Which discount type should I use?

Hype has five discount types. Pick by what the shopper has to do to earn the discount, not by what the discount is worth.

The five types, in one line each

Order Discount — "Give a flat or percentage discount on the entire order." One value, applied to the cart subtotal, with an optional cap and an exclusion list. The simplest type and the right default for sitewide sales, welcome offers and seasonal promotions.

Multi Products Discount — "Set different discounts for specific products or collections." Several independent rules in one campaign: 20% off one collection, 10% off another, nothing elsewhere. Applies per product line, not to the cart total.

Gift with Purchase — "Offer a free or discounted gift with qualifying purchases." Buy X, get Y — either added to the cart for the shopper or picked by them. Handles buy-one-get-one and tiered give-aways too.

Cart Goals — "Encourage higher spend by unlocking milestone rewards or gifts." A ladder of subtotal thresholds, each unlocking a gift, an amount off the cart, or free shipping. This is the type the storefront progress bar is built for.

Volume Discount — "Reward bulk buyers with better prices as they purchase more." Quantity or spend breaks on a set of products: buy 3 get 10% off, buy 5 get 20% off. Has its own product-page selector and table blocks.

Choosing between the near-misses

Order Discount or Multi Products Discount? If one value covers everything you are discounting, use Order Discount — it is simpler and it discounts the order rather than each line, so exclusions behave predictably. Reach for Multi Products Discount only when different products genuinely need different values.

Cart Goals or Volume Discount? Cart Goals counts money in the cart; Volume Discount counts units. "Spend $100, get 10% off" is Cart Goals. "Buy 5, get 10% off" is Volume Discount. Volume Discount can also trigger on a minimum purchase amount, but it still discounts only the products in its own rule, whereas Cart Goals rewards the whole cart.

Cart Goals or Gift with Purchase? Both can hand out a free product. Use Gift with Purchase when the gift is the whole promotion and the condition is a single threshold. Use Cart Goals when the gift is one rung on a ladder that also includes an amount off or free shipping, and you want a progress bar pushing shoppers up it.

Gift with Purchase or Volume Discount for buy-one-get-one? Gift with Purchase, with Gifts will be the same as selected products (BXGY) ticked. Volume Discount discounts the units the shopper is already buying; it never adds a line.

What every type shares

Whichever you pick, the surrounding settings are the same — target markets, minimum purchase, purchase type, customer eligibility, combinations, sales channels and active dates. They are documented once in common campaign settings.

The type is also independent of how shoppers reach the discount. Any type can run as a public automatic discount, a public code, or a private link — see public and link campaigns.

Limits and gotchas

• You cannot change a campaign's discount type after its Shopify discount exists. Create a new campaign instead.
• If two types are genuinely needed, you do not have to choose. Create the campaign with one and add the other from its Campaign name & type step — see combining discounts in one campaign.
• Only Cart Goals produces shipping discounts. No other type can grant free shipping.
• Only Gift with Purchase and Cart Goals add lines to the cart. The other three discount lines that are already there.
• Order Discount is the only order-level type. In a campaign with several discounts, only the best order-level one applies, so a second Order Discount adds nothing.

Related

• Creating your first campaign
• Common campaign settings
• Combining discounts in one campaign