The data tells a clear story: it depends on what you’re optimizing for.
Our study focused on unique discount code sets generated with Seguno’s Bulk Discount Code Bot for use across marketing channels. App users tend to be more marketing-mature brands.
The dataset:
The research focuses strictly on two Shopify discount types — percentage and amount off — since they compose 97% of 2025 discount sets.
While we omitted buy X, get Y and free shipping discounts primarily because of low volume, their structure makes it difficult to directly compare them with value-based discounts.
This report does not include:
The following data points appear throughout the 2026 Shopify Unique Discount Code Benchmark Report:
* We refer to GCRR as "redemption rate" in the narrative throughout this report; both terms refer to the same metric defined above.
Use Bulk Discount Code Bot to power your unique discount strategy
Unique discount codes offer benefits that generic discount codes can’t: personalization, a safeguard against coupon abuse, and attribution.
With Seguno’s Bulk Discount Code Bot, generate unlimited unique coupon codes right in Shopify, then export them to any marketing channel.
Brands chose percentage-off discounts more often than amount‑off discounts, at 1.2x the rate.
When analyzing all discount sets, percentage-off discounts accounted for 55% of the share.
Brands on the Shopify Plus plan used percentage off even more—60% of the time and 1.44x more often than amount-off codes.
All other brands not on Shopify Plus actually exhibited the opposite behavior, offering amount off 1.27x more than percentage off (56% of the time).
This split may reflect differences in price points and customer purchase behavior. Where percentage discounts retain their perceived value as the cart value rises, fixed-amount discounts can feel more immediately valuable on lower-priced purchases.
Percentage-off discounts won in the cart value category, showing a 42% higher AOV.
The AOV for percentage-off codes was $95.75, a 1.42x lift over amount-off discounts ($67.35). The gap averaged $28 per order.
Jump ahead to see AOV data by industry or AOV by use case
The amount-off discount had a modest but meaningful edge in redemption performance.
Percentage-off discounts correlated with substantially higher AOVs. But they were redeemed at a lower rate than amount-off discounts, according to our Generated Code Redemption Rate (GCRR) calculation.
Shoppers may find amount-off codes easier to evaluate than a percentage applied to a fluctuating cart total.
Generated Code Redemption Rate (GCRR) calculation = usages / total codes
We examined datasets for the eight industries (out of 30) that use unique discount codes most frequently, pitting the two discount types against each other on AOV and redemptions.
Results are mixed, but percentage off more often came out ahead, including:
Apparel is the only category where neither discount type showed a meaningful difference on either measure.
| Industry | AOV | |
| Apparel* | — | — |
| Beauty & Fitness |  |  |
| Consumer Electronics | | |
| Food & Drink | | |
| Health | | |
| Home & Garden | | |
| Sports | | |
| Toys & Hobbies | | |
* no meaningful difference
† Generated Code Redemption Rate
When percentage off wins on AOV, it tends to win big.
The health industry had the largest gap, with percentage-off AOVs nearly 5x higher than amount-off AOVs.
Percentage-off had a performance multiplier of 2.23x or more for:
When amount off wins, the gaps are slimmer.
Beauty & fitness brands saw a 2.2x lift; sports brands saw 1.59x.
See the industry reference table for exact metrics, including sample sizes
Redemption rate differences by industry tell mostly a less decisive story than AOV.
The results are split:
Shoppers may find amount-off codes easier to evaluate than a percentage applied to a fluctuating cart total.
* Consumer electronics' multiplier is amplified by small base rates.
| Industry | Amount-off | Code Sets | Total Codes Used | AOV |
| Apparel | 1.09% | 802 | 334,626 | $106.62 |
| Beauty & Fitness | 0.82% | 260 | 48,555 | $198.57 |
| Consumer Electronics | 0.38% | 184 | 7,181 | $37.43 |
| Food & Drink | 1.84% | 180 | 107,030 | $26.08 |
| Health | 1.06% | 84 | 8,686 | $14.75 |
| Home & Garden | 2.60% | 110 | 8,241 | $88.17 |
| Sports | 0.21% | 45 | 952 | $276.73 |
| Toys & Hobbies | 0.62% | 58 | 17,185 | $66.99 |
Percentage-off | Code Sets | Total Codes Used | AOV |
| 0.84% | 1,057 | 415,294 | $97.22 |
| 1.18% | 702 | 91,282 | $89.75 |
| 0.04% | 152 | 5,857 | $135.41 |
| 2.33% | 355 | 184,090 | $70.70 |
| 1.44% | 148 | 77,798 | $71.36 |
| 0.68% | 480 | 61,301 | $254.34 |
| 0.48% | 112 | 5,248 | $174.41 |
| 2.68% | 76 | 88,644 | $149.34 |
† Generated Code Redemption Rate
We zoomed in on the top five percentages offered. Among them, 20% correlated with the second-highest AOV ($108.10) and the highest redemption rate. Furthermore:
| Percent off | Discount sets | Codes used | AOV | |
| 20% OFF | 933 | 225,941 | $108.10 | 0.89% |
| 15% OFF | 529 | 208,446 | $92.85 | 0.80% |
| 25% OFF | 373 | 74,328 | $106.11 | 0.88% |
| 10% OFF | 357 | 38,250 | $122.68 | 0.20% |
| 30% OFF | 302 | 37,632 | $103.77 | 0.56% |
† Generated Code Redemption Rate
Minimums on an amount-off code show:
| Amount-off | Discount sets | Codes used | AOV | |
| With minimum | 0.76% | 860 | 282,415 | $100.79 |
| No minimum | 1.00% | 1,765 | 329,466 | $39.30 |
Minimums on a percentage-off code show:
| Percentage-off | Discount sets | Codes used | AOV | |
| With minimum | 0.27% | 242 | 22,808 | $110.08 |
| No minimum | 0.73% | 3,064 | 745,715 | $94.47 |
† Generated Code Redemption Rate
Brands and shoppers have reasons for gravitating to amount-off discounts that require minimum thresholds.
| Use case | Description | Discount sets | AOV | |
| Seasonal Discounts | Seasonal or monthly promotions | 2,270 | $92.71 | 0.79% |
| Insider | Perks for employees/friends/students | 776 | $143.67 | 4.01% |
| Holiday | Campaigns tied to major holidays, shopping events (i.e., BFCM), cultural celebrations, and birthdays/anniversaries | 594 | $73.63 | 0.75% |
| Marketing lifecycle | Customer journey touchpoints, such as prospecting, email subscriptions, abandonment, post‑purchase, and winback | 529 | $92.51 | 1.01% |
| Affiliate | Discounts shared by partners or influencers | 476 | $137.08 | 2.38% |
| Loyalty | Promos for loyalty program members or customers who provide reviews | 387 | $120.26 | 1.67% |
† Generated Code Redemption Rate
Otherwise:
| Use case | AOV | |
| Affiliate | | |
| Insider | | |
| Holiday | | |
| Loyalty | | |
| Marketing Lifecycle | | |
| Seasonal Discounts* | — | — |
* no meaningful difference
† Generated Code Redemption Rate
Across nearly every use case, the AOV difference between discount types was about 2x.
When percentage-off wins:
When amount-off wins, the magnitudes are comparable:
Seasonal discounts show no meaningful difference between the two, meaning either type works for these broad campaigns.
See the use case reference table for exact metrics, including sample sizes
The winning discount type varies by use case—and the gaps can surpass 3x.
Two use cases set the high bar for redemption rate gaps, and they sit on opposite sides:
Beyond those, percentage off had the edge in loyalty (2.4x) and marketing lifecycle (1.58x), while amount off had the edge in insider (1.59x).
Seasonal discounts show no meaningful difference; either type works.
| Marketing Use Case | Amount-off | Code Sets | Total Codes Used | AOV |
| Affiliate | 1.06% | 188 | 16,250 | $226.18 |
| Insider | 6.20% | 215 | 12,537 | $278.27 |
| Holiday | 1.30% | 326 | 136,980 | $58.48 |
| Loyalty | 0.91% | 143 | 25,923 | $68.43 |
| Marketing Lifecycle | 0.69% | 125 | 25,849 | $63.20 |
| Seasonal Discounts | 0.74% | 916 | 263,473 | $89.24 |
Percentage-off | Code Sets | Total Codes Used | AOV |
| 3.46% | 288 | 65,892 | $115.11 |
| 3.89% | 561 | 139,864 | $131.60 |
| 0.33% | 268 | 44,671 | $120.08 |
| 2.19% | 244 | 91,187 | $134.99 |
| 1.09% | 404 | 161,045 | $97.22 |
| 0.81% | 1,354 | 472,331 | $94.65 |
† Generated Code Redemption Rate
Segmented discounts tend to correlate with more valuable purchases.
And that’s true for both discount types, demonstrating an AOV lift of:
The tradeoff? Customers redeemed restricted codes — that limit eligibility to specific customers — slightly less than broad, non-segmented discounts.
Segmented codes are a small slice of the dataset, accounting for just 4%.
Almost all unique discount sets (95.8%) were non-segmented, meaning they could be used by anyone.
Segmented offers typically pair with targeted messaging, which resonates with shoppers who want relevant, personalized offers.
| Discount Type | Segmented | Code Sets | Total Codes Used | AOV |
| Amount off | 0.75% | 150 | 86,873 | $103.15 |
| Percentage off | 0.78% | 104 | 40,372 | $140.24 |
Non-segmented | Code Sets | Total Codes Used | AOV |
| 0.90% | 2,595 | 529,879 | $61.48 |
| 0.68% | 3,250 | 731,305 | $93.30 |
† Generated Code Redemption Rate
Use Bulk Discount Code Bot to power your unique discount strategy
Unique discount codes offer benefits that generic discount codes can’t: personalization, a safeguard against coupon abuse, and attribution.
With Seguno’s Bulk Discount Code Bot, generate unlimited unique coupon codes right in Shopify, then export them to any marketing channel.