Percentage Discounts in Shopify: How to Create One

A percentage discount takes a set share off the price: 20% off a $50 item is $10 off, and 20% off a $200 item is $40 off. In Shopify you create one under Discounts → Create discount → Amount off products, or with an app when the sale has to run across many products on a schedule.

What is the maximum discount amount per order on Shopify?

Shopify does not cap how much a percentage discount can take off a single order. If the rule is 25% off orders over $100, a $500 cart still gets 25% off the qualifying lines. To limit the cost, use a fixed amount instead ("$25 off orders over $100"), design tiers with your largest likely cart in mind, or limit how many times a code can be used. Discounty percentage campaigns work the same way: no per-order dollar cap on the percentage itself.

How does a 20% discount work in practice?

Shoppers understand percentages at a glance, so the offer needs no explaining. The saving grows with the price of the item, so a 20% sale saves more on a $200 item than on a $50 one.

Should you offer a percentage or a fixed amount off?

"20% off" and "$20 off" cost you the same on a $100 item, yet shoppers read them differently.

Sally McKechnie, James Devlin, Christine Ennew and Andrew Smith of Nottingham University Business School tested the same discounts written both ways (European Journal of Marketing, 2012). On a high-priced product, shoppers valued the deal more when it was stated as an amount off than as a percentage off. On a low-priced product, which format worked better depended on the size of the discount. Test both on your own catalog before you settle on one.

Types of Discounts You Can Offer in Shopify

A percentage off is one of several offer types Shopify supports.

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): For example, "Buy one t-shirt, get a second one 50% off." (For more details, read the "what is buy x get y" blog post.)
Free Shipping: A promotion that removes the shipping cost. (For more details, read the "free shipping marketing strategies" blog post.)

This guide covers percentages. Running several offer types at once is easier from one app, where every campaign has its own dates and its own end.

How to Create Percentage Discounts in Shopify: All Available Methods

There are two ways to make percentage discounts in Shopify: the discount tools built into your Shopify admin, or an app from the Shopify App Store. The built-in tools suit an occasional sale on a few products. An app helps when the sale covers many products and every price has to go back when it ends.

Method 1: Shopify's built-in discounts

Every Shopify store can create discounts from the admin with no app installed.

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.

From your Shopify admin, go to the Discounts section.
Click Create discount.
Choose the Amount off products or the Amount off orders.
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".
Under Discount value, select Percentage and enter the value, for example 20.
Set up the remaining options, such as the products or collections it is applicable to, minimum purchase quantities, and dates of activity.
Click Save. The code is ready to share.

Setting Up an Automatic Discount

An automatic discount needs nothing from the shopper. It applies to the cart as soon as the conditions are met, with no code to enter.

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

Showing a sale price with compare-at price: to show a crossed-out price on a single product page, edit the product itself.

Go to Products in your Shopify admin and select the product you want to put on sale.
In the Price section, click Compare at.
In the Compare-at price field, enter the original, higher price.
In the Price field, enter the new, lower sale price.
Click Save. How the sale shows depends on your theme: usually the old price crossed out, often with a sale badge.

Method 2: A discount app

The second way is a discount app from the Shopify App Store. It calculates sale prices for you, puts them back when the sale ends, and adds storefront widgets the admin does not have.

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

Shopify's built-in tools handle a single code or a short sale well. The limits show up as the store and the number of campaigns grow.

Where Shopify's built-in tools run out

Manual sale prices: Shopify's bulk editor lets you edit many products at once, but you work out and type each sale price yourself, and type every original price back when the sale ends.
25 automatic discounts: Shopify's Help Center sets a maximum of 25 active automatic discounts per store, and that count includes discounts created by apps.
No storefront widgets: a countdown timer or a tier table on the product page is not part of Shopify's discounts.

What a discount app adds

Bulk changes: one campaign changes the price of every product in a collection, tag or vendor, and puts the prices back when it ends (with one catch, covered under How to undo it).
Storefront widgets: a savings line in the cart on every plan, and countdown timers on the product page or homepage from the Essential plan.
Price endings: sale prices that end in .99 or another ending you choose.

Discounty is one of these apps. It runs six campaign types from one place, each with start and end dates, and puts prices back when a sale ends. Price endings are on the Essential plan and above.

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

Here is how to create a percentage discount campaign with Discounty, from install to a live sale.

Step 1: Install Discounty and turn on the app embed

Install Discounty from the Shopify App Store. The app then asks you to turn on its app embed in your theme settings: switch it on and save. You do this once, and it lets the app show its widgets on your storefront.

Step 2: Open Campaigns and pick a campaign type

In Discounty, open Campaigns and start a new campaign. For a straight percentage off a set of products, choose Bulk price editor. For tiers such as "buy 2, get 10% off; buy 3, get 20% off", choose Quantity discount. More than one tier needs the Essential plan or above.

The other campaign types work the same way:

Cart goal: a discount once the cart reaches an amount
Advanced discount code: a discount that needs a code
Buy X get Y and Shipping discount

Step 3: Set the discount

The campaign form has a card for each setting:

Discount: choose a percentage and enter the value.
Products: pick products and variants, collections, product tags, vendors, product types or the whole store. On the Lite plan and above, tick Excludes to leave some out.
Schedule: set a start date and time, and an end date if the sale should stop on its own.

Step 4: Save and check the storefront

Check the Discount preview on the right, then click Activate. A Bulk price editor campaign writes the sale price into each product in Shopify, so open one product page and confirm the new price shows.

How to undo it

Deactivate the campaign. It shows as Reverting while Discounty removes the discount and restores the original prices, and no discount applies until that finishes. On a live campaign you can change only the end date and time; to change anything else, deactivate it, edit, and activate it again. One catch: for a product that already had a compare-at price, its price before the sale is not stored anywhere, so note those prices before you start.

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

The bigger choice after creating a discount is whether shoppers need a code or get it automatically. It depends on who the sale is for.

When should you use a discount code?

A discount code is a special code, such as WELCOME10, that a customer has to enter manually during checkout. Codes suit:

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.
Members-only offers: a code shared with a list or a community feels reserved for them.

Read More: Seasonal Discounts

When should you use an automatic discount?

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 is needed. Automatic discounts suit:

Store-wide sales: on Black Friday every shopper should get the price without hunting for a code.
Fewer steps at checkout: the shopper does not have to find or type a code.
Tiered Spending Goals: You can automatically add a 10 percent discount on orders above $50 and a 20 percent discount on orders above $100, so a shopper near $50 or $100 has a reason to add an item.

Read More: Shopify Discount Apps Compared

Can two discounts be stacked?

Only when you allow it. Shopify's Help Center says several discounts apply to one order only when the Combinations setting on each discount allows it, so by default a shopper gets one. Any store can combine a product or order discount with free shipping. Stacking two product discounts on the same item needs Shopify Plus. A shopper can enter at most five product or order codes and one shipping code per order. Our Shopify discount combinations guide walks through each case.

In Discounty, combining campaigns with each other is on the Discounty plan and above.

How to Use Shopify Percentage Discounts Well

Four habits keep a percentage discount paying for itself.

Strategy 1: Decide what the discount is for

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 lowers the cost of trying 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.

The goal decides the rest: how deep the discount goes, which products it covers and how long it runs.

Strategy 2: Set conditions that protect your margin

Conditions decide who gets the discount and how much it can cost you.

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: Create discounts only for a customer segment, such as repeat buyers.
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.

Read More: Limited-Time Offer Discount

Strategy 3: Give the sale an end date

A sale with a visible end gives shoppers a reason to buy now rather than later:

Show the end date: a countdown timer on the product page or homepage tells shoppers when the price goes back. Shopify does not include one; in Discounty it is a card on the campaign form, on the Essential plan and above.
Make the sale visible: the crossed-out compare-at price and your theme's sale badge show which products are reduced. Check that your theme displays both before the sale starts.

Strategy 4: Tell people about it

Once the campaign is set up:

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

Can you cap a percentage discount per order?

Not in Discounty. A percentage discount has no upper limit per order: if spending over $100 gets 25% off, a $500 cart still gets 25% off, and the highest tier a customer reaches is the one that applies. Three ways to keep the cost in check instead:

Use a fixed amount for big carts. "$25 off orders over $100" costs the same on a $100 cart and a $500 one.
Set your tiers with the top one in mind. Work out what the highest tier costs on your largest likely order before you save it.
Limit how often a code is used. On a discount code you can cap the total number of uses, or allow one use per customer. That limits how many orders get the saving, not the size of each saving.

Should you use Shopify or an app for percentage discounts?

For one code or a short sale on a few products, Shopify's admin is enough. Use a discount app when the sale covers a whole collection, the prices have to go back on a set date, or you want a countdown on the page. It works out the sale prices and restores them for you.

Discounty's free Starter plan covers three campaigns, including Bulk price editor. Start free today.

Questions

What is the maximum discount amount per order on Shopify?

There is no built-in dollar cap on a percentage discount. The percentage applies to every qualifying line. Use a fixed amount off, limit code uses, or plan tiers if you need a ceiling.

1. How do I create a percentage discount in Shopify without using an app?

You can create one through Shopify’s built-in Discounts section. Choose “Amount off products” or “Amount off orders,” set the value to a percentage, select the products or collections, and decide whether it’s a code or an automatic discount. Save it, and the discount will be ready to use.

2. What’s the advantage of using an app like Discounty instead of Shopify’s built-in tools?

Shopify's built-in tools work for simple sales. You type sale prices and original prices yourself, a store can have at most 25 active automatic discounts, and there are no countdown timers. Discounty changes prices across a whole collection in one campaign, puts them back on the end date you set, and adds the storefront widgets.

3. Can I apply percentage discounts to only specific products or collections?

Yes. Shopify's discounts can apply to specific products or specific collections. Discounty also lets you pick by product tag, vendor or product type, and from the Lite plan exclude single products, which is quicker when the sale covers many items.

4. How do I make my percentage discount more effective and increase conversions?

Start from one goal, add a minimum purchase if the aim is a bigger cart, show the end date with a countdown timer, and announce the sale by email, social media and on your homepage.