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Overview

Offering a free product is a great way to drive higher order values and surprise your customers with added value. In Upcart, you can create a reward tier that adds a designated product to the cart when the customer reaches a specific threshold. This guide walks you through setting that up and explains how to make the reward product free using Shopify.

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How Product Rewards Work

When a product reward is unlocked, Upcart automatically adds the selected product to the customer’s cart. However, Upcart does not change the product’s price. You’ll need to handle pricing on the Shopify side. It is important to note that Upcart does not have the functionality to create or apply discounts on its own; all such configurations must be handled via Shopify. There are two ways to make the reward free:
  1. Create a duplicate version of the product priced at $0
  2. Use Shopify’s Buy X, Get Y automatic discount to make the product free at checkout
We’ll walk through both methods in detail.

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Step 1: Create the Product Reward Tier in Upcart

  1. Open Upcart > Cart Editor.
  2. Go to the Rewards section.
  3. Click Add New Reward Tier.
  4. Set the Reward Type to Product.
  5. Choose the Reward Basis (for example, Cart Total or Item Count).
  6. Enter the Minimum Amount required to unlock the reward.
  7. Select the product to add once the threshold is met.
At this point, the product will be added to the cart when the requirement is met, but it will still be full price. Use one of the methods below to make it free.

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Method 1 (Recommended): Create a Free Version of the Product

This is the most stable and flexible option. Steps:
  1. In Shopify, go to Products.
  2. Duplicate the product you want to offer as a free reward.
  3. Set the price of the duplicated product to $0.00.
  4. Rename it clearly (for example, Free Mystery Gift).
  5. Set the product to Active or Unlisted. Choosing Unlisted keeps it working in the cart and at checkout while hiding it from your storefront in one step (see Optional: Hide the Reward Product from Your Storefront below).
This method avoids discount stacking issues and gives you full control over how the reward is presented.

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Method 2: Use an Automatic Shopify Discount

If you prefer not to duplicate products, you can use a Buy X, Get Y discount to make the reward product free. Steps:
  1. Go to Shopify Admin > Discounts.
  2. Click Create Discount.
  3. Choose Buy X, Get Y.
  4. Under Customer Buys, set a Minimum Purchase Amount (for example, $200).
  5. Under Customer Gets, select the reward product and set the quantity to 1.
  6. Set the discount to 100% off.
  7. Enable Automatic discount.
  8. Turn on Combine with other discounts, if applicable.
This setup ensures that once the customer hits the minimum spend, the reward product is discounted to $0 automatically. Shopify will still show the reward discount on other items in the cart due to how the system tracks purchase conditions. This is expected behavior and cannot be changed by Upcart. Additionally, Shopify’s system may restrict certain types of discount stacking or applications in specific configurations. Double-check whether your reward setup in Shopify aligns with these discount rules to avoid issues.

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Method 3: Use the Discounts module

The Discounts module can apply a 100% discount on a specific product when cart conditions are met, without requiring a duplicate product or a Shopify-side discount. Steps:
  1. Open the Discounts module in Upcart and click Create Discount.
  2. Set the trigger to Cart Total Threshold (or Cart Quantity Threshold) matching the threshold of your Tiered Reward.
  3. Set the reward type to Free Gift and select your reward product.
  4. Publish the rule.
When the customer reaches the threshold, Tiered Rewards displays the visual progress, and the Discounts rule applies the 100% discount on the gift product at checkout. ⚠️ Note: If you are using the Tiered Rewards product reward to add the product to the cart and also a Discounts rule to apply the discount, ensure both reference the exact same product or variant. Misaligned configurations can cause the product to be added but not discounted, or vice versa.

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Additional Configuration Tips

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Update the Reward Bar Messaging

After setting up your product reward, make sure the reward bar displays the correct message. In the reward tier settings, edit the Text before achieving and Text after achieving fields. Example:
  • Before: “You’re $20 away from a free mystery gift!”
  • After: “You’ve unlocked your free mystery gift!”
This ensures the messaging is accurate and aligned with the actual reward.

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Optional: Hide the Reward Product from Your Storefront

A $0 reward product can still be discovered by customers through search, collection pages, or product recommendations, even when it is only meant to appear in the cart. The cleanest way to hide it is Shopify’s Unlisted product status.

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Set the reward product to Unlisted

  1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products and open your reward product (for example, Free Mystery Gift).
  2. In the Status dropdown near the top of the product page, select Unlisted.
  3. Click Save.
That is the whole process. An Unlisted product is hidden from your storefront search, collection pages, predictive search, product recommendations, the Shopify Catalog, your sitemap, and search engines, while staying fully functional in the cart and at checkout so Upcart can still add it as a reward.
Unlisted products behave like Active products in the cart, at checkout, and on orders. Setting the reward to Unlisted does not stop Upcart from adding it, and does not stop Shopify from applying the $0 price or discount.
Unlisted replaces the older method of hiding a product with a seo.hidden metafield and excluding it from collections. You no longer need to create metafields, use the bulk editor, or add collection rules. If a reward was previously hidden with seo.hidden, switching its status to Unlisted is enough, and you can remove the old metafield.
An Unlisted product page can still be opened by anyone who has the direct link. If you also want to prevent customers from manually adding the reward from its product page, see Preventing Reward Exploits.

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Final Result

Once complete:
  • Customers will unlock the product reward after reaching the spend threshold.
  • The reward product will be added automatically to the cart.
  • Shopify ensures the item is free through discount or pricing configuration.
  • The reward product is hidden from your storefront.
  • Ensure that the reward thresholds defined in Upcart align accurately with the discount rules created in Shopify to avoid discrepancies.