# Tiered discounts

### Introduction

When you create a subscription plan, you can offer a single flat discount — for example, 10% off every order. But what if you want to **reward subscribers who stick around longer** with a bigger discount?

**Tiered Discounts** let you set up multiple discount levels that automatically increase based on how many orders a subscriber has completed. This encourages customers to stay subscribed longer, directly reducing your churn rate and increasing lifetime value.

***

### Understanding tiered discounts

Think of tiered discounts like a loyalty ladder. The more orders your customer completes, the higher they climb — and the bigger their discount gets.

**Example:** You sell Vitamin D supplements at $30/bottle with a monthly subscription.

| Orders    | Discount | Customer pays | Savings     |
| --------- | -------- | ------------- | ----------- |
| Order 1–3 | 10% off  | $27.00/month  | $3.00/month |
| Order 4–8 | 15% off  | $25.50/month  | $4.50/month |
| Order 9+  | 20% off  | $24.00/month  | $6.00/month |

Your customer starts at 10% off. After their 3rd order, the discount automatically increases to 15%. After the 8th order, it goes up to 20% — and stays there for all future orders.

**What your customer sees:** Before each billing cycle, they receive a notification showing their current discount and when their next discount increase is coming. This creates anticipation and a reason to stay subscribed.

**How it works behind the scenes:** Joy Subscriptions tracks the order cycle number for each subscriber. When it's time to charge for a new order, the app checks which tier applies and automatically adjusts the price. No manual action is needed from you or your customer.

***

### How to set up tiered discounts

**Step 1:** Open the **Joy Subscriptions** app from your Shopify admin, then navigate to **Plans**.

**Step 2:** Click **Create plan** to start a new plan, or click an existing plan to edit it.

**Step 3:** Scroll to the **Discount** section and turn on the **Discount** toggle.

**Step 4:** Enter your first tier — this is the discount that applies from Order 1 onward.

* Choose **Percentage** or **Fixed amount** from the dropdown
* Enter the discount value (e.g., 10)

**Step 5:** Turn on **Change discount after orders** to enable tiered discounts.

A second tier appears automatically. Configure it:

* **From order:** The order number where this tier starts (e.g., 4)
* **Discount value:** The new discount amount (e.g., 15%)

**Step 6:** Click **Add tier** to add more levels. Each new tier starts after the previous one ends.

For example, to create 3 tiers:

| Tier   | From order | To order          | Discount |
| ------ | ---------- | ----------------- | -------- |
| Tier 1 | 1          | 3                 | 10%      |
| Tier 2 | 4          | 8                 | 15%      |
| Tier 3 | 9          | All future orders | 20%      |

The **To order** field fills in automatically — you only need to set the **From order** and the **Discount value** for each tier.

**Step 7:** Click **Save** to activate the plan.

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***

### Tips for setting up effective tiers

**Start small, increase gradually.** A common mistake is offering too much discount upfront. Start with a modest 5–10% for new subscribers, then increase in meaningful steps.

**Recommended structure for most stores:**

| Tier | Orders | Suggested discount | Purpose                                                                                 |
| ---- | ------ | ------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 1    | 1–3    | 5–10%              | Attract new subscribers                                                                 |
| 2    | 4–6    | 10–15%             | Reward past the critical churn window (most cancellations happen in the first 3 orders) |
| 3    | 7+     | 15–20%             | Lock in loyal customers for life                                                        |

**Keep it simple.** 2–3 tiers works best. Too many tiers confuse customers and make your pricing harder to communicate.

**Use percentage discounts** unless your products have very different price points. Percentage discounts scale naturally across all product prices in your plan.

***

### Overall

Tiered discounts let you automatically reward subscribers with increasing savings the longer they stay. Set up 2–3 tiers with gradually increasing discounts to reduce churn and build long-term customer loyalty — all without any manual work after the initial setup.

To get started, go to **Plans** → select or create a plan → enable **Discount** → turn on **Change discount after orders** → add your tiers → **Save**.

***


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