In the highly competitive world of e-commerce, top DTC brands (Direct to Customer) succeed because they’ve cracked the code for creating irresistible offers that capture customers' attention and drive AOV & conversions. Brands like Obvi, True Classic, Kylie Cosmetics & Gymshark have mastered the art of crafting effective Shopify discount offers that convert.
What if you could implement the same successful discount strategies in your store? Whether you're looking to exactly replicate or even get inspired by these successful promotional tactics, this guide will show you how to do it, step-by-step.
We will be using Kite, a power-packed Shopify discount app to do this. Kite is an all-in-one discount, free shipping, and free gift app developed by Skai Lama. Let’s unpack everything for you.
Shopify Discount Strategies by Top DTC Brand
1. Obvi- Volume Discounts
Obvi is an obvious favorite in the e-commerce world. The top DTC brand clocked $40 million in revenue just within 5 years of launch. Their vibrant packaging, exciting flavors, and innovative promotional offers have helped them build a thriving community of power users. Obvi created a Labor Day deal, where they offered customers a volume discount but with a twist; in true Obvi style. Here’s a peak.
Teardown of Obvi’s Volume Discount Offer
Obvi’s Labor Day deal was a clever mix of volume discounts, free shipping, and a sitewide discount. To kick off the holiday shopping frenzy, they announced a tempting 25% off sitewide that applied automatically at checkout. But they didn’t stop there. Obvi introduced volume discounts directly on each product page to boost average order value (AOV) and clear out inventory. We love how they cleverly packaged these deals—not as boring 2-packs or 3-packs, but as 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day supplies. Higher tiers came with even sweeter price cuts of $10 and $30. They had a subscription discount of 15% running in parallel. As, a final nudge, Obvi provided free shipping on orders over $65, enticing customers to add just a little more to their carts.
Replicating the Offer in the Kite Discount App
Kite’s intuitive interface makes it a breeze to implement common Shopify discount strategies with just a click. To replicate Obvi, the volume discount block is the best choice? Refer to the image below.
Once you're in, you can easily select your products, choose between a percentage or fixed amount discount, and even decide if you want to stack this offer with others in your store.
Kite’s volume discount widget pops up on both the product and cart pages. Plus, with our drag-and-drop editor, customizing your widgets to match your brand is easy.
You’ll have your Shopify volume discount up and running in just 10 minutes. A sitewide discount can be set using the order discount option in Shopify. To know how you can replicate the shipping progress bar, see our Gymshark example below.
Obvi-like widget design replicated in Kite
You may not have the custom code capabilities like Obvi. But you have Kite. This is what you can achieve in a few clicks and at a fraction of the cost & time.
2. Gymshark- Free Shipping Progress Bar
Gymshark is a Britain-based top DTC brand known for its athletic apparel wear. In 2023, their reported revenue touched $ 709 million. Let’s take a look at their Shopify Discount strategy which was structured around free shipping.
Teardown of Gymshark’s Promotional Offer
While the brand had a code-based bonus discount at the checkout offer, we picked their example for another reason. The brand has standard free shipping on all orders above $ 75. How do you use this to increase your average order value? Gamify it and show a free shipping progress bar in your side cart.
Replicating the Offer in Kite App - Free Shipping Progress Bar
Just having free shipping pop-ups and banners is passé. If you want to increase AOV by engaging customers in a gamified shopping experience, free shipping progress bars are the way to go.
Simply select the ‘shipping discount’ option and head on to creating your discount conditions. You can select the shipping method you want to offer for free too. E.g. standard shipping versus next-day shipping.
The free shipping progress bar widget is fully customizable as per your brand colors and fonts. Just a few clicks and you’ll be done.
Gymshark-like widget design replicated in Kite
Here’s a peak into the free shipping progress bar you can design via Kite. Easy breezy, right?
True Classic is a truly successful apparel brand in the e-commerce space. They achieved $250 M in revenue in just four years of starting. The top DTC brand is popular for its well-fitting and easy-on-the-pocket line of men’s basics. In their recent Labor Day deal, they offered customers a tiered discount, without a price reduction. Wondering how? Let’s take a look.
Teardown of True Classic’s Promotional Offer
True Classic put a clever twist on the traditional tiered discount offer by offering free shipping and free gifts instead of discounts. They ingeniously used a side-cart with a 'goal-based progress bar' to keep things interesting. This dynamic bar showed customers the available offers at each spending threshold and let them know exactly how much more they needed to spend to unlock the next reward. It’s a smart way to gamify the shopping experience and encourage customers to add a little more to their cart to unlock shipping & gifts. AOV increase is guaranteed.
Replicating the Offer in Kite App- Unified Progress Bar
Kite just rolled out a smart new feature called Goal-Based Rewards, and it’s perfect for this scenario. It allows you to create a unified progress bar in your side cart that lets customers buy their way to multiple types of rewards; not just discounts.
Just choose ‘Goal-Based Rewards’ as your promotion type, and you’re off to the races. Set up multiple progressive goals, each unlocking a reward like free shipping, discounts, or free gifts. You can get as detailed as you want with conditions, discount percentages, and other specifics.
Once you’re set, hop into the widget editor to match the design to your brand. And just like that, you’ll have a promotional offer as sharp as True Classic’s in no time.
True Class-like widget design replicated in Kite
We recreated the True Classic unified progress bar for mixed goal-based rewards. Here’s what it looks like:
4. Kylie Cosmetics- BOGO for Labor Day Sale
Kylie Cosmetics, founded by Kylie Jenner, pulls in 2.6 million in traffic to its site each month. As one of the top DTC brands in the United States, it enjoys a cult-like following among fans of the celebrity. The brand’s signature product, the Lip Kit (a combo of lip color and lip liner), is always in high demand. So, for Labor Day, they turned up the excitement with a BOGO (buy one, get one free) offer on this popular product category.
Teardown of Kylie Cosmetic’s Promotional Offer
Kylie Cosmetics launched a Labor Day BOGO deal on their much-loved Lip Kits. Customers could select their products from multiple collections and add them to cart, where the discount would be applied. The brand displayed a widget on each product page, communicating the BOGO. Additionally, to increase AOV, they offered free shipping for orders above $40. They offered a free gift for orders over $70. Their Lip Sticks are sold at an average price of $35 so these two tier-based offers, helped bump up the cart value for the brand.
Replicating the Offer in the Kite App - Product Page BOGO Widget
We've already explored the free gift and shipping combos with True Classic, so now let's dive into the buy one get one. Kite makes this a breeze with its dedicated BOGO discount setting. Just select it, and you're on your way to choosing the type of BOGO offer and the collections you want to feature in the promotion. Bonus points—you can let customers pick their preferred variants. Customize your BOGO widget to match your brand's colors, and you're all set! It's as easy as that.
Kylie-like widget design replicated in Kite
We replicated the Kyle cosmetic BOGO widget in Kite for you to see:
5. OSEA- Free Gifts Promotion
Osea is a sea-weed-infused skincare brand that went DTC with their Osea Malibu store. The brand has an equal split between their offline and online sale with an estimated cumulative revenue of $100 million. The top DTC brand created an interesting tiered free gift Labor Day sale. Let’s dive in.
Teardown of Osea’s Promotional Offer
Osea Malibu’s Labor Day deal was all about free gifts with purchase—up to four of them. Customers unlocked a gift by hitting each purchase threshold, with a side cart progress bar showing their status. As soon as one gift was claimed, the progress bar would reveal the next one, making the shopping experience feel like a fun game. This gamification strategy was a win-win, boosting both average order value (AOV) and conversions. As an added sweetener, Osea included free samples in the side cart for shoppers to grab along the way.
Replicating the Offer in the Kite App - Free Gift Progress Bar
For this setup, the ‘free/discounted gift with purchase’ block is your best bet. Add as many Gift Rules as the number of gifts you want to offer. Planning to include free samples? Just set the minimum spend to zero. You can opt for manual or automatic gift addition—manual lets customers choose their gifts. And as you tweak your progress bar, make sure to keep an eye on the widget preview to ensure it aligns with your brand guidelines.
Osea-like widget design replicated in Kite
We used Kite to recreate the Osea promotional offer. Here’s what free gift widget looks like:
6. Heat Hot Sauce- Advanced Custom Discounts [Kite Special]
Heat Hot Sauce is a Bay-area-based DTC brand that curates and sells over 700 types of hot sauces. They pride themselves on their vast collection and on getting these sauces to customers in the shortest time possible. We decided to feature Heat Hot Sauce because they came to Skai Lama with an exciting yet complicated promotional offer. It wasn’t a cookie-cutter discount but one with complex conditions. How did we solve this? Using our ‘custom discount’ feature in Kite. Let’s dip in.
Teardown of Heat Hot Sauce’s Promotional Offer
Heat Hot Sauces spiced up their tiered gift promotion with a clever twist. As customers crossed different spending thresholds—under $20, over $20, over $50, and over $100—they could choose a free gift. But here’s the catch: once they moved to a higher tier, the gifts from the previous tiers were off-limits.
Why this approach? The aim was to boost average order value (AOV) by offering more valuable gifts (like a whole bottle of sauce) as customers spent more. If the promotion had allowed multiple gifts from different tiers, customers could have checked out with four gifts, complicating inventory management and hiking up promotional costs. Plus, since these gifts were part of Heat’s product line, the brand preferred selling them rather than giving them all away. By limiting each tier to one gift, the other items remained available for purchase. The campaign was a hit, engaging customers in picking out fun freebies like chili pods, garlic crunch, and spoons, while those in the top tier walked away with sauce bottles—all contributing to Heat’s AOV boost.
Creating the Offer in the Kite App - Advanced Custom Tier Gift Promo
Heat Hot Sauce used our Custom Discount block under Advanced to create their freebie promotion. Our 24X7 customer service team helped them along the way to create a foolproof discount promotion that could be made live in a very short time. The widget design is showcased in the promotion screenshot above.
Conclusion
As you can see, mimicking offers from top DTC brands is easier than you might think. The trick is to dissect their promotional campaigns and understand the different discount types they’re using. A solid understanding of their discount conditions goes a long way too. With that knowledge in hand, you can quickly recreate these offers using a Shopify Discount app like Kite. As simple as that.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are DTC Brands?
DTC brands, or Direct-to-Consumer brands, are companies that sell their products straight to consumers, eliminating the need for traditional retail intermediaries like wholesalers, distributors, or physical stores. By cutting out these middlemen, DTC brands have full control over the customer journey, from marketing and sales to delivery and support.
This direct approach allows them to gather valuable customer insights, offer more competitive pricing, and foster stronger brand loyalty. Examples of well-known DTC brands include Warby Parker (eyewear), Dollar Shave Club (razors and grooming products), and Glossier (beauty products).
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Diksha P
Diksha leads Product Management at Skai Lama. She talks about discount campaigns, product recommendations, quizzes, and surveys to personalize Shopify stores.
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