Running discounts and campaigns is essential for growing sales on an ecommerce site. However, entering coupon codes and dealing with complex settings can be a burden for both customers and store operators. That's where Shopify's automatic discount app "Automatic Discounts" comes in handy. With this app, you can automatically apply a variety of discounts without needing coupon codes, making the customer experience smoother while also aiming to boost sales.
This article clearly explains the features, benefits, usage, and points to note of Automatic Discounts. If you're a Shopify store owner considering running discount campaigns, please use it as a reference.
What Is Shopify's Automatic Discount App "Automatic Discounts"?
Image source: Automatic Discounts｜Shopify App Store
Shopify's automatic discount app "Automatic Discounts" is an app that can automatically apply a discount the moment a customer adds a product to their cart. A key feature is that it makes the purchase experience smoother, since there's no need to enter a coupon code as in the past. It offers a variety of discount methods, including discounting the entire order, bulk-purchase discounts, and adding a free gift, letting you run flexible promotions tailored to the situation.
Since it can be configured with intuitive operation, it's easy to use even for store owners without specialized knowledge, and can help streamline running sales and campaigns.
Automatic Discounts' Main Features and Capabilities
Here are Automatic Discounts' main features and capabilities.
A Variety of Discount Features
Automatic Discounts comes with a wide range of discount features. Let's go through each one.
Whole Order Discount
This feature applies a discount all at once to every product in the cart. For example, it's well suited to simple, easy-to-understand promotions like "10% off all products." It can appeal to a broad range of customers during campaigns or seasonal sales, and since it's simple to operate, it's an easy discount setting even for beginners.
Tiered Discounts
This feature lets you change the discount rate in stages depending on the purchase amount or quantity. For example, you can set conditions such as "5% off for orders of ¥5,000 or more" or "10% off for orders of ¥10,000 or more." Since the more customers buy, the better the deal gets, it makes it easier to encourage bulk purchases and helps increase average order value.
Discounts on Specific Products/Collections
You can limit which products or collections the discount applies to. This is effective when you want to draw attention to specific items, such as inventory you want to sell off or new products you want to promote.
Gift with Purchase
This mechanism automatically adds a gift to the cart once a certain purchase amount or number of items is reached. For example, it can be used for a promotion like "get a free gift with purchases of ¥10,000 or more."
Buy X Items for $Y (Fixed-Price Bundle)
This is a method for selling multiple units of a specific product together at a fixed price. For example, it enables bundle sales such as "3 for $40." Besides giving customers a sense of value, it's also useful when you want to move a batch of inventory or encourage the simultaneous purchase of related products.
Cheapest Item in Cart
You can limit the discount to apply only to the cheapest or the most expensive product in the cart. For example, you could use it for something like "10% off only the highest-priced item."
BOGO (Buy One, Get One)
You can automatically apply the classic "buy one, get one free" or "second item half price" type of discount. Customers tend to feel they're getting a good deal, making it effective as a strategy for increasing units sold.
Combined Deals
This feature lets you freely combine the discount strategies above. For example, you can apply multiple conditions at once, such as "10% off everything + a gift for orders of ¥5,000 or more." It lets you design promotions more flexibly, helping differentiate your store from others.
One-Click Application of Templates
Automatic Discounts comes with a set of pre-built discount templates. Since you can enable representative strategies (such as gift with purchase or Buy More / Save More) with a single click, you can start a campaign right away without complex setup. This is especially convenient for those adopting a discount app for the first time, or who want to prepare a sale in a short amount of time.
Pop-Up Display Announcing Promotions
You can display a pop-up that automatically informs customers of discounts and campaigns. For example, by instantly notifying customers of information such as "buy 2 now for 10% off" or "get a gift when you add this to your cart," you can raise their purchase intent. Since it can be announced in an eye-catching way, this feature helps maximize the effect of your promotion.
Bar Display Encouraging Free Shipping
You can display a bar on the cart page like "¥XXX more for free shipping," creating a trigger to increase the purchase amount. This gives customers a clear goal, motivating them to add more to their purchase. It can be expected to help raise average order value and completed-purchase rate.
Benefits of Adopting Automatic Discounts on Shopify
Here are the benefits of adopting Automatic Discounts, which lets you run a variety of discount strategies, on your Shopify store.
A Smoother Purchase Experience Without Coupons
Shopify's basic feature set also lets you run discount campaigns using coupons. However, with coupons, users need to take the extra step of entering a coupon code.
With Automatic Discounts, customers can receive a discount without entering a coupon code. This reduces stress during the purchase process, improving the quality of the purchase experience, and can also help lower the abandonment rate.
Leads to a Higher Average Order Value
By setting conditions such as "discount for purchases of ¥X or more" or "discount for bulk purchases," you create an incentive for customers to try to increase their purchase amount. This can be expected to raise the purchase amount per customer, boosting the average order value overall.
Easy to Prepare for Sales and Campaigns
Even large-scale sales and seasonal campaigns can be set up quickly just by choosing a preset template. Since you can launch a promotion instantly without complex coding or detailed configuration, it can be a big help for busy store operators.
Shopify App Automatic Discounts Pricing Plans
Automatic Discounts' pricing plans are as follows.
| Plan Name | Test the waters | Basic Essentials | Startup | BUSINESS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | Free | $9.99 | $19.99 | $49.99 |
| Success fee | 2.90% | 1.20% | 9% | 0.60% |
※This information is based on data as of September 2025.
Automatic Discounts' pricing consists of a monthly fee plus a success fee charged on sales generated through the app.
For example, if you're on the BUSINESS plan and generate $1,000 in sales through the app, you'll be charged the $49.99 monthly fee plus a $6 success fee (1,000 × 0.6%). In total, your monthly usage cost would be $55.99.
With this pricing structure, costs will rise in line with your sales growth, but it remains relatively light for small stores, while offering a pricing model that flexibly scales with results even for stores running large sales.
Note that there is no difference in features between the pricing plans.
How to Adopt and Set Up the Shopify App Automatic Discounts
Here's how to adopt and initially configure Automatic Discounts.
First, install "ADU: Automatic Discounts" from the Shopify App Store.
Image source: ADU: Automatic Discounts｜Shopify App Store
Your Shopify store will show an install confirmation again, so click "Install."
Image source: Shopify admin
Automatic Discounts' settings screen will appear within the Shopify admin. Next, click "Enable ADU Theme Helper" at the top of the screen.
The theme editor will appear, so enable the switch for "ADU Automatic Discounts" under "App embeds," then click "Save."
That completes the initial setup.
How to Actually Use the Shopify App Automatic Discounts
Here's how to run a discount strategy using Automatic Discounts. Select "Promotion" from the menu, then select "Custom deal." On the screen that switches over, the following discount strategies appear under "Type of deal."
- Whole order
- Tiered discounts
- Specific products/collections
- Gift with purchase
- Buy X items for $Y
- Cheapest item in cart
- BOGO - discount pairs
- Combined Deals
This time, we'll explain using the classic discount strategy, BOGO. Selecting BOGO with the radio button switches the screen display.
The settings for each item are as follows.
- ① Enter the quantity of the same product to which the discount applies.
- ② Enter the discount rate.
- ③ Checking this also includes combinations of different products.
- ④ Checking this applies the discount to multiple quantities as well. ※ If unchecked, no matter how many are added to the cart, the discount only applies to one set.
- ⑤ Select a specific product or a specific collection.
- ⑥ Checking this lets you choose some variants or SKUs of the target product.
- ⑦ Checking this hides the promotion widget.
Next, in the "Extra benefits" section, configure the benefits you'll offer.
- ⑧ Suggest a discounted or free product before checkout.
- ⑨ Free shipping applies to this order.
Checking ⑧ lets you select a product and set a discount rate or quantity limit. Setting "Auto add gift" to "ON" automatically adds the product to the cart. However, only auto-add it when offering it for free.
"Cart behaviour" lets you configure how the cart behaves.
- Skip the cart and add the products directly to the order
- Add the products to the cart and let the customers edit it
Checking ⑨ lets you specify a limit on how the benefit applies. If specified, free shipping is only applied when the condition is met. If left unspecified, free shipping basically applies to that order.
- Apply for any order
- Apply only if the following products are present. No other products.
- Apply only if the following products are not present. Any other products.
"Additional settings" lets you configure additional settings. The settings items are as follows.
- ⑩ Cart requirement (none)
- ⑪ Usage limit (none)
- ⑫ Customer eligibility (all)
- ⑬ Active dates (all)
The values in parentheses are the defaults. Checking each item lets you configure it further. We'll skip this in this example.
Once you're done configuring everything, click "Create deal" at the bottom right of the screen. Next, a confirmation pop-up for automation appears, so click "Automate it!"
Finally, select the "Automatic" tab and turn "ON" the deal you created.
In this example, we've configured "20% off when you buy 2 shirts."
Let's check this on the actual screen. Adding the target product to the cart and proceeding to checkout, the 20% discount was automatically applied.
There are various other discount strategies available, so if you're interested, give them a try. That's the end of the usage explanation.
Points to Note When Using the Shopify App Automatic Discounts
Automatic Discounts is convenient, letting you apply discounts automatically and use it for free with a monthly fee, but there are also points to note.
Settings Are English Only
Automatic Discounts' settings screen is located within the Shopify admin, but it is currently limited to English and does not support Japanese. Even using your browser's automatic translation, this settings screen won't be translated. Customer support is also English only.
For this reason, those who aren't comfortable with English will need to use an external translation tool to understand the content, and there are many technical terms, so operation and configuration can take a significant amount of time. Making a mistake in your discount settings can lead to unexpected losses or become a source of trouble, so please be careful.
If you're looking for a discount app you can operate in Japanese, check out "RuffRuff Order Bonus," introduced in the next section.
To Run Discount Strategies on Shopify, We Recommend RuffRuff Order Bonus
If you're looking for an app you can operate intuitively in Japanese when running discount campaigns on Shopify, we recommend "RuffRuff Order Bonus." RuffRuff Order Bonus's settings screen supports Japanese, and there's Japanese-language customer support too, so it's reassuring even for beginners.
With this app, you can configure a wide variety of discount conditions, such as the following.
- Free shipping
- Free gift distribution
- First-purchase discount
- Quantity discount (volume discount)
- Member-exclusive discount
- Limited-time sale
- Tiered discounts, and more
RuffRuff Order Bonus also lets you apply automatic discounts with no coupon code needed. Since you can combine multiple of these conditions, you can implement discount strategies that fit your own ecommerce marketing strategy.
RuffRuff Order Bonus can be configured with simple operations, without editing any code, so it's usable even by those without programming knowledge.
The app costs $9/month to use, with a 3-day free trial period. If you're considering running a discount strategy, please give it a try.
Adopt an Automatic Discount App and Aim to Boost Your Shopify Sales!
This article explained Shopify's automatic discount app "Automatic Discounts."
Automatic Discounts is a useful app that lets your store run a wide variety of automatic discount strategies. Adopting this app can be expected to bring effects such as raising average order value and boosting sales.
On the other hand, the settings screen is somewhat complex, and it's also only available in English, which may make it difficult to handle for those not comfortable with English. For such people, we recommend the Japanese-supporting discount app "RuffRuff Order Bonus."
Adopt the discount app best suited to your business and aim to boost your store's sales.
