Getting Started
How rules stay up to date automatically
Describe what to discount once — the app builds a collection of every matching item and keeps it current as your catalog changes. Up to 100,000 variants per rule.
Variant Discounts is built around one idea: you describe what to discount — the app finds it, and keeps finding it.
What happens when you save a rule
When you build a rule from conditions (vendor, tag, title, product type, variant title, price, and more), the app automatically creates a collection in your store containing every product and variant that matches — up to 100,000 variants in a single rule. The discount applies to whatever is in that collection.
Shopify keeps the collection's membership current for you:
- Add products that match your conditions → they're covered the moment they're in your catalog. No re-editing the rule, no re-selecting items.
- Products stop matching (retagged, renamed, re-priced) → they drop out automatically.
- Your discount code and conditions never change.
Why this saves you time
Setting up a sale in Shopify's native discount editor means hand-picking items one by one — and if you maintain collections for discount targeting, you're editing those collections every time your catalog changes, for every sale.
With Variant Discounts, targeting is a one-time step:
- Describe the target once — "everything from this vendor", "every variant with Large in the title", "all products tagged summer under $50".
- The app builds and maintains the collection for you. You never create, edit, or clean up discount collections by hand.
- Repeat sales take seconds — clone the rule, adjust the discount value or schedule, done. The targeting keeps itself current between campaigns.
What you'll see in your store
The collection powering your rule appears under Products → Collections, named after your rule. A few things to know:
- Leave it in place — deleting it stops the discount from applying.
- It's unpublished by default, so it never appears on your storefront unless you choose to publish it (some merchants publish it as a ready-made sale landing page — it stays in sync with the discount automatically).
- It's a normal Shopify collection: you can view its members anytime to see exactly what your rule covers.
Which rules work this way
Rules built from catalog conditions (vendor, tag, title, product type, variant title, price, compare-at price, inventory) use the self-updating engine automatically. A few condition types (like SKU lists and sale-percentage conditions) use a fixed selection captured when you save — see How many items can one rule cover? for details.