How to Exclude Specific Collections or Products from a Discount Code on Shopify

Shopify’s native discount engine is powerful, but many merchants quickly run into a common limitation: How do you exclude certain products or collections from a discount code? Whether you want to protect high-margin items, keep certain brands exempt, or ensure discounts don’t apply to bundles or new arrivals, being able to exclude product groups is essential. With Discount Plus, this is easier than ever. When creating a new discount, you can simply select “Exclude Products or Collections” to control exactly where your discount applies—and where it doesn’t.

Why You Might Want to Exclude Certain Items From Discounts

Smart discounting isn’t about giving away savings everywhere—it’s about targeting promotions intentionally. Here are common scenarios where exclusions are essential:

  • Protecting low-margin or high-cost products
  • Excluding premium or MAP-restricted brands
  • Running seasonal discounts without affecting evergreen bestsellers
  • Ensuring bundles, subscriptions, or kits stay full-price
  • Preventing stacking or overlapping deals on certain collections

With Discount Plus, exclusions give you precision control over your promotion strategy.

How to Exclude Products or Collections in Discount Plus

When creating a discount code inside Discount Plus, you’ll see an option labeled:

“Exclude Products or Collections”

This feature allows you to block specific items from being discounted—even if the customer qualifies for the promotion overall.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Create a new discount in Discount Plus
  2. Choose your discount type (percentage off, fixed amount, BOGO, tiered discount, etc.).
  3. Scroll to the product-eligibility section
  4. Select “Exclude Products or Collections”You can choose:
    • individual products
    • entire collections
    • product groups
    • seasonal or custom collections
  5. Save your discount
  6. Discount Plus will automatically enforce exclusions at checkout.

What customers experience:

If shoppers add excluded items to their cart, the discount will not apply to those items—but will still apply to eligible ones.

This creates a seamless user experience while preserving your pricing strategy.

Benefits of Using Exclusions in Discount Plus

1. Total Control Over Your Promotions

Run targeted discounts without worrying about accidentally discounting your expensive or restricted items.

2. Better Profitability

Protect your margins by ensuring only the intended products receive discounts.

3. Cleaner Customer Experience

Avoid confusion by automatically preventing discounts where they shouldn’t apply.

4. Works Seamlessly With Shopify Checkout

Because Discount Plus is built with Shopify’s newest APIs, exclusions behave consistently and reliably—no hacks, scripts, or theme edits.

Use Cases You Can Implement Today

  • Exclude new arrivals from sitewide discounts
  • Exclude clearance items from stacking with coupon codes
  • Exclude brand-restricted SKUs for MAP compliance
  • Exclude “free gift” products to prevent double-reductions
  • Exclude entire collections like bundles or subscriptions

The flexibility is especially useful for brands with complex catalogs or tiered pricing strategies.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve ever wished Shopify let you exclude certain items from discount codes, Discount Plus solves that problem elegantly.

The “Exclude Products or Collections” option gives you fine-tuned control over your promotions—helping you run smarter, more profitable campaigns without compromising customer experience.

Start using Discount Plus today and take full control over your Shopify discount strategy.

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