How to give a phone order the Black Friday price on a Shopify draft order

Why isn’t my automatic discount showing on the Shopify draft order?

Drafts created in the admin don’t pick up automatic discounts by themselves. You add them to each draft with Apply all eligible automatic discounts, an option Shopify added on January 31, 2024. As in a cart, the draft must hold every eligible item and the customer must be eligible, or the discount won’t apply.

To add your automatic discounts on a computer:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders > Drafts.
2. Open the draft, or click Create order and add the caller’s items.
3. In the Payment section, click Add discount.
4. Check Apply all eligible automatic discounts.
5. Click Done.

For a sale run with a code, type it in Discount codes instead. In the Shopify mobile app, you can add a custom discount: open the draft and tap Add discount in the Payment section.

A store can run at most 25 active automatic discounts, and discounts created by apps count toward that total, so a weekend with many offers can hit the cap.

Which kind of discount should I use for a phone order during a sale?

If the customer will pay while the sale is running, add the sale’s own automatic discount or code. If they might pay after it ends, use a custom order discount. You type it on the draft rather than taking it from your saved discounts, so it isn’t tied to the sale’s Active dates.

What happens if the Black Friday discount ends before the customer pays?

Shopify says that if a discount code or automatic discount on an open draft becomes invalid or ineligible before the order is complete, it prevents you and your customer from completing the order. Swap the ended discount for a custom order discount and send the link again. For example, a Black Friday code that ends Sunday night can block a link the customer opens on Monday.

To fix a draft that’s already stuck:

1. Open the draft. In the Payment section, click Edit discount.
2. Remove the ended discount and click Done.
3. Add a custom order discount for the amount you promised, with Reason for discount set to “Black Friday”.
4. Click Save, then copy the link and text it to the customer again.

To prevent it, use the custom discount from the table above for orders taken near the end of the sale, or set a later end date in the discount’s Active dates. A later end date keeps the sale open for every customer, not only the caller. Reactivating an ended discount reopens it for everyone, and it then runs with no end date until you end it.

Start and end times follow the time zone set in your Shopify admin, so give the caller the cut-off in your local time.

Can the customer enter the Black Friday code at checkout themselves?

Not by default. Shopify blocks discount codes at checkout on draft order invoices and links unless you select Discount codes in the Send invoice or Share dialog. The setting is per draft, and you can’t turn it on when you share a checkout link from a phone. Use a desktop.

If you and the customer both apply codes, the order can end up discounted more than you planned. An order takes at most five codes, and the table above lists the code types drafts don’t support. For a phone order you’ve already priced, add the discount yourself and leave the option off.

How do I give a phone customer the sale price from Shopify POS?

An automatic discount reaches Shopify POS when you select Also offer on Point of Sale or assign it to a Retail market, and only at locations on POS Pro; POS Lite locations don’t get automatic discounts. Saving a draft in POS is also a Pro feature, so check what POS Lite and Pro allow.

In the POS cart, an eligible automatic discount applies by itself. For a code, tap the Apply discount tile, then Discount code, enter it and tap Save. Leave Automatic discounts on in the cart’s More actions (⋯) menu. If it’s off when you tap Create draft order, the automatic discount is removed from the draft.

Staff need the Manage draft orders and Discounts permissions to add admin discounts to POS drafts, or the discount is removed at checkout. Check these for seasonal staff before the rush.

Read the discounted total to the caller before you save the draft. See every draft action in Shopify POS.

What if my sale changes product prices instead of using a discount?

A sale set with Compare-at price is a price change, not a discount, so the draft’s price lock decides what the customer pays. A locked draft won’t drop to the sale price by itself. Once the draft shows the sale price, choose Lock product pricing from its menu, so a later price rise doesn’t reach the customer’s link.

If the sale has already ended, set a custom price on each line. What you enter is what the customer pays. Read why a draft order’s price changes after you send it.

How do I make the quoted Black Friday total stick until the customer pays?

Add the sale to the draft, or a custom order discount if the customer will pay after it ends (see the table above). Lock prices if the sale is a markdown, then send with Product prices on and Discount codes off. A custom discount and locked prices stay on the invoice. A sale code or automatic discount still ends with the sale.

1. Build the draft with the caller’s items, in the admin or in POS (POS Pro), as you would when quoting from a POS draft.
2. Add the sale: Apply all eligible automatic discounts, the code, or a custom order discount (see the table above).
3. If the sale is a price markdown, lock prices once the sale price shows.
4. When you send or share, leave Product prices on and Discount codes off.
5. Put the total in your message. For example: “Your total is US$1,250.00 after 20% off.”
6. If checkout won’t complete later, check the draft for an ended discount first (see the fix above).
7. Don’t mark it paid until the customer pays. See other reasons a customer can’t pay.

How does Pay Link fit a sale-weekend phone order?

Staff build the order in the POS cart, and Pay Link, from Countermade (the Shopify POS apps from Invenire Studios), creates the payment link from it. Pay Link shows staff the total up front, with a note when checkout will add shipping, so staff can see the link total before it goes out.

The customer pays on Shopify’s own secure checkout, and staff never see or type card details. A double tap makes one link, not two, and staff can see whether the link has been paid. Pay Link takes full payment and needs Shopify POS Pro. Turn on local pickup at the store so the customer can choose it; see how to stop checkout adding shipping.

Next step

Before the sale starts, build a practice draft, add the discount and send it to yourself. Then walk through the full phone-order workflow with your staff. Pay Link isn’t on the Shopify App Store yet. Get early access: we’ll email you when it’s ready to try.