What Is the Sales by Discount Code Report?
The Sales by Discount Code report groups your Shopify sales by the discount applied to each order. Following Shopify's own reporting, each row is either a code a customer entered at checkout or the name of an automatic discount, and it shows the gross sales, discount, returns, net sales, and total sales tied to that discount for the period you choose.
The dimension is what sets this report apart from a Sales by Product or Sales by Customer report. A product or a customer is something you sell to. A discount is something you spend on. So the number that carries the most weight here is the relationship between the Discount column, which is what you gave back, and the Net Sales column, which is what the code earned once that give-back and any returns are removed.
One thing to know before reading it: the Discount Code column holds both manual codes and automatic discount names in the same list, so a store-wide automatic promotion and a single campaign code can appear as separate rows.
Use this report when you need to judge which promotions paid off, not only which ones were applied.
Which Fields Are Included in the Sales by Discount Code Report?
These six fields let you read each promotion as revenue measured against the discount it cost you.
You can adjust the pre-made report by adding, removing, or rearranging columns to match the way you review promotions.
Important Insights You Can Find in This Report
Which codes earn the most after the discount is subtracted?
Compare the Discount column against Net Sales for each code, and sort by net sales rather than gross. A code can carry a large gross figure and still land near the bottom once its discount and returns are taken out. Ranking by net sales surfaces the promotions that added real revenue, not the ones that only moved orders you may have won anyway.
Is a code's net being pulled down by returns or by the discount?
When a code's Gross Sales and Net Sales sit far apart, the gap is split between the Discount column and the Returns column. Read both. A modest discount paired with heavy returns is a different problem, and a different fix, than a code that was simply too generous. The first points to the wrong products or buyers, the second to the size of the offer.
How much are you giving back across every code at once?
Add up the Discount column for the whole period and set it beside total net sales. Review one code at a time, promotional give-back is easy to lose track of. As a single figure it becomes something you can size, compare month to month, and set a budget against.
THE ANALYST'S READ: The Signal Most Merchants Miss
Look at how large a code's Discount is against its own Gross Sales, then read that beside its Returns. A code can look acceptable when you glance at its gross figure. The signal most merchants miss is when that same code gives back a large share of its gross and also carries above-average returns. That is a double hit to margin, because you discounted the sale and then refunded part of what was left.
If one code keeps combining a heavy give-back with strong returns, it is worth checking which products it was applied to and whether it mostly reached buyers who would have purchased at full price. This does not prove the code lost money on its own, but it is the pattern most likely to turn a promotion that looks healthy at the top line into one that quietly costs you.
How Can You Automate the Sales by Discount Code Report?
Open the pre-made Sales by Discount Code report in Report Pundit, and the columns are already set, so you can save it as is. Set a date range, then schedule it to run on its own, daily while a campaign is live, or weekly and monthly for review. You can export it as Excel, CSV, or PDF, push it to Google Sheets or Google Drive, and email it to your marketing lead, finance, or an outside accountant on the same schedule, so the numbers arrive without you rebuilding the report.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Discount column represent?
It is the total value the code removed from its orders over the period, which is the money you gave back through the promotion. It is the cost side you weigh against the code's net sales.
Why is a code's Net Sales lower than its Gross Sales?
Net sales is gross sales minus the discount minus returns. So the gap between the two columns is the sum of what the code gave away and what customers returned. Reading both columns tells you which one is pulling the code down.
Does the report cover automatic discounts or only manual codes?
Both. The Discount Code column lists manual codes that customers enter and the names of automatic discounts that apply on their own. Since a store-wide automatic discount can dwarf a single campaign code, it helps to separate them before comparing.
Should I judge a code by Net Sales or Total Sales?
Net sales. Total sales adds taxes and shipping on top, which inflate the figure with amounts the code did not create. Net sales isolates what the promotion actually earned after the discount and returns.
Can one order appear under more than one discount code?
Yes, when your store allows combinable discounts. An order that used two stackable discounts can show once under each one, so the same sale sits in two rows. Check whether codes were combined before adding code totals together.
How is this different from the Sales Attributed to Marketing or Sales by Channel report?
Those group revenue by traffic source or selling channel. This one groups by the discount applied to the order, so it isolates the effect of the promotion itself rather than where the sale came from.