Proposal: Ability to Show Automatic Promotion Discounts Outside Cart/Order Context

[MattEzekiel]

Context

Today, all promotions in Medusa are calculated strictly within the cart and/or order context. This is correct when promotions behave like discount coupons that are applied during checkout.

However, the introduction of the is_automatic flag allows a promotion to be applied automatically when a product is added to the cart.
This creates a poor user experience. For example, if a product has a 20% discount, the user only discovers that the product is discounted after adding it to the cart.

This has been a long-standing limitation in Medusa. In a previous discussion, the suggestion was that such behavior should be handled through price lists as "sales". But if that is the case, then what is the purpose of having this functionality inside promotions, and especially the is_automatic switch? If both features serve the same purpose, the distinction becomes rhetorical.

Additionally, from an admin UX perspective, if an admin wants to apply a category-wide discount, it is far more intuitive to create a promotion targeting that category. Price lists do not support category-based rules, meaning the admin would need to manually select every product and keep that list updated (another poor user experience).

Why This Matters

We need the ability to display automatic promotion discounts directly in the storefront, outside the cart or order context. As price list works. This would allow the user to see the discounted price on product listing or product detail pages, not only after adding the item to the cart.

This would align promotions with real-world business expectations and improve both admin usability and customer experience.