Creating discounts

Share promo codes with your customers to encourage them to place an order.

You can offer different types of discounts in your store, including discounts for:

• Entire orders
• Orders over a set amount
• Individual products
• Product categories
• Digital Products pricing plans

This guide walks you through the options for creating discounts to encourage spending and drive sales. For help with discount exceptions, tracking discount use, and editing discounts, visit Managing discounts. If you use Squarespace Email Campaigns, you can also create a discount directly in your campaign. You can create discounts on Business, Commerce, Professional, and Premium plans. When a particular discount setting is only available on the Commerce Advanced or Premium plans, we'll note it in this guide.

Tip: To create a sale, use sale pricing instead. This adds a Sale badge to products and shows the original price with a strikethrough.

Only store Owners and Administrators can access discounts. Learn more about permissions in Squarespace permissions explained.

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Add a new discount

To add a new discount:

Select a trigger

You can require customers use a promo code to apply the discount. Or, if you're on either the Commerce Advanced or Premium plan, you can automatically apply the discount if the order meets certain conditions, no code required.

Create a promo code

Check Promo Code to create a code that customers need to enter to apply the discount. You can also select Generate to create a random promo code.

Promo codes appear in uppercase, but aren't case-sensitive. We recommend using short codes to make it easier for customers to remember. For example, PROMO10 or SUMMER.

Note: Use a new, unique code for each promotion. If you use the same promo code as an expired discount, the new code won't work.

Create an automatic discount

Automatic discounts are only available on the Commerce Advanced and Premium plans. For help upgrading, visit Changing your billing plan.

Check Automatic Discount to automatically apply the discount if the customer’s order meets the criteria you selected without requiring a promo code. If the Applies to conditions are met, the discount will appear to customers at checkout.

Select a promotion type

Select from these promotion types:

Percent off

Offer a percentage off a product, order, or pricing plan. The percentage needs to be a whole number. Percent off discounts don't apply to shipping.

Amount off

Offer a flat amount off a product, order, or pricing plan. Amount off discounts don't apply to shipping, or orders less than the amount off discount.

Free shipping

Remove shipping costs for an order. You can limit the discount to a specific shipping option, like free two-day shipping, or apply the discount to any shipping option you offer. Free Shipping can only apply to Any Order or Orders Over discounts. When you have an automatic, free shipping discount, it displays at checkout after customers select the shipping option the discount applies to. 

Select how the discount applies

From the Applies to drop-down menu, choose where the discount applies. You can apply discounts to entire orders or limit them to a single product or pricing plan. This setting helps you target promotions and create exceptions.

Note: Discounts won't apply to purchasing gift cards, but can apply to purchases made using a gift card.

Any order

Applies to any order of products or pricing plans with no restrictions. For example, $10 off any order. Discounts won’t exceed the order subtotal. For example, if the order subtotal is $40, a customer can use a $40 off any order discount, but not $41 off any order.

Orders over

Applies to orders with a subtotal equal to or over a certain price. The subtotal is the cost of all products, before tax and shipping, or the cost of all memberships, before tax. This is a great way to encourage more spending. For example, 15% off orders over $100 discount.

Single product

Applies to one product. The discount can't exceed the order total.

In the search bar, search for a product on your site by:

• Product name
• Product description
• Content in the product's additional information

For example, 5% off Polka Dot Dress.

Products by category

You can create category discounts that apply to each product in the selected category. You can select one or more categories to receive the discount. For example, $20 off each item in the “Summer” and “Swimwear” categories. If a customer checks out with multiple products in a discounted category, each item is discounted. The discount can't exceed the order total. Category discounts don't display in the Squarespace app. To manage category discounts, visit the Discounts panel on the computer.

For help adding categories, visit Organizing products.

Digital Products

Applies to a pricing plan for one of your Digital Products. Visitors to your site can only use this discount when purchasing a pricing plan for the specified digital product. For example, 20% off a membership to Yoga 101. Pricing plan discounts don't display in the Squarespace app.

In the Digital Products drop-down menu, select which pricing plan the discount applies to. If the selected product has multiple pricing plans, use the Price options drop-down menu to select which option the discount applies to. Click All price options to apply the discount to both options.

For pricing plans with recurring subscriptions, use Limit Subscription Discounts to set how the discount applies to recurring payments.

Limit total uses

Limiting total discount use is only available on the Commerce Advanced or Premium plans. For help upgrading, visit Changing your billing plan.

To avoid the risk of overused discounts, use Limit Total Uses to limit the number of times a discount can be applied. When a customer enters a discount code at checkout, it counts as one use. Keep in mind, the discount may apply to multiple products in a single order.

If you sell subscription products or Digital Products with subscription pricing plans, use these limits in combination with subscription discount limits.

Unlimited

Customers can apply the discount unlimited times. You can set an expiration date and create custom rules for recurring payments.

Limited Uses

Enter a maximum number of uses for the discount. This limit applies to the discount itself, not the maximum number of times an individual customer can use the discount. This is a good option for offering the discount on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you sell subscription products or subscription pricing plans, the first order counts as a single use, and renewal payments don’t count toward this limit.

Limit per customer

Limiting discount use per customer is only available on the Commerce Advanced or Premium plans. For help upgrading, visit Changing your billing plan.

Select Limit One Per Customer to limit the discount to one use per email address. Keep in mind, the discount may apply to multiple items in a single order. You can use this setting in combination with Limit Total Uses to further limit discount use. For example:

• Setting Limit Total Uses to 10 and enabling Limit One Per Customer means the discount can be used 10 times total, but only once per customer.
  
• Setting Limit Total Uses to Unlimited and enabling Limit One Per Customer means the discount can be used an unlimited number of times, but only once per customer.

Limit subscription discounts

It's not possible to apply discounts to subscription products from the Squarespace app. Use a computer instead.

Use the Limit Subscription Discounts setting to create the rules for how a discount applies to recurring payments. You can only use this setting if one or both of the following is true:

• You're on either the Commerce Advanced, Professional, or Premium plan and you sell subscription products or Digital Products with subscription pricing plans.

With this setting, you can apply a discount to the first payment or all recurring payments. You can also exclude subscription products from the discount entirely.

First payment

The discount can be applied to the first subscription or membership payment but not future renewals.

All payments

The discount can be applied to all subscription or membership renewal payments, including the first payment.

Exclude Subscription Products

The discount can’t be applied to subscription products or subscription pricing plans.

Tip: If you apply a discount to Digital Products, and then select a product with a subscription pricing plan, you won't see the Exclude Subscription Products option.

Examples: Combining total usage and subscription limits

These example discounts combine total usage 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 usage: 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 usage: 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

Set a date range

Set a start and end date to plan for future promotions, or add a sense of urgency to your promotions. By default, all discounts start on the date you create them.

1. In the Start date field, edit the start date to schedule the promotion for the future.
2. In the Expires field, select an expiration date and time. If a customer tries to apply an expired discount at checkout, an error message will appear.
3. Check Never expires to extend the discount indefinitely.

By default, discounts apply to all subscription renewals, even if they have an end date. To limit the number of times a discount can apply to a subscription, visit limit subscription discounts.

Next steps

• Visit Managing discounts for help organizing your active, scheduled, and expired discounts.
• Add a product to your cart or start a member site pricing plan purchase, then go to checkout to review what the discount looks like to a customer.
• Promote the discount with an email campaign or an announcement bar.