We’re looking for an app that would let subscribed members join together to get a volume discount by purchasing together. All suggestions are welcome!
Topic summary
Goal: enable subscribed members to form group purchases (“Power Buy”) to unlock volume discounts by checking out together.
Proposed workflow: organizer creates a Power Buy with guardrails (time limit, product(s), participant cap, etc.) and gets a join code. Participants must register/subscribe and enter the code to join. The Power Buy behaves like a draft order until triggered (e.g., threshold met or organizer action). At close, cards are charged and orders ship—akin to a pre-sale.
Latest update: no known off‑the‑shelf app. A custom app is recommended.
Suggested technical approach:
- Metaobject “PowerBuy” (Shopify structured data) to store group state.
- Customer account forms to create a Power Buy and to join via code; store the PowerBuy ID in a customer metafield (custom field).
- Backend listens for metaobjects/update; when threshold hits, tag customers or set a metafield.
- Discounts via Shopify Functions (requires Shopify Plus) or an app like Regios Discounts; each Power Buy checks for a specific tag.
- For scalability, consider an external database; Shopify APIs can be faster to build initially.
Status: no existing app identified; path forward is custom build with outlined components. Open/ongoing.
Hi RSL_IT,
Can you please provide more details about what you’re looking for?
When you say, “purchasing together,” what would that workflow look like? Would members be paying through your Online Shop, or through POS?
How would you associate a group of members with an order? Would your staff have to manually enter who was paying? Would each member have to enter their email, etc.?
The more details you can give, the more likely someone can help you.
Best,
Tobe
Hi, Tobe,
The workflow would look something like this:
Our store would offer the “Power Buy” discount that would allow customers to purchase our products with other customers to achieve a discount. We’d set some guardrails and see how it goes (Limit on time, amount, products, participants, etc.)
The customer would find a group of folks who all want to purchase the same product (or other products being offered by us), become registered and subscribed. The customer would then initiate a “Power Buy” discount which would result in a special code that their friends could use to sign up. The Power Buy would essentially be akin to a draft order until the originator decided to pull the trigger (a vote? max customers? We’re still playing around with the concept). Each user would have to register and subscribe and then use the Power Buy code before the end to become part of the discount.
Once the end of the Power Buy is reached, the credit cards would be charged and we’d begin shipping. Think of it as a special-option pre-sale.
BTW – BIG fan of Regios Discounts–most flexible discount tool we’ve seen. Keep it coming!
Hi RSL_IT,
Thank you so much for your kind words about Regios Discounts.
I am not aware of any apps that implement this functionality. You might want to develop a custom app.
If so, here’s a basic outline of the technical requirements:
- Create a metaobject called “PowerBuy”
- Add a custom form block/section to the customer account page to allow a customer to create a “Power Buy” metaobject
- Add another custom form block to the customer account page to allow customers to enter the code of an active “Power Buy.” When this form is submitted, set a customer metafield that contains the ID of the PowerBuy.
- On the backend, listen for an metaobjects/update event, and when the threshold for a Power Buy is hit, assign a tag to the customers, or another customer metafield containing data about the discount to be applied.
- For the discount, I recommend using Shopify Functions if possible (though it requires Shopify Plus in a custom app). You’ve mentioned Regios Discounts, so that’s one option you can use. Each PowerBuy could have its own associated discount, which checks for the presence of a specific tag on a customer’s account, and assigns discounts to different products if present.
A more robust solution would probably use a database instead of plain metaobjects, but if you rely heavily on Shopify APIs, you can build it faster and cheaper.
I hope this helps!
- Tobe