Stop Giving Discounts To Customers Who Were Already Going To Buy

Steve Hutt:
Welcome back to eCommerce Fastlane. I’m your host, Steve Hutt. There’s something that’s been bothering me lately and I want to talk about it. It’s all the money people are spending to drive traffic to their Shopify store. You think about all the ads you run: Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, influencer campaigns—there’s a lot going on. And it makes sense because you’re getting people to the store, and I get that CAC is expensive right now, but you are getting people there.

What’s weird, though, is I see so many brands spend all this money to drive traffic to their store, and then almost instantly offer a discount to everybody who shows up. Even people who are already reaching for their credit card are still getting a discount. Think about that for a second: you’re paying money to bring someone to your store, they’re ready to buy, and then you just hand them 10% or 15% off for nothing. I think that’s really weird.

My guest today has a concept for this that he calls blind discounting, and we’re all guilty of it—even in my own store when I had it. He’s built a really interesting solution, and that’s why I’ve got him on the show today. His name is Muhammed, and he’s the founder of a company called Growth Suite.

Growth Suite is a Shopify app that watches your website visitors and understands their behavior across your store. When someone’s ready to buy, the solution leaves them alone—hey, you got them there, so just let them buy. But if the system sees someone who’s hesitant, maybe they’re about to leave, then it can make them a personalized offer. It’s really interesting. They’re working with hundreds of Shopify brands right now, and they’re in the App Store.

We’re going to dig into all of this. So, hi Muhammed, welcome to eCommerce Fastlane.

Muhammed Tüfekyapan:
It is great to be here, Steve. Thanks a lot for having me.

Steve Hutt:
My pleasure. And thanks for making the time. I know you’re 11 hours ahead of me right now. It’s 9:00 a.m. for me, so I appreciate the hustle to get on this late recording. Margin is incredibly important. I think people are giving away a lot of margin unnecessarily. With CAC being so high, people are margin‑squeezed and still trying to be profitable. We talk a lot about retention strategies and getting the second and third sale, but your solution solves the immediate problem of not giving away unnecessary margin.

Can you talk about this? I think you use a phrase like “traffic paradox”—I’ve seen that in a couple of your LinkedIn posts. Can you talk a bit about what this traffic paradox is first, just to set the stage before we get into your solution?

Muhammed Tüfekyapan:
Of course. The main issue Growth Suite is solving is that people are getting traffic to their store, spending lots of money, and of course they want higher conversion from it. The most common way to try to solve that is by giving discounts. We’re all e‑commerce buyers too—who doesn’t love a discount? And it does work a lot of the time.

But when you look at the data and see what customers are actually doing on your store, there’s something interesting happening. People come to your store, they look at your products, and they click Add to Cart. But most of the people who click Add to Cart leave your store without even starting the checkout process.

When people think about “checkout abandonment,” it’s a tricky phrase, because checkout abandonment and cart abandonment are completely different things. For checkout abandonment, customers have to reach the checkout page and enter their email address. Otherwise, you can’t send them any email or SMS. Cart abandonment is completely different. You’re scrolling Instagram in the evening, you see a nice t‑shirt, you click and check the store, you like the product, you click Add to Cart, but then you leave without buying.

What I wanted to understand was the real reason behind this. What I found is kind of funny and makes sense. Most of the time, people are using Add to Cart as a wishlist. They like the product, they want to have it, but it’s not a functional buying decision. It’s not something they need to purchase right away. It’s just a nice product. So they add it and leave. What we’re building is a solution for this scenario.

Steve Hutt:
I love that, because there really are different types of people coming to a store. If they’re truly excited about the product, they’ll move through the checkout flow—so don’t give them a discount. On the flip side, there are people whose time on site and actions show that they’re hesitant. You’re obviously tracking and following them in real time, and then you can decide what to do to nudge them along the checkout flow. Can you talk about that a bit?

Muhammed Tüfekyapan:
Of course, Steve. What Growth Suite is doing is exactly what you mentioned. Growth Suite keeps track of each visitor one by one: the pages they visit, time of day, browser, traffic source, landing page, how much they scroll—everything. As it collects data, it creates behavior patterns based on the e‑commerce funnel: people who start checkout but leave without buying, people who view a product page but leave without adding to cart, and so on. Step by step, it builds unique segments.

What we’re doing is waiting until the customer starts acting like they’re not going to buy in that session. When we see that pattern, Growth Suite starts to do something. If we don’t see that pattern, it just waits patiently. It doesn’t hurry to make an offer right away or yell “Don’t miss it!” at everyone.

Steve Hutt:
What’s interesting is when I see brands with a “welcome10” or “new customer bonus,” I’m always worried about those codes getting scraped by coupon engines—Honey, Capital One Shopping, all of those. Yes, people use those tools, but it’s yet another 10% or 15% margin loss. Your solution is unique because you’re doing one‑on‑one personalization, dynamically creating a single‑use coupon code for that specific visitor. That’s an insane piece of technology.

Can you talk about that part? I really don’t want codes leaking into coupon engines and giving away margin, especially in the checkout flow. I use those tools myself; I run them on brands, and let them try all the codes.

Muhammed Tüfekyapan:
Definitely. And as a brand, you lose a huge amount of revenue that way.

The main reason for our approach is that “pleasure buying” behavior I mentioned. To convert people who add to cart but don’t start checkout, you have to give them a reason that’s only valid right now. You can send reminders, and that’s fine, but my Gmail is full of them and they don’t give me a real reason to complete my order immediately. You can say “ending soon,” but nobody believes it. Everyone says it, and everyone knows it never really ends.

So I needed to give people a real reason to buy now. My first thought wasn’t actually “unique discount code for each visitor.” It was: if you see a timer and an offer on my store, then leave, and come back tomorrow, you shouldn’t be able to use that same offer. If you can still use it, then as a brand I was effectively lying to you.

Following that principle forced me to create a unique discount code for each visitor and to truly expire it when the timer ends, and to not show another offer to the same visitor while they’re in a cooldown period. The funny thing is, whenever someone starts using our tool, I keep in close contact with them. After just two or three days, they say things like, “Someone asked me yesterday why they saw an offer before but can’t see it today. Your tool really doesn’t show the timer again.” That’s exactly what makes people feel excited and think, “I need to buy right now.”

Steve Hutt:
That makes sense. What about the different types of buyers coming in? I’ve heard you use the term “hesitant shoppers,” which is where your solution fits, but there are also dedicated buyers who come in consistently. Your solution should recognize the difference between these two types, especially once you consider login, loyalty, point redemptions, and so on. Can you talk about the differences between the hesitant—or as you say, walkaway—buyer and the dedicated buyer?

Muhammed Tüfekyapan:
Definitely, Steve. I personally prefer the term “walkaway customers,” not “hesitant.”

Hesitation can come from many things: product quality, “Do I really need this?”, “Will it arrive soon?” and so on. Walkaway customers are more about pleasure buying. They like it, it’s a nice store, but they don’t need it right away.

For the “dedicated buyer” concept, they don’t have to be logged‑in customers. Growth Suite is looking at behavior patterns. When you look at your Google Analytics data, it’s great input and we use it to build strategies, but it’s also tricky—averages are just averages. When you create sub‑segments, things get interesting.

I’m an engineer and I love data. When you look specifically at people who buy without discounts—even when you put a discount code in the hello bar—those buyers behave differently. Maybe they’re getting a last‑minute gift. Maybe someone told them, “You need to buy this.” They don’t overthink it.

Their behavior on the product page and collection page is different. Many stores have hundreds or thousands of products in a collection. When I say, “Based on your data, dedicated buyers look at only three products before buying,” merchants are shocked because that collection might have 100 products. But dedicated buyers have a different mindset: “I like it, I need it, someone told me to buy it, so I’m just going to buy it.” We’re looking for that pattern.

Steve Hutt:
Right, that makes complete sense. Walkaway and dedicated—I like that framework.

I want to talk about acquisition costs and paid ads, especially for brands at scale—doing significantly more than $100,000 a month in revenue. Some are doing upwards of $1 million a month and scaling their ads across multiple networks. The problem gets crazier when you layer discount strategy on top of that.

Walk us through a scaled company spending $100,000 a month on ads. At that level, small marginal gains from not giving away so much margin really matter. That’s what performance marketers are looking for at scale—little levers to pull. They’re spending a lot on ads, running A/B tests, everything is dialed in, but then people land on the site and more margin is given away. What does your solution mean for a company at that scale?

Muhammed Tüfekyapan:
Steve, I have great examples, because as I said, I love the data and I follow clients closely when they start using Growth Suite.

For example, imagine a store making more than 100 orders per day and giving away 20% off with a huge welcome mat on their store. When they start using Growth Suite, the very next day they see their average order value increase. They feel it. On average, across all clients, we see gross profit increases of around 8% to 13%.

In one specific case I remember clearly, on the first day they had more than 80 orders without any discount code, while our engine was just starting up and learning their behavior. We exchanged emails where they asked, “How is this possible?” At first, they thought our app was automatically applying discounts to everyone. I told them, “One day is enough for us.”

After that first day, they saw more than 80 orders with no discount code. That’s huge. If you normally have about 100 orders per day and more than half happen without a discount, that’s a big deal. They saw right away that when people behave like dedicated buyers instead of walkaway customers, it works—and that gave them confidence to make bigger offers where it really matters. When you’re blind discounting, it’s dangerous and just hits your margin. But when you protect dedicated buyers, you can safely run bigger discounts for the walkaway segment.

Steve Hutt:
Now, what about the post‑purchase experience? There are solutions for post‑purchase upsells and cross‑sells—some are in‑cart before purchase, and others are true post‑purchase offers like “get two instead of one” or “you should add the socks to the runners” to increase AOV.

You’ve got different parts of your platform that can be toggled on or off. One piece is this post‑purchase upsell option. Can you walk us through how that works? Post‑purchase upsell isn’t a new strategy, and others are doing it fairly well as point solutions. You seem to come at it differently, using your “walkaway vs dedicated” thinking and timed exclusive discount codes. What happens further along the journey when there’s no code—how do you keep building AOV?

Muhammed Tüfekyapan:
Steve, this is a great question and I actually have some news for you—something even you don’t know yet.

One day I realized I knew our customers and visitors very well, including their product‑related behavior, because all that data is in our database. Then I explored the idea: what if product characteristics change behavior? That opened up a completely new world.

So now Growth Suite has a few more things alongside the post‑purchase offers. Because we know the customer and the product, and we know previous customers who made similar purchases, the main benefit we offer is using AI for post‑purchase. You can create a post‑purchase funnel in two or three clicks, and the system will recommend the most “trend” product that people are most likely to buy after that purchase. It’s simple, clean, and works well. Instead of manually picking products and trying to build bundles, it works like, “If you’re buying this, you’re most likely to also want these three items,” based on trends. You don’t need to manage endless combinations.

The better part is that we now have a custom cart drawer too—that’s new and we hadn’t talked about it before. Because of the psychological principles I use to design Growth Suite, the cart drawer is a very important space. Most brands just copy and paste a 10‑year‑old pattern there. I built our own cart drawer, and since we know everything about the products, merchants can also create product‑level discounts. If a product is slow‑moving—getting traffic but not adds to cart or conversions—we can discount that product directly, lowering its price instead of using a coupon code, and then see if it starts moving faster.

Steve Hutt:
That’s interesting, because it ties into what I call RFM—recency, frequency, monetization. RFM modeling has been popular for years. Some point solutions, especially in SMS and email, look at the Shopify customer and product database to see: who are my loyal customers, who are at‑risk, and so on. They then build flows around that.

It sounds like you’re doing a dynamic version of that—understanding the customer journey and saying, “If customer A buys this, maybe there’s a leather wallet that usually gets bought a week or two later,” and that becomes part of a post‑purchase flow. That’s recency/frequency/monetization. Then you’ve got at‑risk people whose second purchase normally happens within 30 days, but for them it hasn’t. Those people move into a different segment. You’re using a similar methodology, which is really cool.

I want to talk about what I call the unpopular or contrarian take. The unpopular opinion is “don’t show an offer to everybody,” and that’s what you do. Most themes come with timed exit popups and baked‑in offers. People might be using a tool like OptiMonk or Privy—these tools blanket everyone. You go against the grain by saying, “We don’t need to show everyone an offer. We don’t care if we lose 10% margin.” What’s your mindset there? It’s contrary to what most are doing, but that gives you an edge as a margin‑enhancing company.

Muhammed Tüfekyapan:
I still use many of the tools you mentioned, and 15 or 16 years ago those tools were perfect. We were doing “crazy” things and getting huge results. But in the last five or six years, things have changed a lot—especially after COVID, when people started shopping online much more. Behavior patterns changed.

Today, I believe people don’t like feeling cheated. I have to admit that I used fake timers in the past, and they skyrocketed conversions 10–11 years ago. Those tactics worked then, but now people understand them. What I recommend is that brands put themselves in the customer’s shoes. Customers today are equally informed. They know all the tricks and tactics. They deliberately enter their email at checkout and then leave to get a coupon. They search “[brand] coupon code” on Google. They know the game.

What I’m looking for is: if you create a truly good experience on your store—something that makes people feel pleasure buying from you—loyalty will follow. You don’t just get a customer; you get a loyal customer who’s happy to buy from you. Instead of pushing them with “Buy now, buy now, buy now,” which complicates things, we take a softer approach. Even our default copy doesn’t say “Buy now.” It says, “You have a special offer that expires at this time,” and we stand by that. So far, it’s working because people want to feel respected, not manipulated. That’s my personal opinion.

Steve Hutt:
I know we’re beating a dead horse on this topic, but brand really is the key differentiator—it’s your competitive moat. What are you doing to differentiate from others in the market? Some brands simply choose not to discount at all. That’s their brand ethos: they’ve built quality, community, and raving fans, so they can charge a premium—not just in luxury fashion, but in any premium niche.

It’s always smart to think about how you differentiate, what your unique value proposition is, and how to build a community around product quality to get away from the “constant discount” mindset.

Let’s talk about implementation, because that’s important. You have a Shopify app. I went through it and loaded it into my demo store to see it running live. The process seemed pretty smooth. Walk us through what happens once you add the app. What’s going on in the background? What can merchants expect in the first day or first 30 days? Is there a ramp‑up period for learning site‑visitor behavior? And is there any proactive customer support or guidance post‑launch—like recommendations, “We’re seeing this, you might try that”? Walk us through what happens after they install.

Muhammed Tüfekyapan:
Of course, Steve. When you install the Growth Suite Shopify app, it’s quite simple. If you’ve installed a few apps before, you can probably complete onboarding in less than a minute. You just need to activate the app extension—this is best practice recommended by Shopify—and place our elements on your product page, which is the most important area for us. Then you’re done.

Growth Suite creates everything for you based on the data it has at installation. What you usually need to do is just adjust colors, tweak the text, and hit save—simple final touches.

In the first day, most of the time, after just one hour you’ll probably see extra gross sales. The system starts working with an existing database of customer behavior—not just your own store’s data but the broader patterns we’ve already learned. So there’s no “wait two to four weeks, we need more data.” As we keep learning, you’ll see more detailed reports on your dashboard. Growth Suite isn’t just about time‑limited offers and countdowns; you get detailed reports on product performance, dedicated customers, buying patterns, and more.

It definitely gets smarter after a week or two, but it doesn’t need that time to start bringing results. On the first day, you’ll have sales without Growth Suite discount codes, and Growth Suite will begin capturing some walkaway customers.

Steve Hutt:
Are there any trends you’re seeing? In the Shopify app ecosystem, some marketing platforms work mostly outside Shopify with a custom login and a data pipeline, while others live more directly inside the Shopify admin as part of the day‑to‑day workflow. What’s your view on those two approaches?

Muhammed Tüfekyapan:
I’m very aligned with Shopify’s structure and the way Shopify handles things. Growth Suite works directly on the Shopify side, and we use Shopify’s own database. We keep track of everything and use Shopify APIs to pull the data we need.

When you use third‑party data pipelines, you can get inconsistencies because there’s often a gap between what you see and what you actually get. Those differences can cause problems. Of course, larger platforms sometimes need their own infrastructure, but personally, if it doesn’t absolutely have to be third‑party, Shopify’s own structure is perfect. I love how it works.

Steve Hutt:
What about agency partners? A lot of interesting point solutions in the ecosystem get adopted because marketing or dev agencies recommend them. Are you agency‑friendly? And what growth opportunities do you see with agencies? If I’m a SaaS founder, I want agencies listening to this to think, “Is there an opportunity to learn this tool, see some case studies, and start recommending it to clients?”

They’re usually on retainer for ongoing work, and recommending solutions like Klaviyo, Omnisend, Attentive, Postscript, Rebuy, and so on is part of the job. What’s your view on the agency model as it relates to Growth Suite?

Muhammed Tüfekyapan:
Steve, this is one of the most important topics for me. I’ve spent a lot of time developing Growth Suite, and agencies and consultants are the best partners for us. We have great relationships with them—developer agencies, marketing agencies, conversion agencies, and individual consultants.

Agencies and consultants constantly have to create new successes. They deliver results, clients say “This is great,” and then after one or two months, those same clients want the next magic lever: “We need to increase more.” So agencies are always looking for something new that actually works.

The pattern I see is that when an agency first tries Growth Suite, they’re often hesitant because there are thousands of apps in the Shopify App Store and some are not great. But after they install it on one client and let it run for a week, they’ll bring another three or four clients right away. They test it with one brand, see results, and then roll it out.

For agencies, I try to do my best. First, clients coming through an agency can get specific packages that are very competitive. Second, agencies get access to data that might not appear on the standard dashboards; we’ll talk to them about their specific needs and I’ll recommend quick fixes. Third, there’s no way to win alone. My main focus is helping the merchant win first. When that happens, everyone benefits. I offer agencies a lifetime revenue‑share program, so at the end of the day, the customer is happy because conversions and margin improve, the agency is happy because ROAS and CAC improve, and we’re happy because Growth Suite is driving those results.

Steve Hutt:
We’ll make sure all the details are in the show notes. I really feel like this can make agency partners look like heroes. When they recommend solutions a little outside the norm that actually work and drive results, brands pay attention. There are a lot of brands looking for progressive, modern solutions that really move the needle.

Recommending something like Growth Suite can make the agency look great, but ultimately it’s about the merchant. They’re paying a retainer for ongoing marketing services—ads, SMS, email, and more. I remember from my Shopify days the replatforming playbooks agencies used, especially for large or venture‑backed companies moving from something like Salesforce to Shopify Plus. They had a checklist: install this app, install Klaviyo, install that tool, and so on. These were best‑of‑breed solutions.

That motivated me to think, “Shopify does 80% of commerce really well. The remaining 20% is solved by apps.” That’s where you fit in. Shopify does discount codes and a lot of things, but not buyer behavior modeling, not walkaway vs dedicated buyers, not dynamic, timed, one‑to‑one offers. You’re solving something Shopify doesn’t do.

Agency partners can really wow their clients by saying, “We have this solution. Let’s try it.” If you’re an agency listening, test it on one client for a couple of weeks. Even foot the bill yourself to prove it works and that margins go up. When the merchant asks, “What are you doing?” you can explain, and it strengthens the relationship.

So, what do you think the next steps are? For people listening now—agency folks and merchants—where should they go and what are the next steps?

Muhammed Tüfekyapan:
If they want to try a new strategy on their store, I recommend stepping away from doing the same things they’ve done for the last five or six years. Most brands just repeat the same playbook. Instead, try a new strategy. Making a limited‑time offer only for walkaway customers is something new and impactful.

They can book a free call with me on my website. They can install Growth Suite, which has a two‑week free trial. If they mention that they’re coming from eCommerce Fastlane, I can make them a special offer as well. Then they can simply see the results for themselves.

And of course, they should keep listening to your next episodes and keep following your podcast.

Steve Hutt:
This is amazing. Thank you so much. All of that will be in the show notes: growthsuite.net, and you can look up Growth Suite on the Shopify App Store. We’ll also have the transcript for this episode, hopefully on YouTube as well.

This has been impactful. I’ve learned a lot today. Thank you for adding a few extra pieces I didn’t realize you were working on. It shows how dynamic this space is. It sounds like you’ve got a great MVP that’s working well, and you’re continuing to add to it as you get more customers and more feedback. I love that.

I wish you continued success in the Shopify ecosystem, and thank you so much for recording today.

Muhammed Tüfekyapan:
It’s all my pleasure, Steve.

Steve Hutt:
Thank you. Have a great day—well, for you, a great evening.

Muhammed Tüfekyapan:
Yes. All right, see you later.

Steve Hutt:
Bye, Muhammed.

Well, that’s it for today’s episode. I’d like to thank you personally for being a loyal listener of eCommerce Fastlane. It’s my hope that this podcast gives you a ton of value through growth strategies, tactics, and exclusive insider tips on the best Shopify apps and marketing platforms—all with my personal goal to help you build, manage, grow, and scale a successful and thriving company powered by Shopify.

Thanks for investing some time today and listening to the show. I’m proud and excited that you have a growth mindset and are a constant learner. I truly appreciate you and your entrepreneurial journey.

Enjoy the rest of the week and keep thriving with Shopify.