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Trade Discount

Overview​

Stores often run B2C promotions—sitewide sales, bundles, and tier discounts—while B2B buyers need different rules (wholesale or trade pricing). At checkout, a logged-in B2B customer can still see automatic offers that were built for retail shoppers, which is confusing and can undercut the contract pricing you want for trade accounts.

Trade Discount solves that with a code-activated discount mode. The customer enters their trade code (for example TRADE15). Discount Engine then removes those other automatic promotions and applies only the trade discount you configured—so B2B checkout reflects your trade tiers, not mixed-in B2C offers.

Trade Discount works alongside your other discount types (Tier, Bundle, Split Bundle) in the admin, but it only takes effect when the code is entered: it replaces whatever automatic discounts would otherwise apply to the cart.

How does Trade Discount differ from automatic discounts?​

Trade Discount is the only code-activated mode in Discount Engine. Unlike Tier, Bundle, and Split Bundle discounts that apply automatically when conditions are met, Trade Discount requires the customer to enter a specific discount code at checkout. When that code is entered, all other automatic promotions are removed and only the trade pricing applies.

This separation ensures B2B customers see consistent wholesale pricing instead of a mix of B2C retail offers and trade rates.

What happens when a trade code is entered at checkout?​

  1. Automatic discounts (Tier, Bundle, Split Bundle, etc.) can be active for everyone—retail-style offers may appear in the cart or at checkout for any customer until something overrides them.
  2. A B2B / trade customer reaches checkout and may still see those B2C-oriented automatic discounts on the order.
  3. They enter their trade discount code. Discount Engine strips the other automatic promotions and applies the trade discount configuration instead (your trade tiers and messages).
  4. Eligible lines show the trade pricing and checkout messaging you set—aligned with trade policy, not the retail stack.

Without the code: Whatever automatic discounts are active can apply (same as other shoppers), including offers aimed at B2C.

With the code: Automatic discounts are removed and replaced by the trade discount—only your trade rules apply.

Configuration Reference​

Fields and options are the same as for Tier Discount, Bundle Discount, or Split Bundle Discount—use whichever doc matches the shape you are building. In the admin, set Discount Mode to Trade Discount instead of an automatic mode.

The only Trade-specific step: put the discount code string (the exact code customers will type, e.g. TRADE15) in the metafield your Discount Engine setup uses to link the Shopify discount to that string. Without that metafield value, the function cannot match the entered code to this discount configuration.

Notes​

  • Metafield must hold the code string. Same Tier / Bundle / Split-style setup as elsewhere; Trade additionally requires the code in the integration metafield so checkout can resolve it.
  • Overrides automatic discounts. When a trade code is entered, Discount Engine removes the other promotions (including B2C-style automatic discounts) and applies only the trade discount.
  • Code-activated only. Trade Discounts only apply when the customer enters a valid discount code. They never apply automatically.
  • Minimum quantity is per cart line, not across the cart total. Two separate cart lines of qty 1 each will not meet a minimum of 2, even if they are the same product.
  • RRP (Compare At Price): When Apply Discount To is set to RRP (Compare At Price) but a product has no RRP set, the current selling price is used instead.
  • Maximum strategy selects the single product line where the discount amount would be highest.

Demo​

Configuration and checkout behavior (including trade code vs automatic discounts) are shown in this walkthrough.