Run a discount or a sale
A sale should be one sentence, not a settings page. Tell Bernard the code you want, what it’s worth and how long it should run, and it exists - living on your own Stripe account, applied automatically when a buyer enters it on your shop.
The prompt
“Create a discount code called [the code, e.g. SPRING] for [what it’s worth - a percentage off, or a fixed amount] on my shop, running for [how long].”
Signed in, Get my prompt fills in your site for you. Otherwise press Copy and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard once: Use your own AI (opens in a new tab).
How it works
- Name it and price it. “Give my newsletter readers a code - SPRING, a tenth off, until the end of the month.” Percentage off or a fixed amount off, your choice.
- Share the code. Put it in an email (Send an email campaign to my audience can carry it to your list), on social, or on a card at your stall.
- Buyers enter it on your page. Every product page and the basket has a quiet “Have a discount code?” link. The saving is applied before the buyer reaches the card screen, so the total they confirm is the total they pay.
- End it by asking. “Retire SPRING” - done. Or give it an end date when you create it and let it expire on its own.
Where the discount lives
The code is created on your own Stripe account - the same place your takings land (What will Stripe ask me when I set up payouts? explains that setup). That means it’s genuinely yours: you can see it, and retire it, from your own Stripe dashboard too, though you never need to go there - asking does everything.
What a discount can’t do
A discount changes what’s charged, not what’s shown on the shelf. If you want the page itself to say a lower number - a genuine markdown rather than a code - change the price instead (Change a price), or ask for a “was” price so the page shows the old figure crossed out.
Questions people ask
- Where do buyers put the code in?
- On your own product or basket page - there’s a small ‘Have a discount code?’ link above the buy button. The discount applies automatically at checkout, so the price the buyer confirms already shows the saving.
- Do I need to approve a discount before it works?
- No - a discount doesn’t change your pages, so there’s nothing to preview and approve. It starts working the moment it’s created, and stops the moment you retire it. Page changes, as ever, still go through your approval.
- How do I end a sale?
- Say so: ask for the code to be retired and it stops working straight away - anyone entering it afterwards is told the code isn’t valid. Orders that already used it are untouched.
- Can I do a fixed amount off instead of a percentage?
- Yes - either works. Ask for a percentage off, or a fixed amount off in your shop’s currency. You can also give a discount an end date up front, so a launch offer quietly expires on its own.