How to run a sale or discount (3 ways)

There are three ways to discount on your store: a sale price on the product itself (shown struck-through), a coupon code the customer types in the cart, and an automatic Buy X Get Y offer. All three are free, all three are recalculated on our servers at checkout, and you can run them together. Here's each one and when to reach for it.

1. Sale price on a product (strikethrough)

Best for: marking down specific products with a visible "was/now" price — the festival markdown everyone recognises.

1. 1Open the product from Products and set Original price to the old (higher) price. The form notes: Shown struck-through next to the price — set it higher than the price to show a sale.
2. 2Set Price to the new, lower price and save.
3. 3On the storefront the original shows struck-through next to the sale price on product cards and the product page — no code needed.

To end the sale, clear Original price and put the normal price back in Price. If you sell sizes with Different price per option, the per-variant prices in the grid are what get charged — set the markdown there.

2. Coupon code (entered at checkout)

Best for: a code you share (newsletter, Instagram bio, WhatsApp broadcast), or a store-wide / category discount customers opt into.

1. 1Open Settings → Discounts, stay on the Coupon codes tab and click + Add Coupon.
2. 2Type the CODE (e.g. DIWALI15 — it is saved in uppercase with no spaces) and leave Active ticked.
3. 3Choose the Discount type — Percentage off or Fixed amount off — and enter the Percent (%) or Amount.
4. 4Open More rules (category, sale items, min order, cap, expiry) if you need any of: Sale items (how the coupon treats products that already have an original price), Applies to (Whole cart or A category), Minimum order value, Max discount (only for percentage coupons), and Expires (valid through the end of that day).
5. 5Press Save. The grey summary line under the coupon reads back exactly what it does — check it before you share the code.

The Sale items rule matters when you combine a sale price with a coupon. Discount the sale price stacks the coupon on top of the markdown. Calculate on the original price gives the shopper whichever is lower — the sale price or the coupon price — never both. Not valid on sale items skips marked-down products entirely.

3. Buy-X-Get-Y offer (automatic)

Best for: bulk incentives like Buy 2, Get 1 Free — applied automatically, no code, and shown as a badge on eligible product cards.

1. 1Open Settings → Discounts → Offers and click + Add Offer.
2. 2Give it an Offer name (e.g. Festive Buy 2 Get 1) and leave Active ticked.
3. 3Set Buy quantity and Get free — 2 and 1 for a classic Buy 2 Get 1.
4. 4Under Applies to choose All products or A category. Under Free item comes from choose Same products as above (cheapest free), Any product in the cart, or A different category — e.g. buy 2 sarees, get a blouse piece free.
5. 5Press Save. The cheapest eligible items in each qualifying group are made free automatically in the cart.

All three are covered field-by-field in Discounts, coupons & offers. Categories used by coupons and offers come from Settings → Categories — see Categories.

Tell people about it

• Announcement bar — Settings → Branding → Announcement bar (top of store). One line like Diwali sale: 15% off with DIWALI15 on every page. The Edit announcement shortcut on your Home tab jumps straight there.
• Welcome / promo popup (Growth plan) — Settings → Sales boosters. Tick Show a promo popup to first-time visitors, write a Heading and pick the Coupon to show from your active coupons. Optionally tick Ask for email before revealing the code — captured emails land in your Messages tab. Your Home tab's Create coupon shortcut starts this flow.
• Product badges — on the product form, Product badges adds marks like Free Shipping or Gift Ready to a single product page.
• Free-shipping bar — also under Sales boosters — pairs well with a sale to lift the average cart.

For pricing the markdown itself, the discount calculator shows your margin after a percentage off, and this guide walks through which offer types convert best for Indian stores.

Good to know

• One coupon per order. A customer can apply a single code; offers still apply on top, and the coupon is worked out after the offer discount.
• The coupon box only appears once you have created at least one coupon. It sits in the cart under the items as a Coupon code field with an Apply button.
• Codes are case-insensitive for the customer — diwali15 works — but an inactive or expired code is refused with a clear message.
• Untick Active instead of Remove to pause a code you may reuse; removing it also breaks the promo popup if that code was selected there.
• Prices are never trusted from the browser. Totals, coupons and offers are recalculated on the server, so a shared code cannot be tampered with.

Troubleshooting

• "This coupon needs a minimum order." — the cart subtotal (before discounts) is below your Minimum order value.
• "Add [category] items to use this coupon." — the coupon is scoped to a category none of the cart items belong to. Category matching ignores capitalisation, but the product must actually have that category.
• "This coupon can't be used on sale items." — the coupon has Sale items set to Not valid on sale items and everything in the cart has an original price.
• "Your sale price already beats this coupon." — with Calculate on the original price, the shopper keeps the better sale price; this is working as intended.
• The strikethrough isn't showing — Original price must be higher than Price; equal or lower values are ignored.