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Quick answers to the things merchants ask most. Can't find it? Email us.
Add Sam — Cart Offers & Rewards from the Shopify App Store. Shopify handles the permissions and drops Sam into your admin under Apps. There's nothing to download or host — Sam runs inside Shopify. See the getting started guide for the full walkthrough.
The most common cause is that Sam's banner hasn't been switched on in your theme. Go to Online Store → Themes → Customize → App embeds and turn on Sam Cart Monitor, then Save in the theme editor.
Also check that the offer is enabled in Sam Settings, and — if it's a dated offer — that today's date falls within its schedule.
No. This is one of the best things about Sam — percentage, fixed-amount and free-shipping rewards are applied automatically at checkout. There are no discount codes to hand out and no separate Shopify discount to set up or keep in sync.
A Base card is the foundation of a ladder — it can run on its own. Tier cards stack on top of a Base to add higher reward levels as the cart grows. You give the Base a ladder name, then attach tiers by selecting that name when you create them. Full detail in the manual.
On the free plan you run one always-active ladder at a time (a Base plus up to three tiers). Sam Gold lets you build multiple ladders and up to 20 cards, and schedule them — one always-active ladder, plus dated ladders that run in their own windows. Either way, exactly one ladder is ever live at a moment, so your banners and rewards never conflict. You can keep a whole library of dormant ladders and choose which is live.
Yes. Set a base card's threshold to $0 and it becomes an instant storewide sale — the discount shows and applies the moment a visitor arrives, no minimum spend. It's great for Black Friday, clearance, and seasonal sales, and you can still stack a tier on top (e.g. 20% off everything, plus 40% once they hit $200). A $0 sale uses a percentage or free-shipping reward. See the Recipes page for step-by-step sale recipes.
Free gifts are a Sam Gold feature. First create the gift product in Shopify, set its price to $0.00 and its status to Unlisted (Draft products can't be added to a cart). Then pick it with Choose gift product in the reward settings. When a shopper qualifies, they can add it to their cart for free.
That's by design — cards are kept compact so the shape of your whole ladder is easy to see at a glance. To see what a card actually does, click it and its full content appears in the Preview panel. To see and change it, click Edit — that opens the card with all its fields so you can review or adjust anything.
Sam has a few built-in guardrails that keep offers sensible — for example, a bigger spend must unlock a better reward, ladder names must be unique, and dated offers can't overlap. If a rule is broken, Sam shows a clear message telling you exactly what to fix. Adjust the flagged field and save again. The manual's rules section lists them all.
Sam shows and applies amounts in your shop's own currency, with no fake conversions. When a shopper checks out in a different currency, discounts still apply correctly for them. For amounts in your banner text, use the {remaining} tag — Sam replaces it live with the amount left to spend, in each shopper's own currency automatically.
For "how much more to spend," use {remaining} instead of a fixed number — it converts to each shopper's currency automatically. If you're offering a fixed-amount discount and want to mention it, state the currency clearly (e.g. "$50 USD off"), because banner text is static. The actual discount is still converted correctly at checkout. More in the manual.
Free gives you one always-active ladder (up to 4 cards), with percentage, fixed-amount and free-shipping rewards, the full banner, styling and progress bar. Sam Gold ($9.99/month) adds multiple ladders, up to 20 cards, free gifts, scheduling, countdowns and country targeting. See the features page for the full breakdown.
Yes — Sam Gold comes with a 14-day free trial, so you can try the advanced features before committing.
Nothing is deleted. Any advanced configuration (extra ladders, gifts, scheduling, targeting) goes dormant rather than being lost. If you re-subscribe to Sam Gold later, it all comes straight back exactly as you left it.
No. Sam works from cart totals and your shop's settings — it doesn't gather your customers' personal information. That means less risk for you and less to worry about. See our privacy policy for the details.
The floating cart badge is Shopify's own built-in item counter — it shows how many items are in the cart. You can choose to show or hide it, but it isn't a Sam reward feature. We mention it in the manual just so it's covered.