Shopify order discounts -- non-intuitive

[elinenberg]

Has anyone found a native solution for editing orders that include an order discount?  We have an order where a customer applied a fixed $10 order-level discount. After a like-for-like exchange via order editing (swapping different sizes), Shopify recalculated the order in such a way that the customer now appears to owe money, even though the order discount should have remained flat.  This isn't the first time it's occurred, but it's becoming more and more of a problem.

Support has informed us that this is "expected behavior" because fixed order discounts are reallocated across line items, and when line items are changed or removed, the associated portion of the discount is removed as well.

This is an order-level discount -- it should not be tied to individual line items.

Here’s why this is unacceptable:

• The behavior causes discrepancies in both customer balances and financial reporting, especially when integrated with our ERP and accounting software -- if a discount is randomly applied to an item, it will affect the margins when it's not a discounted item.
  
  
• There is no visible per-line-item discount allocation in exports or admin views — so we are expected to account for invisible proportional adjustments that aren't exposed anywhere.
  
  
• We cannot “work around” this by modifying product prices or applying arbitrary line-item discounts — it would compromise our revenue reporting.
  
  
• This behavior is not just non-intuitive — it’s detrimental. If this is “expected,” then we strongly urge that it be reconsidered as a product flaw, or at the very least, that Shopify provide a proper method to preserve fixed order discounts when edits are made.

Thanks.

[Developer_005]

Hi there,

You’ve highlighted a really important issue that many Shopify merchants face when working with fixed order-level discounts during order edits. Unfortunately, as you’ve discovered, Shopify’s current system does reallocate fixed discounts across line items—and when a line item is removed or changed, the discount on that line item is also removed, leading to unexpected adjustments in the total order amount.

Right now, Shopify does not offer a native solution to keep a fixed discount at the order level during an order edit. The behavior you’re experiencing is, as Shopify support mentioned, the intended behavior—but I absolutely agree with you that it’s problematic for financial reporting, customer experience, and integration with accounting systems like your ERP.

Here’s a quick summary of what’s happening:

• Shopify treats fixed discounts as proportional allocations across line items.

• When you change or remove a line item, the discount on that item disappears, and the total order amount changes.

• There’s no way to lock or preserve the original fixed discount when you edit an order.

This issue has been raised in the Shopify community by multiple users, but so far, there’s no built-in workaround that fully preserves fixed discounts in order edits.

A couple of partial workarounds (though not perfect):

• You could refund the order and create a new one manually with the correct discount applied, but I understand this is inefficient.

• Some third-party apps (like Edit Order by Cleverific or Mechanic with custom workflows) may help automate adjustments, but it won’t fully replicate a native, fixed discount behavior.

I agree this should be addressed as a product flaw. If you haven’t already, I’d suggest submitting this feedback directly to Shopify via the Shopify Community and the Feature Request channels in your admin. The more merchants raise this, the better the chance it gets prioritized.

Thanks for raising this—it’s an important discussion, and I hope Shopify listens!