Technical details and limitations on using and combining discounts.

To avoid over-discounting, we've built-in combination rules for discounts. While we have these basic rules in place to help, try limiting the number of discounts you offer at a time. Offering only one or two promotions at once ensures that customers can't "stack" them and helps keep your promotions clear and memorable. 

Rules for applying discounts

• Discounts apply to order subtotals. They don't apply to taxes or shipping (except free shipping discounts).
• A discount can’t exceed the order subtotal. If it does, customers can’t use it.
• Customers can’t apply expired discounts. If a customer tries to use an expired discount, an error message appears that says, "Unable to redeem coupon: this coupon is no longer available."
• Customers can't buy a gift card using a discount. However, they can use a discount when making a purchase with the gift card. 

You can combine these discount types

Combining total usage and subscription limits

These example discounts combine total order limits and subscription discount limits. Use this as a reference when creating more restrictive discounts.

10% off all orders of a specific subscription product, available to the first 10 subscribers.

• Promotion: Percent off
• Applies to: Single product
• Limit total orders: Limit Usage - 10
• Limit Subscription Discounts: Unlimited

$15 off single-purchase products in a certain category, which can be used an unlimited number of times.

• Promotion: Fixed amount - $15.00
• Applies to: Products by category
• Limit total orders: Unlimited
• Limit Subscription Discounts: Exclude Subscription Products

20% off the first payment of the recurring membership for the Yoga 101 member site.

• Promotion: Percent off
• Applies to: Member site
• Member Site: Yoga 101
• Limit Subscription Discounts: First Payments

You can't combine these discount types

If customers try to combine incompatible discounts, they'll see an error message.

Rules for combining discounts

• If multiple automatic discounts of different types can apply to the same order, the Amount off discount will apply at checkout. For example, if an Amount off and Percent off discount could both apply, the Amount off discount is preferred, even if it's smaller.
• If two automatic Percent off discounts ‌apply but can't be combined, the larger discount is preferred.
• Free shipping discounts will always apply.
• Discounts can't be combined if an order has only one product.
• You can only combine Percent off any order discounts with Free shipping, unless the other discounts don't apply to all products in the cart. For example, if you offer 10% off any order and 10% off products in Category 1, and a customer checks out with a product from Category 1and a product from Category 2, they can use both discounts. In this example, the 10% off any order discount will only apply to the value of the product in Category 2.