A spend threshold gift ties the reward to a number the shopper controls. It is the single most direct way to lift average order value, because the shopper can see exactly how far away the reward is and exactly what closes the gap. The hard part is not the setup. It is choosing the number.
Set the threshold. A cart subtotal — for example $60. Subtotal, not total, so shipping and tax never make the rule unpredictable.
Choose the gift. One product that is genuinely desirable and cheap for you to give. Cost, not retail price, is what the threshold has to cover.
Show the distance. The cart tells the shopper how much more they need. A progress bar makes the gap feel closable rather than abstract.
Unlock automatically. Cross the threshold and the gift is added at $0. Fall back below it and the gift is removed.
Start from your current average order value, not from a round number. The useful threshold sits above AOV but inside reach of a single extra item — commonly 15% to 30% above AOV. Set it at AOV and you give the gift away to carts you already had. Set it at double AOV and almost nobody gets there, so the offer becomes decoration.
Then check it against gift cost. If your AOV is $48, your gross margin is 60%, and the gift costs you $9, a $60 threshold earns $12 of incremental revenue on a converted cart, roughly $7 of margin, against $9 of cost. That offer loses money on every cart that was going to be $48 anyway and only works if it also lifts carts that would have been smaller. Move the threshold to $70 and the arithmetic changes completely.
The practical answer is to test two thresholds rather than argue about one. Two variants of the same offer, same gift, different number, is the cleanest experiment in gifting and usually resolves in a couple of weeks.
The gift has to feel worth the stretch. Shoppers do not price your cost — they price the shelf. A $9-cost item that retails at $34 is a strong gift; a $9-cost item that retails at $11 reads as a token and will not move anyone $22 up the cart.
Using cart total instead of subtotal. Once shipping and tax are in the number, the rule shifts by region and the shopper cannot predict it. Always threshold on subtotal.
Counting discounted value. During a sale, a 30%-off cart hits $60 on $86 of goods. Decide explicitly whether discounted subtotal counts, and keep the decision consistent across campaigns so your reporting stays comparable.
Leaving the threshold up all year. AOV drifts, product mix changes, and a threshold set in January is usually wrong by Q4. Revisit it when AOV moves more than about 10%.
Hiding the gap. A threshold the shopper cannot see is a threshold that does nothing. The number and the distance to it both belong in the cart.
A threshold gift coexists comfortably with cross-sells, because they pull in the same direction: the cross-sell suggests the item, the threshold explains why to add it. It coexists badly with a sitewide percentage discount, which lowers subtotals and so makes the threshold harder to reach precisely when traffic is highest.
If you run both during a sale period, either raise the threshold to compensate or set an explicit priority so only one offer fires per cart. Offer priority rules decide that, and discount stacking covers the wider question of what Shopify will let combine.
Usually 15% to 30% above your current average order value — high enough that reaching it requires adding something, low enough that one extra item gets there. Then sanity-check it against the gift's cost to you, not its retail price.
Subtotal. Once shipping and tax are included the rule changes by region and the shopper cannot predict when the gift unlocks, which removes the reason the offer works.
That is your decision, and it should be a deliberate one. Counting discounted subtotal is more generous and more popular with shoppers; counting pre-discount value protects margin during sales. Pick one and keep it consistent so campaigns stay comparable.
Yes. A rule can require a spend level within a specific collection, so "spend $75 on skincare" and "spend $120 on devices" can run side by side with different gifts.
Yes — that is a tiered offer. Spend $60 for gift one, $120 for gift two. See tiered rewards for how to space the tiers so the second one is actually reachable.
Compare order value for carts that saw the offer against carts that did not, and put the gift's cost of goods next to the revenue influenced. Funnel analytics report both, and an A/B test between two thresholds answers it directly.
Yes. Every NUO AI feature is included at $0 — no paid tier, no order cap, no revenue share.
