Discounts

A discount reduces the price of an order with a code the customer enters, with an offer that applies automatically, or with a gift card. You create all three at Catalog → Discounts using the same form.

Redemptions

Litestore records every redemption along with the amount it took off the order. It checks the discount's limits against those records rather than against a running total, so the limits always reflect actual use.

In the database, a discount is a Coupon record. Each time a customer redeems it, Litestore adds a CouponUsage row.

Discount methods

You choose one of these triggers for an automatic discount:

first purchase
cart abandonment
returning customer
high intent

Discount amount

A discount takes off either a percentage or a fixed amount. You then choose whether it applies to the whole cart or only to the products in a specific collection.

Litestore stores a fixed amount in the currency you created it in and rejects the discount in a cart that uses any other currency. This prevents a customer from redeeming "$10 off" as 10 units of a stronger currency.

Percentage discounts have no currency, so this rule doesn't apply to them.

Limits

Litestore calculates the per-customer limit from the recorded redemptions instead of keeping a separate counter, so the count always matches actual usage.

Public and private codes

If you mark a discount as not public, checkout won't suggest it among the available codes.

This is useful for codes you send in a welcome or recovery email, since it keeps them from being shown to customers you didn't send them to.

Generated codes

The code generator uses the letters A to Z except I and O, and the digits 2 to 9. It formats each code as two groups of four characters.

Leaving out those characters means people won't confuse similar-looking characters when they read a code over the phone or copy it from a printed card.

Case-insensitive codes

Litestore converts codes to upper case as you type them, when it saves them, and when it matches them at checkout. It also checks that codes are unique in their upper-case form.

As a result, SUMMER20 and summer20 can't both exist, and a customer who types either one gets the same discount.

Attachments

A discount works on its own or attached to a campaign, a collection or a collab.

Discount setup

Quick reference

Use a code when the customer needs something to type in or pass on to someone else, since codes are the only method that gives them one.

Use an automatic discount when the offer should depend on what the customer does, and choose the trigger that matches that behaviour.

Use a gift card when the customer should spend a balance instead of getting a percentage or an amount off.

All three methods handle limits the same way. Litestore checks every limit against the recorded redemptions, so limits are always measured against the amount the discount has actually taken off orders.

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