How to set up “Buy 2, save 10%” in Shopify, without an app
"Buy 2, save 10%" is one of the simplest ways to raise the average order. You don't need an app for it: Shopify's own automatic discounts do it in about five minutes. Here's how, plus tiers, and the few things that catch people out.
Short answer: in Shopify admin, go to Discounts → Create discount → Amount off products. Choose Automatic discount, set Percentage to 10, set Applies to to your products or collection, and under Minimum purchase requirements choose Minimum quantity of items: 2. Save, then test it with 1 item and with 2.
Step by step
- Group the products. Put the products in the offer into one collection. The easiest way is a tag, such as buy2save10, and an automated collection with the condition Product tag is equal to buy2save10.
- Create the discount. In Shopify admin, go to Discounts, click Create discount and choose Amount off products. Under Method, choose Automatic discount, and give it a title shoppers will understand, such as Buy 2, save 10%.
- Set the value. Choose Percentage and enter 10.
- Choose what it applies to. Under Applies to, choose Specific collections and add your collection.
- Set the minimum. Under Minimum purchase requirements, choose Minimum quantity of items and enter 2. Only items from that collection count toward the 2.
- Set dates and save. Under Active dates, set the start and, if the offer ends, the end. Times use your store's time zone. Click Save.
- Test it. Add one item from the collection to a cart: no discount. Add a second: 10% comes off both.
Example: a T-shirt store tags 40 shirts buy2save10 and makes an automated collection from the tag. Two shirts at $30 each: the cart shows $60, minus 10% ($6), so $54. One shirt stays $30.
Add tiers: buy 3, save 15%
Shopify has no tier table in one discount, but two discounts do the job:
- Keep the first discount: 10% off, minimum quantity 2.
- Create a second Amount off products automatic discount: 15% off, the same collection, minimum quantity 3.
- Under Combinations, leave Product discounts unticked on both, so they don't stack.
When both qualify, Shopify applies the better one for the customer: 2 items get 10%, 3 or more get 15%. A store can have up to 25 active automatic discounts at once, so there's room for a few tiers.
Choose the right discount type
| The offer | Shopify discount type | What gets discounted |
|---|---|---|
| Buy 2, save 10% | Amount off products, minimum quantity 2 | Every eligible item in the cart |
| Spend $100, save $10 | Amount off orders, minimum purchase amount | The order |
| Buy one, get one 50% off | Buy X get Y | Only the second item |
Mistakes that cost margin
- Stacking on sale prices. The 10% comes off the price shoppers pay, including sale prices. If a product is already 30% off, it becomes 37% off. Keep sale products out of the offer's collection, or decide that's fine on purpose.
- Combining with every code. If the discount combines with product discount codes, a newsletter code can stack on top. Tick only the combinations you've priced for.
- Nobody knows about it. Automatic discounts show up in the cart, not on most product pages. Say it where shoppers decide: an announcement bar, the collection page, a line in the product description.
- The wrong products in the collection. An automated collection follows its rule, so a new product with the tag joins the offer by itself. Check the collection before the offer goes live.
- Point of sale. Automatic discounts work in retail stores only on POS Pro locations, so check before promising the offer in your shop.
Tagging a lot of products at once
The tag is the only part of this that can take a while: Shopify's own bulk editor works, but on a big catalog it's easy to tag the wrong products and hard to take it back. In Catalogist, you filter the products, choose to add a tag, check the preview, and apply. If you tagged the wrong ones, one click in History takes the tag off again. The Free plan tags up to 250 products per edit.
Disclosure: I build Catalogist. Everything above works without it.
Questions
Can Shopify do "buy 2, save 10%" without an app?
Yes. Create an Amount off products automatic discount for 10%, apply it to the products or collections in the offer, and set the minimum requirement to a minimum quantity of 2 items. Shoppers get 10% off every eligible item once there are 2 or more in the cart.
Do the 2 items have to be the same product?
No. Any 2 items the discount applies to count, including 2 of the same product. If the discount applies to a collection, only items from that collection count toward the minimum.
How do I add tiers like buy 3, save 15%?
Create a second automatic discount for 15% with a minimum quantity of 3, on the same products, and don't let the two combine with each other. When both qualify, Shopify applies the better discount for the customer, so 3 items get 15% and 2 items get 10%.
What's the difference between "buy 2, save 10%" and "buy one, get one 50% off"?
Buy 2, save 10% takes 10% off every eligible item once the cart has 2. Buy one, get one 50% off is a Buy X get Y discount: only the second item is discounted. Shopify has a separate discount type for that, and items in a Buy X get Y discount can't get other product discounts.
Does the discount apply on top of sale prices?
Yes. An amount off discount comes off the price the shopper pays, so a product already on sale gets 10% off its sale price too. If you don't want that, keep sale products out of the offer's collection.
Why don't shoppers see the offer on product pages?
Automatic discounts are applied in the cart and at checkout. Most themes don't show them on product or collection pages, so tell shoppers yourself: an announcement bar, a line in the product description, or a badge if your theme supports one.
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