Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The Technical Foundations of Setting Sale Prices
- Leveraging Automated Collections for Better Discoverability
- Strategic Timing: When Should You Run a Sale?
- Diversifying Revenue with Digital Products and Memberships
- Creating a High-Conversion Sale Environment
- Why Pricing Transparency Matters
- Best Practices for a Seamless Customer Experience
- Analyzing Your Sale Performance
- The Role of Community in Sales Strategy
- Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- Conclusion
- FAQ: Selling Courses on Shopify
Introduction
Did you know that approximately 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned before the purchase is finalized? For many Shopify merchants, this statistic isn’t just a number; it represents thousands of dollars in missed opportunities every month. In the high-stakes world of e-commerce, the difference between a window shopper and a loyal customer often comes down to a single, well-timed nudge. One of the most effective levers at your disposal is the strategic discount. Learning the nuances of how to put things on sale on Shopify is about more than just slashing prices; it is about building momentum, clearing inventory, and significantly increasing your customer lifetime value.
At Tevello, our mission is to turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse. We have observed that the most successful merchants don't just sell products—they sell experiences and expertise. Whether you are moving physical stock or launching a new digital masterclass, your pricing strategy is the heartbeat of your brand's growth. When done correctly, a sale creates a sense of urgency and rewards your most engaged community members. When done poorly, it can erode your brand’s perceived value.
The purpose of this guide is to provide you with a comprehensive, step-by-step roadmap for executing high-impact sales on Shopify. We will cover everything from the basic technical setup of "Compare-at" prices and bulk editing to advanced strategies like using automated collections and integrating digital courses into your promotional mix. By the end of this article, you will understand how to leverage Shopify’s native tools alongside Tevello’s ecosystem to create a seamless, professional, and highly profitable shopping experience for your audience.
The Technical Foundations of Setting Sale Prices
Before you can launch a marketing campaign, you must ensure your storefront communicates the value of the deal clearly. A lower price is effective, but a "sale price" that shows the original cost crossed out is a psychological trigger that signals an immediate benefit to the shopper.
Manual Price Adjustments for Individual Products
If you are running a boutique store or only want to discount a handful of flagship items, the manual method is the most straightforward. This ensures you have full control over the presentation of each item.
- Navigate to Products: Log in to your Shopify admin panel and click on the "Products" tab on the left-hand sidebar.
- Select Your Item: Click on the name of the product you wish to discount.
- Pricing Section: Scroll down to the "Pricing" section of the product details page.
- Compare-at Price: This is the most critical step. Enter the original (higher) price in the "Compare-at price" field.
- Price Field: Enter the new, discounted price in the "Price" field.
- Save: Click the save button.
When you do this, Shopify automatically formats the product page to show the higher price with a strikethrough next to the new sale price. This visual cues the customer that they are receiving a deal, which is essential for conversion.
Managing Sales for Products with Variants
Often, you might only want to put specific sizes, colors, or versions of a product on sale. For example, if you sell physical planners but have an overstock of the "Midnight Blue" version, you can discount that variant specifically while keeping the "Classic Black" at full price.
To do this, scroll down to the "Variants" section on the product page. Click "Edit" next to the specific variant. You will find the same "Price" and "Compare-at price" fields here. If all variants are on sale but at different price points, Shopify will typically display the price as "From $[Lowest Price]" on the collection pages, ensuring your customers always see the most attractive entry point first.
Utilizing the Bulk Editor for Large-Scale Sales
Manually editing hundreds of items is not a productive use of your time. When preparing for major events like Black Friday or a seasonal clearance, the bulk editor is your best friend.
To use this feature, go to your "Products" list and select the checkboxes for the items you want to modify. Click "Bulk edit." Once the editor opens, ensure that the columns for "Price" and "Compare-at price" are visible. If they aren’t, click "Columns" and add them. You can then quickly tab through the cells, updating prices in a spreadsheet-like interface. This efficiency allows you to focus more on your marketing strategy and less on data entry.
Leveraging Automated Collections for Better Discoverability
Once you have learned how to put things on sale on Shopify, the next challenge is making those items easy for customers to find. You don't want a customer hunting through twenty pages of products to find the three items on clearance.
We believe merchants should own their customer data and brand experience, and part of that ownership is creating a frictionless navigation path. Automated collections allow you to group all sale items into a single "Sale" or "Clearance" tab automatically.
Setting Up an Automated Sale Collection
- Create Collection: Go to "Products" > "Collections" and click "Create collection."
- Title and Description: Label it "Summer Sale" or "Current Deals."
- Collection Type: Select "Automated."
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Conditions: This is the "magic" step. Set the condition to:
Product property>Compare-at price>is greater than>0.
By setting this condition, any product in your store that has a value in the "Compare-at price" field will automatically be pulled into this collection. When the sale ends and you remove the "Compare-at price," the product will automatically disappear from the sale collection. This reduces the manual labor of maintaining your site and ensures your "Sale" page is never accidentally empty or filled with full-priced items.
Strategic Timing: When Should You Run a Sale?
A sale should never feel like a desperate move; it should feel like a planned event. Timing is the difference between a successful promotion and one that simply lowers your margins without a long-term benefit.
Seasonal and Holiday Promotions
These are the most common and often the most successful. Following the retail calendar (New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, etc.) aligns your store with the existing shopping mindset of the consumer. However, at Tevello, we suggest looking beyond the standard holidays. If you are a fitness coach selling equipment and courses, your "sale season" might actually be late August (Back to School) or January (New Year’s Resolutions).
Inventory Management and Product Lifecycles
Sales are a vital tool for inventory health. Holding onto old stock costs money in storage and ties up capital that could be used for new product development. If a physical product hasn't moved in 90 days, it's time to put it on sale.
For a merchant selling coffee beans, creating a 'Barista Basics' video course is a high-margin upsell that requires no shipping boxes. You might put your slow-moving French Press stock on sale and bundle it with the digital course to clear the shelf space while maintaining a high average order value. This is the power of generating revenue from both physical and digital goods.
Recovering Abandoned Carts
Sometimes, a sale doesn't need to be store-wide. A targeted 5% or 10% discount sent specifically to someone who left items in their cart can be the final push they need. This personalized approach makes the customer feel valued rather than just another number in a mass promotion.
Diversifying Revenue with Digital Products and Memberships
While physical product sales are great for clearing inventory, we often see merchants struggle with the "peaks and valleys" of e-commerce revenue. One month is massive due to a sale, and the next is quiet. This is where diversifying into digital products can provide much-needed stability.
Our "Native Shopify Integration" ensures a seamless checkout experience using the payment gateways the merchant already trusts. This means your customers can buy a physical yoga mat and a digital "30-Day Yoga Challenge" in the same transaction.
Using Sales to Launch Courses
When you launch a new digital product using Tevello, a "Founding Member" sale is a fantastic way to build initial momentum. By offering a discounted rate to the first 100 students, you generate immediate cash flow and, more importantly, a group of users who can provide testimonials and feedback.
Unlike physical goods, digital products have zero marginal cost. This means you can be more aggressive with your sales strategy without worrying about "eating" into the cost of goods sold. You can see how one brand sold $112K+ by bundling courses by looking at how they combined their physical expertise with digital accessibility.
Retention Through Membership Sales
Sales aren't just for acquiring new customers; they are for keeping existing ones. Offering a discount on an annual membership versus a monthly one is a classic sale strategy that increases stability. It locks in the customer for a longer period, giving you more time to prove your value and build brand loyalty.
We recommend all the key features for courses and communities to help build that long-term stickiness. When a customer feels like they belong to a community, they are much less likely to churn, regardless of whether you have a sale running or not.
Creating a High-Conversion Sale Environment
Learning how to put things on sale on Shopify is the technical part. Making people actually buy is the art. Your store needs to scream "Value" the moment a visitor arrives.
Urgency and Scarcity
The human brain is wired to avoid loss. When a sale is "indefinite," people procrastinate. When there is a countdown timer on the product page or a banner that says "Sale ends at Midnight," the fear of missing out (FOMO) kicks in.
Use Shopify apps to add countdown timers or low-stock alerts. For digital products, you might limit the number of "sale price" seats available in a cohort. This creates a genuine reason for the customer to act now.
Transparent Communication and Banners
Don't make customers go looking for the deals. Use a high-contrast announcement bar at the top of your site to announce the sale. If you are offering a site-wide discount that doesn't require a code (using the Compare-at price method), make sure that is clear.
"All prices as marked—no code needed" is a powerful phrase that reduces friction at checkout. The less a customer has to think, the more likely they are to buy. Using a unified login that reduces customer support friction further ensures that once they decide to buy, nothing stands in their way.
The Power of Upselling and Bundling
A sale is the perfect time to introduce customers to other parts of your ecosystem. If someone is buying a discounted physical product, why not offer them a digital companion?
Consider the case of generating over €243,000 by upselling existing customers. By offering a related digital course at a special "add-on" price during a physical sale, you increase the utility the customer gets from their purchase and your own profit margins.
Why Pricing Transparency Matters
When choosing tools to help manage your sales and digital products, you should look for partners that offer transparency. At Tevello, we reject complicated tier structures that penalize you for being successful.
We offer The Unlimited Plan for $29.99 per month. This isn't a "starting at" price; it's a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses. We believe that as your community scales, you shouldn't be worried about per-user fees or hidden transaction costs.
In fact, we emphasize the "No Hidden Fees" advantage: unlike many other platforms that charge "success fees" or take a percentage of every sale, Tevello charges 0% transaction fees. You keep 100% of what you earn. This is especially important during a sale when your margins might already be tighter than usual. Having predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees allows you to calculate your ROI with total accuracy.
If unifying your stack is a priority, start by a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses.
Best Practices for a Seamless Customer Experience
A sale can quickly turn into a nightmare if your customer support isn't prepared. High traffic often leads to an influx of questions about shipping times, discount codes, or product access.
Test Your Checkout Flow
Before the sale goes live, run a test transaction. Ensure that the "Compare-at" prices are displaying correctly on mobile devices, as mobile shopping now accounts for the majority of e-commerce traffic. Check that your "Sale" tags are visible and that the automated collections are populating as expected.
Optimize Site Speed
Sales bring traffic, and traffic can slow down a site. Ensure your images are optimized and you aren't running unnecessary heavy scripts. A one-second delay in page load time can lead to a 7% reduction in conversions. This is why we focus on a "Native Shopify Integration." By staying within the Shopify ecosystem, you benefit from Shopify’s world-class hosting and speed, ensuring your sale doesn't crash under its own success.
Post-Sale Follow-up
The relationship shouldn't end when the sale does. Use the influx of new customers to build your email list. Send a "Thank You" email with a guide on how to use their new product. If they bought a physical item, this is a great time to introduce them to your community features.
Successful merchants focus on retention strategies that drive repeat digital purchases. A customer who buys from you during a sale is a prime candidate for a full-priced product later, provided you deliver an exceptional experience the first time.
Analyzing Your Sale Performance
Once the "Sale" banner comes down, the real work begins: analysis. Shopify provides robust Sales Reports that can tell you exactly which discounts drove the most revenue.
- Total Revenue vs. Net Profit: Sometimes a 20% sale generates more profit than a 40% sale because of the volume vs. margin trade-off.
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): How much did you spend on ads to promote the sale? Was the lifetime value of the customers acquired high enough to justify the spend?
- Top Performing Products: Which items moved the fastest? Use this data to inform your next inventory order.
By checking merchant feedback and app-store performance signals, you can see how other store owners are using data to refine their offerings. Data-driven decisions are what separate the "hobbyist" stores from the "powerhouse" brands.
The Role of Community in Sales Strategy
Finally, don't underestimate the power of community. A sale can be a reward for your loyal followers. Before opening a sale to the general public, consider a "24-hour Early Access" event for your membership or email list.
This creates an "Insider" feeling that builds deep brand loyalty. Our Unlimited plan includes community features like profiles, member directories, and social feeds. This allows you to have a flat-rate plan that supports unlimited members while fostering a space where they can discuss your products. When customers see other people excited about a sale in a community feed, the social proof acts as a massive catalyst for sales.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
When figuring out how to put things on sale on Shopify, it's easy to make mistakes that can hurt your brand long-term.
- Discounting Too Often: If you always have a sale, you never have a sale. Customers will simply wait for the next discount rather than buying at full price. This devalues your brand.
- Poor Communication: If a customer applies a discount code and it doesn't work, they will likely abandon the cart immediately. Ensure your terms and conditions (e.g., "cannot be combined with other offers") are crystal clear.
- Neglecting the "Unboxing" Experience: Whether it’s a physical box or a digital login, the first impression matters. Make sure the transition into your course or community is smooth.
Conclusion
Mastering how to put things on sale on Shopify is a fundamental skill for any e-commerce entrepreneur. It is a versatile tool that, when used strategically, can clear out old inventory, attract new customers, and create a surge of excitement around your brand. By using the "Compare-at price" feature, organizing items into automated collections, and timing your promotions with seasonal demand, you set your store up for sustainable growth.
At Tevello, we are here to help you take that growth to the next level. By integrating digital courses and memberships into your Shopify store, you can diversify your revenue streams and build a "learning powerhouse" that thrives even between sale events. Our platform is designed to keep your customers on your own URL, ensuring you own the brand experience from start to finish.
With our 14-day free trial, you can build your entire curriculum and set up your community before paying a cent. Remember, with Tevello, you get unlimited courses, students, and video hosting—all with 0% transaction fees. You keep 100% of your hard-earned revenue.
Ready to transform your Shopify store into more than just a shop? It's time to install Tevello from the Shopify App Store today and start building your digital future.
To build your community without leaving Shopify, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from.
FAQ: Selling Courses on Shopify
1. How do I put my Shopify courses on sale specifically?
Just like physical products, you can put your courses on sale by navigating to the "Product" associated with your Tevello course in the Shopify admin. Simply update the "Price" to your sale price and put the original price in the "Compare-at price" field. Tevello will respect these Shopify settings, and your students will see the discounted price at checkout.
2. Can I offer a discount code for my memberships instead of changing the price?
Yes! Shopify's native "Discounts" section allows you to create percentage-based or fixed-amount discount codes. You can apply these to specific products (your courses) or entire collections. This is a great way to offer "hidden" sales to your email subscribers without changing the public-facing price on your website.
3. Does Tevello charge more if I have a massive surge of students during a sale?
No. One of our core values is predictable pricing. Our Unlimited Plan stays at $29.99 per month regardless of whether you have 10 students or 10,000. This allows you to scale your sales promotions aggressively without worrying about an escalating software bill.
4. How can I bundle a sale item with a digital product?
You can use Shopify's "Bundles" app or various third-party apps to create a single listing that includes both a physical item and a digital course. Alternatively, you can use Shopify Flow or automation tools to automatically grant access to a Tevello course whenever a specific physical product is purchased during your sale.
