Keep Physical Gift Cards Out of Discounts

Your Totus physical gift card is a regular Shopify product, not a Shopify gift card. That means an Amount off order discount takes money off the gift card along with everything else in the cart.

What goes wrong

A customer can pay $80 for a $100 card with a 20%-off order code, and the card still loads the full $100.

This guide shows how to run the same promotions as product discounts that cover everything in your store except gift cards. It is for brands that sell Totus physical gift cards in Shopify, and for the Shopify partners who set up their discounts. Screenshots are from a Totus test store, so your product names will differ.

Gift card promotions you plan on purpose, such as a bonus card offer, stay separate. Set those up with your Totus Client Success Manager.

How it works

Two collections and one discount type do the work. You can name the collections anything; this guide uses the names below.

1. Non-discountable items holds every gift card product.
2. Discount-eligible items holds all your products, minus everything in Non-discountable items.
3. Each promotion is an Amount off products discount that applies only to Discount-eligible items.
4. At checkout, merchandise gets the discount. Gift cards are charged their full amount.
5. When you add a new gift card product, you put it in Non-discountable items before you publish it.

Figure 1. The finished setup in Products › Collections: two collections, each with its rule shown under Conditions.

What you’ll do

Part	Task	Where
1	Make the two collections and check them	Products › Collections
2	Set up every new promotion as Amount off products, never Amount off order	Discounts › Create discount
3	Move your current order discounts: convert them with the Admin API, or replace them in the admin	Admin API or Discounts
4	Test, then go live	Your storefront checkout

Your Totus Client Success Manager can confirm which of your products and variants are Totus gift cards.

Before you start

• Check which collections screen your store has. Open Products › Collections and any collection. If you see sources (Products, Variants, Collection, App) and an Exclude option, you have the new collections model. If not, you have legacy smart collections; use the tag method in Step 2.
• List every gift card product and variant in your store.
• List your active and scheduled order discounts, with their codes, limits and dates.
• Decide how you will move existing order discounts. Converting with the Admin API keeps codes and history. Replacing them in the admin creates new discounts and needs a naming plan (Part 3).
• Pick a quiet time to switch. Customers with a code in hand should not notice.

A product discount is not an order discount

The switch keeps gift cards out, but it can change how a promotion behaves. Review these four settings on every discount you move.

Setting	As an order discount	As a product discount
What it applies to	Every item in the cart	Only items in Discount-eligible items
Fixed amount, for example $10 off	Once per order	Once per eligible item, unless Only apply discount once per order is on
Minimum purchase	The whole cart counts	Only eligible items count; gift cards no longer help reach it
Combinations	Order discount rules	Product discount rules; check the other discounts it must combine with

Stacking on stores without Shopify Plus

Two product discounts on the same item do not stack. The customer gets the better one. A promotion that used to stack on top of an automatic product sale may stop doing so.

Part 1: Set up the collections

Step 1. Make Non-discountable items

Go to Products › Collections › Add collection.

1. Title it Non-discountable items. A short description helps the next person who opens it.
2. Under Sources › Products, add the condition Tag includes non-discountable. A tag rule picks up new gift card products as soon as they are tagged.
3. Leave the collection unpublished on all sales channels (0 channels). Discounts can still use it.
4. Save.

Figure 2. Non-discountable items, configured with a tag rule and no sales channels.

1. Title and description.
2. Condition: Tag · includes · non-discountable.
3. 0 channels: the collection is hidden from shoppers but still usable by discounts.

Tag each gift card product. Open each gift card product and add the tag non-discountable under Product organization › Tags, then save. The product joins the collection automatically.

Figure 3. A gift card product with the tag applied. Shopify lists the collection it now belongs to.

1. Collections shows Non-discountable Items once the tag is saved. You don’t add it here by hand.
2. Tags includes non-discountable.

Prefer to add products by hand?

You can make Non-discountable items a manual collection and add the gift card products directly. Then every new gift card product must be added by hand too. The tag rule is harder to forget.

Scroll to Collection items and confirm that every gift card product is listed.

Figure 4. Collection items in Non-discountable items, listing every gift card product.

1. Every gift card product (physical and digital) appears here. Anything missing needs the tag.

Step 2. Make Discount-eligible items

Go to Products › Collections › Add collection.

1. Title it Discount-eligible items.
2. Include: in the Products source, add Status is equal to Active. This takes every product that is live, whether or not it tracks inventory.
3. Exclude: click Exclude, switch Products to Collection, and add Non-discountable items. An exclusion always wins over an inclusion, so a gift card stays out even though it is Active.
4. Leave it unpublished on all sales channels, and save.

Figure 5. Discount-eligible items: every active product, minus the Non-discountable items collection.

1. Title and description.
2. Include: Status · is equal to · Active.
3. Exclude: the Non-discountable Items collection.
4. 0 channels: unpublished.

Legacy smart collections

There is no Exclude option and no product status condition. Use one condition instead: Product tag is not equal to non-discountable.

Collection exclusion limit

A store can have at most 5 collections that exclude another collection. If you already use some, plan for it.

Step 3. Check it

Open Discount-eligible items and scroll to Collection items. Search for each gift card product. None should appear. Then open a few ordinary products and confirm they do.

Figure 6. A miss caught by the check. This gift card was never tagged, so it is still discountable.

Fix a miss

Add the non-discountable tag to the product, save, and reload Discount-eligible items. The card should drop out of the list and appear in Non-discountable items instead.

Part 2: Set up each discount

Go to Discounts › Create discount › Amount off products. Use this for every new store-wide promotion.

Figure 7. Choose Amount off products. Amount off order cannot leave out a collection.

Discount value and Applies to

Figure 8. A $10-off promotion set up as a product discount on Discount-eligible items.

1. The page heading confirms the type: Amount off products.
2. Discount value: the same percentage or amount as the promotion.
3. Applies to: choose Specific collections, then browse to Discount-eligible items.
4. For a fixed amount, check Only apply discount once per order. Unchecked, $10 comes off every eligible item.

If the promotion is…	Set the product discount to…
A percentage, for example 20% off	The same percentage
A fixed amount, for example $10 off	The same amount, with Only apply discount once per order checked. Unchecked, $10 comes off every eligible item.
A minimum purchase, for example $50	Decide the new minimum. Only eligible items count now, so the same number is harder to reach when a cart has a gift card.
Combined with other discounts	The same choices, then open each other discount and confirm it allows the combination too

Minimum, limits and combinations

Figure 9. The rest of the form. Copy these from the original promotion.

1. Minimum purchase: Shopify notes it “Applies only to selected collections”. Gift cards no longer count toward it.
2. Maximum discount uses: keep the same total limit and Limit to one use per customer setting.
3. Combinations: match the original, then confirm the other discounts allow it too.

Keep everything else as it was:

• Discount code and title
• Start and end dates
• Customer eligibility
• Total usage limit
• Limit to one use per customer
• Sales channels

Never use Amount off order for a store-wide promotion while you sell gift cards

It covers every item, and Shopify gives it no way to leave out a collection. Compare the form in Figure 10 with Figure 8: there is no Applies to section at all.

Figure 10. The same $10 promotion built as Amount off order. It discounts gift cards too.

For developers

In the GraphQL Admin API this is a DiscountCodeBasic or DiscountAutomaticBasic whose items are the Discount-eligible items collection. For a fixed amount, set appliesOnEachItem to false so the amount is spread across eligible items instead of taken off each one. The required API scopes are listed in the appendix.

Part 3: Move your existing order discounts

The Shopify admin has no setting that turns an Amount off order discount into an Amount off products discount. Once a discount is created, its type is fixed in the admin. You have two ways to move an existing order discount, and they are not the same thing:

	A · Convert with the Admin API (recommended)	B · Replace it in the admin
What happens	The existing discount is updated in place and becomes a product discount	You create a new product discount and retire the old one
Discount code	Stays the same	Must be a new code, or the old discount must be deleted first (see Naming)
Usage history	Kept	Starts at zero on the new discount
One use per customer	Customers who already used the code are still refused	Customers who used the old code can use the new one
Total usage limit	Continues from where it was	Restarts; set it to the remaining uses by hand
Who can do it	A developer with API access (see the appendix)	Anyone with access to Discounts

Tested

We converted an order discount to a product discount in place through the Admin API on a Totus test store. The existing discount was updated, not recreated, and Shopify now lists it as Amount off products · Product discount.

Find the order discounts

Open Discounts. The Type column and the summary line under each title show which discounts are product discounts and which are order discounts.

Figure 11. The Discounts list. Order discounts read “off entire order”; product discounts name the collection.

Sort your discounts

Group	What to do
Expired, deactivated or used up	Leave alone
Single-code amount off order discounts	Convert first with the API (option A), or replace them (option B)
Automatic order discounts	Convert next, one at a time; check what they combine with
Bulk codes (many codes on one discount)	Convert with the API only. Replacing them means reissuing every code. Check that every code keeps its history.
App or Functions discounts, Buy X get Y, special promotions	Manual review with the app owner
Free shipping discounts	No change; they don’t discount the gift card itself

Whichever option you use, record each discount’s original settings, remaining uses, and what changed. That record is your rollback plan.

Option A · Convert with the Admin API

A developer updates each existing discount so that it applies to the Discount-eligible items collection, and, for a fixed amount, applies once per order. The appendix has the scopes, a dry-run plan and an apply step.

Test one first. Convert one low-risk discount. Then open it in the admin and check the summary panel before you convert the rest.

Figure 12. The summary panel of a converted discount.

1. Type reads Amount off products · Product discount.
2. Details name Discount-eligible Items and, for a fixed amount, “Applies once per order”. The code is unchanged and the usage count under Performance has not reset.

Option B · Replace it in the admin

Use this only if no one can run the API conversion. It is not a change to the old discount: it is a new discount with a new history, so plan the code name first.

Naming: you can’t have two discounts with the same code

Shopify does not allow duplicate codes, even when the original discount is expired or deactivated. Choose one:

Use a new code (for example SPRING20 becomes SPRING20-2). Keep the old discount and deactivate it, so its history stays on record. Customers holding the old code will see it as invalid, so update emails, ads, affiliate links and printed material that show it.

Reuse the same code. You must rename or delete the old discount first. Deleting is permanent: its usage history is gone, customers who used a one-use code can use it again, and the total usage limit restarts. To keep the gap short, build the new discount under a temporary code, then rename or delete the old discount and change the new one’s code to the original.

1. Open the old discount and record every setting: code, value, minimum purchase, customer eligibility, usage limits, remaining uses, combinations, dates and sales channels.
2. Create a new Amount off products discount as in Part 2, applied to Discount-eligible items, with the same settings. If the old discount had a total usage limit, set the new limit to the remaining uses.
3. Give it the code you chose under Naming.
4. Retire the old discount: deactivate it if you used a new code, or rename or delete it if you are reusing the code.

Part 4: Test, then go live

Test each converted or replacement discount with these carts before you tell customers or move the next batch.

Cart	What should happen
Merchandise only	Same discount as before
Gift card only	Code is not applied; full price
Merchandise and a gift card	Discount on merchandise only; gift card at full price
Fixed amount, 3 eligible items	The amount comes off once, not 3 times
Just under and just over the minimum, with and without a gift card	Discount applies only when eligible items reach the minimum
Customer who already used a one-use code	Code is refused (converted discounts only; a replacement starts with no usage history)
Before the start date and after the end date	Code is refused
With your other active discounts	They combine, or the better one wins, as you intend
Each currency or market you sell in	Same results

Go live in small batches

1. Convert or replace 2 or 3 discounts and test them.
2. Place one real order that mixes merchandise and a gift card. Confirm Totus fulfills the card for its full amount.
3. Move the rest in batches, keeping your record of each change.
4. If a discount misbehaves, roll it back from your record: restore a converted discount’s original settings through the API, or deactivate a replacement and reactivate the old discount (possible only if you kept it under its own code).

After you go live

If you…	What happens
Add a new gift card product	It is discountable until you tag it or add it to Non-discountable items. Do that before you publish it.
Create a new promotion as Amount off order	It discounts gift cards again
Rename or delete either collection	Discounts that use it stop working as set up
Set a product to Draft or Archived	It leaves Discount-eligible items until it is Active again
Change the Exclude rule on Discount-eligible items	Gift cards can slip back in. Recheck Step 3.

Questions?

Contact your Totus Client Success Manager.

Appendix: Scripted migration

For developers converting many discounts in place through the GraphQL Admin API. The plan step only reads and reports. The apply step writes, one small batch at a time, and only after approval.

Two API notes: read discountClasses, since the single discountClass field is deprecated. And asyncUsageCount updates in the background, so it can run behind real usage; treat remaining uses as an estimate.

API access and required scopes

Create an app in the Shopify Dev Dashboard, install it on the store, and grant these Admin API access scopes:

read_discounts: read discounts, their codes and usage counts (codeDiscountNodeByCode, codeDiscountNode).

write_discounts: update discounts in place (discountCodeBasicUpdate, discountAutomaticBasicUpdate).

read_products: read the Discount-eligible items collection and its products, to confirm no gift card is in it.

No other scopes are needed. A dry run only needs the two read scopes. Exchange the app’s client ID and secret for an access token with the client credentials grant; tokens last 24 hours. Keep the client secret out of code and repositories.

Migration plan (pseudocode)

PLAN MIGRATION (dry run, no writes)
  verify Discount-eligible items contains no gift card product
  candidates = read ALL pages of discounts whose classes include ORDER
  for each discount:
    read full configuration and ALL pages of redeem codes
    if expired, deactivated, or no longer ORDER:
      record SKIPPED; continue
    if not a single-code amount off discount (DiscountCodeBasic):
      record MANUAL REVIEW; continue
    remaining = UNLIMITED if usageLimit is null
                else max(0, usageLimit - asyncUsageCount)   # estimate
    if remaining == 0:
      record SKIPPED: used up; continue
    patch = items: all items -> Discount-eligible items collection
    if fixed amount:
      keep amount; set appliesOnEachItem = false
    warnings += minimum purchase now counts eligible items only
    warnings += combinations now follow product discount rules
    save original config, config fingerprint, patch,
         remaining uses, warnings, rollback patch
  return report for approval

APPLY APPROVED PLAN
  require: single-discount conversion test passed
  require: approval for this batch
  for each approved discount, small batch first:
    re-read current record
    if already converted and verified: continue
    if config changed since planning: record CONFLICT; continue
    if now expired or used up: record SKIPPED; continue
    journal BEFORE_WRITE
    update existing discount by ID with the patch only
    if result unclear: read back before any retry
    if API refuses the change:
      stop batch; record MANUAL REVIEW
      do NOT recreate automatically
    read back and verify:
      discountClasses is PRODUCT
      discount ID and redeem code IDs unchanged
      usage count not lower than before
      items = Discount-eligible items; value correct
      limits, dates, customer rules unchanged
    journal VERIFIED
  run the checkout tests above
  report verified, failed, skipped, manual review

Sources

• Shopify Help: Creating collections and adding products
• Shopify Help: Understanding conditions for collections
• Shopify Changelog: Exclude products by tag in smart collections
• Shopify Help: Amount off discounts
• Shopify Help: Combining discounts
• Shopify API: DiscountCodeBasic