Master How to Set Up Sale on Shopify for Maximum Growth

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. The Strategic Foundation of a Successful Shopify Sale
3. How to Set Up Sale on Shopify: Technical Execution
4. Creating and Managing Discount Codes
5. Preparing Your Store for High Traffic
6. Leveraging Digital Products to Amplify Sales
7. Transparency in Pricing and Fees
8. Marketing Your Shopify Sale
9. Tracking and Analyzing Sale Performance
10. Post-Sale Retention Strategies
11. Case Study: Successful Hybrid Selling
12. Advanced Tips for Shopify Sales
13. Conclusion
14. FAQ

Introduction

Did you know that the global e-learning market is projected to exceed $460 billion by 2026? While many Shopify merchants focus solely on the logistics of physical inventory—managing shipping rates, warehouse space, and supply chain delays—a growing number of savvy entrepreneurs are realizing that the most profitable "sale" they can run involves digital products. Imagine launching a major promotion where your inventory never runs out, your shipping costs are zero, and your profit margins remain incredibly high. This is the power of integrating digital learning into your existing e-commerce framework.

The purpose of this guide is to provide you with a comprehensive roadmap on how to set up sale on Shopify, covering both the technical execution within the Shopify dashboard and the strategic mindset needed to ensure your promotion actually drives long-term growth. We will explore how to prepare your store, the different types of discounts available, and how to use digital products to diversify your revenue. Whether you are clearing out seasonal physical stock or launching a new membership program, the principles of a successful sale remain the same: clarity, urgency, and value.

At Tevello, our mission is to turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse. We believe that merchants should have full ownership of their customer data and brand experience. This is why we focus on a native Shopify integration that keeps your customers on your own URL, ensuring a seamless checkout through the payment gateways you already trust. By the end of this article, you will understand how to orchestrate a sale that not only boosts your immediate revenue but also strengthens your brand’s position in the marketplace.

The Strategic Foundation of a Successful Shopify Sale

Before you click a single button in your Shopify admin, you must define the "why" behind your sale. A sale without a clear objective is just a recipe for thinning your margins without a clear return on investment.

Defining Your Objectives

Are you trying to liquidate old inventory to make room for a new collection? Or is your goal to increase your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) by introducing existing customers to a new digital course? Setting key performance indicators (KPIs) is essential. Common goals include:

• Customer Acquisition: Attracting new buyers who have been sitting on the fence.
• Inventory Liquidation: Moving physical goods that are costing you money in storage fees.
• Average Order Value (AOV) Boost: Using "Buy X, Get Y" offers to encourage larger baskets.
• Recurring Revenue Stability: Offering a sale on memberships or subscriptions to ensure predictable monthly income.

Setting Realistic Business Expectations

It is important to approach sales with a long-term perspective. While it is tempting to look for "get rich quick" results, a successful sale is actually a tool for building brand loyalty and diversifying revenue streams. For instance, a merchant selling high-end yoga mats might run a sale where every purchase includes a discounted "30-Day Yoga Challenge" digital course. This move does more than just sell a mat; it creates a recurring touchpoint with the customer, increasing the likelihood they will return to your store in the future.

By keeping customers at home on the brand website, you ensure that the excitement of the sale translates into a deeper connection with your brand, rather than a one-off transaction on a third-party platform.

How to Set Up Sale on Shopify: Technical Execution

Setting up a sale on Shopify is relatively straightforward, but there are several ways to do it depending on how you want the discount to appear to the customer.

Method 1: The "Compare-at" Price

The most common way to show a sale is by displaying a "Compare-at" price. This shows the original price crossed out next to the new, lower price. This is highly effective because it immediately communicates the value the customer is receiving.

1. Navigate to Products: From your Shopify admin, go to the "Products" section.
2. Select a Product: Click on the name of the product you wish to put on sale.
3. Adjust Pricing: In the "Pricing" section, set the "Price" to your new, lower sale price.
4. Set the Compare-at Price: Enter the original, higher price in the "Compare-at price" field.
5. Save: Once you hit save, the product page will automatically display the discount.

Method 2: Bulk Editing Prices

If you have a large catalog, changing prices one by one is inefficient. Shopify’s bulk editor allows you to update multiple products simultaneously.

1. Select Products: In the "Products" menu, check the boxes for all items you want to discount.
2. Bulk Edit: Click the "Bulk edit" button that appears.
3. Add Columns: Ensure the "Price" and "Compare-at price" columns are visible.
4. Update in Grid: You can now type the new prices directly into the cells or use the "Change prices" tool to apply a percentage decrease across all selected items.

Method 3: Automatic Discounts

Automatic discounts are a fantastic way to reduce friction at checkout. The customer doesn't need to remember a code; the savings are applied as soon as the conditions are met.

• Fixed Amount or Percentage: You can take $10 off or 20% off the entire order.
• Buy X Get Y: Perfect for moving specific inventory (e.g., "Buy a bag of coffee beans, get our 'Home Brewing Masterclass' for 50% off").
• Free Shipping: A proven way to reduce cart abandonment.

When you install Tevello from the Shopify App Store today, these automatic discounts work seamlessly with your digital products, allowing you to bundle physical and digital goods with ease.

Creating and Managing Discount Codes

While automatic discounts are great for general sales, manual discount codes offer a sense of exclusivity. You can send these via email marketing, share them with influencers, or include them in a "thank you" note for previous buyers.

Step-by-Step Discount Code Creation

1. Discounts Tab: In your Shopify admin, go to "Discounts."
2. Create Discount: Choose "Amount off products" or "Amount off order."
3. Generate Code: You can create a custom name (e.g., FALL25) or have Shopify generate a random one.
4. Define Rules: Set the percentage or fixed amount, and specify if it applies to specific collections or products.
5. Set Limits: You can limit the code to one use per customer or set a total usage limit (e.g., "First 100 customers only").
6. Active Dates: Schedule the start and end times for your sale.

Using discount codes is a primary strategy for driving 50% of sales from repeat course purchasers. By offering a "loyalty discount" to those who have already engaged with your brand, you reinforce their decision to choose you over a competitor.

Preparing Your Store for High Traffic

A sale is only successful if your store can handle the influx of visitors and provide a smooth user experience.

Inventory and Digital Bandwidth

For physical products, ensure your stock levels are accurate. For digital products, the concern isn't physical stock, but the quality of the delivery. One of the reasons we built our platform the way we did was to ensure unlimited video hosting and bandwidth. When you run a sale, you don't want your videos to lag or your site to crash because too many students are trying to access their new course at once.

Visual Cues and Urgency

To maximize the impact of your Shopify sale, you need to make it obvious.

• Homepage Banners: Use high-quality graphics to announce the sale the moment someone lands on your site.
• Countdown Timers: Adding a timer to your product pages creates a "Fear Of Missing Out" (FOMO) that encourages immediate action.
• Announcement Bars: A simple bar at the top of the page can remind shoppers of the discount code or the free shipping threshold.

Mobile Optimization

A significant portion of your sale traffic will come from mobile devices. Ensure that your "Compare-at" prices are clearly visible on smaller screens and that your checkout process is as streamlined as possible. Our native integration ensures that your digital products look just as professional on a smartphone as they do on a desktop, maintaining a unified login that reduces customer support friction.

Leveraging Digital Products to Amplify Sales

The beauty of the Shopify ecosystem is the ability to sell almost anything. If you are currently only selling physical goods, you are missing out on a massive opportunity to increase your margins.

Why Digital Products?

When you set up a sale on physical items, your profit is always squeezed by the cost of goods sold (COGS) and shipping. With digital products, your COGS is essentially zero after the initial creation. This allows you to be much more aggressive with your sales.

For example, a merchant selling art supplies could create a series of "Watercolors for Beginners" videos. During a store-wide sale, they could offer the art kit at a 10% discount while offering the companion course at 50% off. The high-margin digital product offsets the thin margin on the physical brushes and paints. We have seen how one brand sold $112K+ by bundling courses with their physical craft kits, proving that this hybrid model is incredibly effective.

Tevello: Your Digital Powerhouse

At Tevello, we provide an all-in-one ecosystem where physical products, digital courses, and community engagement live side-by-side. Our platform allows you to schedule "Drip Content," so that even after a sale ends, your customers receive value over time, keeping them engaged with your brand for weeks or months.

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

Transparency in Pricing and Fees

As a merchant, you know that hidden costs can eat away at your hard-earned revenue. Many third-party course platforms charge "success fees" or take a percentage of every sale you make. We believe that is your money, not ours.

The Tevello Advantage: 0% Transaction Fees

One of our core values is transparency. We charge 0% transaction fees. Whether you sell ten courses or ten thousand during your Shopify sale, you keep 100% of your earnings (minus the standard processing fees from your chosen payment gateway like Shopify Payments or PayPal).

Simple, Predictable Pricing

We reject the complicated tier structures that penalize you for growing. Instead, we offer The Unlimited Plan at $29.99 per month. This plan includes:

• Unlimited courses and students.
• Unlimited video hosting and bandwidth.
• Comprehensive community features (profiles, member directories, social feeds).
• Quizzes and drip content scheduling.

This flat-rate plan that supports unlimited members allows you to accurately forecast your expenses, which is vital when calculating the profitability of a major sale event. By securing a fixed cost structure for digital products, you can focus on marketing and growth rather than worrying about a ballooning software bill.

Marketing Your Shopify Sale

Setting up the sale in the backend is only half the battle. You need to drive the right traffic to those offers.

Email Marketing

Your email list is your most valuable asset. Unlike social media followers, you own this data.

• The Tease: Send an email a few days before the sale starts to build anticipation.
• The Launch: A clear, high-energy email announcing that the sale is live.
• The Last Call: Send an email 4 to 6 hours before the sale ends to capture the procrastinators.

Social Proof and Community

Nothing sells a product like seeing someone else enjoy it. If you are selling courses or memberships, use your Tevello community features to showcase student progress. Highlight success stories from brands using native courses to show potential buyers what is possible. When customers see a thriving community of people learning and growing, they are much more likely to hit the "buy" button.

Paid Advertising

If you have a proven offer, paid ads can scale your sale quickly. Use Facebook or Instagram ads to retarget people who have visited your site but haven't made a purchase yet. Direct them to a dedicated landing page designed specifically for the sale to keep their focus on the offer.

Tracking and Analyzing Sale Performance

Once the sale period ends, it is time to look at the data. Shopify’s built-in analytics provide a wealth of information, but you need to know which numbers matter.

Key Metrics to Review

• Conversion Rate: Did the discount actually convince more people to buy, or did it just lower the revenue from people who would have bought anyway?
• Total Sales vs. Profit: High sales volume is great, but did your profit margins hold up after the discounts and ad spend?
• Average Order Value (AOV): Did your "Buy X Get Y" or bundling strategies work to increase the amount spent per customer?
• New vs. Returning Customers: Did the sale help you acquire new users, or was it mostly used by your existing base?

By reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from, you can see how other merchants have used these analytics to refine their strategies over time. Learning from examples of successful content monetization on Shopify can provide you with the benchmarks you need to measure your own success.

Post-Sale Retention Strategies

The biggest mistake a merchant can make is ignoring their customers the moment the sale ends. The post-sale period is the best time to turn a "bargain hunter" into a "brand advocate."

The "Thank You" Sequence

Send an automated email sequence to everyone who purchased during the sale.

1. Immediate Value: Confirm their purchase and provide instant access to any digital components.
2. Education: If they bought a physical product, send a "how-to" guide or a video showing them how to get the most out of it.
3. The Upsell: A few weeks later, offer a discount on a related product or a premium membership tier.

Solving Technical Friction

One common reason for post-sale churn is technical frustration, specifically regarding logins. If a customer has to go to a separate website to access their course, they are likely to lose their password or get frustrated. By solving login issues by moving to a native platform, you ensure that their experience is seamless. They use the same login for their physical orders and their digital content, which significantly reduces support tickets and increases satisfaction.

Building Long-Term Loyalty

Consider migrating over 14,000 members and reducing support tickets as a goal for your own brand. When your ecosystem is unified, your customers feel like they are part of a professional, cohesive brand experience. This is how you move from "selling products" to "building a community."

Case Study: Successful Hybrid Selling

Let's look at how a real-world merchant might use these tools. Imagine "Artisan Baker," a store that sells specialized flour and baking tools. They decide to run a "Summer Sourdough Sale."

1. Preparation: They set a 15% discount on their "Sourdough Starter Kits" using the compare-at price method.
2. The Digital Add-on: They use Tevello to create a "Mastering the Crust" video course.
3. The Bundle: They set up an automatic discount: "Buy any Starter Kit, get the Masterclass for $10 (normally $49)."
4. The Community: They invite all purchasers into their private Tevello community group where they can share photos of their bread.
5. The Result: The merchant sees a spike in physical sales, but their profit is significantly boosted by the high-margin $10 digital add-ons. Even better, they now have a community of hundreds of bakers who are likely to buy more flour and advanced tools in the future.

This is a perfect example of generating revenue from both physical and digital goods while keeping the customer experience entirely within the Shopify environment.

Advanced Tips for Shopify Sales

For those who have mastered the basics of how to set up sale on Shopify, here are a few advanced strategies to take your promotions to the next level.

Segmented Discounts

Not all customers are equal. Use Shopify's customer segments to offer different discounts to different groups.

• VIPs: Give your top 10% of customers early access to the sale.
• Win-back: Offer a steeper discount to someone who hasn't purchased in six months.
• Abandoned Cart: Use a unique discount code in your abandoned cart emails to nudge people over the finish line.

Gamification

Add an element of fun to your sale. You could use a "Spin to Win" wheel that gives customers a chance to win a free digital course or a high-percentage discount. This increases the time spent on your site and makes the shopping experience more memorable.

Native Integration vs. Redirection

We cannot overstate the importance of keeping the customer on your site. When you use all the key features for courses and communities within a native app, you maintain control over the checkout flow. Every time a customer is redirected to an external site (like Teachable or Thinkific), you lose data and the risk of "cart abandonment" increases. A native Shopify experience is always the superior choice for brand consistency.

Conclusion

Learning how to set up sale on Shopify is a fundamental skill for any e-commerce entrepreneur, but the real magic happens when you look beyond the "standard" discount. By combining physical products with high-margin digital courses and memberships, you create a business model that is both resilient and highly profitable. Remember to set clear goals, prepare your store for the influx of traffic, and use native tools that keep your customers engaged on your own domain.

At Tevello, we are here to support your journey from a simple storefront to a comprehensive digital learning powerhouse. With predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees, you can scale your business with confidence, knowing that your software partner is invested in your success, not just your transaction volume.

To build your community without leaving Shopify, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from. Install Tevello today to start your 14-day free trial. You can build your entire curriculum and set up your first community before you ever pay a cent. With 0% transaction fees, you keep every dollar of the growth you work so hard to achieve.

FAQ

1. Can I sell digital courses and physical products in the same Shopify sale? Yes! This is one of the most effective ways to increase your profit margins. By using a native integration, you can bundle a physical product (like a yoga mat) with a digital product (like a yoga course) in a single checkout experience. This simplifies the process for the customer and allows you to offer compelling discounts without sacrificing all your profit.

2. How much does it cost to add course functionality to my Shopify store? At Tevello, we believe in simple and transparent pricing. We offer an Unlimited Plan for $29.99 per month, which includes unlimited courses, students, and video hosting. Best of all, we charge 0% transaction fees, ensuring that your sale revenue stays in your pocket.

3. Do I need a separate website to host my digital products during a sale? No. In fact, we recommend against it. Keeping your customers on your own Shopify URL helps maintain brand trust and reduces login confusion. A native Shopify app allows your digital products to live directly alongside your physical stock, creating a unified login that reduces customer support friction.

4. How do I handle customer access to courses after they buy them on sale? When you use a native integration, access is automated. As soon as the customer completes their purchase, they can log in to their existing Shopify account on your store and see their new digital content immediately. There is no need for you to manually send links or set up accounts, which is especially helpful during high-volume sales events where you want to focus on strategies for selling over 4,000 digital courses natively.