A tiered gift with purchase on Shopify sets two or three minimum spends, each with a better gift. A shopper at $60 gets the first gift; at $110 they get the second instead. Set the first tier a step above your usual order, space the others so each is one or two more items away, and give one gift per order, from the highest tier the cart reaches.
How tiers work
A single gift offer has one line: spend $50, get a gift. Tiers add more lines to the same offer:
- Spend $50 or more: a tote bag or a lavender soap (a choice of two; see letting shoppers choose their gift).
- Spend $100 or more: a travel candle.
- Spend $150 or more: a cotton bath towel.
The shopper gets one gift, from the highest tier their cart reaches. Stacking all three makes the top tier expensive and the message confusing. If you are new to gift offers, start with the complete guide.
Build the ladder
The first tier. Start from your average order value over the last few months (the method is in how to pick the minimum spend). Set the first tier a step above it, so a typical shopper needs one more item. Too low, and you give gifts to orders that would have happened anyway. Too high, and nobody reaches it.
The gaps. Each next tier should be about one or two of your popular products away. If your best seller costs $25, a gap of $50 means two more of them. Gaps much wider than your typical item price feel out of reach.
How many. Two or three. A fourth tier is hard to show on a phone and rarely reached.
The gifts. Each step should feel clearly better: bigger, more useful, or the full size of what the first tier gave as a sample. Check stock for each gift; the top gift sells less often, but running out of the first-tier gift stops the whole offer. See picking the right gift product.
"Spend $100 for a candle" is one idea. "Spend $100 for a candle, or $90 if you're a member, plus free shipping above $80" is three. Keep each tier to one amount and one gift, or a short choice.
Check the cost with your own numbers
For each tier, work out two numbers:
- Gift cost: what the gift costs you, plus any extra packing or shipping weight.
- Margin on the extra spend: the gap from the tier below, times your gross margin.
If the gift cost is below the margin on the extra spend, the tier pays for itself when a shopper climbs to it. If it's above, the tier only makes sense as a brand gesture, and you should know that going in. Use your own margins here, not someone else's benchmark.
Tiers without an app
With Shopify's own discounts, each tier is its own Buy X Get Y discount with a minimum purchase amount. The combination settings then decide whether a $160 cart gets one gift or all three. Test a cart at each tier. Shoppers also have to add the right gift themselves, and nothing tells them what the next tier is. The steps are in how to add a free gift without an app.
Tiers in Tidebird Gift Lift
In Gift Lift, tiers live in one offer. Open Offers, create or edit a gift offer, and fill in Tier 1: a minimum spend and a gift. Select Add tier for the next one, up to three. Each tier can hold up to three gifts; the first is the default.
The minimum counts item prices before discounts, without the gift and gift cards. The gift is the real product from your catalog, made free at checkout by a Shopify discount, so stock and order reports stay correct at every tier.
What shoppers see
The panel shows all tiers on one bar, with the gift for each. Below the first tier, it says how much is left. Once a tier is reached, it says what the next one needs. The preview in the offer editor shows each state (Locked, Eligible, Added) for each tier before you go live.
When the cart climbs to the next tier, the gift line is swapped for the better gift. When it drops back, it is swapped down. If you turn on auto-add, the default gift goes in without a click; more in how to auto-add a free gift.
Up to three tiers in one offer, a bar that shows the next gift, and the gift swapped as the cart moves. Free right now.
Questions merchants ask
How many gift tiers should I have?
Two or three. More is hard to read on a phone and the top tier is rarely reached.
Do shoppers get a gift from every tier they pass?
In Tidebird Gift Lift, no: one gift, from the highest tier the cart reaches. With native discounts, it depends on the combination settings.
How far apart should tiers be?
About one or two of your popular products apart. Base it on your own prices.
Can each tier offer a choice of gifts?
Yes. Gift Lift allows up to three gifts per tier, with the first as the default.
What if a shopper drops to a lower tier?
Gift Lift swaps the gift line down to the lower tier's gift. Below every tier, checkout asks the shopper to remove the gift.