Shopify pos, if multiple of the same item are in cart, how to apply discount to 1 of those items?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Main issue: In Shopify POS, multiple quantities of the same item appear as one line, making it hard to apply a discount to only one unit.

Suggested approaches:

  • Manual workaround: Use the POS cart menu (… > Add custom sale) to create a separate line for one unit and set its price/discount manually. This isolates the discounted item from the full-price one.
  • Configured promotion: Set up a “Buy X Get Y” automatic discount so when two of the same item are added, POS creates separate line items and applies the discount only to one. Note: product-specific discounts normally apply to the entire line (all quantities), not a single unit.

Outcome/decision:

  • The store opted for automatic discounts (e.g., Buy X Get Y) due to the large number of items, avoiding manual adjustments each time.

Status: Resolved. No outstanding questions or conflicts raised.

Summarized with AI on December 22. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hey Folks,

At our pos sometimes customers buy multiple of an item but it appears on the same line. For example, customer bought 2 of the same item (chair) and a few other things, we want to apply x% off one of the chairs but not the other. Is there a way to make it so the same item pops as separate line/entries in the cart or is there a better way to apply our discount manually?

Thanks

2

Hi there, @S_P33 . Thanks for taking the time to reach out to the Shopify Community Forums. My name is Imogen. It’s good to meet you!

Thanks for reaching out with this question! One suggestion I have is to create a custom sale for the specific item (so in your example, the chair) that you would like to discount. On the cart page in the POS App, you can select the ‘…’ symbol and select the ‘add custom sale’ option. This will allow you to specifically outline the price for the chair, and allow it to exist as a separate line item in these situations!

The example you’ve described with the discount applying to the entire line item can occur when using a ‘product specific’ discount where the discount will apply to the entirety of a quantity of an item. If you wanted to set up a discount for situations like this, you could set up a ‘Buy X Get Y’ discount that makes it so when a customer buys 1 chair, they can get a 2nd chair at a specific discount! I did some testing in my own store with this style of checkout, and using this style of discount I was able to have two of the same item in the cart as separate line items, with only one having the discount!

3

Awesome, we opted to go for the automatic discounts just because of the sheer number of items in the store, thank you!