Tiered discounts overview

Tiered discounts let you set dynamic discounts that increase with the quantity of items in the cart or the total spend amount. You can use these discounts to drive growth and profitability for your store. Tiered discounts can significantly boost Average Order Value (AOV) by incentivizing customers to buy more and increasing transaction value.

This guide covers configuring tiered discounts, resolving error messages, and considerations when using this feature.

Before you start

• Tiered discounts are available for dynamic bundles, specific collections, and individual products.
  • You must also be on Recharge's Plus or Custom pricing plans to use dynamically priced bundles.
• Tiered discounts are compatible with stores using Shopify's upgraded Thank you and Order status pages.

Tiered discounts for dynamic bundles

How it works

Tiered discounts apply dynamically as customers add products to a dynamic bundle. Tiered discounts for bundles can be based on either product quantity or total spend, depending on how the discount is configured.

If you use Recharge’s Storefront SDK, you can retrieve tiered discount data using the API. Refer to the tiered discount documentation for more information.

Bundles widget

The bundles widget on both the storefront and the customer portal includes a tiered discount progression bar. This banner appears at the top of the bundle builder and dynamically updates as customers add items.

On the storefront

When customers build a new bundle, the progression bar shows how adding more products increases their discount. This visual cue encourages larger bundle purchases.

In the customer portal

The same banner appears when customers:

• Update the contents of an existing bundle subscription
• Add a new bundle and select items during setup

This feature helps communicate value clearly and incentivizes customers to reach higher discount tiers by adding more products to their bundle.

Tiered discounts for collections and products

How it works

Recharge applies the tiered discount when qualifying products from the selected collection or specific products are in the cart.

Tiered discounts can be based on either:

• Product quantity: The discount increases when customers add more qualifying items
• Spend amount: The discount increases when customers reach specific cart value thresholds

As the customer adds more items or increases their cart value, the discount automatically updates when they reach the next tier.

Unlike bundle-tiered discounts, collection- and product-tiered discounts do not display a progression banner. Instead, you must manually communicate discount tiers to your customers.

Tiered discounts based on spend

How it works

Spend-based tiered discounts apply when a customer reaches specific cart-value thresholds, rather than product-quantity thresholds.

For example:

• Spend $50, get 10% off
• Spend $100, get 20% off

As the customer’s cart total increases, the discount automatically updates when they reach the next spend tier.

Configuration

When creating a tiered discount, select Spend instead of quantity to define tiers based on cart value.

All other configuration steps and limitations are the same as quantity-based tiered discounts.

Configure tiered discounts

Create tiered discounts directly in the merchant portal to drive profitability and growth for your store. You can only create percentage-based discounts, and you cannot set an expiry date for tiered discounts.

To create tiered discounts:

1. Click Discounts, then select Tiered discounts from the dropdown in the merchant portal. 
2. Select Create a tiered discount. 
3. Choose whether you'd like the tiered discount to apply to a bundle, a collection of products, or a specific product. Select the bundle, collection, or product eligible for the tiered discount.
4. Select Product quantity or Spend depending on the type of discount you want to offer.
5. Configure the discount tiers by setting:
   • The minimum number of qualifying products customers must add to receive the specified discount amount when using Product quantity
   • The minimum spend amount required to receive the specified discount when using Spend
6. Select where this discount can be applied and which purchase type. 
7. Provide an internal name for the discount, set the discount display name, and select Save tiered discount. 
8. Select Activate discount. 
   • After you activate the discount, it applies to all qualifying purchases while it remains active.
   • If a customer checks out while a tiered discount is active, the discount is applied to that subscription. When you deactivate the discount, you can choose whether to remove it from existing subscriptions or allow those customers to continue receiving it.
   • Customers who did not check out while the discount was active will only receive the discount if it remains active, or if you choose to keep it applied to existing subscriptions when deactivating it.

After you activate the tiered discount, Recharge applies an additional discount to any order that qualifies. The discount uses the display name you set and is visible in the order confirmation email and on the Shopify order details page.

Tiered discount offer banners

If your store uses Affinity, Recharge displays a tiered-discount banner for product and collection discounts when a customer is approaching the next quantity- or spend-based discount tier. The banner appears on the customer's next order experience and on the add and edit product pages, encouraging customers to increase order value by clearly communicating the next reward threshold. This banner does not apply to bundles, as bundles already include a progress bar within the bundle widget.

This banner highlights how much more the customer needs to add to receive a larger discount.

For example:

• A customer qualifies for a 10% discount
• The banner shows they can receive 15% if they add more to their order

Customizing the banner 

To update the banner content if you use the Affinity Home Page Builder:

1. In the Recharge merchant portal, select Storefront, then click Customer portal. 
2. Click Customize under Affinity.
3. Click Main column and select Next order detail. 
4. Optional: If you haven’t added the Tiered discount block, select Add a section, then choose the Tiered discount block.
5. Edit the Tiered discount block.
6. Click Done to save your changes.

To update the banner content if you do not use the Affinity Home Page Builder:

1. In the Recharge merchant portal, select Storefront, then click Copy & translations.
2.  Locate the Tiered Discount Banners under Products.
3. Update the copy under this section.
4. Save your changes.

Stacking discounts

The behavior for stacking discounts differs depending on how the order is created. If a product-level discount and a qualifying tiered discount both apply:

• Checkout orders: Recharge does not stack product-level discounts and tiered discounts. Instead, Recharge applies the larger discount.
• Recurring orders: Recharge stacks product-level discounts and tiered discounts.

Recharge stacks order-level and shipping discount codes with tiered discounts for both checkout and recurring orders.

Tiered discounts also stack with Rewards and Cancellation Prevention experiences, and subscribe-and-save discounts.

Considerations

Consider the following when using tiered discounts: