Promotions: Adding discounts and coupons with IndieMade

IndieMade Promotions let you offer discounts on products, order totals, and shipping. Each promotion can be a percentage or a fixed dollar amount, and you can control when and how it applies using filters, coupon codes, and date ranges.

Creating a promotion

  1. On the Dashboard, click Promotions
  2. Click Add Promotion
  3. Enter a Promotion Name (for your reference only, customers do not see this)
  4. Enter a Display Name (optional). This is what customers see in their order summary next to the discount amount. If left blank, it defaults to "Discount".
  5. Select an offer type (see below)
  6. Configure the discount amount as either a Percentage or Fixed amount
  7. Click Save

Offer types

When creating a promotion, you choose one of the following offer types.

Buy X Get Y (BOGO)

Customers buy a certain quantity of products and get a certain quantity at a discount. This is the most flexible offer type for quantity-based promotions.

You configure two sets of conditions:

  • Buy conditions: Set the Buy Quantity (how many items the customer must purchase) and optionally limit to specific categories or products
  • Get conditions: Set the Get Quantity (how many items receive the discount) and optionally limit to specific categories or products

Then set the discount as a percentage or fixed amount off the "get" items.

Examples:

  • Buy 1 Get 1 Free: Buy Quantity = 1, Get Quantity = 1, Discount = 100%
  • Buy 2 Get 1 for 50% off: Buy Quantity = 2, Get Quantity = 1, Discount = 50%
  • Buy 3 Shirts, Get 1 Hat Free: Buy Quantity = 3, Buy Categories = Shirts, Get Quantity = 1, Get Categories = Hats, Discount = 100%

The cheapest qualifying items are discounted first. If a customer buys enough to qualify multiple times (e.g. 6 items for a "Buy 2 Get 1" deal), the discount applies multiple times.

Discount on order subtotal

Applies a discount to the total cost of products in the cart (before shipping and taxes). Good for sitewide sales or "spend $100 get 20% off" promotions.

If you have product or category filters set, you can check "Only discount qualifying products" to apply the discount only to the subtotal of the matching products rather than the entire order.

Discount per each matching product

Applies a discount to each product individually. Customers will see a strike-through on the original price with the new discounted price next to it on product pages and listings.

Use the Apply Discount To section to control which products are discounted (see "Filtering by products and categories" below).

Discount all items (store-wide sale)

A simplified version of the product discount that applies to every product in your store. Each product's original price is shown crossed out, with the new discounted price next to it. No product or category filtering is available with this type.

This offer type does not support coupon codes, date ranges, or filters. It applies immediately to all products when enabled.

Discount on Shipping

Discounts the shipping cost on qualifying orders. Set it to 100% for free shipping, or any other amount for a partial shipping discount.

If you have custom shipping options configured (e.g. Standard, Express), you can choose which shipping options the discount applies to. Leave all unchecked to apply to all shipping options.

If you use USPS as your shipping method, you can check "Only apply to cheapest service" to only discount the shipping when the customer selects the cheapest available USPS service.

For more about free shipping, see Offering free shipping.

Filtering by products and categories

Most offer types (except "Discount all items") let you control which products the promotion applies to.

  • Categories: Select one or more categories. All products in those categories will qualify. Leave empty to apply to all products.
  • Include Products: Select specific products to include, even if they are not in the selected categories.
  • Exclude Products: Select specific products to exclude, even if they match the categories above.

Filters

Filters let you control the conditions under which a promotion applies. These are found in the Filters section of the promotion form.

  • Order Quantity Minimum: The order must contain at least this many items for the promotion to apply.
  • Order Subtotal Minimum: The order subtotal must be at least this amount (e.g. $50) for the promotion to apply.
  • Order Subtotal Maximum: The order subtotal must be below this amount for the promotion to apply. Useful for targeting lower-value orders.
  • Country: Limits the promotion to orders shipping to a specific country.
  • Returning Customers Only: Only logged-in customers can use this promotion.

Coupon codes

You can add coupon codes to any promotion (except "Discount all items"). If no coupon codes are added, the promotion applies automatically when the conditions are met.

To add a coupon code, enter the code in the Coupons section and click Add Coupon. You can add as many codes as you like for a single promotion.

Each coupon has two usage limits:

  • Global Usage Limit: The total number of times this coupon code can be used by anyone. Enter 0 for unlimited.
  • Customer Usage Limit: The total number of times a single customer can use this code. A customer is identified by their email address. Enter 0 for unlimited.

Date ranges

Click the Date details section to set a start and/or end date for the promotion. Use this if you want to schedule a promotion to start at a future date, or to have it expire automatically.

If no dates are set, the promotion is active immediately and runs indefinitely (until you disable it).

How discounts display to customers

Product pages and listings: "Discount per each matching product" and "Discount all items" show the original price with a strike-through and the discounted price next to it. Other offer types do not affect the displayed product price.

Cart and checkout: All discounts appear as a line item in the order summary showing the promotion's Display Name and the discount amount.

Note: If you have the "Display Price Range for Varying Prices" setting enabled in Store Settings, strike-through pricing will not display. Only the discounted price will be shown.