Stack two discounts, as a percentage or a fixed amount off, and see the final price, the real combined discount and your profit per sale. Or start from your cost and margin and find the list price to set.
A double discount is two discounts applied one after the other, each to the price the first one left. Because the second discount works on a smaller price, the two multiply rather than add: 20% off followed by 10% off is 28% off in total, not 30%.
Optional
Enter your Shopify or WooCommerce store's address and we'll read the prices it shows publicly. Product costs, ad spend and returns are never public, so those stay yours to fill in.
The formulas
Final price = List price x (1 - d1) x (1 - d2); Combined discount = d1 + d2 - d1 x d2
The second discount applies to the price after the first, which is why the combined discount is less than the two added together.
Worked examples
Example 1
A jacket listed at 80.00 is in a 20% sale, and a newsletter code takes another 10% off.
Inputs
Working
Final price
57.60
The customer saves 22.40, which is 28% and not the 30% the two numbers suggest.
Example 2
The jacket costs 30.00, and the store wants to keep a 40% margin after both discounts.
Inputs
Working
List price to set
69.45
Listed at 69.45, the jacket keeps its 40% margin even when both discounts apply. At full price that is a 131.5% markup on cost.
Example 3
A bag listed at 120.00 has 25% off, and a code takes another 10.00 off. It costs 45.00.
Inputs
Working
Final price
80.00
Taking the 10.00 off first would keep 2.50 more per sale. At 80.00 each sale earns 35.00, so it takes 2.14 discounted sales to earn what one full-price sale does.
Double discounts explained
Each row applies the first discount, then the second to what is left. The last column shows what an item listed at 100 sells for.
| Discounts | Added up | Real discount | 100 becomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% + 10% | 20% | 19% | 81.00 |
| 20% + 10% | 30% | 28% | 72.00 |
| 20% + 20% | 40% | 36% | 64.00 |
| 25% + 10% | 35% | 32.5% | 67.50 |
| 30% + 10% | 40% | 37% | 63.00 |
| 30% + 20% | 50% | 44% | 56.00 |
| 40% + 10% | 50% | 46% | 54.00 |
| 50% + 10% | 60% | 55% | 45.00 |
| 50% + 20% | 70% | 60% | 40.00 |
| 50% + 50% | 100% | 75% | 25.00 |
The real discount is always less than the two percentages added up, by the first discount times the second: 20% and 10% give 30% minus 2 points, which is 28%.
Combined discount = d1 + d2 - d1 x d2. For 20% and 10%: 0.20 + 0.10 - 0.20 x 0.10 = 0.28, or 28%. The final price is the list price x (1 - d1) x (1 - d2), and with two percentages the order does not change it.
A fixed amount off, such as 10 off with a code, is worth a different share of the price depending on when it applies. After a percentage it comes off a smaller price and the total discount is bigger. Platforms differ in the order they apply discounts, so check yours.
A sitewide sale with an extra percentage at checkout, a clearance price with a member discount on top, a wholesale tier with an early payment discount, or a Black Friday sale stacked with a newsletter code.
Two smaller discounts can feel more generous than one, and the second can be held back as a reward: for signing up, for a second item or for buying before a deadline. The cost to you is the combined discount, so price against that, not the headline.
Every discount comes out of your margin, not your revenue. Use the list price mode above to set a price that keeps your margin after both discounts, test the extra volume you need with the discount impact calculator, and check what a discounted order leaves after ads and returns with the Black Friday profit calculator. Pricing a new product from scratch? Start with the product pricing calculator.
In MerchantFlow
MerchantFlow reads the discount codes on your Shopify and WooCommerce orders and shows gross revenue, discount cost, COGS, ad spend and gross margin for each one, so you can see which promotions made money and which only moved revenue.
See the real-time P&LCommon Questions
Apply the first discount to the list price, then apply the second to the result. For 80.00 with 20% and then 10% off: 80.00 x 0.80 = 64.00, then 64.00 x 0.90 = 57.60.
No. The second 10% comes off the already reduced price, so the total is 28%: 0.20 + 0.10 - 0.20 x 0.10 = 0.28. On an 80.00 item that is 57.60 rather than 56.00.
It means 50% off, then a further 10% off the reduced price. Together that is 55% off: 100.00 becomes 50.00, then 45.00.
Not for two percentages: 20% then 10% gives the same price as 10% then 20%. It does once one of them is a fixed amount. In the third worked example, taking 10.00 off before the 25% leaves the price at 82.50 instead of 80.00.
Add them and subtract their product: d1 + d2 - d1 x d2. For 30% and 20% that is 0.30 + 0.20 - 0.06 = 0.44, or 44%.
Divide by what each discount left. A price of 57.60 after 20% and 10% off was 57.60 / 0.90 / 0.80 = 80.00 before the discounts.
Work back from your cost. Divide the unit cost by (1 - your target margin) to get the lowest price you can accept, then undo each discount. The list price mode above does this and rounds the result up.
They can be, when the second discount is earned (a sign-up, a second item, a deadline) and both are priced against your real margin. They cost you when the combined discount takes a product below the margin you need to cover ads, shipping and returns.
More Tools
Profit per order after the discount, ad costs, returns and fees
Three stacked discounts, and the list price that keeps your margin
How many more units a discount needs to sell to keep your profit
A price that covers fees, refunds and ads and still hits your margin
Selling price from cost and markup, and the margin behind it
Whether a bundle discount still beats selling the items on their own