The Unofficial Shopify Podcast What Discounts Actually Make People Buy (Study)
25 snips
Nov 25, 2025 
Cara Marin, an e-commerce product expert at Seguno, shares groundbreaking insights from analyzing 162,000 discount code sets. She reveals that successful brands discount more intelligently with unique codes and segmentation, preserving their value while boosting sales. Surprisingly, a 10% discount can be almost as effective as 20%. Cara also discusses strategies like gift-with-purchase offers, avoiding public discounts, and the power of unique codes for tracking affiliate success. Her data-driven approach turns traditional discount strategies on their head, making this a must-listen for retailers.
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Make Welcome Offers Unique
- Replace a blanket welcome code with a unique one to force email/SMS opt-ins and enable nurturing.
- Generate one-time unique welcome codes so subscribers exchange contact info for the discount.
Gift-With-Purchase Drives AOV
- Gift-with-purchase (FGWP) is used about six times more by larger merchants and effectively increases average order value.
- FGWP works best when the free item feels valuable relative to customers' expected purchases.
Tie Free Gifts To AOV And Rotate Them
- Use FGWP thresholds tied to slightly above your AOV to push customers into a higher cart tier.
- Rotate gifts to create novelty and repeated purchase incentives.