Shopify Sale Bulk Guide: Compare-at Prices, CSV & Discounts

To put many Shopify products on sale at once, select them in your admin, open the bulk editor and set each variant’s Compare-at price to the original price and its Price to the sale price. For larger catalogs, update both columns in a product CSV, or create an automatic discount that applies to whole collections without changing your prices.

The right method depends on how you want the sale to look and how long it runs. Compare-at prices show crossed-out prices on your product pages, while automatic discounts apply in the cart and at checkout and end on a date you choose.

How Sale Prices Work in Shopify

A Shopify sale price uses two fields. Price is what the customer pays, and Compare-at price is the original price that your theme shows crossed out next to it.

The compare-at price must be higher than the price for the sale to show. Where and how it appears depends on your theme, and many themes add a sale badge or percentage-off label that you can adjust in theme settings.

Discounts are a separate feature. They reduce the price in the cart and at checkout, but they don’t show crossed-out prices on product and collection pages unless you use a third-party app or a custom solution.

How to Put Products on Sale in Bulk in Shopify

The bulk editor is the quickest native way to set sale prices for a group of products. Each variant appears as its own row, so you can set different sale prices for sizes or colors.

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products.
2. Filter the list to find the products for the sale, such as by collection, tag or vendor, then select them.
3. Click Bulk edit.
4. Click Columns and add the price and Compare-at price columns.
5. Enter the original price in each compare-at cell and the sale price in each price cell.
6. Click Save.

Copy the current prices into the compare-at column first, then enter the new sale prices. You can select several cells and type a value once, or drag a cell’s fill handle to copy it down when many products share the same prices.

Give every variant of a product the same treatment. If some variants have a compare-at price and others are blank or $0.00, collection pages may not show the product as on sale.

The bulk editor handles up to 50 products at a time and can’t calculate percentages, so work in batches. For a storewide sale or a percentage discount across many products, a CSV is faster.

Put Products on Sale With a CSV

A product CSV lets you calculate sale prices with spreadsheet formulas and update hundreds of products in one import. Follow these steps:

1. Export your products. Go to Products > Export and download the products in the sale.
2. Keep a backup. Save an untouched copy, which you’ll use to restore prices when the sale ends.
3. Set the compare-at prices. Copy each variant’s current Price into the Compare-at price column.
4. Calculate the sale prices. Use a formula in the Price column, such as =ROUND(B2*0.8,2) for 20% off an original price in cell B2, then paste the results as values.
5. Import the file. Go to Products > Import, select Overwrite products with matching handles and import.

Enter prices without currency symbols, such as 24.99. Keep the URL handle, Title and option columns so each price lands on the right variant, and test the file on a few products before importing everything.

If you manage product data across Shopify, WooCommerce or Wix, Bulkflow supports bulk import, export and updates to existing product records with field mapping. That can help when you prepare sale prices in a file and need to update many products at once.

Run a Bulk Sale With Automatic Discounts

An automatic discount puts many products on sale without editing their prices. It applies to the products or collections you choose, starts and ends on set dates and needs no code at checkout.

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Discounts and click Create discount.
2. Choose Amount off products and select Automatic discount.
3. Set the percentage or fixed amount and choose the products or collections it applies to.
4. In Active dates, set the start date and, optionally, an end date.
5. Click Save.

You can have up to 25 active automatic discounts, and app-based discounts count toward that limit. Automatic discounts show a crossed-out price at checkout, but product pages show the regular price unless an app displays the discount.

Each approach suits a different kind of sale, so compare them before you start. This table shows the main differences:

Create a Sale Collection Automatically

A sale collection gives shoppers one page with every discounted product. With compare-at prices, an automated collection can fill itself.

Create a collection that uses a condition based on compare-at price, such as compare-at price is greater than 0. Products join when you set a compare-at price and leave when you clear it, so the collection stays current through each sale.

Add the collection to your menu or homepage during the sale. Because it updates automatically, you don’t need to add or remove products by hand.

End a Bulk Sale

Compare-at sales don’t end on their own, so plan how you’ll restore prices before the sale starts. Import your backup CSV with overwrite selected, or use the bulk editor to restore each price and clear the compare-at column.

Clear compare-at values completely for products that are no longer on sale. Leaving an old compare-at price higher than the regular price keeps a sale label on the product indefinitely.

If you need sale prices to start and end at set times, use an automatic discount, a price scheduling app or, on Shopify Plus, Launchpad. Launchpad can change prices when an event starts and restore them when it ends.

Use Apps for Bulk Sales

Sale apps add features that Shopify’s native tools lack, such as percentage changes, scheduling and automatic price reversal. They generally work in one of two ways.

• Price-editing apps change prices and compare-at prices for many products, often on a schedule, and restore the original prices when the sale ends.
• Discount apps apply discounts to products or collections without changing prices, and some show the discounted price on product pages.

Code-generator apps are a separate category that create large batches of unique discount codes rather than running a storewide sale. Check whether an app changes your actual prices or applies discounts, because that affects reports, feeds and how the sale ends.

Sales in International Markets

If you sell in several markets, fixed prices in market catalogs override the prices and compare-at prices you set in your admin. A sale set only on your base prices won’t change fixed international prices.

You can set fixed sale prices for international markets by importing a CSV, using the market-specific Price and Compare-at price columns. A fixed compare-at price for a market requires a fixed price for that market too.

Common Problems With Bulk Sales

Most sale display issues come from compare-at values or theme settings. Watch for these:

• The sale price doesn’t show. The compare-at price isn’t higher than the price.
• The product isn’t marked on sale on collection pages. Some variants have no compare-at price or $0.00 while others are blank.
• No sale badge appears. Your theme doesn’t show one or it’s turned off in theme settings.
• Product pages show full prices during a discount. Automatic discounts only show at checkout without an app.
• International prices didn’t change. Those markets use fixed catalog prices.
• Old products still show sale labels. Their compare-at prices weren’t cleared after the sale.

Conclusion

Running a Shopify sale in bulk is straightforward once you choose between compare-at prices and automatic discounts. Planning how the sale starts, how it looks and how it ends keeps your prices accurate before, during and after each promotion. We hope this guide helps you run Shopify sale bulk updates with confidence. To import and update product data in bulk, you can explore Bulkflow.