Effective Ways to Show a Sale on Shopify

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. The Psychology of the Sale: Why Visual Cues Matter
3. Using the Compare-at Price Feature
4. Bulk Editing Prices for Seasonal Promotions
5. Utilizing Automated Collections for Sales Pages
6. Discount Codes vs. Automatic Discounts
7. Showing a Sale on Digital Products and Courses
8. Strategies for Sale Visibility: Badges and Banners
9. Managing Profit Margins During a Sale
10. Leveraging Success Stories: Real-World Applications
11. Tevello’s Unlimited Plan: A Tool for Growth
12. Setting Realistic Expectations for Your Sale
13. Best Practices for Mobile Sales Presentation
14. Legal and Ethical Considerations of Sale Pricing
15. Maximizing Value with Membership Communities
16. Summary of Key Takeaways
17. Conclusion
18. FAQ

Introduction

Did you know that according to consumer psychology research, over 60% of online shoppers look for a discount before making a purchase, and nearly 90% are influenced by promotions? In an era where attention is the most valuable currency, how you present a bargain can be just as important as the discount itself. For Shopify merchants, the ability to clearly signal value is a cornerstone of conversion rate optimization. Whether you are clearing out seasonal inventory or launching a new digital curriculum, the visual cues that indicate a price drop serve as psychological triggers that move a customer from "just browsing" to "adding to cart."

The purpose of this guide is to provide a deep dive into how to show a sale on Shopify with professional precision. We will explore the technical "how-to" of compare-at pricing, the nuances of bulk editing for large-scale promotions, and the strategic implementation of badges and banners that catch the eye. Beyond physical goods, we will discuss how these same principles apply to the burgeoning world of digital products, where the perceived value of information can be significantly amplified through smart discounting. At Tevello, our mission is to turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse, and understanding these fundamental commerce mechanics is the first step toward building a diversified, high-margin business.

By the end of this article, you will have a master-level understanding of Shopify’s native sale features and how to leverage them to increase Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and build brand loyalty. Whether you are selling physical apparel or an exclusive online membership, showing a sale effectively is about more than just numbers; it is about communicating value in a way that resonates with your community and keeps them coming back to your unique URL.

The Psychology of the Sale: Why Visual Cues Matter

When a customer lands on your store, their brain is subconsciously scanning for shortcuts to determine value. This process, often referred to as "anchoring," happens when the first price a consumer sees (the original price) serves as a reference point for all subsequent information. When you show a sale on Shopify by displaying a strikethrough price next to a lower current price, you are utilizing the anchoring effect to make the new price feel like an immediate gain.

Without these visual markers, a discount is invisible. A customer might see a $50 item and think it is overpriced, but if they see that same $50 item marked down from $100, their perception shifts from "expense" to "opportunity." This is why learning how to show a sale on Shopify correctly is a foundational skill for any e-commerce entrepreneur.

Furthermore, sales create a sense of urgency and scarcity. When a product is marked as "on sale," there is an implied limited duration. This encourages faster decision-making. For merchants using Tevello to sell courses, this strategy is vital. For example, a merchant selling high-end photography gear might offer a "Barista Basics" video course as a high-margin upsell. By showing a sale on that course during a holiday event, they can significantly increase the attach rate of digital products to physical orders without the need for additional shipping or inventory costs.

Using the Compare-at Price Feature

The most direct way to show a sale on Shopify is through the "Compare-at price" field within the product settings. This is a built-in feature that allows the Shopify engine to display the original price with a strikethrough, highlighting the savings to the customer.

Setting Up a Single Product Sale

To set this up, navigate to your Shopify Admin and select "Products." Choose the product you wish to discount. In the "Pricing" section, you will see two main fields: "Price" and "Compare-at price."

1. Price: This is the new, lower price the customer will actually pay.
2. Compare-at price: This is the original, higher price you want to show as crossed out.

Once you save these changes, your Shopify theme will automatically detect that the "Compare-at price" is higher than the "Price" and will display the sale indicators accordingly. Most modern themes will add a "Sale" badge to the product image on collection pages and show the strikethrough pricing on the individual product page.

The Importance of Theme Compatibility

It is important to note that while Shopify handles the data, your theme handles the display. If you find that your sale prices aren't showing up as expected, check your theme settings. Most merchants prefer a unified look where all the key features for courses and communities and physical products share a consistent visual language. Ensuring your theme is updated and compatible with Shopify’s standard pricing logic is essential for maintaining a professional appearance.

Bulk Editing Prices for Seasonal Promotions

When you are running a store-wide sale or discounting an entire collection, updating products one by one is inefficient. Shopify provides a powerful bulk editor that allows you to change pricing for dozens or hundreds of items simultaneously.

To use the bulk editor:

1. Go to "Products" in your Shopify admin.
2. Use the checkboxes to select the products you want to edit.
3. Click "Edit products."
4. Add the "Compare-at price" and "Price" columns to your view if they aren't already visible.
5. Update the values. You can even copy and paste across cells to speed up the process.

For merchants managing large catalogs, this efficiency is a game-changer. We often see brands unifying a fragmented system into a single Shopify store to take advantage of these streamlined management tools. When all your offerings—from physical books to digital workshops—are managed in one place, executing a coordinated sale becomes a matter of minutes rather than hours.

Utilizing Automated Collections for Sales Pages

A highly effective strategy for showing a sale on Shopify is to create a dedicated "Sale" or "Clearance" collection. This provides a central hub for bargain hunters and improves the user experience.

You can automate this process using Shopify’s "Automated Collection" feature. Set the conditions so that any product with a "Compare-at price" greater than $0 (or greater than its current price) is automatically added to the collection. This ensures that as soon as you discount a product, it appears in your sale section without any manual intervention.

This automation is particularly useful for stores that frequently rotate stock. It keeps your site fresh and ensures that customers always have a clear path to your best deals. When you have digital products that live directly alongside physical stock, you can even create "Digital Deals" sections that highlight the incredible value of your online curriculum or membership tiers.

Discount Codes vs. Automatic Discounts

While the "Compare-at price" is excellent for visual signaling on product pages, Shopify also offers Discount Codes and Automatic Discounts. Understanding when to use each is key to a sophisticated sales strategy.

Automatic Discounts

Automatic discounts are applied at the checkout once the customer meets certain criteria (e.g., "Buy X, Get Y" or a percentage off a specific collection). The benefit of an automatic discount is that it removes friction; the customer doesn't have to remember a code. However, the downside is that the sale price often doesn't show up on the product page itself unless you use a third-party app or custom liquid code to "preview" the discount.

Discount Codes

Discount codes are perfect for targeted marketing, such as "Welcome" emails or influencer collaborations. They allow you to track the performance of specific campaigns. If unifying your stack is a priority, start by a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses. This allows you to integrate these discount codes into your digital product strategy, offering exclusive access to courses for your most loyal community members.

Showing a Sale on Digital Products and Courses

As a merchant, you might be wondering if these same rules apply to digital learning products. The answer is a resounding yes. In fact, showing a sale on a digital course can often be more effective than on a physical product because the perceived value of knowledge is subjective.

When you use Tevello to host your courses, they reside natively on your Shopify store. This means they utilize the same checkout, the same customer accounts, and crucially, the same pricing logic as your physical goods. If you want to show a sale on a masterclass, you simply set the "Compare-at price" in the Shopify product settings for that course.

We have seen remarkable results from merchants who bundle their expertise with their physical offerings. For instance, consider how one brand sold $112K+ by bundling courses alongside their traditional retail items. By showing a sale on a "Physical Product + Digital Guide" bundle, they were able to offer a high-value package that felt like a significant bargain to the customer, while maintaining high profit margins because the digital component costs nothing to reproduce.

Strategies for Sale Visibility: Badges and Banners

Setting the price is only half the battle; you must also ensure the customer sees it. Most Shopify themes include a "Sale" badge that appears over the product image. However, you can take this a step further.

Announcement Bars

Use the announcement bar at the top of your site to broadcast your sale. Phrases like "Flash Sale: 20% Off All Digital Workshops" with a direct link to your sale collection can drive significant traffic.

Countdown Timers

While Shopify doesn't have a native countdown timer for sales, many themes include them, or they can be added via simple snippets. A timer creates a visceral sense of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). If a customer sees that they only have 4 hours left to get predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees on a membership, they are much more likely to complete the checkout immediately.

Custom Sale Badges

If your theme allows it, customize your sale badges. Instead of a generic "Sale" tag, try "50% OFF" or "Clearance." Specificity often converts better than generalities. The goal is to make the "how to show a sale on shopify" process look intentional and on-brand.

Managing Profit Margins During a Sale

It is easy to get caught up in the excitement of high sales volume, but a sale is only successful if it remains profitable. This is where securing a fixed cost structure for digital products becomes a massive advantage.

When you sell physical goods, every sale eats into your margin because of Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), shipping, and storage. If you discount too heavily, you might actually lose money on every order. Digital products, however, have near-zero marginal costs. This makes them the perfect "cushion" for your sales strategy.

If you are running a 30% off sale on physical inventory, you can offer a "free digital guide" or a "discounted membership" to increase the total order value. Because Tevello charges 0% transaction fees, you keep 100% of the revenue from those digital sales, which helps offset the thinner margins on your physical products. This balanced approach allows you to be aggressive with your sales without jeopardizing your bottom line.

Leveraging Success Stories: Real-World Applications

Looking at how other successful merchants handle sales can provide a blueprint for your own store. Many brands have found that moving away from fragmented platforms and migrating over 14,000 members and reducing support tickets allowed them to focus more on their marketing and sales presentation. When you aren't fighting with your technology, you can spend more time crafting the perfect sale.

Consider the example of a brand that has mastered the art of the "Native Shopify" experience. By keeping customers on their own URL, they maintain a consistent brand experience from the moment a user sees a "Sale" badge to the moment they access their purchased course. This consistency builds trust, which is the most important factor in long-term success. Brands have achieved massive milestones by strategies for selling over 4,000 digital courses natively, often using sale periods to "hook" new students into their ecosystem.

Tevello’s Unlimited Plan: A Tool for Growth

As you scale your store and begin to show more sales on more products, you need a backend that won't punish you for your success. Many platforms charge "success fees" or tiered pricing based on the number of students or the volume of sales you generate. At Tevello, we believe that’s counter-productive.

Our Unlimited Plan is $29.99 per month. That's it. No matter how many sales you run, how many students you enroll, or how many courses you create, your cost stays the same. This allows you to plan your sales with total financial clarity.

The Unlimited Plan includes:

• Unlimited courses and students.
• Unlimited video hosting and bandwidth (no more worrying about huge files slowing down your site).
• Community features like member directories and social feeds to keep your customers engaged after the sale.
• Drip content scheduling and interactive quizzes.
• A 14-day free trial.

By having a fixed cost, you can accurately calculate your ROI on every promotion. This is the difference between a "get rich quick" mentality and building a sustainable, long-term business. We want you to focus on install Tevello from the Shopify App Store today and building a curriculum that your customers will love, knowing that your platform costs are capped and predictable.

Setting Realistic Expectations for Your Sale

While a well-executed sale can lead to a significant spike in revenue, it is important to view sales as one part of a larger customer journey. The goal of showing a sale on Shopify isn't just a one-time transaction; it’s an entry point.

A customer who buys a discounted physical item today is a prime candidate for a digital course tomorrow. By diversifying your revenue streams, you create stability. If physical supply chains are disrupted, your digital products continue to sell. If advertising costs go up, your recurring membership revenue provides the cash flow needed to keep growing.

When you start your 14-day free trial and build your first course now, you aren't just adding a feature to your store; you are adding a new dimension to your business model. This multi-faceted approach is what allows modern merchants to thrive in a competitive landscape.

Best Practices for Mobile Sales Presentation

With more than half of all e-commerce traffic coming from mobile devices, how you show a sale on Shopify for smartphone users is critical.

1. Avoid Clutter: On a small screen, too many badges and banners can be overwhelming. Stick to one clear "Sale" indicator.
2. Thumb-Friendly Buttons: Ensure that your "Add to Cart" button is easily accessible, even if there is a countdown timer or sale banner nearby.
3. Fast Loading Times: Sales often drive high traffic. Large, unoptimized images of your sale items can slow down your site, leading to bounce rates. Tevello’s native integration ensures that your digital product pages load as quickly as the rest of your Shopify store, providing a seamless experience for mobile users.

Legal and Ethical Considerations of Sale Pricing

Finally, it is worth touching on the ethics of discounting. In many jurisdictions, there are laws regarding "false" sales. For example, you generally cannot list a "Compare-at price" for a product that was never actually sold at that price.

Honesty builds brand loyalty. If you are running a sale, make sure it is a genuine discount. Your community will appreciate the transparency, and it will make your brand more authoritative in the long run. By using professional tools and clear pricing structures, you signal to your customers that you are a serious, trustworthy merchant.

Maximizing Value with Membership Communities

Beyond a simple one-off sale, many Shopify merchants are finding success by moving customers into membership communities. This is the ultimate way to increase Customer Lifetime Value. Instead of hoping a customer returns for the next sale, you offer them ongoing value for a monthly fee.

Tevello’s community features allow you to create social feeds, member directories, and profile pages right inside your Shopify store. You can show a "sale" on the first month of a membership to get people in the door, then provide such incredible value that they never want to leave. This recurring revenue model is the holy grail of e-commerce, providing stability and a dedicated audience for every new product or course you launch.

Summary of Key Takeaways

Knowing how to show a sale on Shopify is a mix of technical setup and strategic presentation. By using the "Compare-at price" feature, creating automated sale collections, and utilizing high-visibility badges, you can effectively communicate value to your customers.

When you integrate digital products into your strategy using Tevello, you unlock even greater potential. You can bundle courses with physical goods, offer high-margin digital deals, and build a community that lives on your own Shopify URL. With our simple, $29.99 per month Unlimited Plan and 0% transaction fees, you have the perfect foundation to grow your business without the fear of hidden costs.

Conclusion

Running a successful sale is an art form that requires the right tools and a clear strategy. By mastering the visual and technical aspects of Shopify's pricing system, you can turn a simple discount into a powerful driver of growth and customer loyalty. Remember, the most successful brands don't just sell products; they build ecosystems where physical and digital value coexist.

At Tevello, we are here to help you bridge that gap. We provide the infrastructure you need to host unlimited courses, manage a thriving community, and scale your revenue—all while keeping your customers right where they belong: on your store. There are no "success taxes" here; your growth is your own.

To build your community without leaving Shopify, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from.

Install the Tevello app today to start your 14-day free trial. Build your entire curriculum, set up your community, and start showing your customers the incredible value you have to offer—all with 0% transaction fees. Your journey to becoming a digital learning powerhouse starts now.

FAQ

How do I show a sale on a specific variant in Shopify?

To show a sale on a specific variant, go to the product page in your Shopify admin and scroll down to the "Variants" section. Click on the specific variant you want to edit. In the pricing area for that variant, set the "Price" to your sale price and the "Compare-at price" to the original price. This allows you to discount specific colors or sizes without affecting the entire product line.

Why is my sale price not showing a strikethrough on my store?

If the strikethrough isn't appearing, first ensure that the "Compare-at price" is strictly higher than the "Price." If it is, the issue likely lies with your Shopify theme settings. Check your theme's "Product Page" or "Collection Page" customization settings to ensure that "Show compare-at price" is enabled. Some older or custom themes may require a small amount of CSS or Liquid code to display the strikethrough correctly.

Can I show a sale on Shopify courses sold through Tevello?

Yes! Because Tevello is a native Shopify integration, your courses are treated as standard Shopify products. You can use the "Compare-at price" field in the Shopify product settings for your course just like you would for a physical item. Your Tevello-powered course pages will then reflect this sale price, maintaining a consistent look across your entire store.

Is it better to use a discount code or show the sale price directly?

Showing the sale price directly (using Compare-at pricing) is generally better for converting cold traffic, as the value is immediately visible on the product page. Discount codes are more effective for email marketing, retargeting, or rewarding loyal customers. For the best results, use Compare-at pricing for store-wide events and reserve discount codes for specific marketing campaigns.