> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Total Discount Used, BigCommerce > Total Discount Used for BigCommerce stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Supporting Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > Total discount value applied to orders in the period. The single most important promotional-economics KPI: it answers "how much did we give away to drive sales?". On BigCommerce, this aggregates coupon codes, automatic cart-level promotions, customer-group price-list discounts, and Promotions API discounts into a single figure. Track in absolute terms here; track as a ratio on [BC Discount %](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/discount-of-revenue). The two cards together tell you whether discount spend is scaling with revenue or running away. | | | | ------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `SUM(discount_amount)` over the period. BC's `discount_amount` field aggregates: coupon codes redeemed, automatic promotions (cart-level rules), customer-group price-list discounts (B2B Edition wholesale prices), and Promotions API discounts. Each is a distinct concept but all reduce the customer-paid total. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | Discount is calculated on the post-tax-treatment subtotal in BC's default mode. So a 10% discount on a £120 inc-VAT order = £12 discount. Tax recalculates on the discounted amount automatically. | | **Shipping** | Shipping discounts (free-shipping codes, shipping-rate-discount promos) are separate from product discounts. BC tracks them in different fields; this card focuses on *product* discounts. **Free-shipping promos do NOT count here**; track via [BC Shipping Methods](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/shipping-methods). | | **Discounts** | This card *is* the discount value. | | **Refunds** | Discount value on refunded orders is NOT deducted by default (gross discount view). | | **Cancelled orders** | Excluded; cancelled orders' discount records are voided. | | **`Incomplete` orders** | Excluded. | | **Currency** | Multi-currency without FX. | | **Channels / sources** | All channels aggregate. **Web typically dominates discount spend** (most coupons distribute on web); B2B Edition wholesale price discounts also count here and can be substantial in dollar terms. | | **B2B Edition price-list discounts** | A wholesale customer paying £80 for a £100 retail-priced item generates a £20 "discount" on this card, even though it's a contractual wholesale price (not a promotional discount). **This conflation can mislead.** Filter to web-only or DTC if you want the promotional spend; the aggregate mixes promotions and wholesale pricing. | | **Discount sources breakdown** | Available via Ask Viq: coupon codes, automatic cart promos, customer-group prices, Promotions API. Each has different operational implications. | | **Time window** | `30D` (rolling 30 days). | | **Alert trigger** | None on absolute value; rate-based alert lives on [BC Discount %](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/discount-of-revenue) at >25% margin pressure. | | **Roles** | owner, marketing | ## Calculation ``` SUM(discountAmount) WHERE date BETWEEN [period_start, period_end] ``` ## Worked example A US apparel brand on BigCommerce, 30-day window. Mixed channels. | Discount source | Discount value (\$) | % of total discount | Orders affected | | -------------------------------------------- | ------------------- | ------------------- | ------------------------- | | Coupon codes (e.g., NEWSLETTER10, FRIENDS20) | \$14,200 | 53% | 1,420 | | Automatic cart promos (BOGO, multi-buy) | \$5,400 | 20% | 580 | | Customer-group prices (B2B wholesale) | \$4,800 | 18% | 95 | | Promotions API (custom rules) | \$1,800 | 7% | 240 | | Loyalty / store credit applied | \$560 | 2% | 88 | | **Total** | **\$26,760** | **100%** | **2,423 orders affected** | Against \$223,000 total revenue: discount % = 12.0%. What's interesting: 1. **Coupon codes (53%) are the biggest spend.** Predictable, but worth scrutiny. Audit coupons by performance: a coupon with 1,000 redemptions and average order value below site AOV is destroying margin (customer would have bought anyway, you just gave away 10%). Stop these and reuse the budget on net-new-customer coupons. 2. \*\*B2B wholesale (18%, $4,800) is contractual, not promotional.** Filtering to DTC makes the actionable promotional spend $21,960 (9.8% of DTC revenue). **Don't try to "reduce" B2B discount; it's the wholesale price by contract.** 3. **Automatic cart promos (20%) are AOV-lifting.** BOGO, "spend $X save $Y" rules don't have a customer-facing code; they trigger automatically. Cart promos typically lift AOV 8-15% but their margin cost is in this number. 4. **The 2,423 orders affected = 41% of orders received some discount.** This is high; healthy stores typically see 25-35%. Above 50% means promotional dependency (customers wait for discounts to buy). 5. **Loyalty / store credit at 2% is low.** Either the loyalty program is small, or it's not converting credits to redemptions. Most healthy loyalty programs see 5-10% of total discount through credits. Action playbook this card surfaces: 1. **Audit coupon code performance.** Coupons that AOV-match site AOV are non-incremental (customers would have bought without). Retire them. 2. **Test reducing automatic cart promos** by 30% to see whether AOV holds. If AOV doesn't drop, the promo wasn't lifting it. 3. **Filter to DTC for actionable analysis.** B2B wholesale is contractual and not a discount-management lever. 4. **Pair with [BC Discount %](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/discount-of-revenue)** to track ratio over time. 5. **Investigate orders-affected rate.** 41% is high; experiment with reducing coupon distribution to drop to 30% and watch revenue. 6. **Cross-reference [Revenue Over Time](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/revenue-over-time)** to confirm promo periods correlate with revenue lift (they often don't, after hangover). ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Total Discount | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [BC Discount %](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/discount-of-revenue) | The ratio version. Discount % normalises against revenue; this card is absolute. | | [Discount Over Time](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/discounts-given-over-time) | Time-series of the same total. | | [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/total-revenue) | Denominator for ratio analysis. | | [AOV](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/average-order-value) | Discounts mechanically lower AOV; pair to see the trade-off. | | [BC Top Coupons](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/top-coupons) | Per-coupon breakdown; identifies which codes drive most discount. | | [BC AOV Discount](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/aov-with-without-discount) | AOV by discount tier. | | [BC Channel Revenue Mix](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/revenue-mix-by-channel) | Channel mix affects discount share (B2B has structural discounts). | | [Cancellation Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/cancellation-rate) | Heavy discounting can drive cancellations from speculative buyers. | | [Refund Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/refund-rate) | Discount-heavy purchases sometimes have higher refund rates. | | [Repeat Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/repeat-customer-rate) | Discount-attracted customers repeat at lower rates than full-price customers. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in BigCommerce's own dashboard:** The native view is **BC Control Panel → Marketing → Promotions** for current promo definitions and **Reports → Promotion Reports** (or Analytics → Insights → Promotions on Plus / Enterprise) for historical performance. The aggregate sum should match this card directly. For coupon-level detail, **Marketing → Coupon Codes** shows redemption counts per coupon; the discount value column is comparable. **Why our number may legitimately differ from the vendor's:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | --------------------------- | ----------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **B2B wholesale inclusion** | Either | We include customer-group price-list "discounts" (wholesale prices); BC's promo report typically excludes them. | | **Time zone** | Boundary days off | UTC vs store time zone. | | **Refund treatment** | Either | Discounts on refunded orders included in our gross view; BC may net out. | | **Sync lag** | Trivial | Webhook fanout. | | **Currency** | Trivial | Per-currency aggregation. | | **Free-shipping promos** | Either | We exclude shipping-only discounts; BC's promo report may include them. | **Cross-connector reconciliation (when both connectors are connected for this merchant):** | Card | Expected relationship | Notes | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | [`klaviyo.klaviyo_coupon_revenue`](/nerve-centre/klaviyo/klaviyo_coupon_revenue) | Email-attributed coupons subset | Klaviyo only sees email-driven coupon usage; should be 20-40% of total coupon spend. | ***
Documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) Total discount exists on Shopify and Adobe Commerce with similar definitions. B2B wholesale-price treatment differs (Shopify Wholesale Channel vs BC B2B Edition vs Adobe customer groups). * [`shopify.total_discount`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-discount-used) * [`adobe_commerce.total_discount`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/total-discount-used)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **Why is my total discount higher than my coupon spend in Marketing → Coupons?** Because this card aggregates four sources: coupons, automatic cart promos, customer-group prices (B2B wholesale), and Promotions API. Marketing → Coupons only shows the coupon line. For full breakdown, use Ask Viq: "show discount breakdown by source for last 30 days". **Should I include B2B wholesale in this card?** For finance reporting, yes (it's revenue not collected). For promotional decision-making, filter to DTC; B2B wholesale is contractual pricing, not a discount lever you control. **My discount jumped from $15k to $26k last month, what changed?** Three usual causes: (1) a new promotion that performed (good news), (2) a coupon code that got over-shared (worth investigating, especially if AOV dropped), (3) a B2B Edition customer-group expansion (more customers on wholesale prices). Pull the breakdown. **Why do my BOGO promos contribute to this card?** Because BOGO ("buy one get one") fundamentally is a discount, just expressed differently. The "free" item costs you margin equal to its price; that's recorded as discount in BC's accounting. Net economics are the same as a 50% discount on a 2-item order. **Is 12% discount % healthy?** Depends on category. Apparel: 8-15% is normal. Beauty: 5-10%. Home goods: 6-12%. Subscription: 3-8%. Outside the band, investigate. Stores running flash-sale-driven business models can hit 25-30% sustainably; subscription stores running on full price hit 3-5%. **Should I cut all discounts to improve margin?** No. Discounts drive incremental traffic and conversion; cutting them blindly typically reduces revenue more than discount spend. The right approach is selective: identify non-incremental coupons (AOV at site-AOV = customer would have bought without), retire those. **What's a "non-incremental" coupon?** A coupon whose users have AOV at or below site AOV, who are existing customers, and who would have purchased without the coupon. Examples: a sitewide "FRIENDS10" code that long-time customers bookmark and use on every order. These cost margin without driving new behaviour. **Why is my B2B discount 18% of total but only 4% of orders?** Because B2B AOV is structurally 5-15x DTC AOV, even at low order count B2B revenue is meaningful, and at wholesale prices the discount value is similarly meaningful. This is normal, not a problem. **Can I see discounts by SKU?** Yes via Ask Viq: "show discount value by product for last 30 days". Useful for identifying which SKUs are most aggressively discounted and whether full-price SKUs exist. **My loyalty program shows zero in this card, why?** BC's loyalty integrations record store credit redemption as a payment method, not a discount. To see store credit applied to orders, use [BC Payment Methods](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/payment-methods). For full-price-paid-with-store-credit orders, the customer paid the full price; no discount. **Does this include BC's automatic shipping discounts?** No. Free-shipping promos and shipping-rate discounts are tracked in shipping fields, not discount fields. Track those via [BC Shipping Methods](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/shipping-methods) or [BC Free vs Paid](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/free-vs-paid-shipping). **My Customer Group price list discount is showing as a $20 discount on a $100 order. The customer paid $80; that's the wholesale price, not a discount, what gives?** BC's accounting treats customer-group pricing as a discount applied at runtime. The "list price" is $100; the customer paid $80; the difference is logged as discount. **For accountancy purposes treat the $80 as revenue and the \$20 as never-collected** (not a real discount expense). Filter to DTC channel for promotional spend analysis. **Why is my discount lower than expected after a Black Friday weekend?** Possibly orders were re-classified as cancellations after the discount window. Cancelled orders' discounts are voided; if customers gamed the system by ordering and cancelling, the discount sums net out. **Can I forecast next month's discount spend from this card?** Trailing 30-day average is a reasonable starting point if no major promotions are planned. Add expected promotional events (Memorial Day weekend, etc.) at their historical lift rate. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Total Discount Used* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across BigCommerce and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.