Discounts provide a method to offer promotions to your customers. In Recharge, you can create fixed or percentage discounts and free shipping discounts for your customers to use at checkout or in their customer portal. This guide provides instructions for creating discount codes in Recharge.

Before you begin

• Due to an API limitation, discount codes for subscriptions must be created in Recharge. If a discount code should apply to both one-time products and subscription products, you will have to create the code in your ecommerce platform and in Recharge. It is recommended to always create your discount code in both Recharge and your ecommerce platform, to prevent any issues for your customers. See Creating coupon codes in BigCommerce or the How to setup manual discount codes in the Shopify help center. 
• The discount code settings configured in Recharge must match the discount code settings configured in your ecommerce platform.
• If you are using the Shopify Checkout Integration, you must create your discount code in both Shopify and Recharge. If the settings in Shopify and Recharge are in conflict, on recurring orders, Recharge will give precedence to the settings in Recharge.
• If you are using the BigCommerce Checkout Integration, Recharge supports all of BigCommerce's discount types on checkout, including coupons and automatic promotions. Discount codes used at checkout must be added to BigCommerce. Discount codes for recurring orders are made in Recharge and can only be used in the Recharge customer portal.

Step 1 - Create a new discount code

1. Select Discounts in the Recharge merchant portal and click Discounts.
2. Click Create discount code.  
3. Enter the discount code name you wish to create. Note that the discount names are not case-sensitive.

Step 2 - Choose the discount type

Choose between Fixed amount, Percentage, or Shipping discount and enter the total discount amount:

• Fixed amount: Fixed amount discounts offer a specific dollar discount off a purchase, which can be tied to a minimum purchase amount or applied to any order value.
• Percentage: Percentage discounts offer a set percentage off the cost of the customer’s order.
  • How discount percentages are calculated – The discount percentage is applied line by line on orders with multiple products. This ensures tax is calculated correctly and that the discount is only applied to applicable products.
• Shipping: A shipping discount provides free shipping for the customer’s order. The shipping discount code will always discount the entire shipping cost. Shipping discounts cannot be applied to specific products or collections.

Optional - Set the minimum purchase requirements

If you want to set a minimum cart total before the discount code can be applied, you can select Minimum purchase amount and enter the dollar amount that the customer must reach. The minimum purchase amount refers to the subtotal, before taxes and shipping are applied.

Minimum requirements and Applies to (explained in step 3), can be combined to create discount codes that require a minimum purchase amount and are restricted to only certain products, or to products in a certain collection.

If the discount is restricted to specific products, the discount only applies to those products, but the minimum purchase amount does not have to be fulfilled by the specified products. 

Step 3 - Apply discount to a specific product or collection

You may want to create a discount that only applies to a specific product or collection. Select the product or collection under Applies to. If the discount code applies to all products or collections or if you are creating a shipping discount, you can skip this step.

If your discount is set to apply to a certain product or collection and you have set a minimum purchase requirement, the discount code will check to make sure the minimum spend is based on the specified products. For more information, visit Discounts FAQ.

Step 4 - Select the product type

If your discount code does not have a minimum purchase requirement, you have the option to apply the discount to all product types, one-time products, or subscription products.

Optional - Select channel permissions

If your discount code does not have a minimum purchase requirement, you can enable and limit which channels will accept the discount code. Channel controls cannot be set for discounts with a minimum purchase amount, because these discounts are automatically restricted to checkout only.

• Merchant portal - Any discount applied within the merchant portal, typically by the merchant.
• Customer portal - Any discount applied via the customer portal, typically by the customer.
• API: Any discount applied via the apply_discount API endpoints are used for bulk discount application, automated discount application via integration, or other custom merchant use.

Step 5 - Add application limits

You can set application limits to control how many times the discount code is used by subscribers. Application limit discount codes only work at checkout and cannot be applied in the customer portal.

• Limit number of times this discount can be applied in total - When checked, you will be prompted to enter a total amount. This will be the number of times the discount code can be applied in total across your customer base. For example, if you enter 100, this discount code could be used by 100 customers.
• Limit to one subscription per customer - When checked, this setting limits the application of the discount code to one per customer. Recharge uses the email address on file to determine if the customer has previously used the discount code. After the code is applied by the customer, the discount continues based on its duration.

• Limit to first-time subscribers only - This restricts the discount so that it can only be applied by customers who do not already exist in Recharge and have not previously purchased a subscription product from your store. This check is based on their email and which subscriptions are associated with that email.

• How many times should the discount apply to the customer's subscription? – This determines the application limit on a customer basis. For example, if you select one charge only, the discount code will apply to a single charge and then expire. If you select All charges, the discount code will apply to all subsequent subscription orders for that customer until they cancel their subscription. If you would like to limit how many orders, select Set amount of charges.

Step 6 - Set a start and end date.

If you want your discount code to begin on a specific date, you can use the date picker to select the start date. You can also specify the expiration date by selecting Set an expiration date for new customers. The date of expiration is 11:59:59pm EST.

The expiration date applies to new customers only. For example, if you set an expiration date, but your discount code is set to apply to All charges, existing subscribers with the discount code will still receive the discount code for the duration of their subscription. However, new customers coming through the checkout will not be able to use the discount code after the expiration date.

Step 7 - Review and save

Before clicking Save at the bottom of the page, be sure to review the settings of your discount code. 

Bulk upload discount codes

You can bulk manage your discount codes directly in the merchant portal. 

For more information, visit Managing discount codes in bulk.

Bulk import discounts from Shopify to Recharge

With the Shopify Discount Import feature, merchants can import supported discount codes created in Shopify to Recharge, up to a maximum of 100,000 discount codes at a time. 

See Using the Shopify Discount Import feature to learn how you can opt-in to use this beta feature, unsupported discount types, and how to import your discount codes once the feature is enabled.