percentage Discounts in Shopify (Codes, Automatics & More)

It is easy to create a discount, but it is another thing to manage it. Whether you use codes or automatic discounts is all up to you and what you want to achieve with the campaign.

Using Discount Codes: The Tried-and-True Classic

A discount code is a special code, such as WELCOME10, that a customer has to enter manually during checkout. This is an ideal approach to:

• Targeted Promotions: You can share codes with specific customer groups, like first-time buyers or your email subscribers.
• Influencer Marketing: Providing special codes to various influencers will allow you to see which influencer is generating the most sales.
• Creating a Sense of Exclusivity: A code can be like a special key to unlock a secret deal, and the customers feel like they belong to a club.

Using Automatic Discounts: For a Seamless Customer Experience

An automatic discount will be applied as soon as a customer's cart qualifies according to the rules you have defined (such as spending more than 100 dollars). No code required. This is ideal for:

• Store-Wide Sales: Black Friday is an event where you want to make the process as smooth as possible for everyone.
• Reducing Friction: You remove the step of finding and entering a code, which can lower cart abandonment rates.
• Tiered Spending Goals: You can automatically add a 10 percent discount on orders above $50 and a 20 percent discount on orders above 100, which will motivate the customers to spend more.

The Rules of Combination: Can Discounts Be Stacked?

Shopify does not allow the combining of discounts out of the box to avoid a customer combining several deals and reducing your profit margins. To give an example, a customer cannot typically apply a discount code when there is already an automatic discount applied to their cart.

Pro Tip: This is another area where dedicated apps give you more control. Some apps, like Discounty, offer more advanced rules for how different campaigns and discounts can work together, so you can build the exact promotional structure you want.

Best Practices to Use Shopify Percentage Discounts for Higher Conversion Rates

Conducting a discount without a plan is similar to taking a road trip without a destination. You will consume gas, and you may not go where you want to go. These are some of the best practices to ensure that your discounts are generating actual results.

Strategy 1: Start with Why (Know Your Goal & Your Customer)

Before you create any discount, ask yourself: what am I trying to achieve?

• Are you trying to clear out old inventory? A steep percentage off on specific collections might be the answer.
• Are you trying to attract new customers? A "15% off your first order" discount can be a great incentive for them to try your brand.
• Are you trying to increase your average order value? Setting a minimum purchase amount can encourage shoppers to add more to their cart.

Your goal will inform every other decision you make.

Strategy 2: Set Smart Guardrails (Conditions & Limitations)

Discounts need rules to be effective and profitable. Setting smart conditions protects your margins and can even encourage customers to spend more.

• Set Minimums: Use minimum purchase requirements to qualify for a discount. This can be based on a dollar amount ("Spend $75 to get 15% off") or item quantity ("Buy 3 or more items to get 20% off").
• Target Specific Customers: Make your regulars feel special by creating discounts just for them. You can target specific customer segments or even individual customers to promote loyalty.
• Limit Usage: To create scarcity and prevent a code from being overused, you can limit the total number of times a discount can be used store-wide or cap it to one use per customer.

Strategy 3: Engineer Urgency and FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)

A major reason people buy during a sale is the fear of missing out. You can create this urgency in a few ways:

• Use a Ticking Clock: Displaying a countdown timer on your product pages that shows when the sale ends is a powerful motivator. While this isn't a standard Shopify feature, Discounty lets you add and customize a countdown timer in minutes.
• Add Visual Cues: Use eye-catching sales badges on your product images to make sure no one scrolls past your discounted items. This helps your deals stand out against the competition. Again, this is a feature where a dedicated app can give you full creative control.

Strategy 4: Promote It Like You Mean It!

A discount that no one knows about isn't going to drive sales. Once you’ve set up your campaign, you need to spread the word.

• Announce it on your social media channels.
• Send an email blast to your subscribers.
• Feature it prominently on your store’s homepage.

The more visibility your discount gets, the more effective it will be.

Final Thoughts on How to Create Percentage Discounts in Shopify

You're now equipped with the knowledge to create compelling discount offers that your customers will love. We've seen that percentage discounts are a foundational part of e-commerce marketing, offering a scalable way to drive sales and clear inventory. While Shopify's built-in tools are a fine starting point, leveraging a dedicated app like Discounty unlocks the speed, customization, and automation needed to truly compete and win.

The bottom line is that a well-planned discount strategy can do more than just make a few extra sales—it can build brand loyalty and fuel long-term growth. Now that you know how to create percentage discounts in Shopify, go ahead—start building your next successful campaign!

With Discounty, you can fully customize how your discount appears—from adding custom sales badges to countdown timers that perfectly match your brand. Start free today.

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