How to Put Items on Sale on Shopify to Boost Revenue

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Understanding the Shopify Sale Mechanism
3. Leveraging Bulk Edits for Large Sales
4. Creating Automated Sale Collections
5. Strategic Timing: When to Run a Sale
6. Advanced Sales: Bundling Digital Courses with Physical Items
7. The Tevello Advantage: Building a Digital Learning Powerhouse
8. Best Practices for Maximizing Sale Performance
9. Protecting Your Brand During Sales
10. Conclusion
11. FAQ

Introduction

Did you know that according to consumer psychology reports, nearly 65% of online shoppers admit that a well-timed discount was the primary reason they completed a purchase they were otherwise hesitant to make? In the competitive world of e-commerce, your inventory is more than just stock on a shelf; it is a ticking clock of capital. Every day an item sits in your warehouse without moving, it costs you money in storage fees, opportunity costs, and potential obsolescence. Learning the technical and strategic nuances of how to put items on sale on Shopify is not merely a task for clearing out old stock—it is a sophisticated lever used to increase Customer Lifetime Value (LTV), build brand loyalty, and stabilize revenue through fluctuating market seasons.

At Tevello, we understand that a successful store is one that diversifies its offerings and maximizes the value of every visitor. Whether you are selling organic skincare products, high-end photography gear, or handmade ceramics, your ability to run a sale efficiently can be the difference between a stagnant month and a record-breaking quarter. Our mission is to help you "turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse," and that begins with mastering the fundamental commerce tools at your fingertips.

In this guide, we will walk you through the precise steps to discount your products, the psychological triggers that make sales successful, and how to integrate digital offerings into your sales strategy to create a high-margin ecosystem. By the end of this article, you will have a comprehensive understanding of how to put items on sale on Shopify to maximize impact while protecting your brand’s integrity.

Understanding the Shopify Sale Mechanism

Shopify provides a robust, built-in system for managing product pricing, but many merchants often confuse a simple price change with a "sale." To the customer, a sale is only visible if they can perceive the value gap—the difference between what the item normally costs and what it costs right now.

The core of the Shopify sale system relies on two specific fields: the "Price" and the "Compare-at price." The "Price" is what the customer actually pays at checkout. The "Compare-at price" is the original, higher price that Shopify uses to display a strike-through effect or a "Sale" badge on your storefront. If you only change the "Price" field, the customer sees the new lower price, but they have no context that it is actually a discount. To run a true sale, you must utilize both.

The Manual Discount Method for Individual Products

For merchants with a boutique inventory or those launching a targeted flash sale on a single flagship item, the manual method is the most straightforward approach. This allows for precision and ensures that every detail of the product page is optimized for the promotion.

1. Access the Product Settings: From your Shopify admin, navigate to the "Products" tab.
2. Select Your Item: Click on the name of the product you wish to discount.
3. Navigate to Pricing: Scroll down until you find the "Pricing" section.
4. Input the Sale Data:
   • In the Price field, enter your new, lower sale price.
   • In the Compare-at price field, enter the original price of the item.
5. Save Your Changes: Click the "Save" button at the top or bottom of the screen.

It is important to ensure that your theme supports the display of these prices. Most modern Shopify themes will automatically detect the "Compare-at price" and apply a visual indicator, such as a red price tag or a percentage-off badge. Before going live, we recommend seeing how the app natively integrates with Shopify to ensure that your layout remains clean and professional even during heavy promotion periods.

Handling Product Variants

If your product has multiple variants—such as different sizes, colors, or materials—you must apply the sale price to each variant individually if you want the entire product line to be discounted. If you only put the "Small" size on sale, the "Large" size will still display at the full price.

When you click on a product with variants, you will see a list of those variants in a table. You can click "Edit" next to each specific variant to access its individual pricing fields. This granular control is perfect for "clearance" style sales where you might only have excess inventory in specific sizes or colors and want to move those specific units without devaluing the rest of the collection.

Leveraging Bulk Edits for Large Sales

As your store grows, editing products one by one becomes unsustainable. If you are preparing for a major event like Black Friday or a site-wide seasonal clearance, you need a faster way to update hundreds or thousands of items. Shopify’s Bulk Editor is a powerful spreadsheet-like tool that lives right inside your admin panel.

To use the Bulk Editor for sales:

1. Select Multiple Products: In the "Products" list, use the checkboxes to select the items you want to put on sale. You can select the entire page or use filters to select products from a specific vendor or category.
2. Enter Bulk Edit Mode: Click the "Bulk edit" button that appears in the action bar.
3. Customize Your Columns: By default, the editor might not show the pricing fields you need. Click the "Columns" button and ensure that both Price and Compare-at price are checked.
4. Rapid Entry: You can now click through the cells and type in your new prices. For a faster workflow, you can use keyboard shortcuts similar to Excel (like dragging to fill or copying and pasting) to quickly update the "Compare-at price" for multiple rows at once.
5. Submit Changes: Hit "Save" once you are finished.

For many merchants, the transition from physical-only sales to a hybrid model involving digital assets is where real growth happens. We have seen how brands utilize these transitions to build stability. For instance, generating over €243,000 by upselling existing customers often involves using physical sales as a "hook" to introduce customers to higher-margin digital content.

Creating Automated Sale Collections

One of the most effective ways to promote a sale is to give it its own "home" on your website. Rather than making customers hunt through your entire catalog for deals, you should create a dedicated "Sale" collection. While you can do this manually, an automated collection is much more efficient because it updates itself in real-time as you add or remove discounts.

Setting Up the Automation Logic

To create an automated sale collection:

1. Navigate to Products > Collections and click "Create collection."
2. Title your collection something clear, like "Flash Sale" or "Last Chance Deals."
3. Under Collection type, select "Automated."
4. Set the condition to: Compare-at price is greater than 0.

This simple logic tells Shopify that any item currently featuring a discount (i.e., having a value in the compare-at field) should automatically be pulled into this collection. When the sale ends and you clear the "Compare-at price" field, the item will automatically disappear from the sale page, keeping your store organized without manual intervention.

Using automated collections helps maintain the "brand-first" experience we champion. We believe merchants should own their customer data and brand experience, and keeping customers within a curated, native Shopify environment—rather than sending them to cluttered third-party marketplaces—is essential for building long-term trust.

Strategic Timing: When to Run a Sale

Knowing how to put items on sale on Shopify is the technical hurdle; knowing when to do it is the strategic one. If you run sales too often, you train your customers to never pay full price. If you never run sales, you miss out on the momentum of the market.

Seasonal and Holiday Promotions

The e-commerce calendar is anchored by massive shopping holidays. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the December holiday rush are obvious choices, but savvy merchants look for "niche" holidays relevant to their specific audience. A garden supply store might run a "Spring Awakening" sale in March, while a fitness brand might focus on "New Year, New You" promotions in January.

Inventory Liquidations

Old stock is "dead money." If you have products that haven't moved in six months, they are taking up space that could be used for higher-velocity items. In this scenario, a deep discount (40-60% off) is often better than holding onto the stock. It generates immediate cash flow that can be reinvested into new product development or marketing.

Abandoned Cart Recovery

A personalized sale can be a powerful closing tool. If a customer adds an item to their cart but leaves before paying, sending an automated email with a 10% discount can often be the final nudge they need. This isn't a site-wide sale, but a targeted "event" for a single user.

Integrating these retention strategies that drive repeat digital purchases ensures that even a small initial sale leads to a much larger lifetime value for the merchant.

Advanced Sales: Bundling Digital Courses with Physical Items

One of the most significant advantages of the Shopify ecosystem is the ability to sell "hybrid" products. At Tevello, we specialize in helping merchants create a seamless all-in-one ecosystem where physical products, digital courses, and community engagement live side-by-side.

Imagine a merchant selling high-quality yarn and knitting needles. During a seasonal sale, instead of just discounting the yarn by 20%, they could offer a "Master the Cable Stitch" video course as a free bonus with every purchase. This adds immense perceived value to the customer without increasing the merchant's shipping costs or diminishing their physical margins.

This strategy is exactly how one brand sold $112K+ by bundling courses with their existing catalog. By leveraging digital assets, you aren't just selling a product; you are selling a result. The customer doesn't just want yarn; they want to know how to make a beautiful sweater.

If unifying your stack is a priority, start by exploring all the key features for courses and communities that can be integrated directly into your Shopify store. By generating revenue from both physical and digital goods, you create a diversified business that is much more resilient to supply chain disruptions or shipping price hikes.

The Tevello Advantage: Building a Digital Learning Powerhouse

While Shopify handles the physical sale, Tevello transforms your store into a professional education platform. The technical advantage of our approach is that we keep your customers on your own URL. Many other platforms force your students to log in to a third-party site, which dilutes your brand and confuses the customer journey.

With our "Native Shopify Integration," the checkout experience is seamless. Your customers use the same Shopify checkout they already trust, and their access to digital content is granted instantly upon purchase. This "all-in-one" feel is crucial for keeping customers at home on the brand website.

Transparent Pricing for Scalability

We believe in building a partnership with our merchants, which is why we reject the industry standard of taking a percentage of your hard-earned sales. Most "course" apps or platforms charge success fees that eat into your margins as you grow.

Tevello offers a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses. Our model is straightforward: The Unlimited Plan is $29.99 per month. This includes:

• Unlimited courses and students.
• Unlimited video hosting and bandwidth.
• Community features like member directories and social feeds.
• Drip content scheduling and quizzes.

Most importantly, we charge 0% transaction fees. This means you keep 100% of your revenue, allowing you to offer deeper discounts to your customers during sales without worrying about your platform costs rising. Having predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees allows you to plan your marketing budgets with total confidence.

Best Practices for Maximizing Sale Performance

To ensure your Shopify sale is a success, you must move beyond the "set it and forget it" mentality. A sale is a marketing event that requires active management and promotion.

Create a Sense of Urgency

The most successful sales have a clear beginning and a clear end. Use countdown timers on your product pages or in your header bars to remind customers that the "Compare-at price" will soon return to its original state. Scarcity and urgency are the twin engines of conversion.

Optimize for Mobile

Over 70% of Shopify traffic now comes from mobile devices. Before launching a sale, browse your store on your phone. Are the sale badges legible? Is the "Add to Cart" button easy to find? A cluttered mobile interface can kill a sale faster than a bad discount.

Notify Your Audience

Don't wait for people to stumble upon your sale. Use your email list, SMS marketing, and social media channels to build anticipation. Send a "coming soon" teaser 24 hours before the sale starts, a launch announcement, and a "final hours" reminder.

Focus on Recurring Revenue

While a one-time sale is great for cash flow, the holy grail of e-commerce is recurring revenue. Consider using your sale as a way to transition customers into a membership or subscription model. By securing a fixed cost structure for digital products, you can afford to be aggressive with your initial acquisition offers, knowing that the long-term value of a member far outweighs the cost of the initial discount.

If unifying your stack is a priority, start by considering a flat-rate plan that supports unlimited members to anchor your business's growth.

Protecting Your Brand During Sales

There is a risk associated with frequent discounting: brand dilution. If luxury brands like Apple or Rolex constantly ran 50% off sales, their perceived value would plummet. You must balance the need for sales with the need to maintain your brand's authority.

Value-Add over Price-Cut

Instead of always lowering the price, consider "Value-Add" sales. This involves keeping the price the same but offering more for the money—such as a "Buy One Get One" (BOGO) offer or including a digital masterclass with a premium physical purchase. This protects your price floor while still providing an "incentive" for the customer to act now.

Tiered Discounts

Tiered discounts (e.g., Save $10 when you spend $50, Save $25 when you spend $100) encourage higher average order values (AOV). This ensures that while you are giving a discount, the total revenue per transaction remains high.

Member-Only Sales

Create an "inner circle" for your brand. Offer sales that are only accessible to your email subscribers or community members. This makes your customers feel like "insiders" and builds brand loyalty that transcends a simple transaction. Using community features to house these discussions and exclusive offers is a great way to deepen that connection.

Conclusion

Mastering how to put items on sale on Shopify is a foundational skill for any e-commerce entrepreneur. By understanding the technical setup of "Price" vs. "Compare-at price," utilizing bulk editing tools, and strategically timing your promotions, you can turn stagnant inventory into active revenue. However, the most successful modern merchants are those who look beyond physical goods alone. By integrating digital courses and memberships into your Shopify store, you create a business model that scales effortlessly and builds lasting customer relationships.

At Tevello, we are here to support that journey. Our platform is designed to amplify your existing efforts, offering a robust toolset with 0% transaction fees so you can focus on what matters most: your customers and your content. We invite you to explore how our native integration can simplify your workflow and turn your store into a digital learning powerhouse.

To build your community without leaving Shopify, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from. You can install Tevello from the Shopify App Store today to start your 14-day free trial. Build your entire curriculum, set up your community, and launch your first sale without paying a cent upfront.

FAQ

1. How do I put my Shopify courses on sale specifically?

To put a course on sale using Tevello, you simply follow the standard Shopify product pricing rules. Since every Tevello course is linked to a Shopify product, you navigate to the "Products" tab in your Shopify admin, select the product associated with your course, and update the "Price" and "Compare-at price" fields. The discount will instantly reflect on your storefront.

2. Can I schedule a sale to start and end automatically on Shopify?

Yes, Shopify allows for scheduled discounts through the "Discounts" section in your admin panel. However, if you are changing the actual price on the product page (the "Compare-at price" method), you would typically need a third-party scheduling app or use Shopify's "Launchpad" tool (available for Shopify Plus) to automate the price changes at specific times.

3. Will running a sale on my courses affect my Tevello fees?

Not at all. One of the primary advantages of Tevello is our flat-rate pricing model. Whether you sell your course for $1,000 or $1, we never take a percentage of your sales. Our 0% transaction fee policy ensures that your profitability increases as you sell more, making sales events highly lucrative for our merchants.

4. How do I ensure customers see the "Sale" badge on my digital products?

To ensure the "Sale" badge appears, you must fill out the "Compare-at price" field in your Shopify product settings. Ensure this value is higher than the "Price" field. Most Shopify themes are programmed to automatically display a badge or a strike-through price whenever the "Compare-at price" is greater than the current price. If it doesn't appear, check your theme settings under "Product Grid" or "Product Pages."