The discount almost certainly does not exist. Atlas shows the progress bar and counts the customer towards your threshold, but it does not create the free shipping or discount that the bar promises. That has to exist separately in your Shopify admin. If you set up the bar without creating the discount, customers reach the threshold, see your congratulations message, and are charged anyway.
In this article:
Step 1: Check the discount exists
In your Shopify admin, go to Discounts.
Look for an automatic discount matching your reward.
For free shipping, also check Settings, then Shipping and delivery, for a free shipping rate with a minimum order value.
If neither exists, that is your answer. Create one, following Creating the discounts behind your reward bar.
The Create your own discounts banner in the editor:
To apply discounts based on your progress rewards, create automatic discounts in your Shopify admin. We'll show the progress bar to guide customers toward your discount thresholds.
Step 2: Check the thresholds match
The bar and the discount are configured in two places, and nothing keeps them in sync.
Check | In Atlas | In Shopify |
Threshold value |
| Minimum purchase amount on the discount |
A bar set to $50 with a discount set to $60 will congratulate customers ten dollars early, every time.
⚠️ If you changed the threshold in Atlas at any point, change it in Shopify too. There is no link between them and no warning when they drift apart.
Step 3: Check what each side measures
The Atlas reward bar always measures cart value. Shopify's minimum purchase requirement can be either a minimum amount or a minimum quantity, and only the amount corresponds.
⚠️ If your Shopify discount uses a minimum quantity, it will never line up with the bar. A customer can reach your dollar threshold with two expensive items and still miss a three-item requirement. Change the discount to a minimum purchase amount.
There is also a subtler version: Shopify's minimum purchase amount is based on the subtotal, before tax and shipping. A customer whose cart total including tax crosses your threshold but whose subtotal does not will see the bar complete and get no discount.
💡 If customers report the problem only occasionally and always near the threshold, this is almost always the cause. Set the Atlas threshold slightly below the Shopify one to absorb the difference.
Step 4: Check the discount's conditions
Open the automatic discount in Shopify and check for conditions Atlas cannot see:
Condition | Effect |
Start date in the future | Not applied yet |
End date in the past | No longer applies |
Customer eligibility | Only specific customers or segments qualify |
Minimum quantity as well as amount | Both must be met |
Country or market restrictions | Applies only in some regions |
Usage limits | Stops applying once reached |
The progress bar does not know about any of these. It counts the cart and fills up regardless.
Step 5: Check discount combinations
If the customer already has another discount, Shopify decides whether both can apply.
Open the discount in Shopify.
Look at Combinations.
Confirm it can combine with the other discount types you use, particularly your bundle discounts and any codes.
A customer with a bundle discount already applied may not also receive your shipping reward if the two are not set to combine. See Shopify's documentation on combining discounts.
Step 6: Test end to end
The only reliable test is a real cart.
Open your store in a private window.
Add items until you are just below the threshold. The bar should show the remaining amount.
Cross the threshold. The after-achieving message should appear.
Go all the way to checkout and confirm the discount or free shipping is applied.
Steps 1 to 3 only prove the display works. Step 4 is the test.
If it works for some customers only
Almost always a condition on the Shopify discount, most often:
Market or country restrictions, so it applies in one region and not another
Customer eligibility, so only logged-in or tagged customers qualify
A third-party checkout that bypasses the Shopify cart, in which case no automatic discount applies at all. See Why aren't my bundle discounts applying at checkout?, which covers the same mechanism.
Still not applying
Start a chat from the bubble in the bottom right of Atlas, or email support@helloatlas.io. Either way, include:
your store URL
your reward bar threshold and reward type
a screenshot of the matching Shopify discount, including its conditions
an order number where the discount should have applied but did not
The order number is the most useful item, because it shows exactly what was in the cart and which discounts Shopify evaluated.