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 types of themes and carts (cart drawer, cart popup or cart page).
How to set it up?
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.
Under Gifts, Shipping and cart goals, you'll find a variety of templates to choose from. If your offer structure aligns with one of those templates, you can proceed with it. If not, you also have the option to custom build your offer as shown below-
To automatically add a free gift to the customer's cart, please select display method as 'Auto add'.
Eligibility and Display
On step 1 of the offer setup, you can select where you wish to position to show offer banner for free gift auto add and select the eligibility rule as per your convenience. Please refer to this document for a detailed guide on eligibility rules.
Please note, the Free Gift - Auto Add offer can also be configured at checkout, however, this is only exclusive for stores on Shopify Plus. You can click here for a walkthrough on how to set this up at checkout.
You can also schedule the offer for a specific date range from Step 1 of the offer set up, using this setting below -
Gift Products
On Step 1 , select the product(s) that will be automatically added to customer's cart as free gift. You can also click on 'Add Product' button to add more products as free gifts.
Advanced Configuration
Under Step 1 , you have the following settings with respect to auto adding the free gift to the customer's cart -
Gift Quantity
- 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.
Auto Remove and cart refresh
- Offer unviable **- Remove gift from cart **: When this setting is enabled, the gift will be automatically removed from the cart if the customer doesn’t meet the eligibility rules in Step 1. If disabled, the gift will remain in the cart at full price, and the customer can choose to remove it manually.
Additionally, enabling this setting prevents customers from purchasing the gift products separately in your store. This is particularly useful when selling sample products, as it ensures customers can’t buy them individually.
- Gift opt-out enabled : There may be instances where a customer does not wish to receive the free gift. If this setting is enabled, they will have the option to remove the gift item from their cart. Conversely, if this setting is disabled, the customer will not be able to remove the gift. In such cases, any attempts to remove the item will result in it being automatically re-added to their cart.
- Automatically refresh the page once the gift is added/removed - If this setting is enabled, the app will automatically refresh the entire page to show the updated cart when a gift is added or removed. However, if you do not want the entire page to refresh and still show the updated cart please check with your team/theme support whether your theme has a cart listener or not. Alternatively, you can contact us via live chat/email support and we will add it in for you. Once you have the cart listener, this setting can be disabled and the gift product will automatically appear in the cart without having to refresh the whole page. Please refer to this article for further details.
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, spacing of the widget for both mobile and desktop view. You can also edit the exact offer 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 on your store.
Frequently Asked Questions
1) Can I use a discount code to add the free gift to cart?
Yes, a discount code can be configured with the app that automatically add the free gift to the cart upon usage. Please refer to this document on how to set it up. 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 which 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 set up. Please refer to this article for more information.
3) Why does the page refresh when gift is added or removed?
The page refreshes because the setting "Automatically refresh the page once the gift is added/removed" 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: 10/11/2025