Tiered Spend Discounts

Tiered Spend is an invoice-level promotion type that rewards customers with increasing discounts as they spend more. You define spend thresholds, and the highest threshold the customer meets determines the discount they receive. This encourages customers to add more items to their cart to reach the next discount tier. This article explains how tiered spend works, walks through configuration, covers the TierThresholdUsesOriginal stacking rule, and shares best practices.

How Tiered Spend Works

A tiered spend promotion contains one or more tiers. Each tier has two values:

• Threshold — The minimum invoice subtotal the customer must reach to qualify for this tier
• Discount — The percentage discount applied when the customer meets or exceeds the threshold

When the promotion engine evaluates a tiered spend promotion, it compares the invoice subtotal against all tiers and selects the highest qualifying tier. Only one tier applies per invoice — the tiers do not stack on top of each other.

For example, with three tiers:

A customer with a $75 invoice qualifies for Tier 1 (5% off = $3.75 discount). A customer with a $150 invoice qualifies for Tier 2 (10% off = $15.00 discount). A customer with a $250 invoice qualifies for Tier 3 (15% off = $37.50 discount). A customer with a $40 invoice does not qualify for any tier and receives no discount.

Creating a Tiered Spend Promotion

Navigate to Marketing > Promotions and click New to open the Promotion Editor. Select Tiered Spend from the Promotion Type dropdown. The form updates to show the tiered spend configuration fields.

The standard fields (Name, Priority, Start Date, End Date, Location Scope, Usage Limits, Status) work the same as for Invoice Discount promotions. See the Invoice Discount Promotions article (Article 99) for details on each of these fields.

The unique element for tiered spend is the Tiers panel, which is where you define your spend thresholds and corresponding discounts.

Adding Tiers

The Tiers panel displays a grid with two columns: Threshold and Discount. To add a new tier:

1. Click the Add Tier button below the tiers grid
2. A new row appears in the grid with empty fields
3. Enter the spend threshold amount in the Threshold column (e.g., 50.00)
4. Enter the discount percentage in the Discount column (e.g., 5)
5. Repeat for each additional tier you want to create

Tiers are automatically sorted by threshold amount in ascending order. You do not need to add them in order — AccuArk sorts them for you.

Editing and Removing Tiers

To edit an existing tier, click on the threshold or discount value in the grid and type the new value. The change is applied immediately in the grid.

To remove a tier, select the row in the grid and click the Remove Tier button. The tier is removed and the remaining tiers are re-sorted. You must have at least one tier for the promotion to function.

Example Configuration

Here is a complete example of a tiered spend promotion with three tiers:

With this configuration, the promotion engine checks the invoice subtotal and applies the best qualifying tier automatically. The customer sees a single discount line item on their invoice showing the tier discount.

TierThresholdUsesOriginal Setting

The TierThresholdUsesOriginal setting in Stacking Rules controls how the promotion engine measures the invoice subtotal when determining which tier the customer qualifies for. This is important when other promotions have already applied discounts to the invoice before the tiered spend promotion is evaluated.

When ON (TierThresholdUsesOriginal = true)

The engine measures the tier threshold against the original pre-discount subtotal — the sum of all item line totals before any promotions are applied. This means earlier discounts do not reduce the customer's ability to reach higher tiers.

Example: A customer has $120 in items on the invoice. An earlier invoice discount of $10 has already been applied (bringing the current subtotal to $110). With TierThresholdUsesOriginal ON, the engine uses $120 (the original subtotal) to evaluate tiers. The customer qualifies for the $100 tier.

When OFF (TierThresholdUsesOriginal = false)

The engine measures the tier threshold against the current subtotal after earlier discounts. If earlier promotions have reduced the subtotal, the customer may qualify for a lower tier than they would have otherwise.

Example: Same scenario — $120 in items, $10 discount already applied. With TierThresholdUsesOriginal OFF, the engine uses $110 (the post-discount subtotal) to evaluate tiers. The customer still qualifies for the $100 tier in this case, but if the earlier discount had been larger (say $25), the current subtotal would be $95 and the customer would only qualify for the $50 tier.

Which Setting to Choose

Use ON if you want customers to always qualify for tiers based on what they actually put in their cart, regardless of other discounts. This is the more customer-friendly option and prevents confusing situations where adding a coupon drops the customer to a lower tier.

Use OFF if you want the tier qualification to reflect the true discounted subtotal. This is the more conservative option and prevents double-dipping where a customer benefits from both an earlier discount and a high tier.

The default setting is ON. You can change it at Marketing > Stacking Rules.

Tips for Tier Design

• Keep tier gaps meaningful — If your tiers are too close together (e.g., $50, $55, $60), customers will not feel motivated to spend more to reach the next level. Aim for gaps that represent a meaningful increase in basket size (e.g., $50, $100, $200).
• Scale discounts proportionally — The discount increase between tiers should be large enough to motivate the customer to spend more. A jump from 5% to 6% is not compelling, but 5% to 10% is.
• Avoid overlapping with invoice discounts — If you have both an invoice discount and a tiered spend promotion active simultaneously, the stacking rules determine whether both apply. Review your stacking configuration to make sure the combined result is what you intend.
• Test with the sandbox — Create invoices at various subtotals in the Promotion Sandbox to verify that each tier activates at the correct threshold and gives the correct discount amount.
• Communicate tiers to customers — Consider placing signage or messaging at your POS that shows the tier structure. Customers are more likely to add items if they know how close they are to the next discount level.
• Monitor per-tier redemptions — Use promotion reports to see which tiers are being hit most frequently. If nobody ever reaches your top tier, consider lowering its threshold.

Related Articles

• Invoice Discount Promotions (Article 99) — The simpler flat or percentage invoice discount
• Understanding Promotion Types (Article 97) — Overview of all eight promotion types and how they compare
• First-Time Customer Discounts (Article 101) — Welcome offers for new customers