How to Offer Discounts for Bulk Orders on Shopify

If you want to set up Shopify bulk discounts for orders to clear stock and improve your customer retention, you’re in the right place. This guide will show you how to apply Shopify bulk discounts to orders, whether you’re using coupon codes or automatic discounts based on a percentage, fixed value, and other discount types.

Shopify bulk discounts can be applied to orders using Shopify’s built-in discount settings. However, if you want to maximize the potential of Shopify bulk discounts to increase order values and boost sales, then a Shopify bulk discount app will increase those opportunities. 

A Shopify bulk discount app is particularly useful for wholesale businesses, making the process of managing mutually beneficial discounts easier and more efficient. You can reduce the cost of holding inventory by selling it in large quantities at a discounted rate with bulk discounts on Shopify.

Shopify’s introduction to selling wholesale products provides valuable insight into how wholesale works and coming up with a wholesale pricing strategy that you can then implement with a Shopify bulk discount app. 

What’s more, a Shopify bulk discount app offers a range of features that you won’t find in Shopify’s built-in settings. Bulk Discount & Sales Manager for Shopify includes an easy-to-use discount manager with the ability to set discounts based on comparison or current prices, a bulk discount code generator, sales badges, countdown timers, and more.  Ready to get started with a Shopify bulk discount app? Continue reading and reap the rewards in a few short steps. 


How To Add Discounts To Products In-Bulk on Shopify (limited options)

Follow our step-by-step guide on setting up your Shopify bulk discount app and start maximizing sales throughout your online store. 

1. Access Your Shopify Dashboard and Create a Discount

So, the first step is to log into your Shopify dashboard and navigate to the discounts section by clicking ‘Discounts’ in the left-hand menu. 

From there, you’ll see a ‘create discount’ button in the top right corner that you can click to continue. 

2. Choose Your Discount Type

You’ll get a prompt with the option to pick either a product discount, order discount, buy x get y discount, or shipping discount. 

You can set up Shopify bulk discounts on all options and easily manage them in your dashboard, so you can decide which one will work best for you. 

On all of the discount types, you’ll get to run through a few set-up options that are very similar across each one. The following steps will go through adding a ‘product discount’, but can be applied to the set-up of other discount types. 

3. Choose between a discount code or an automatic discount

Once you’re on the discount set-up page, you will be able to choose whether you want to apply a discount code or an automatic discount. 

By choosing a discount code, you’ll set up a code that users can copy and paste at checkout to get a discount. With automatic discounts, you can apply discounts to selected products and orders that will automatically be applied at check-out without any user intervention.

4. Configure Your Discount Type

The setup for all options above is nearly identical. The first step is to enter a discount code or a title for an automatic discount. Shoppers will see both during checkout so make sure they are descriptive for your own purposes and provide a good user experience.

Next, you can decide what type of Shopify bulk discount you want by choosing how it should be calculated. This can be based on either a percentage or a fixed amount.

Again, you can choose any option as it won’t make a big difference when setting up the bulk discount later on. 

5. Set the Minimum Purchase Requirements for Your Discount

For percentage, fixed value, and free shipping discounts, you should see a ‘minimum purchase requirements’ section. Choose your conditions for the discount to be applied – this could look something like a 15% discount on orders over $100, for example. 

For example, if you type ‘3’, the shopper will need at least three separate items in their cart to be eligible for the discount.

If you went with a ‘buy X get Y discount’, you will see a ‘customer buys’ panel. Just like the others, tick the ‘minimum quantity of items’ option. Then configure the discount as usual.

5. Finalize and Create Your Discount

On top of making bulk orders a requirement to receive a discount, you can change additional settings to control who, and how many, shoppers are eligible for the discount.

Customer eligibility allows you to specify that either all customers or specific groups/individuals should get the discount, and who they are.

Usage limits allow you to either specify the maximum number of times the same discount can be redeemed or to limit each customer to only use the discount once – or both.

Combinations can limit the number of discount types used per order. By not selecting either, this will mean the discount that you’re setting up cannot be used in conjunction with other discounts. 

Active dates allow you to set the period for which the discount is active. The discount will automatically activate on the start date and deactivate on the end date.

Before saving your discount, review the summary card in the top right corner to make sure all the details regarding your discount are correct.

Adding Discounts Using a the Shopify Bulk Discount App (easiest way!)

Although a lot of this functionality comes standard with Shopify’s built-in discount settings, it does have its limitations when it comes to managing your promotions. 

For example, there are no options to bulk manage all your discounts and discounted products won’t be auto-tagged for easy tracking and analytics. You’ll gain access to more configuration options when creating discounts, and also makes it easier to enable, disable, and edit your discounts in Bulk.

All of these and other management and promotional features are baked into our Bulk Discount & Sales Manager app, which you can try for free from the official Shopify marketplace.

How to offer quantity discounts and wholesale discounts on Shopify

Once you’ve completed our step-by-step guide, you will now have access to a volume discounts dashboard where you can easily manage bulk discounts throughout your online store. 

If you’re a wholesale business that is looking to further optimize your discounting model, quantity discounts is a discount type that is applied when customers receive a lower price for purchasing a higher amount of products. 

There’s a reason why wholesale is a $10 trillion dollar business. Wholesale markets are based on a volume pricing model, which attracts a larger customer base with competitive pricing, and sell more products. 

Wholesale is a market witnessing continuous growth. In fact, according to IBIS World’s industry statistics, the United States wholesale trade grew 10.9% in 2022 alone. To keep up with the demand, you will need to update your online store accordingly. 

Quantity Breaks & Discounts allows you to set-up tiered discounts in just a few clicks. Choose from a selection of promotion types, including volume discounts, then run and edit all your tier pricing rules from one convenient dashboard.

For more information about setting up volume discounts and their benefits, read our step-by-step guide on how to add volume discounts on Shopify


Frequently asked questions

How do I add a discount to multiple items on Shopify?

Adding a discount to multiple items on Shopify can be easily achieved with a Bulk Discount Manager app.  Follow our guide on setting up discounts and applying them to multiple items and you’ll get the option to select products or collections for the discount to be applied to. There’s no limit on how many you can select and you can run different discounts on multiple products simultaneously. 

How do you do quantity discount on Shopify?

Quantity Breaks & Discounts allows you to set-up tiered discounts in just a few clicks. Choose from a selection of promotions, including quantity discounts, then run and edit all your quantity discount rules from one convenient dashboard. For more information about setting up volume discounts and their benefits, read our step-by-step guide on how to add volume discounts on Shopify

Can you create a tiered discount on Shopify?

Yes! Offer a tiered discount with a Shopify app in just a few clicks. Head to the Shopify app store, download a Shopify discount app and create a ‘buy x get y’ discount to introduce tiered pricing throughout your online store. Learn how to create a tiered discount on Shopify in just a few steps on our blog!