Discount Messages Shoppers See at Checkout

A discount that the shopper cannot read is a discount that costs you margin and still triggers a support email. The text a shopper sees when an offer applies is small, it sits in the cart and at checkout where they are deciding whether to pay, and you write it in a single field. These discount messages are worth ten minutes of care. This page covers where the text appears, the difference between an automatic discount title and a code, how to write titles that explain the rule, and what the Federal Trade Commission's guide says about calling something free.

Where the discount name appears

Shopify's Help Center is specific about one place. For an automatic discount, the page on free shipping discounts says of the Title field: "This title displays to customers in their cart and at checkout." Shopify's developer documentation for checkout extensions describes the same field as the merchant-defined title of the automatic discount as displayed to the buyer, with "Summer Sale 10% Off" as its own example.

For a discount code, the shopper types the string, so what they see is the code you chose. The same developer page gives "SAVE10" and "FREESHIP" as examples of the code string entered during checkout.

Two limits on what is documented. The Buy X get Y page tells you to enter a name for the automatic discount and gives "buyonegetonefree" as its example, but it does not say where that name appears or how long it can be. And none of the Shopify pages we read describes the discount name in order confirmation emails or in the admin order view. Do not assume it: place a test order and look at every screen and email yourself.

Automatic titles versus codes

The two work differently for the reader.

• An automatic discount shows up without the shopper doing anything. The title is the only explanation they get for why the total changed. A cryptic title reads as a pricing error.
• A code is something the shopper already knows about, because they typed it. The code can be short because the promotion that carried it, the email or the banner, did the explaining.

That points to a simple rule. If the discount applies by itself, the title has to carry the whole explanation. If it needs a code, the code can be terse but the page or message that gives the code has to state the rule.

Write titles that state the rule

A useful title answers three questions in few words: what do I get, what triggered it, and is there a catch. "PROMO1" answers none of them. "Spend 75 dollars, get a tote" answers all three.

• Lead with the trigger, then the reward. "Spend 75 dollars" comes before "get a tote".
• Use the numbers the shopper compares against: the threshold they see in the cart and the quantity in the template.
• Keep the same wording on the product page banner, in the cart and in the discount title, so the shopper does not wonder whether three messages mean three offers.
• Say the exclusion where the choice is made, not in a footer. If the offer excludes sale items, the title or the line next to it should say so.
• Keep it short enough to read on a phone. Shopify does not document a length limit on the pages above, so test on a small screen.

Ten title examples by template

Each row follows a template in Freebies Engine by Log Studio Lab (bundle templates have plan requirements, listed on the pricing page). The descriptions in the second column are the template descriptions; the titles are suggestions, with the amount set to your own rule.

Where a title contains a number, check it against the real rule. If you change the threshold from 75 to 90 dollars in the offer and leave the title alone, the cart will charge one thing and promise another.

Conditions: say them where the shopper decides

The Federal Trade Commission's Guide concerning use of the word "Free," at 16 CFR 251.1, is about this. It says that when you make a "Free" or similar offer, "all the terms, conditions and obligations upon which receipt and retention of the 'Free' item are contingent should be set forth clearly and conspicuously at the outset of the offer." The Guide adds that a condition in an asterisk footnote is not regarded as disclosed at the outset. It also says the word "regular," as applied to the price, means the price at which you have openly and actively sold the product in your trade area, in the most recent and regular course of business, for a reasonably substantial period, which the Guide puts at 30 days.

For a store the practical reading is short: if the offer is "free" with a purchase, say what must be bought, what the threshold is, and which items are excluded in the same place as the word "free". Do not move the condition to the checkout page. Do not recover the cost of the gift by raising the price of the item you have to buy, because the Guide says that a purchaser has a right to believe the merchant will not directly and immediately recover the cost of the free item by marking up the other. And changing "free" to "gift" or "bonus" does not fix a deceptive offer: the Guide says that substituting such words does not correct an offer that fails its provisions.

Our post on free gifts with purchase on Shopify shows how that offer is built from Buy X get Y settings, and buy X get Y offer structures lists the conditions each structure has, which are the ones the message should state. This is not legal advice; if your promotion is unusual, ask counsel.

Check the numbers behind the message

A message can be perfectly clear and still commit you to a loss. Before you publish a title that promises 20 percent off, confirm that your margin supports it with the margin floor for any discount. It is a better habit to write the title after you pick the discount, not before.

Set it up

To put a tiered discount title into practice, start from the Cart discount tiers template, described as a discount on the whole cart that grows with spend. Name the discount for the rule, use the same words on your banner, and place a test order on a phone. Then read the cart, the checkout and any email you receive and compare each screen with the sentence you meant to write.