Volume discounts: 2-for-1, 3-for-2 and packs

A volume discount gives a better price per unit to shoppers who buy more: a 2-for-1, a 3-for-2 or a pack you design yourself. With CrossUp you set it up on a single screen, and your customers see it on the product page of your Tiendanube store (Nuvemshop in Brazil), with the savings worked out and the discount applied automatically in the cart. Meanwhile, SalesPilot, CrossUp's AI, keeps recommending complementary products across the rest of the shopping journey.

It's one of the easiest offers to understand: you can count it on your fingers. That's why it works so well for products people use up, replace or give as gifts. In this guide you'll see how each pack works, when to use which, how to build the campaign in the dashboard and what to track to know it's selling.

What is a volume discount?

A volume discount (also called a quantity discount or quantity break) lowers the effective price of each unit once the shopper reaches a set quantity. A 2-for-1 means the shopper takes two items and pays for one. A 3-for-2 means they take three and pay for two. In Latin America you'll often see these written as "2x1" and "3x2", and that's how the CrossUp dashboard labels them.

The key is what repeats. With a volume discount, the shopper buys more of the same thing: three basic tees, four cans of wet cat food, six glycerin soaps. With a bundle, they buy different things that go together: the tee with a belt, the cat food with a bowl. Both raise average order value, but they answer different intentions, and each one shines in its own place.

That's the distinction SalesPilot keeps in mind when it connects catalog, order, variant and co-purchase signals to understand how your products relate. Three tees of the same style point to volume; a tee and a belt that often land in the same order point to a relationship between products, which works better as a bundle or a recommendation. If you're torn between formats, we compare them side by side in kits, bundles or packs.

How do 2-for-1, 3-for-2 and custom packs work?

The math is always the same: units the shopper takes versus units they pay for. In a 3-for-2, they take 3 and pay for 2, so each unit costs a third less. The CrossUp dashboard shows that percentage next to every pack, so you never have to do the arithmetic.

Illustrative example: if a tee costs ARS 20,000, a 3-for-2 lets the shopper take three for ARS 40,000 instead of 60,000. Add a 6-for-4 to the same campaign and they can take six for ARS 80,000 instead of 120,000.

Beyond those standard packs, you can build a custom one by choosing how many units the shopper takes and how many they pay for, say a 5-for-3. The only rules: they pay for fewer units than they take, and a pack holds up to 6 units. A single campaign can offer up to 5 packs, each starting at a different quantity. The shopper picks, and the best pack they qualify for is always applied.

There are two campaign types:

• Same-product pack. The classic: several units of one product, with the shopper choosing the size or color of each unit.
• Mixed pack. It brings together 2 to 6 different products and the cheapest one is free. For example, a vest, a beanie and gloves as a 3-for-2. Since the cheapest item is the free one, the real savings depend on each product's price. If a product has a promotional price in Tiendanube, the calculation uses that price.

When should you use each type of pack?

The right pack comes from what you want the shopper to do. Five typical situations, with illustrative store examples:

• Restock products. An online pet store can offer wet food as a 4-for-3 and a 6-for-4 in the same campaign: shoppers buying for the week pick the first, shoppers buying for the month go for the second. You bring the next purchase forward, and savings grow with commitment.
• Fast-moving basics. In apparel and fashion, a 3-for-2 on plain tees or socks is understood in a second, and since each unit carries its own size and color, the pack also works for stocking a wardrobe or buying for the whole family.
• Launches. In beauty and cosmetics, a 2-for-1 scheduled for two weeks on a new lipstick gets people to try it and share it: one to use, one to give away.
• High stock or end of season. A 4-for-2 with an end date moves units fast and leaves the product page clean once the campaign ends.
• Assortments and gifts. In food and beverage, a mixed pack with three different sauces or tea blends, cheapest one free, invites shoppers to try the whole line.

Before you choose, run the numbers against your margin. A 2-for-1 is a 50% discount on the pair; a 4-for-3 signals clear savings at a much lower cost. The best pack is the one that moves the decision and leaves more money per order.

How do you create a volume campaign in CrossUp?

The campaign lives on a single screen in the dashboard, under Widgets → Volume discounts (the CrossUp dashboard is in Spanish and Portuguese; we translate each label here). With a name, one pack and a product you can already activate it; everything else comes preset with values that work.

1. Decide what you want to encourage. Restocking, rotating a basic, a launch or a clearance. That tells you which pack to use and whether the campaign needs an end date.
2. Pick the pack type and the products. Click "New campaign" and choose between a same-product pack or a mixed pack. For the first, you pick one product (for another product, you create another campaign); for the mixed pack, you pick the products that make up the set. Give it a name you'll recognize in the dashboard; shoppers don't see it.
3. Set up one or more packs. Choose from the standard packs or build a custom one, up to 5 per campaign. Star the one you want to show as recommended.
4. Review dates, variants, copy and preview. The campaign can be always on or scheduled with a start and end date. Decide what happens when variants sell out: hide the pack on that product, or show it only with the variants in stock. Under "How it looks", sync with your store's style and adjust the title, subtitle and button. The preview shows the block on desktop and on a phone.
5. Activate the campaign. Changes go live in your store as soon as you save.
6. Track units and attributed revenue. More on this below.

In the "Advanced" section, you choose whether the pack stacks with other promotions in your store. The recommended option makes the pack replace other promotions, which keeps the final price under control; free shipping and coupons keep working. If a product is already in another campaign, the dashboard tells you which one wins before you activate.

What does the shopper see on the product page?

The product page shows a block with the buying options: "1 unit" and each pack ("Buy 3, pay 2"), with the price and savings in plain sight and the recommended pack highlighted. You can add a short label to each option, like "Best seller" or "Best value".

The shopper picks the pack, chooses the size or color of each unit and taps "Add to cart". The discount is applied in the cart and at checkout as one more store promotion, automatically.

Three details that add up:

• Label on product listings. You can show the pack on the product photo in categories, search, the home page and carousels, so shoppers spot the deal before they open the product page.
• Preselected pack. If you want to push the recommended pack, shoppers can find it already selected when they land. It works best when the pack is an obvious fit for that product, because the extra units are added in one go.
• One main offer per product page. If the product also has a bundle on its product page, the bundle shows first; then the volume discount; then recommendations. Every product page stays clear and every offer has its place.

How do you measure a volume campaign?

The campaign list shows, for the last 30 days, how many units each campaign sold and how much revenue it brought in. That's attributed revenue: sales you can trace back to the order where the pack was applied.

Three readings worth doing every week:

• Units per order for the product. If the pack works, shoppers stop taking one and start taking three.
• Which pack they choose. If almost everyone sticks with the smallest one, try highlighting the next one as recommended or giving it the "Best value" label.
• Money per order, not just units. More units at a lower margin per unit should leave more profit per order. If it doesn't, adjust the pack.

To learn fast, change one thing at a time: the recommended pack, the copy or the dates. Duplicating a campaign from the list saves you from setting it up again.

And when what you want is to add different products to the order, the path is another one: how to create product bundles on Tiendanube, and before that, what makes a bundle work.

Which plans include it, and how do you get started?

Volume discounts are included in all three CrossUp plans: Impulso, Escala and Evolución. Prices and the success fee for each one are on the pricing page, and the feature overview is on volume discounts.

You install CrossUp on your Tiendanube store, get a 15-day free trial, and your first campaign takes a few minutes: name, 3-for-2, product, activate.

Install CrossUp on Tiendanube and launch your first volume campaign.