How to automatically add a free gift with purchase to a customer's cart?
This guide is a detailed walkthrough on how you can use Monk to automatically add free gift products to a customer's cart using the app's Free Gift - Auto Add offer. This offer can be configured across a variety of rules and eligibility criteria and works seamlessly with all types of themes and carts.
How to set it up?
Offer Creation
Display
Eligibility Rules
Gift Products
Offer Settings
Content and Display
Here is an example of what this offer will look like live at the product page and cart step—
Offer Creation
Go to 'Create Offer' on the top right of the Manage Offers page in Monk ➜ Create Offer ➜ Go to Gifts, Shipping and Cart goals ➜ General free gifts ➜ Auto add.
Under the 'Create offer' section, you'll find a variety of templates to choose from. If your offer structure aligns with one of these templates, you can proceed with it. If not, you also have the option to custom build your offer (from the top right) as shown below:
To automatically add a free gift to the customer's cart, please select the display method as 'Auto add.'
Display
On step 1 of the offer setup, you can select where you wish to position the offer banner for free gift auto add as well as the trigger page for the offer—Cart or Checkout.
Eligibility Rules
After setting up the display, you can set up the eligibility rules for the free gift offer to be triggered—to set it up for a specific location, locale, customer tags, etc.
Gift Products
On Step 1 , select the product(s) that will be automatically added to the customer's cart as a free gift. You can also click on the 'Add Product' button to add more products as free gifts.
Offer Settings
Under Step 1, you have the following settings with respect to auto adding the free gift to the customer's cart:
- Cart Refresh and Behaviour
Auto Remove - If enabled, the customers cannot buy the gift product at full price. If a customer is eligible for the gift, they will receive it at 100% discount for free, and if they are ineligible for the gift, the app will automatically remove it from the cart. This is useful if the gift products are samples, limited edition products, etc., that you don't want customers buying directly. However, if it is disabled, then the customer can buy the gift product as well at full price even if the rule is not satisfied.
Allow gift opt out - There can be instances when the customer does not want the free gift; they will have the option to remove the gift item from the cart if this setting is enabled. However, if it is disabled, the customers will not have the choice to remove the gift. If they try to remove the product, the gift will be auto-added again.
Auto refresh - The app will refresh the page to display the updated cart on gift addition/removal if this setting is enabled. This is required if your theme lacks a cart listener.
- Free Gift setup
Show banner only when eligible - This setting comes into picture if you want to display the banners only on the eligible products. If enabled, the banner will be visible only for the selected trigger products. If disabled, the banner will be visible across all products on your store.
Increase gifts with more purchases - When this setting is enabled, you can configure offers to repeat automatically when multiple quantities of the trigger products are added. This allows for flexible offer structures like 'Buy X, Get Y,' 'Buy 2X, Get 2Y,' 'Buy 3X, Get 3Y,' and more—all within a single eligibility rule. It integrates seamlessly with BOGO deals, such as 'Buy 2X, Get 2X,' etc.
Set Maximum Gift Limit - Once you enable the ‘Increase Gifts with more purchases’ setting, another setting, ‘Set Maximum Gift Limit’ appears in the same section as shown in the screenshot below. This setting lets you cap the total number of free gifts in a single order. Even if a customer qualifies for more gifts, the set limit will restrict the maximum quantity.
Example:
If you set up Buy X Get Y (Buy 1 → Get 1, Buy 2 → Get 2, etc.) but cap the maximum gifts at 5, then:
5X → 5Y
6X → Still 5Y (due to the limit)
Limit discount usage - you can control how many times a Free Gift offer can be redeemed across all customers. This allows setting an overall redemption cap for the entire offer, making it ideal for urgency-based promotions like “First 100 orders only.” You can learn more about this from here.
- Combine with free gift auto add offers
This setting is used if you wish to trigger multiple free gift auto-add offers simultaneously. Please refer to this doc for more information.
- Schedule offer for future
You can also schedule the offer for a specific date range from Step 1 of the offer setup, using this setting below:
Content and Display
Step 2 of the offer setup is where you can change and/or translate the text and design of the free gift auto-add banner as per your requirements.
Clicking on 'Edit Display and Design' will open the global editing options of the widget, including elements like font, colors, and spacing of the widget for both mobile and desktop views. You can also edit the exact offer body configurations, like the text styles, currency, price, and discount. After making the changes, you can click on Save changes ➜ Save and Activate to display the offer in your store.
Frequently Asked Questions
1) Can I use a discount code to add the free gift to the cart?
Yes, a discount code can be configured with the app that automatically adds the free gift to the cart upon usage. Please refer to this document on how to set it up for the cart-based offer. If you wish to set this up at checkout, please click here (checkout features are exclusive for stores on Shopify Plus).
2) If a customer qualifies for multiple Free Gift - Auto Add offers, how does the app choose which one to apply?
If multiple Free Gift - Auto Add offers are configured and a customer qualifies for several of them at the same time, the offer that is positioned higher on the Manage Offers dashboard will be applicable.
Please refer to this article for details on how offer priority is determined.
If you want your customers to receive gifts from all the eligible offers, you will have to enable the Combination setting on Step 1 of the offer setup. Please refer to this article for more information.
3) Why does the page refresh when a gift is added or removed?
The page refreshes because the setting 'Auto refresh' is enabled. For instant cart refresh, you can add a cart listener to your theme. Please refer to this document for more details. If you have a developer who can add the same, kindly do so. If you want the Monk team to add the cart listener, please reach out to us via live chat/email support, and we will get it added to your theme.
If you have any other questions or queries please reach out to us via chat support or write to us at support@monkcommerce.com
Updated on: 22/10/2026