Looking to boost your Average Order Value (AOV), encourage bulk purchases, or offer custom pricing for different customer segments on your Shopify store? Implementing Shopify Tiered Pricing and Volume Discounts is a proven strategy, especially for B2B, wholesale, and high-volume retail stores.
This guide explains how Shopify tiered pricing works, how it differs from volume discounts, when to use each option, and the best way to set them up for your Shopify store.
What is Shopify Tiered Pricing?
Shopify tiered pricing is a structured pricing strategy that rewards customers with progressively lower per-unit prices as they buy larger quantities of a product. This strategy is often called tiered discounts, quantity breaks, or volume-based pricing.
| Quantity Purchased | Price per Unit (e.g., in USD) |
|---|---|
| 15-24 | $18.99 |
| 24-100 | $16.49 |
| 100+ | $12.99 |
As quantity goes up, price per unit goes down. These pricing tiers can be configured to apply in various ways, offering flexibility for diverse business models:
- Per SKU: Discounts apply only to a specific product variant.
- Across a Collection: Discounts apply to any combination of products within a designated collection.
- By Total Cart Quantity/Value: Discounts are triggered based on the overall quantity or monetary value of the entire shopping cart.
Tiered Pricing vs Volume Discount
Many Shopify merchants get confused with these two. These terms are often used interchangeably, but they are different:
| Shopify Tiered Pricing | Shopify Volume Discounts | |
|---|---|---|
| Applies to | Price per unit is based on the quantity range | (%) Discounts or Fixed Amount Off are applied to the entire cart, based on the purchased quantity range |
| Discount Calculation | Price per unit changes at each tier | Fixed % or $ off total purchase |
| Example | Buy 10+, get $2 off per unit | Spend $500+, get 10% off entire cart |
| Best For | B2B, wholesale, variant-level control | Promotions, cart-wide offers |
Who Should Use Tiered Pricing on Shopify?
Offering a Shopify tiered discount is a powerful business strategy for revenue growth. It is highly effective for:
- Wholesale & B2B Stores: Offer quantity discounts for buyers who buy in bulk quantities.
- DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) Brands: Increase AOV and cart size by incentivizing customers for multi-unit purchases.
- Subscription & Refill Businesses: Reward loyal customers with lower prices for committing to larger, less frequent refill orders.
- Retailers with Loyalty Programs: Offer exclusive, tiered pricing to VIP members or repeat customers to drive retention.
- Brands in Competitive Markets: Using tiered pricing can be a strategic differentiator, making your offers more attractive than competitors who only offer flat pricing.
How to Set Up Shopify Tiered Discounts
There are two primary approaches to implementing tiered discounts on your Shopify store, catering to different levels of complexity and control:
Option 1: Native Shopify Discounts
Shopify Admin > Discounts allows:
- Automatic discounts (e.g., 10% off if you buy 10+)
- Discount codes (e.g., BULK10OFF)
⚠️ Limitations to consider:
- Limited customization for product variant prices
- No customer-specific pricing logic
- Cannot show dynamic pricing tables
- Only one automatic discount can be applied at checkout
Best For: Very basic “Buy X Get Y” promotions or simple percentage-off discounts that don’t require complex rules or customer segmentation.
Option 2: Shopify Tiered Pricing Apps (Recommended for Comprehensive Solutions)
To unlock true Shopify tiered pricing and volume discount functionality, a dedicated app is essential.
These apps offer advanced features essential for managing complex pricing models:
Key Capabilities of Tiered Pricing Apps:
- Tiered Pricing Per SKU or Variant
- Quantity-Based Discounts (e.g., higher quantity = lower unit price)
- Customer-tag-based pricing (e.g.,
vip-member,wholesale-europe) - Display dynamic tiered pricing tables (App blocks) on product pages
- Real-time pricing updates in the cart
- Separate pricing logic for retail and wholesale buyers
- Integration with Shopify Markets for localized pricing
- Real-time cart updates as customers adjust quantities in their cart
Recommended App: Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B. This app is widely regarded for its comprehensive capabilities. It allows you to:
- Set tiered pricing per tag or customer group.
- Offer fixed prices or percentage discounts at specific volume breakpoints.
- Automatically adjust pricing based on quantity in the cart.
- Integrate with other crucial B2B features like Net Terms, Minimum Order Quantities (MOQs), and B2B signup forms.
- Enable you to operate an only B2B or a B2B + B2C (Wholesale and retail) combined store on Shopify.
Still evaluating whether to use apps or upgrade to Shopify Plus for B2B?
Read: Shopify Plus vs Third-Party Apps: Which One’s Better for Wholesale in 2025?
It breaks down pricing, features, and use cases for both strategies.
Real-World Example: Shopify tiered discounts for a global store
Imagine you sell sustainable packaging materials, catering to small businesses and large enterprises in various countries.
The Setup: You use customer tags to differentiate buyers: Retail, Wholesale-APAC (Asia-Pacific), and Distributor-EU(European Union).
Product: Eco-Friendly Shipping Box (SKU: ECOBOX-L)
| BUYER TYPE | QUANTITY RANGE | PRICE PER UNIT |
|---|---|---|
| Retail-CAD (Canada) | 1–4 units | $2.50 CAD |
| Wholesale-AUS (Australia) | 5–24 units | $1.90 AUD |
| Distributor-DE (EU) | 25+ units | €1.40 EUR |
The Experience:
- A standard retail customer from Canada sees the product at $2.50 CAD per unit in your store.
- A logged-in wholesale partner from Australia (tagged Wholesale-AUS) sees the product at $1.90 AUD per unit, and as they add more to their cart, the dynamic pricing table shows them the lower unit price if they reach 25+ or 100+ units.
- A large distributor from Germany (tagged Distributor-DE), upon logging in, immediately sees the €1.40 EUR price per unit for the product ECOBOX-L, with even lower tiers for bulk orders beyond 100 units.
This demonstrates how Shopify tiered discounts, powered by an app, provide a seamless, localized, and personalized pricing experience across your global customer base, all from a single Shopify store.
Best Practices for Implementing Tiered Pricing on Shopify
To maximize the effectiveness of your Shopify tiered discount strategy:
✅ Show Pricing Tiers clearly on the product page (in a table metric format)
✅ Use common quantity breaks: 5, 10, 25, 50, 100
✅ Maintain margin control at each tier
✅ Segment by customer type using Shopify customer tags
✅ Localize pricing using Shopify Markets + app integration
Recommended Shopify Tiered Pricing Apps
| Function | App | Key Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Tiered / Volume Pricing Logic | Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B | Comprehensive tool for creating flexible, tag-based tiered pricing, quantity breaks, and volume discounts. |
| Show / Hide Tiered Pricing by Tag(s) | Wholesale Lock Manager B2B | Ensures only authorized customers see their specific tiered pricing and content, maintaining exclusivity. |
| Quick Bulk Ordering | WSH Order Form & ReOrder | Ideal for B2B customers to quickly add multiple items at their applicable tiered prices from one page. |
💡 Want to visualize how tiered pricing will impact your profit margins?
Use our Free Wholesale Price Calculator for Shopify
It helps you test pricing tiers, markups, and breakpoints before launching them live on your store.
Final Summary
Shopify tiered pricing and volume discounts are powerful tools to enhance your average order value, reward loyalty, and streamline complex pricing structures. It’s particularly impactful if your business involves B2B sales, caters to high-volume buyers, or aims to drive larger purchases from retail customers.
While Shopify’s built-in tools offer basic discounting, upgrading to an app-based solution allows you to:
- Display live, dynamic pricing tables.
- Apply sophisticated logic by customer tag.
- Support multiple distinct buyer groups—all managed efficiently from your single Shopify store.
👉 Start with a free tiered discount setup using the Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B app to unlock the full potential of bulk pricing on Shopify!
FAQs
How do I set up tiered pricing on Shopify without Shopify Plus?
Shopify doesn’t support tiered pricing natively unless you’re on their Plus plan and you need to be familiar with scripts. Most merchants use third-party apps like Wholesale Pricing Discount (WPD) to create quantity-based pricing rules on any plan. Read more about How to Set Up Wholesale on Shopify Without Shopify Plus? [2025]
Can I offer volume discounts based on the quantity in the cart across multiple products?
Yes, but not by default. You’ll need an app that supports combined cart quantity logic to trigger discounts across variants or products grouped by tag or collection.
Can I apply tiered pricing across an entire collection of products, not just per individual SKU?
Yes. Many advanced tiered pricing apps like Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B allow you to configure volume discounts that apply to all products within a specific collection, or even across the entire store based on total cart quantity.
Can I display different tiered pricing structures for different customer types (e.g., retail vs. wholesale) on Shopify?
Yes. This is a core strength of app-based solutions. By assigning specific customer tags (like wholesale-buyer or VIP-member) to your customers, you can set up unique tiered discount ladders that only apply when those tagged customers are logged in.
Does Shopify’s native tiered pricing stack with other discount codes or promotions?
Shopify’s native automatic discounts typically do not stack with other discount codes. However, many third-party Shopify tiered discount apps offer more flexible stacking configurations, allowing you to control whether volume discounts can combine with other promotional codes.
How do Shopify tiered discounts help with international sales and multi-currency?
Yes. This is a core strength of app-based solutions. By assigning specific customer tags (like wholesale-buyer or VIP-member) to your customers, you can set up unique tiered discount ladders that only apply when those tagged customers are logged in.
How do I restrict tiered pricing to wholesale customers only?
You can use customer tags, locked pages, or B2B apps like Wholesale Lock Manager B2B to make discounted pricing visible only to logged-in wholesale customers.
Can I set up tiered pricing based on the total value of the cart, rather than just quantity?
Yes. Many advanced Shopify tiered discount apps allow you to set thresholds based on cart value (e.g., “Spend $500, get 10% off the total order,” or “Cart value above $1,000, get $150 off”), in addition to quantity-based tiers.
