What Is Discount Stacking? Combining Shopify Discounts

Quick Definition

Discount stacking is when a shopper gets two or more discounts on the same order, such as a sale price plus a coupon code. It's also called combinable discounts, and Shopify calls it discount combinations. Stacking can be planned, like free shipping with a product discount, or accidental, and each extra layer eats into your margin.

How Discounts Stack on Shopify

Shopify sorts discounts into three kinds: product, order and shipping discounts. Every discount has a Combinations section where you pick which of those kinds it can be used with.

Two discounts only stack if both of them allow it. Say a product discount is set to combine with order discounts. The order discount also has to be set to combine with product discounts. If either one says no, they won't both apply.

Stacking isn't always a mistake, either. Free shipping plus 10% off one product is a simple planned stack. After each sale, the order page lists every discount that was used, so you can see which orders got more than one.

A $60 Serum With Two Discounts on It

Example: a weekend sale meets a welcome code

A skincare store sells a serum for $60. Each bottle costs the store $24, so a full-price sale leaves $36 of gross profit.

For a weekend sale, the owner drops the price to $48 (20% off), which leaves $24 per sale. Then a new shopper comes along with a 15% welcome code. It works on the $48 price, not the $60 one, so it takes off $7.20 and the serum sells for $40.80.

In total the shopper saved $19.20. That's 32% off, not the 35% you'd get by adding 20 and 15. The store's profit, though, fell from $36 to $16.80. More than half of it is gone. To earn what 100 full-price sales bring in ($3,600), the store now needs about 215 orders.

So two discounts that each look fine on their own can take a much bigger bite out of profit together. Decide the most you're willing to give away before you allow any stacks. Our guide to choosing a discount percentage can help you pick that number.

When Stacking Works Against You

Stacking hurts most when nobody planned it. A store runs a sitewide sale, and an old influencer code still works. Or a code leaks to a coupon site and lands on top of every sale price. Each layer looks small, but together they can wipe out the profit on low-margin products.

It can also teach shoppers to wait. If codes always work on top of sales, some people may hold off until both are live. That's one road to discount fatigue.

Planned stacks are a different story. With free shipping on top of a product discount, you can work out the cost ahead of time. If you want to know how to set combinations up and which mistakes to avoid, see our guide to stacking and combining Shopify discounts.

The Myth: Turning Off Combinations Stops All Stacking

It's easy to assume that if no discount is set to combine, nothing can stack. But when you run a sale by lowering the price and showing the old one crossed out, Shopify doesn't count that as a discount. The crossed-out number is called the compare-at price, and the lower one is just the price. So a code that doesn't combine with anything can still land on top of it, same as in the serum example.

If you want to keep a code off sale items, one way is to limit which products or collections it applies to. In Growth Suite, our app, you can leave products out of its offers by vendor, product title or sale status. You can also set a maximum discount amount. Its volume discounts can work together with its other discounts, too.