Start with the discount's own page in Shopify: check whether its status is still Active, whether its dates have ended, and read its timeline, which shows when it was created and when it was active or expired. If a status or date was edited, Actorly records the old and new value of a discount's title, status, and start and end dates, so you can see what it said before.
Check the status first
Shopify's help page says you can temporarily deactivate an unexpired discount and reactivate an expired one. So the first question is whether somebody deactivated it, or whether it reached its end date.
Shopify's help page says that when you reactivate an expired discount, the status becomes Active and the discount has no set end date. If you reactivated something last year and the dates look strange now, that is worth reading.
Read the discount timeline
Shopify's help page says the discount timeline displays the date and time a discount is created, as well as when it is active or expired. Open the discount in your admin and read it from the top. It gives you the order of events for that one discount, which is often enough to see whether the discount ended on its own or was switched off.
Rollouts and shareable links
Two Shopify features can change what a customer experiences without anyone editing the discount's code:
- A rollout. Shopify says a discount keeps its own active dates and those dates continue to apply independently of the rollout. A rollout activates or deactivates the discounts it includes for the customers who are in it. So a customer outside the rollout may not see the discount.
- A shareable link or QR code. Shopify says these work only for active discounts.
If your complaint is "it works for me and not for a customer," check both. Shopify also notes that the 5 discount code limit per order still applies to the total number of discounts, including those from shareable links, so a customer stacking codes may hit that limit.
Keep a note of what you change. When you edit a discount's dates or status, write the old value and the date in a shared document. It takes a minute, and it means that the answer to "what was it before?" does not depend on anyone's memory. Actorly can hold that record for the fields it tracks, from the day you install it.
See who touched the discount
Shopify's activity log lists recent admin actions with the name of the person, app or channel. Go to Settings, then General, then the activity log link under Resources. It is view-only, shows at most 250 results and cannot be exported, so a busy store can push an older edit off the list.
Actorly does not currently claim a name for discount changes. For discounts, Shopify does record who, and Actorly does not read it yet, so the answer for a discount in Actorly is the change itself: what, when, from what to what. Actorly's claim about "who" is for product changes.
What Actorly records about a discount
Actorly keeps a discount's title, status, and the start and end dates, with the value before and after each change. A change is recorded when Shopify sends a notice. So if the end date was moved, or the status changed, you can search the discount's name in Actorly and read the earlier value.
The discount amount itself is not compared. Shopify has eight kinds of discount that describe their value in eight different ways, and putting them in one field would make very different changes look identical. So if someone edited a percentage, Actorly will not show that edit. Check the discount page and your own notes for that.
Actorly records changes from the day you install it. It cannot show how a discount looked before that. It also does not put discounts back: restore covers 15 named fields, and discounts are not among them. See Can you undo a change in Shopify?.
A checklist
- Open the discount and read its status.
- Read the start and end dates.
- Read the timeline.
- Check whether it is in a rollout and whether the customer is in it.
- If a link or QR code is being used, check the discount is active.
- Check Shopify's activity log for recent actions around the time it stopped.
- If Actorly was installed, search the discount's name and read the old and new status and dates.
Be careful with step 6: an activity entry near the time something stopped is a coincidence of timing until you look at the record itself. Actorly takes the same view, which is why it calls a name a Likely or Possible match and not a certainty.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my Shopify discount code not applying?
Read its status, dates and timeline first. A deactivated or expired discount does not apply, and a shareable link works only for an active discount. A discount in a rollout can also be limited to the customers who are in the rollout.
Does Shopify show when a discount ended?
Its help page says the discount timeline shows when a discount is created and when it is active or expired.
Can Actorly show me who edited a discount?
Not a name. Actorly records the change with its old and new value. Shopify's activity log may show who took an action.
Can Actorly show the old discount amount?
No. It records title, status and start and end dates, and does not compare the amount.
See the full list of what Actorly tracks on the Coverage page, and how history is priced on the pricing section.