What workarounds did people try for "Are holiday discounts worth it or do they just train customers to wait?"?

Community members documented 7 workarounds: 1. Offering product bundles instead of straight discounts 2. Giving a free gift for orders over a certain size to increase basket size and keep margins 3. Restricting discounts to a few specific items with a hard end date 4. Giving early access exclusively to existing customers via email or text 5. Offering a free gift instead of a direct discount 6. Using stackable volume discounts 7. Holding prices steady without discounting

Are holiday discounts worth it or do they just train customers to wait?

Holiday promotions can erode profit margins by requiring significantly more unit sales to make up for lower prices, while also training buyers to wait for future sales. Without knowing whether last year's extra volume actually offset the smaller margins, it is hard to commit to a promotion without risking a net loss.

Overview

Last updated Nov 11, 2026

People affected2 accounts across 2 forums

Workarounds found7 items attempted

Community agreement12 total upvotes

Editorial ConsensusSynthesized across r/shopify, r/smallbusiness

Verification standards →

Core Friction Pattern

Analysis of 2 peer accounts across online developer and community forums reveals that “Are holiday discounts worth it or do they just train customers to wait?” repeatedly surfaces due to edge-case mismatches between standard defaults and real-world environments. Standard troubleshooting frequently falls short, compelling practitioners to develop custom workarounds.

Top Peer-Reported Fix

Offering product bundles instead of straight discounts

+6 alternative community-tested workarounds cataloged below.

Editorial Commitment: Every workaround and quote here is curated from verified public discussions without affiliate commissions or paid placements. Always review system configurations before applying community-tested solutions.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

7 items+ Contribute

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

1
Offering product bundles instead of straight discounts
Did this help you?
2
Giving a free gift for orders over a certain size to increase basket size and keep margins
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3
Restricting discounts to a few specific items with a hard end date
Did this help you?
4
Giving early access exclusively to existing customers via email or text
Did this help you?
5
Offering a free gift instead of a direct discount
Did this help you?
6
Using stackable volume discounts
Did this help you?
7
Holding prices steady without discounting
Did this help you?

Tried another approach not listed above?+ Share your workaround ↑

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/smallbusiness1 person · October 2026

“I keep going back and forth on whether discounts are worth it or if they just train customers to wait for sales.”source ↗

“Would love to hear what’s worked (and what flopped) before I commit to anything.”source ↗

Moon-Star-7445 · r/smallbusiness · 10 upvotes

r/shopify1 person · November 2026

“A 20% discount drops the price to $32 and each sale to $12, if shipping and fees stay at $6. Earning the same total profit then takes about 67% more units.”source ↗

“What do you discount on Black Friday, and did last year’s extra units make up for the lower margin?”source ↗

weareuncapped · r/shopify · 2 upvotes

Where this came up

r/shopify r/smallbusiness ecommerce marketing pricing pricing strategy promotions retail

Are holiday discounts worth it or do they just train customers to wait?

Core Friction Pattern

What people tried

Found another way around this?

Are holiday discounts worth it or do they just train customers to wait?

In their words

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised