Strategic Ways to Run a Successful Sale on Shopify

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Preparing Your Store for a Successful Sale
3. The Technical Mechanics: How to Create Sale on Shopify
4. Choosing the Right Sale Structure
5. Advanced Strategies for Maximizing Sales Revenue
6. Integrating Tevello into Your Shopify Sales Strategy
7. Real-World Success: Digital Products as a Sales Engine
8. Marketing Your Shopify Sale
9. Analyzing Results and Post-Sale Follow-Up
10. Conclusion
11. Frequently Asked Questions

Introduction

Did you know that the global e-learning market is projected to skyrocket to over $460 billion by 2026? While many merchants focus exclusively on moving physical inventory, the most successful brands are discovering that the secret to sustainable growth lies in blending physical goods with high-margin digital products. Whether you are clearing out last season’s stock or launching a brand-new digital certification, knowing how to create sale on shopify is a fundamental skill that transforms browsers into loyal customers.

The purpose of this guide is to provide a comprehensive roadmap for executing high-impact sales that do more than just discount your prices—they build brand equity and increase Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). We will cover everything from the technical steps of setting "Compare-at" prices in your admin panel to advanced strategies for upselling digital courses and memberships using Tevello. At Tevello, our mission is to turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse, ensuring you own your customer data and keep your community right where they belong: on your own website.

Running a sale should never be a desperate move to fix slow numbers; instead, it should be a calculated strategy designed to reward your community, attract fresh eyes, and introduce your audience to new facets of your brand experience.

Preparing Your Store for a Successful Sale

Before you click a single button in your Shopify admin, you must lay the groundwork. A sale without a plan is often just a race to the bottom on price, which can erode your brand’s perceived value.

Conducting Comprehensive Inventory Checks

The first step in learning how to create sale on shopify is knowing exactly what you have to sell. For physical products, this means auditing your stock levels to prevent the dreaded "Out of Stock" notification during a peak traffic window. However, this is where digital products offer a massive technical advantage. When you offer a digital course or a community membership through our platform, you never have to worry about inventory limits or shipping delays.

For a merchant selling fitness equipment, running a sale on weight sets is great, but bundling that sale with an "8-Week Home Strength" video course ensures that even if the physical weights sell out, the digital value remains infinite. This hybrid model allows you to maintain momentum regardless of supply chain hiccups.

Setting Clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

What does success look like for your sale? If you don’t define your goals, you won’t know if your discount was worth the margin hit. Common objectives include:

• Customer Acquisition: Attracting first-time buyers who have been sitting on the fence.
• Inventory Clearance: Making room for new arrivals by moving slow-moving stock.
• Boosting Average Order Value (AOV): Using "Buy More, Save More" structures to encourage larger carts.
• Increasing LTV: Using a sale as an entry point into a recurring revenue membership.

By establishing these goals early, you can choose the right sales structure. For instance, if your goal is retention, a discount code sent exclusively to your email list is more effective than a sitewide "Compare-at" price change.

The Technical Mechanics: How to Create Sale on Shopify

Shopify provides several native ways to discount products. Understanding which one to use depends on how you want the discount to appear to the customer.

Utilizing the "Compare-at Price" Feature

The most common way to show a sale is by displaying the original price slashed out next to the new, lower price. This creates immediate visual "anchor pricing."

1. Navigate to your Shopify Admin and select Products.
2. Click on the specific product you wish to discount.
3. In the Pricing section, you will see two fields: "Price" and "Compare-at price."
4. Enter the original (higher) price in the Compare-at price field.
5. Enter the new sale price in the Price field.
6. Save your changes.

This method is highly effective because it requires no effort from the customer at checkout. They see the savings immediately on the product page and in their cart.

Bulk Editing for Large-Scale Promotions

If you are running a storewide event, editing products one by one is inefficient. Shopify’s bulk editor allows you to update hundreds of items simultaneously.

1. From the Products page, select all items you want to include in the sale.
2. Click Bulk edit.
3. Ensure the "Price" and "Compare-at price" columns are visible. If not, click Columns to add them.
4. Update the values across the list and click Save.

This is particularly useful for seasonal clearances where you might be marking down an entire collection by a fixed percentage.

Creating Automated Sale Collections

To help customers find your deals, you should create a dedicated "Sale" collection. Instead of adding products manually, use automated rules. Set a condition where "Compare-at price is greater than $0." This ensures that any time you discount a product using the method above, it automatically flies into your sale section, keeping your site organized without extra manual labor.

Choosing the Right Sale Structure

Not every sale should look the same. The psychology of your audience determines which discount format will convert best.

Percentage Discounts vs. Fixed Amount

Percentage discounts (e.g., 20% off) typically perform better for lower-priced items, while fixed dollar amounts (e.g., $50 off) often feel more "real" for high-ticket items. If you are selling a premium digital masterclass, a $100 discount might sound more enticing than a 15% discount, even if the math is similar.

If unifying your stack is a priority, start by a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses. Having a fixed overhead allows you to calculate your sales margins with absolute precision, knowing that your software costs won't spike just because your student count does.

The Power of Buy One, Get One (BOGO)

BOGO deals are fantastic for clearing physical inventory. In the digital space, this looks like "Buy a Physical Planner, Get the 'Time Management' Course Free." This provides the customer with immense perceived value while costing the merchant almost nothing in fulfillment. It’s a strategy we see work wonders for merchants who are generating revenue from both physical and digital goods.

Tiered Discounts

Encourage higher spending by offering tiers: "Save $10 when you spend $50, Save $25 when you spend $100." This naturally increases your AOV. When you integrate all the key features for courses and communities into your store, you can offer these tiers across both product types, allowing a customer to hit a discount threshold by adding a digital workbook to their physical order.

Advanced Strategies for Maximizing Sales Revenue

Once you have the basics down, you can start using more sophisticated tactics to drive conversions and build long-term stability.

Leveraging Scarcity and Urgency

A sale that lasts forever isn't a sale; it's a price drop. To get customers to act, you need a deadline. Using countdown timers on your homepage or "Limited Time Only" banners creates a psychological trigger known as FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).

For digital products, you can use "Drip Content" to create a different kind of urgency. You might run a sale where customers who join your community this week get access to a "Bonus Live Q&A" that won't be available later. This encourages immediate sign-ups without necessarily devaluing the core product.

Recovering Abandoned Carts with Targeted Sales

One of the most effective ways to use a sale is at the point of exit. If a customer leaves a course in their cart, an automated email offering a 10% discount to "complete your purchase" can recover a significant portion of lost revenue. Because Tevello offers predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees, you can afford to offer these small "nudge" discounts without worrying about a platform taking a cut of your recovered sale.

Upselling and Cross-Selling Digital Content

Every physical sale is an opportunity for a digital upsell. Imagine a merchant selling high-end cameras. When a customer purchases a camera, the confirmation page could offer a "Mastering Manual Mode" video course at a 50% discount. This is a high-margin "sale" that requires no additional shipping and provides the customer with immediate gratification.

We have seen this lead to incredible results, such as brands generating over €243,000 by upselling existing customers. By focusing on your existing traffic, you reduce your reliance on expensive paid ads and increase the profitability of every click.

Integrating Tevello into Your Shopify Sales Strategy

At Tevello, we believe that the best sales experience happens when the customer never has to leave your store. Traditional course platforms often redirect users to a different URL (like "yourbrand.thirdpartyplatform.com"), which breaks trust and can lower conversion rates.

The Native Shopify Advantage

Our "Native Shopify Integration" ensures that your courses, communities, and digital products look and feel exactly like the rest of your store. This means:

• Seamless Checkout: Customers use the same Shopify checkout they already trust.
• Unified Account: One login gives them access to their order history for physical goods and their learning dashboard for digital ones.
• Brand Consistency: Your fonts, colors, and URL stay the same, keeping customers at home on the brand website.

Simple, Transparent Pricing for Scalable Sales

When you run a massive sale, you might see a 500% increase in students in a single weekend. Most platforms would punish this success by moving you to a higher pricing tier or charging "success fees." We reject that model.

Our Unlimited Plan is $29.99 per month. That is it. No transaction fees, no per-student fees, and no hidden costs. We provide:

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

This flat-rate structure is essential when you are comparing plan costs against total course revenue. It allows you to run aggressive sales knowing that your profit stays in your pocket, not ours.

Real-World Success: Digital Products as a Sales Engine

To truly understand how to create sale on shopify with a digital twist, let’s look at practical applications.

Case Study: The Crafting Niche

Consider a merchant who sells crochet kits. While the kits are popular, the shipping costs and material margins can be tight. By creating a "Crochet Masterclass" series, the merchant can run a "Digital Summer Sale." Since there is no physical inventory to manage, they can offer deep discounts that drive massive volume. This is exactly how one brand sold $112K+ by bundling courses with their existing products. They didn't just sell a kit; they sold the skill to use it.

Case Study: Professional Photography

In the photography world, gear is expensive and margins are often low. By offering digital presets or post-processing tutorials, a store can run a "Flash Sale" that attracts thousands of customers. This strategy focuses on retention strategies that drive repeat digital purchases, ensuring that the customer who bought a lens today comes back for a tutorial tomorrow.

Marketing Your Shopify Sale

You can have the best discount in the world, but if no one knows about it, your sales will stay at zero.

Email Marketing: Your Highest ROI Channel

Your email list is your most valuable asset. Unlike social media followers, you own this list. For a Shopify sale, we recommend a three-part email sequence:

1. The Tease: 48 hours before the sale, let them know something big is coming.
2. The Launch: When the sale goes live, provide a direct link to the "Sale" collection.
3. The Last Call: 4 hours before the sale ends, remind them that the prices are about to go back up.

Social Media and Influencer Partnerships

Leverage your community to spread the word. If you have a Tevello community integrated into your store, you can announce the sale directly in the social feed where your most engaged members live. This "inner circle" approach makes your members feel valued and often leads to the highest conversion rates.

Additionally, partnering with influencers to offer a unique "Influencer Discount Code" can drive targeted traffic. Make sure to track which codes perform best so you can refine your partnerships for future sales.

Organic SEO and Content Marketing

A sale is a great time to refresh your blog. Writing a post about "How to Use Our New Digital Course to Improve Your Skills" not only helps with SEO but also provides a "soft sell" for your promotion. Using strategies for selling over 4,000 digital courses natively involves creating content that answers customer questions before they even have to ask.

Analyzing Results and Post-Sale Follow-Up

The work isn't over when the sale ends. The data you gather during this period is a goldmine for your future business strategy.

Reviewing Shopify Analytics

Check your Shopify dashboard to see which products were the stars of the show.

• Which discount type had the highest conversion rate?
• Did your AOV go up or down?
• What was the "Attributed Revenue" from your email campaigns?

By starting your 14-day free trial and build your first course now, you can begin collecting this data for your digital offerings as well, seeing exactly how many students are engaging with your content post-purchase.

Nurturing New Customers

A first-time buyer from a sale is a prime candidate for your brand's loyalty program. Don't let them walk away. Send a follow-up email 7 days after the sale thanking them for their purchase and perhaps offering a "New Member" bonus, such as access to a free introductory module in your Tevello-powered academy. This transition from "sale hunter" to "community member" is how you build a business that lasts for years.

Conclusion

Learning how to create sale on shopify is about more than just lowering numbers in your admin panel; it’s about creating a strategic event that energizes your brand and provides genuine value to your customers. By combining the immediate draw of physical product discounts with the high-margin, scalable nature of digital courses and memberships, you create a diversified revenue stream that can withstand any market shift.

At Tevello, we are here to help you bridge that gap. We provide the tools to host your videos, build your community, and manage your students—all within the Shopify ecosystem you already know and love. Remember, our Unlimited Plan at $29.99 per month means you can grow your student base to infinity without ever seeing a "success fee" or a transaction charge on our end. You keep 100% of the revenue you work so hard to generate.

Ready to transform your Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse? We invite you to install Tevello from the Shopify App Store today and take advantage of our 14-day free trial. You can build your entire curriculum, set up your community, and launch your first sale before you ever pay a cent.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I show the original price crossed out on Shopify?

To show a strike-through 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, lower price in the "Price" field. Your Shopify theme will then automatically display the discount to your customers on the product and collection pages.

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

Yes! One of the biggest advantages of using a native integration like Tevello is that your digital courses and physical goods live in the same catalog. You can create a "Storewide Sale" that applies to everything, or use Shopify’s "Automatic Discounts" to trigger a deal when a customer mixes both types of products in their cart.

Will running frequent sales hurt my brand's reputation?

It can if the sales feel random or desperate. To maintain brand equity, always tie your sales to a reason—such as a holiday, a new product launch, or a milestone. Alternatively, offer "value-add" sales, such as a free digital course with a physical purchase, which increases the perceived value of your brand rather than just lowering the price.

Does Tevello charge a percentage of my sales during a promotion?

No. Unlike many other platforms that take a 2% to 10% "success fee" on every transaction, Tevello charges 0% transaction fees. Whether you sell one course or ten thousand during your Shopify sale, your monthly subscription remains the same. This allows you to scale your promotions with complete confidence in your profit margins.