Understanding Abra
Understanding Abra
Abra is a modular system for building promotions on Shopify. You create promotions by combining discounts, thresholds, rewards, conditions, and visibility rules into a single structure. Each part is configurable, so you can design simple or complex logic without hiring a developer or writing custom scripts.
You can enable optional storefront components that surface promotion status, show customers their progress toward rewards, handle interactions like selecting gifts and apply dynamic strikethrough pricing. These elements require no coding and update automatically based on your promotion logic.
How It Works
Abra is built in layers:
1. Promotions The container that holds your discounts and controls visibility, scheduling, and storefront display.
2. Discounts The logic that defines thresholds and rewards. You can add multiple discounts to one promotion.
Abra has four discount types:
Gift with Purchase – Auto-add free products
Volume Discounts – Single reward type across tiers
Multi-Class Tier Discounts – Mix multiple reward types per tier
Multi-Value Discounts – Variable values across products/collections
3. Reward Classes The building blocks: Free Gift, Free Shipping, Product Discount, Order Discount.
These combine to create any promotion structure you need.
What You Can Build
Abra's modular system lets you create:
Gifting promotions – Single gifts, selectable gifts, tiered gifts, or gifts filtered by collection or market
Tiered promotions – Escalating rewards based on spend or quantity, with multiple reward types per tier
Variable pricing – Different discount values across products or collections ("up to X% off")
Subscription promotions – Split one-time and subscription offers, free gifts, short-term incentives, or market-specific discounts
BOGOs – Buy X Get Y structures with flexible product, collection, or tier logic
See Promotion Examples for setup guides.
Key Capabilities
Combine multiple rewards Mix percentage discounts, free gifts, free shipping, and order-level discounts in the same promotion. All triggered by the same threshold.
Example: Spend $100 → 10% off + Free Shipping + Free Tote
Build tiered logic Set up to five tiers in a single promotion. Customers unlock better rewards as they spend or buy more.
Example:
Tier 1: Spend $50 → 10% off
Tier 2: Spend $100 → 15% off + Free Shipping
Tier 3: Spend $150 → 20% off + Free Shipping + Free Gift
Layer multiple discounts Run up to five separate discount structures inside one promotion. Each can have its own rules, markets, channels, and logic.
Example:
Discount 1: US customers → Buy 3 Get 1 Free
Discount 2: Canada customers → Buy 4 Get 1 Free
Discount 3: Skincare collection → Free gift at $75
All running simultaneously in one promotion.
Set variable values Assign different discount percentages or amounts to different products, variants, or collections.
Example:
Winter Coats: 40% off
Sweaters: 30% off
Accessories: 20% off
Promotion messaging: "Up to 40% off"
Control visibility Run promotions that are visible to everyone, accessible only via private link, or restricted to specific customer segments. You can run multiple private promotions at once.
How Customers Experience It
Abra uses Storefront Blocks to create the onsite customer experience. When these storefront blocks are enabled and customers meet the thresholds required to see them, they will see real-time promotion feedback as they shop. A few examples of the features you can choose to activate:
Storefront blocks:
Progress Bars, which show customers how close they are to unlocking the next reward.
Promotion Banners that announce active offers and keep them visible during the session.
Gift Selection Interfaces that will enable customers choose their free gift when a tier unlocks.
Dynamic Strikethrough Pricing to display discounted prices directly on product tiles and PDPs.
All elements update automatically as items are added or removed. Discounts apply at checkout using Shopify’s native discount system. No scripts required.
Learn more about Storefront Blocks and Dynamic Strikethrough Pricing.
Next Steps
Activate Abra App Embed – Enable Abra on your storefront
Create Your First Promotion – Build and launch your first campaign
Explore Promotion Examples – See what's possible
Dive Deeper
Want to understand how the system is structured?
Discount Functions – The four discount types
Discount and Reward Types – The reward building blocks
Discount Configuration – Universal settings that control every promotion