What Shopify's Winter '26 Edition Means for Your Discount Strategy

Shopify just released 150+ updates in their Winter '26 Edition—and buried in those announcements are changes that will fundamentally reshape how you run discounts. Miss these, and your discount strategy could break by June 2026.

The "RenAIssance Edition" is Shopify's most AI-forward release yet. But beyond the Sidekick improvements and agentic storefronts, there are practical discount and conversion features that demand your attention today.

This article breaks down the four Winter '26 updates that directly impact your discount strategy—what's changed, what's going away, and how to adapt before your competitors do.

Finally: Automatic Discounts for VIPs, Lapsed Buyers, and Custom Segments

Shopify now natively supports automatic discounts targeted to specific customer segments. No more coupon code workarounds or Shopify Scripts hacks required. This is the feature many merchants have been waiting for.

You can now target discounts to segments like "VIP customers," "haven't purchased in 30 days," or "customers from specific regions." Marketing teams can manage loyalty tiers and spend-based promotions without developer involvement.

What This Actually Means for Your Store

This update enables several powerful discount strategies that were previously complex or impossible:

Silent VIP treatment: Loyal customers see discounts automatically without hunting for codes or entering promo fields
Automated win-back campaigns: Lapsed customers get personalized pricing the moment they arrive on your store
Geographic pricing flexibility: Offer region-specific discounts without manual code distribution

The Strategic Shift

This feature represents a fundamental change in how Shopify merchants can approach discounting. Instead of blasting everyone with the same offer, you can now deliver the right offer to the right customer.

What was previously enterprise-level discounting (requiring Shopify Plus and Scripts) is now available to all Shopify merchants. It also reduces coupon code leakage to aggregator sites since customers don't see or share codes—discounts apply automatically based on their segment.

Segment targeting is powerful, but it's based on past behavior—who your customers were. For real-time intent signals—knowing who's about to bounce versus who's ready to buy—you need tools that track live visitor behavior. Growth Suite adds this behavioral prediction layer on top of Shopify's segment targeting, helping you anticipate the current session rather than just reacting to history.

June 30, 2026: Your Shopify Scripts Stop Working

If you're on Shopify Plus and using Scripts for discount logic, mark this date: June 30, 2026. That's when Shopify Scripts will be fully deprecated, and all discount, shipping, and payment Scripts will cease to function.

What's Happening

Shopify Functions is the replacement for Scripts. It offers faster execution and more flexibility, but requires migration. This isn't optional—if you rely on Scripts for tiered pricing, conditional discounts, or bundle pricing, you must plan your transition.

There's another technical limitation to consider: Scripts can't see discounts from Functions or apps. They only recognize the first discount code. This means current Scripts aren't compatible with discount combinations—a feature many merchants want to implement.

The Migration Path

Shopify now provides an AI-powered migration report that recommends compatible Functions alternatives for your existing Scripts. You can run Scripts and Functions simultaneously during the transition period, giving you time to test thoroughly.

Your options include: building custom Functions (requires development resources), using compatible apps that have already migrated, or hiring a developer for complex logic.

Don't Wait Until May 2026

June 2026 sounds far away. It's not. Migrating discount logic requires testing across your entire product catalog, every customer segment, and every promotional scenario. Start your audit now—identify every Script you're running, document what it does, and plan your replacement strategy.

The merchants who treat this as a Q2 2026 problem will be scrambling during their busiest sales periods.

Scripts Migration Checklist

Audit all active Shopify Scripts in your store
Generate Shopify's migration report (available in admin)
Identify which Scripts have direct Functions equivalents
Plan custom development for complex logic
Test replacements in a development store before switching
Set a migration deadline at least 60 days before June 30, 2026

Shopify Rollouts: Test Your Discounts Without External Tools

Shopify Rollouts is a new native feature that enables A/B testing directly within your Shopify admin. For merchants who've been paying for external testing tools or flying blind on theme changes, this is welcome news.

What Rollouts Actually Does

Schedule theme changes and storefront updates for specific times
Control traffic percentage to create true A/B tests
Run multiple experiments simultaneously
Automatic winner detection and takeover
Market-specific testing (run different variants per region)

How This Impacts Discount Strategy

Rollouts opens up testing possibilities that were previously difficult or expensive:

Test discount messaging and urgency elements directly in themes
Compare promotional banner designs without third-party tools
Schedule Black Friday themes (with discount displays) weeks in advance
No plugin conflicts or additional monthly costs

The Limitations You Should Know

Rollouts is genuinely useful, but it's designed for risk mitigation—testing full theme changes—not granular conversion optimization. Testing a headline change requires duplicating your entire theme.

For discount-specific experiments (testing 10% vs. 15% off, or timer duration, or offer positioning), you'll still need dedicated tools. Rollouts excels at theme-level tests. For discount-specific experimentation—testing discount depth, urgency duration, or offer timing—Growth Suite's A/B testing module lets you isolate variables without touching your theme. You can test whether 10% converts better than free shipping, or whether 30-minute timers outperform 2-hour windows, while controlling for all other factors.

SimGym: AI-Powered Testing Simulation

Worth noting: Shopify also introduced SimGym, a tool for simulating customer behavior. This can be useful for low-traffic stores that can't gather statistical significance quickly. It's currently in AI Research Preview, so expect it to evolve.

What Shopify's AI Push Signals for Discount Strategy

Beyond the practical features, the Winter '26 Edition signals where Shopify sees commerce heading. Understanding this direction helps you plan your discount strategy for the next 2-3 years, not just the next quarter.

Agentic Storefronts and Deal Discovery

Shopify stores are now discoverable in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot. Your discounts, price drops, and campaigns show up in a dedicated Deals feed within these AI assistants.

This means your promotional strategy now needs to account for AI shopping assistants. When a customer asks an AI "find me deals on winter coats," your promotions can surface—if they're properly structured.

Sidekick for Discount Management

Shopify's AI assistant, Sidekick, now has expanded capabilities:

Creates workflows in Shopify Flow via text command
Generates custom analytics reports on discount performance
Future capability: building custom discount apps through conversation

Strategic Recommendation

The Winter '26 Edition signals Shopify's direction: AI-native, self-service, and increasingly sophisticated. Your discount strategy should evolve from "set it and forget it" promotions to dynamic, segment-aware, behavior-responsive offers.

The merchants who thrive will be those who combine Shopify's native capabilities with specialized tools that fill the gaps—particularly in real-time behavioral targeting and offer personalization.

Your Winter '26 Discount Action Plan

Here's a practical timeline for implementing these changes in your store:

Immediate Actions (This Week)

Review your current Shopify Scripts usage
Explore the new customer segment automatic discount settings
Audit your discount strategy for segment opportunities (VIP, lapsed, geographic)

Short-Term (Next 30 Days)

Generate your Scripts migration report
Test Rollouts with a non-critical theme change
Identify which customer segments deserve automatic discounts

Before June 2026

Complete all Scripts to Functions migrations
Establish baseline metrics for discount performance
Consider specialized tools for behavioral targeting and real-time personalization

If you're re-evaluating your discount stack for the post-Scripts era, Growth Suite integrates with Shopify's native features while adding the behavioral layer Shopify doesn't provide: real-time intent prediction, personalized offer timing, and unique single-use codes that automatically delete when expired—preventing leaks to coupon sites.

Key Takeaways

Shopify's Winter '26 Edition brings genuinely useful discount features. Here's what matters most:

Customer segment automatic discounts are live now—start using them
Scripts deprecation is real—June 30, 2026 is your deadline
Rollouts helps with theme tests, but discount-specific A/B testing still needs dedicated tools
AI discovery means your deals are now visible beyond your storefront

Bookmark Shopify's Editions page for ongoing updates. And if you want to layer behavioral intelligence on top of these new native features, explore how Growth Suite can help you show the right offer to the right visitor at the right moment.

Frequently Asked Questions

What new discount features are in Shopify's Winter '26 Edition?

The Winter '26 Edition introduces several discount-related features: automatic discounts that target specific customer segments (VIPs, lapsed buyers, geographic regions), Shopify Rollouts for native A/B testing, expanded Sidekick capabilities for discount management, and agentic storefront discovery that makes your deals visible in AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

When are Shopify Scripts being deprecated?

Shopify Scripts will be fully deprecated on June 30, 2026. After this date, all discount, shipping, and payment Scripts will cease to function. Merchants using Scripts must migrate to Shopify Functions before this deadline. Shopify provides an AI-powered migration report to help identify compatible alternatives.

Can I now create automatic discounts for VIP customers in Shopify?

Yes, Shopify now natively supports automatic discounts targeted to customer segments. You can create discounts that apply automatically when VIP customers, members of specific loyalty tiers, lapsed buyers, or customers from particular regions visit your store—no coupon codes required. This feature was previously only possible with Shopify Scripts on Plus plans.

What is Shopify Rollouts and how does it affect discount testing?

Shopify Rollouts is a native A/B testing feature that lets you schedule theme changes, control traffic percentages, run multiple experiments, and automatically deploy winning variants. For discounts, it's useful for testing promotional banners and theme-level changes. However, it's designed for theme testing, not granular discount optimization—testing specific discount percentages or timer durations still requires dedicated tools.

How do I migrate from Shopify Scripts to Shopify Functions?

Start by auditing all active Scripts in your store. Then generate Shopify's AI-powered migration report from your admin panel, which recommends compatible Functions alternatives. You can run Scripts and Functions simultaneously during transition. Options include building custom Functions, using apps that have already migrated, or hiring a developer. Plan to complete migration at least 60 days before the June 30, 2026 deadline.