How do I set the compare-at price and the sale price on Shopify for a 30% sale?

The two fields and what they mean

Shopify does not ask for a discount percentage on the product page. It wants two numbers: what the customer pays now, in Price, and what the product used to cost, in Compare-at price. When the second is higher than the first, most themes show the old price struck through next to the new one, and some add a sale badge or a percentage. How it looks depends on your theme.

Work out the sale price

1. Open the Discount calculator and type your normal price, 249 here.
2. Type 30 as the discount and pick your store currency from the currency list.
3. Copy the final price, 174.3, into the Price field.
4. Enter 249 in Compare-at price. The saving the customer sees is 74.7.

When your prices end in cents

A product at 79.99 with 30% off comes out at 55.99 in the calculator, with a saving of 24.00. The calculator rounds the price to the nearest cent and works out the saving from the rounded price, so both figures match what Shopify derives from the two fields.

When you want a round price

Plenty of sellers prefer 174 to 174.3. That is fine, but the real rate shifts slightly: the saving becomes 75, and 75 ÷ 249 × 100 = 30.12%. If your theme shows a percentage it will show that or a rounded version. If your ad says '30% off', rounding down favours the customer, which is safer than rounding up and delivering less than you advertised.

• Do not inflate the Compare-at price to make the percentage look bigger. It should be a price you genuinely sold at.
• Put both fields back when the sale ends: the normal price in Price, and clear Compare-at price or handle it however you usually do.
• If an automatic discount or a code also runs in Shopify, it applies to the Price field. Enter both discounts in the calculator to see what the customer really pays.
• Check your margin at the new price in the Profit margin calculator before you save.

For a large catalogue

The calculator handles one product at a time. For a handful of sale items that is the quickest route. To reprice hundreds of products, Shopify's bulk editing tools are the better fit; then spot-check a few products in the calculator to make sure the figures are right.