Creating Offers

Create an Atom Commerce offer from start to finish, including offer type, schedule, discount method, qualifiers, targets, exclusions, and launch checks.

Use this page when you are building a new offer in Atom Commerce and want the steps in the same order you will complete them in the dashboard.

Before You Begin

• Confirm your store setup is complete in Set Up Atom Commerce
• Decide whether the offer should apply automatically or require a code
• Know which products, collections, or customers should qualify
• If the offer includes gifts or discounted companion items, know which lines should be targets

Step 1: Start a New Offer

Go to Offers in the Atom Commerce dashboard and click Create New Offer.

Step 2: Choose the Offer Type

Pick the promotion structure that matches your goal:

Buy X Get Y (BXGY)

Give a free or discounted product when customers buy something else.

Buy More Save More (BMSM)

Offer bigger discounts when customers buy more items.

Bundles

Sell groups of products together at a special price.

Gift With Purchase (GWP)

Add a free or discounted gift to qualifying orders.

Order Discount

Take money off the whole order when certain conditions are met.

Shipping Discount

Reduce or remove shipping costs for your customers.

Not sure which to pick? Compare formats in Offer Types before you continue.

Step 3: Set the Basics

Set the information customers and internal users will rely on:

• Offer name: Use a clear internal name so your team can find the offer later
• Discount title: For most offers, this is the title customers will see in cart or checkout
• Priority: Add this now if the offer may overlap with other promotions
• Status: Save as draft until your configuration and testing are complete

Buy More Save More Volume discount types allow you to choose a separate discount title for each pricing tier. “Great Deal”, “Super Discount”, etc…

Step 4: Set the Schedule

Choose when the offer starts and whether it should end automatically.

Why schedule offers?

Scheduling lets you plan ahead for sales, holidays, or special events. Your offer will turn on and off automatically.

Tip: Time zones

The start and end dates of your offer will follow your browser’s current time zone. For example, if you’re in New York and schedule your offer to begin at midnight on June 1, it will start at midnight Eastern Time.

Step 5: Choose How Customers Receive the Discount

Choose the delivery method that matches the campaign:

• Automatic: Best for most sitewide or always-on promotions
• Discount code: Best when customers should enter a code manually
• Coupon batch: Best for large outbound campaigns or unique-code distribution

You can also add usage limits when the offer should be capped.

For large campaigns, you can generate bulk coupon codes. This is especially useful for distributing unique codes to many customers and tracking individual redemptions.

Step 6: Configure Qualifiers

Qualifiers are the products, collections, customers, or spend conditions that make the offer eligible.

Choose which items or shoppers should count toward the offer:

• All products
• Specific variants
• Specific products
• Specific collections
• Customer or cart conditions, depending on the offer type

Qualifiers vs Targets

Offers in Atom Commerce revolve around two key roles: qualifiers and targets.

Qualifier (what unlocks the deal)

Qualifiers are the items customers must add to unlock the promotion. Example: “Buy any 3 items from Boots collection, get 10% off.” The 3 Boots items are the qualifiers.

Target (what gets discounted)

Targets are the items that actually get the discount. Sometimes qualifiers and targets are the same. Sometimes they are different. Example: “Buy 2 shoes, get 50% off 1 pair of socks.” Shoes are qualifiers, socks are targets.

The short version: qualifiers unlock the deal, targets get the discount.

Step 7: Add Qualifier Exclusions When Needed

Use qualifier exclusions when some items should still be present in the cart but should not help unlock the promotion:

• Variants: Exclude specific SKUs so they won’t trigger the discount condition.
• Products: Prevent entire products from qualifying.
• Collections: Omit whole collections (e.g., “Clearance”) from counting toward the threshold.

Use exclusions to fine-tune your promotions. For example, you might run a Spend $50, Get 10% Off sale store-wide but exclude every product in the Apple collection so those items don’t count toward the $50 threshold.

Order Discount Exclusion Behavior

For Order Discounts, exclusions work differently from item-level discounts:

• If all items in the cart are excluded: The discount will not trigger at all.
• If some items are excluded and some are not: The discount will trigger and apply only to eligible items (those not in excluded collections).

Example: All Items Excluded

Cart: Only items from “Apple” collection (excluded)

Result: Discount does not apply

Example: Mixed Cart

Cart: Items from “Apple” collection + other items

Result: Discount applies to non-Apple items only

For order discounts, the discount is calculated based on the total price of all eligible items (items not in excluded collections). Excluded items are not included in the discount calculation.

For detailed examples and troubleshooting, see our Order Discounts Guide.

Step 8: Define the Discount

Set the commercial details of the offer:

• Discount type: percent off, amount off, or fixed price where supported
• Discount amount
• Target lines: only needed when the discounted item is different from the unlock item
• Quantity or maxQuantity limits where supported
• Sale-item behavior and other advanced rules for the selected offer type

Step 9: Define Targets for Targeted Offer Types

Some offer types, including Buy X Get Y and Gift With Purchase, allow you to discount items that are different from the qualifiers. In those cases:

• choose the products or collections that should receive the discount
• choose how many target items can be discounted
• decide whether the discounted items can be the same lines that unlocked the offer

Step 10: Add Target Exclusions If Needed

If specific items should never receive the discount, exclude them from the target set even if they are otherwise eligible.

Target exclusions are for lines that should never receive the discount, even if they would otherwise match your target rules.

For example, you might run a “Buy any two pairs of shoes, get 50% off socks” promotion. Here, socks should receive the discount as targets, but they should not count toward the two qualifying pairs of shoes.

Step 11: Review, Save, and Test

Double-check your settings. When you’re happy, click Save Offer. Your offer will appear in your Offers dashboard, where you can edit, duplicate, or activate it anytime.

Before launching, test any offer that overlaps with other promotions. Use Offer Priority and Stacking to validate qualifier sharing, evaluation order, and threshold behavior.

Expected Outcome

After saving, the offer should have:

• the correct offer type
• a clear method and schedule
• qualifiers and targets mapped to the intended products
• exclusions applied where needed
• a testing plan before activation

How do I manage my offers after creating them?

After creating offers, you can:

• View all active, scheduled, and expired offers
• Edit existing offers by clicking on them
• Duplicate offers to create similar promotions quickly
• Activate or deactivate offers as needed
• Monitor performance metrics for each offer

All of this is done from the Offers dashboard.

What should I do next?

• Learn about different Types of Offers for more promotional ideas

• Understand Scheduling Offers for future promotions

• Explore Best Practices for effective promotion strategies