If you’re trying to offer free shipping and a percentage discount with one Shopify discount code, you’re running into a platform limitation — not a setup mistake.
By default, Shopify treats percentage discounts and free shipping as separate rules. When you try to combine them under one code, one of them usually gets dropped at checkout or behaves inconsistently.
OneCode Discounts exists specifically to fix this by letting a single discount code control both incentives as one promotion.
Here’s how merchants actually do it.
Why This Is Hard to Do Natively on Shopify
When you create a discount in Shopify, you must choose what that discount does.
A percentage discount affects products or the order.
A shipping discount affects shipping rates.
Shopify evaluates these independently. When both are present, Shopify decides which one applies based on internal rules — and it doesn’t explain the decision.
That’s why:
-
free shipping disappears when a code is applied
-
the percentage discount works, but shipping doesn’t
-
everything works in testing, then fails live
What Most Merchants Try (and Why It Breaks)
Before finding a reliable setup, merchants usually try one of these approaches.
Two discount codes
One code for the percentage discount, another for free shipping.
This technically works, but hurts conversion. Customers forget the second code and promotions become harder to communicate.
Automatic free shipping plus a discount code
Free shipping runs automatically while the customer enters a percentage code.
This is fragile. Automatic discounts often override codes without warning, causing one incentive to disappear.
Giving up on one incentive
Many merchants drop free shipping or reduce the percentage discount just to avoid the complexity.
This avoids breakage, but leaves performance on the table.
None of these approaches give you one clean offer with one code.
The Correct Way to Give Free Shipping and % Off with One Code
The fix is not stacking discounts.
The fix is designing the promotion as one campaign with one code that controls multiple rules.
This is how OneCode Discounts works.
Instead of creating separate discounts and hoping Shopify combines them, you define:
-
one percentage discount rule
-
one free shipping rule
Both of these rules live under the same discount code and are evaluated together.
How the Setup Works in Practice
Promotion goal:
-
10% off your order
-
Free shipping over $75
With a one-code setup:
-
one discount code is created
-
one rule applies 10% off
-
one rule applies free shipping only when the cart is over $75
The customer enters one code.
Both incentives apply predictably.
There’s no stacking and no priority guessing.
Why This Converts Better
Using one code for both incentives improves checkout behaviour.
-
customers don’t wonder if there’s another code
-
marketing messages stay simple
-
checkout feels intentional, not patched together
Free shipping removes friction.
Percentage discounts increase perceived value.
When both apply cleanly, customers are more confident completing the purchase.
When This Approach Makes Sense
Using one Shopify discount code for free shipping and % off works best when:
-
you’re running email or SMS campaigns
-
you want clean, memorable promotions
-
you’re tired of discounts disappearing at checkout
-
you want predictable behaviour during sales
It’s not about adding complexity.
It’s about removing uncertainty.
The Takeaway
Shopify doesn’t natively support combining free shipping and percentage discounts under one code.
Merchants solve this by treating the promotion as a single campaign, where one code controls multiple rules instead of stacking separate discounts.
That’s exactly what OneCode Discounts was built to do.
0 comments