How to Add a Sale on Shopify: Boost Your Store Revenue

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Preparing Your Shopify Store for a Successful Sale
3. How to Add a Sale Price Manually on Shopify
4. How to Add a Sale on Shopify Using Bulk Actions
5. Creating Discount Codes for Targeted Sales
6. Setting Up Automatic Discounts
7. Leveraging Digital Products in Your Sales Strategy
8. Highlighting Your Sale for Maximum Visibility
9. Tracking and Optimizing Sale Performance
10. Common Pitfalls to Avoid When Adding a Sale
11. The Tevello Advantage: Scale Without Limits
12. Advanced Sale Strategies: Urgency and Scarcity
13. Post-Sale Retention: Beyond the Discount
14. Conclusion
15. FAQ

Introduction

Did you know that the global e-learning market is projected to soar past $460 billion by 2026? While many Shopify merchants focus solely on the logistics of physical inventory, shipping rates, and warehouse management, a silent revolution is happening in the digital space. Every time a customer visits your store, they aren’t just looking for a product; they are looking for a solution, a transformation, or a new skill. If you are only running sales on physical goods, you might be leaving significant revenue on the table. Learning how to add a sale on Shopify is about more than just slashing prices; it is about strategically positioning your brand to capture attention and increase Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) through both physical and digital offerings.

In this guide, we will provide an exhaustive walkthrough of how to add a sale on Shopify, covering everything from manual price adjustments to sophisticated automated discounts. We will also explore how to diversify your revenue streams by integrating digital products and courses—turning your store into what we call a "digital learning powerhouse." We will cover inventory preparation, the technical steps for creating discounts, and advanced strategies for maximizing your profit margins.

The mission at Tevello is to empower you to own your brand experience and customer data. We believe that whether you are selling handmade ceramics or a masterclass on pottery, your checkout experience should be seamless and unified. By the end of this article, you will have a comprehensive roadmap for executing high-impact sales that drive immediate revenue while building long-term brand loyalty.

Preparing Your Shopify Store for a Successful Sale

Before you click a single button in your Shopify admin, you must lay the groundwork. Running a sale without preparation is like inviting a crowd to a grand opening before the shelves are stocked. You risk technical glitches, inventory stockouts, and customer frustration.

Inventory and Digital Asset Audit

For physical products, you must know exactly what is in stock. A sale that results in an "Out of Stock" message five minutes after launch is a missed opportunity. Audit your inventory levels and identify "dead stock"—items that have been sitting in the warehouse too long. These are primary candidates for deep discounts.

However, the modern merchant should also look at digital inventory. At Tevello, we advocate for digital products because they have zero shipping costs and infinite "stock." For a merchant selling fitness equipment, a "7-Day Home Workout Challenge" is a high-margin digital asset that can be bundled into a sale. Before your sale begins, ensure your digital assets are uploaded and organized within all the key features for courses and communities that our platform provides.

Defining Your Sale Objectives

Not all sales are meant to clear out old inventory. Some are designed to:

• Acquire New Customers: Using a "loss leader" to get people into your ecosystem.
• Increase Average Order Value (AOV): Using "Buy More, Save More" logic.
• Reward Loyalty: Offering exclusive sales to your email list or community members.
• Boost Recurring Revenue: Offering a discount on the first month of a membership or subscription.

Setting clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) allows you to measure success accurately. Without these goals, you won’t know if your 20% discount was a triumph or a drain on your margins.

How to Add a Sale Price Manually on Shopify

The most basic way to add a sale on Shopify is by using the "Compare-at price" feature. This displays the original price with a strikethrough next to the new, lower price, providing an immediate visual cue of value to the shopper.

Step-by-Step Manual Pricing

1. Access Your Products: From your Shopify admin, navigate to the Products section.
2. Select a Product: Click on the name of the product you wish to put on sale.
3. Find the Pricing Section: Scroll down to the Pricing area.
4. Enter the Sale Price: In the Price field, enter the new, lower amount you want to charge.
5. Enter the Original Price: In the Compare-at price field, enter the original, higher price.
6. Save Changes: Click Save.

When a customer views this product, they will see the "Compare-at price" crossed out, making the discount obvious. This method is excellent for single items or small collections, but it can be tedious for large catalogs.

Managing Variants

If your product has variants (like different sizes or colors), you must apply the compare-at price to each specific variant. Within the product page, scroll to the Variants section, click Edit on each variant, and adjust the pricing fields accordingly. Keeping your pricing consistent across variants prevents customer confusion during the checkout process.

How to Add a Sale on Shopify Using Bulk Actions

When you have dozens or hundreds of items to discount, manual entry is not feasible. Shopify provides a built-in bulk editor that allows you to change prices across your entire store in minutes.

Using the Shopify Bulk Editor

1. Select Multiple Products: In your Products list, use the checkboxes to select all the items you want to include in the sale.
2. Open the Editor: Click Bulk edit.
3. Add Necessary Columns: If the "Price" or "Compare-at price" columns aren't visible, click Columns and check those boxes.
4. Edit in Grid View: You can now click through the cells and update prices rapidly, similar to using a spreadsheet.
5. Apply Changes: Click Save once all fields are updated.

This method is highly efficient for seasonal clearances where you might want to mark down an entire category of goods at once. It ensures that your securing a fixed cost structure for digital products remains profitable by allowing you to see all your margins in one view.

Creating Discount Codes for Targeted Sales

Discount codes offer a layer of exclusivity and are powerful tools for marketing campaigns. They allow you to track the source of your sales—whether they came from an influencer, an email blast, or a social media ad.

How to Create a Discount Code

1. Navigate to Discounts: From your Shopify admin, click Discounts.
2. Create Discount: Select the Amount off products or Amount off order option.
3. Choose a Code Name: Create a catchy code like "SUMMER20" or "WELCOME10."
4. Set the Value: Choose between a percentage (e.g., 15% off) or a fixed amount (e.g., $10 off).
5. Define Requirements: You can set a minimum purchase amount or a minimum quantity of items.
6. Set Usage Limits: Decide if the code can be used once per customer or if it has a total usage limit.
7. Active Dates: Set a start and end date for the sale to create urgency.

Discount codes are particularly effective when keeping customers at home on the brand website because they don't require the user to leave the page to search for deals elsewhere.

Setting Up Automatic Discounts

Automatic discounts are the preferred choice for a frictionless user experience. They apply directly in the cart or at checkout without the customer needing to remember or type in a code.

The Benefits of Automation

Automation reduces cart abandonment. Often, a customer forgets a discount code and leaves the site to find it, only to get distracted and never return. With automatic discounts, the "Sale" feel is integrated into the shopping journey.

1. Go to Discounts: Click Create Discount.
2. Select Automatic Discount: Choose the type (e.g., "Buy X Get Y" or "Percentage").
3. Set the Rules: For instance, "Buy any physical planner, get the 'Digital Productivity Course' for 50% off."
4. Promote the Discount: Since there is no code, use header banners to inform customers that "Discounts are applied automatically at checkout!"

Using these features helps in driving 50% of sales from repeat course purchasers because it rewards them for adding more value to their cart without any extra effort on their part.

Leveraging Digital Products in Your Sales Strategy

One of the most effective ways to run a sale on Shopify is to combine physical goods with digital value. At Tevello, our mission is to turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse. This isn't just a slogan; it's a strategy for higher margins.

Bundling Digital Courses with Physical Sales

Imagine a merchant selling high-end kitchen knives. During a holiday sale, they could offer 10% off the knives and include a "Mastering Knife Skills" video course for free. This adds immense perceived value to the customer without adding to the merchant's shipping costs or inventory overhead.

If unifying your stack is a priority, start by a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses.

By using our "Native Shopify Integration," the customer buys the knife and the course in one single transaction. They don't get redirected to a third-party site; they stay on your URL, and their login for the shop is the same login for the course. This reduces support tickets and friction significantly.

Building Recurring Revenue with Memberships

A sale doesn't have to be a one-time event. You can use a Shopify sale to launch a membership program. For example, offer the first month of a "VIP Inner Circle" for $1. This gets customers into your community, where you can provide drip content, quizzes, and social feeds.

This strategy is key to increasing LTV. Instead of a one-off sale, you are building a stable, recurring revenue stream. When you are comparing plan costs against total course revenue, you'll find that the flat-rate pricing of $29.99 per month for Tevello’s Unlimited Plan allows you to scale your membership to thousands of users without your software costs eating your profits.

Highlighting Your Sale for Maximum Visibility

Once you have added the sale to your Shopify store, you need to make sure people see it. Visibility is the bridge between a discount and a conversion.

Using Announcement Banners and Pop-ups

Your homepage should scream "Sale" the moment it loads. Use an announcement bar at the very top of the page. This bar should stay fixed as the user scrolls, keeping the discount top-of-mind.

Pop-ups can also be effective if used sparingly. A "Spin-to-Win" wheel or a simple exit-intent pop-up offering an extra 5% off can save a sale that was about to walk out the door.

Creating Dedicated Sale Collections

Help your customers find the deals by grouping all discounted items into a "Sale" collection. You can set up an "Automated Collection" in Shopify that automatically pulls in any product where the "Compare-at price" is greater than $0. This ensures your sale page is always up to date without manual sorting.

Social Proof and Community Engagement

Don't just sell to your customers; build a community. Use Tevello's community features—like member directories and social feeds—to let your customers share their wins. When a customer sees another member enjoying a discounted course or product, it acts as powerful social proof. You can see how merchants are earning six figures by creating these tight-knit ecosystems where the sale is just the beginning of the relationship.

Tracking and Optimizing Sale Performance

A sale is a data-gathering event. If you don't analyze the results, you won't know how to improve the next time.

Key Metrics to Monitor

• Conversion Rate: Did the sale actually convince more people to buy?
• Average Order Value (AOV): Did people add more to their carts because of the discounts?
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): How much did you spend on ads to get these sales?
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Was the discounted revenue worth the marketing spend?

Shopify's analytics dashboard provides a wealth of information. You can see which discount codes were used most often and which products were the most popular. We often see that merchants who offer digital add-ons see a significant lift in their overall margins because the cost of goods sold (COGS) for a digital course is effectively zero after the initial creation.

Post-Sale Analysis

After the sale ends, look at your retention rates. Did the customers who bought during the sale come back? This is where how brands converted 15% of challenge participants into long-term subscribers becomes a vital study. A sale should be a "hook" that leads to a long-term brand relationship.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid When Adding a Sale

While adding a sale is straightforward, many merchants make mistakes that can hurt their brand or their bottom line.

Over-Discounting and Brand Erosion

If you run a sale every single week, your customers will stop buying at full price. They will simply wait for the next "Flash Sale." This erodes your brand value and trains your customers to see you as a discount-only store. Aim for strategic, meaningful sales rather than constant price slashing.

Neglecting Mobile Users

Over 50% of e-commerce traffic comes from mobile devices. If your sale banners or discount code boxes are hard to use on a phone, you will lose a massive chunk of revenue. Always test your sale experience on a mobile device before going live.

Hidden Fees and Complicated Checkouts

Customers hate surprises at checkout. If your sale price is great, but your shipping fees are astronomical or the checkout process is cluttered with third-party redirects, they will abandon the cart. This is why we prioritize a start your 14-day free trial and build your first course now approach that keeps everything native to Shopify. By avoiding "success fees" or transaction fees, we ensure that you can offer your customers the best possible price while keeping 100% of your earnings.

The Tevello Advantage: Scale Without Limits

When you decide to add a sale on Shopify that includes digital products, you need a partner that doesn't penalize your growth. Many platforms charge a percentage of every sale you make—a "success fee" that can quickly become your largest expense.

Simple, Transparent Pricing

We believe in a flat-rate plan that supports unlimited members. Our Unlimited Plan is $29.99 per month. Period. Whether you have 10 students or 10,000, and whether you sell one course or one hundred, your price stays the same.

The Unlimited Plan includes:

• Unlimited courses and students.
• Unlimited video hosting and bandwidth.
• Fully integrated community features.
• Drip content and quizzes to keep students engaged.
• 0% transaction fees.

This predictability allows you to plan your sales with confidence, knowing exactly what your overhead will be. It’s a robust tool that amplifies your existing efforts rather than siphoning off your profits.

Native Integration and Customer Ownership

When you use Tevello, you own your data. We don't redirect your customers to a third-party marketplace where they might see your competitors' products. They stay on your store, under your URL, interacting with your brand. This seeing how the app natively integrates with Shopify ensures that the customer experience is top-tier, leading to higher brand loyalty and repeat purchases.

We have seen this work time and again, such as when merchants are generating over €243,000 by upselling existing customers. By offering a sale on a digital "upgrade" to a physical purchase, these brands have unlocked massive revenue potential that was previously hidden.

Advanced Sale Strategies: Urgency and Scarcity

Once you know the technical side of how to add a sale on Shopify, you can move into the psychological side of selling. Urgency and scarcity are the two most powerful drivers of human action in e-commerce.

The Countdown Timer

Adding a countdown timer to your product page or your top banner creates a "fear of missing out" (FOMO). When a customer sees that there are only 4 hours left to get 20% off, the lizard brain takes over, and they are much more likely to complete the purchase immediately.

Limited Quantity Sales

For physical goods, showing "Only 3 left in stock!" is a classic scarcity tactic. For digital goods, you can create "Limited Enrollment" periods. For example, "Join the Summer Masterclass—Only 50 seats available!" Even though digital seats are technically unlimited, capping the enrollment for a specific sale period makes the offer feel more exclusive and valuable.

Tiered Discounts (The "Spend More, Save More" Model)

Encourage higher AOV by offering tiered rewards:

• Spend $50, get 10% off.
• Spend $100, get 20% off.
• Spend $150, get 20% off plus a free "Digital Starter Kit."

This strategy turns a simple sale into a game, where the customer is motivated to add just one more item to their cart to reach the next level of savings.

Post-Sale Retention: Beyond the Discount

The real profit in e-commerce isn't made on the first sale; it's made on the third, fourth, and fifth. Use your sale as an entry point into your brand's ecosystem.

Onboarding via Digital Courses

If your sale included a digital product or a free course, the onboarding process is your chance to shine. Send a welcome email series that guides the customer through their first lesson. Use the community social feed to introduce them to other members. This engagement makes it much less likely that they will ask for a refund and much more likely that they will buy from you again.

Personalized Follow-ups

Using the data gathered during the sale, send personalized recommendations. If a customer bought a yoga mat during your sale, send them a follow-up email a week later offering a discount on your "Advanced Yoga Flow" course. This kind of targeted marketing is only possible when you own your customer data and use a platform that integrates digital products natively with your shop's history.

Conclusion

Mastering how to add a sale on Shopify is a fundamental skill for any e-commerce entrepreneur. Whether you are manually adjusting a "Compare-at price," running a massive site-wide clearance via bulk editing, or creating exclusive discount codes for your most loyal followers, the goal is always the same: to provide value to your customers while growing your business.

By integrating digital learning and memberships into your sales strategy, you can transcend the limitations of physical inventory. You can offer high-margin bundles, build recurring revenue, and create a community that lives directly on your store. This holistic approach not only boosts your immediate sales but also significantly increases the long-term value of every customer you acquire.

At Tevello, we are here to support that journey. We provide the tools to turn your Shopify store into a digital powerhouse without the headache of complicated pricing or high transaction fees. You keep your customers, you keep your data, and you keep your profits.

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

FAQ

How do I show a strikethrough price on my Shopify store?

To show a strikethrough price, you must use the "Compare-at price" field in your product settings. Enter the original price in the "Compare-at price" field and the new discounted price in the "Price" field. Shopify will automatically display the old price with a line through it next to the new price, signaling a sale to your customers.

Can I run a sale on digital courses and physical products at the same time?

Yes! With Tevello's native integration, your digital courses are treated like any other product in your Shopify admin. You can add them to automated "Sale" collections, apply discount codes to them, or include them in "Buy One Get One" (BOGO) offers alongside your physical merchandise. This creates a unified shopping experience for your customers.

Will adding a sale affect my profit margins significantly?

While sales lower your immediate per-item margin, they are designed to increase total volume and customer acquisition. To protect your overall profitability, consider bundling digital products—which have nearly 100% profit margins—with your physical sales. This balances the discounts on physical goods and keeps your overall store healthy.

Do I need to pay extra fees to Shopify or Tevello for every sale I make?

While some apps charge "success fees" or a percentage of your revenue, Tevello does not. We charge 0% transaction fees. You pay a flat rate of $29.99 per month for our Unlimited Plan, allowing you to run as many sales as you like and keep 100% of your earnings. This makes your cost structure predictable as you scale.