If you’re looking for information about sale price and promotions (for Shopify-integrated users) in Merchant Center Next, click here.
Show a deal on your products by adding a sale price or promotion. Note that promotions in Merchant Center are referred to as discounts in Shopify.
When you set a discount or sale price on your products, Google will feature a “SALE” annotation and strikethrough price, or a promotion annotation like “25% Off” or “$40 Off” that can help your sale stand out to shoppers. You can do this manually by setting a sale price on individual products or by creating a promotion with specific start and end dates for multiple products.
On this page
- Benefits
- How to choose between sale price and promotions
- How sale price and promotions display on Google
- Promotion types supported
- How to activate sale price in Shopify
- How to activate promotions in Shopify
- Get ready for shopping events with sale price and promotions
Benefits
-
Increased sales: Offering discounts or promotions can entice customers to make purchases they might have otherwise postponed, resulting in increased sales for your business.
-
Customer attraction: Sales and promotions can attract new customers who are looking for a good deal, expanding your customer base.
- Build trust: Sales and promotions help in showcasing your product and business benefits resulting in building customer loyalty.
How to choose between sale price and promotions
When to use sale price
Use the sale price setting on products when you want to show a temporary, discounted price for an item on Google Search, Shopping ads, and the Shopping tab.
Example: A t-shirt is normally priced at $20. You offer a sale price of $15 for the next 2 weeks. This is a valid sale price.
When to use promotions
Use promotions to advertise specific offers on multiple products. You can set different conditions for promotions, such as a discount that will apply automatically for a certain group of products during a set date range.
Example: At the end of the summer, you offer a discount on seasonal apparel. You set a promotion for 15% off all shorts, sandals, and swimsuits, valid for 2 weeks. No coupon is needed and the shopper will view the promotion automatically at checkout.
How sale price and promotions display on Google
Sale price
If the sale price and original base price meet certain conditions, both prices and sale price annotations will appear across different Google platforms like Google Search, Shopping ads, and the Shopping tab. The sale price will show as the current price alongside the original price, which will show with a strikethrough. Your product will also show a badge that highlights your sale. The specific colors used for annotations differ depending on where your product appears.
Promotions
Promotions allow you to distribute online offers across different Google platforms like Google Search, Shopping ads, and the Shopping tab. You can offer your customers an amount off discount on products, collections, or variants in your store.
Promotion types supported
The following promotion types created in Shopify can be connected with Merchant Center:
- Discount codes: Fixed value or percentage discounts code on products and variants.
- Automatic discounts: Discounts that apply automatically at checkout and in the shopping cart. You can create automatic discounts for a percentage or a fixed amount.
- Collection discounts: Discounts that apply to all the products that you’ve grouped into a specific collection in your store. Each collection cannot contain more than 250 products. You can apply a collection discount to up to 4 collections.
Promotion types not supported
At this time, the following types of promotions and conditions can’t be connected to your Merchant Center account:
- Any free shipping promotions
- Buy X get Y promotions
- Local in-store discounts
- Only online discounts will be connected with Merchant Center
- Discounts targeted to specific users
- Promotions without an end date
- Promotions with a start date older than 6 months
Additionally, promotions aren’t supported if your account has no active US offers regardless of the promotion target country.
How to activate sale price in Shopify
When your product shows with sale price annotations, your sales stand out and potential customers can view how much they’ll save on that purchase.
You can manually set sale prices for individual products without using discount codes. When you put a product on sale for a lower price, you might want your customers to be able to view the original price to understand the price comparison. To show a sale price in your online store and across Google, your product details need to include a compare-at price which displays both the sale price and the original price.
Steps to set a compare-at price for a product
- In the left navigation menu of your Shopify admin page, click Products.
- Click on the name of the product that you want to edit.
- In the “Pricing” section, do the following:
- In the “Compare-at price” field, enter the product's original price.
- In the “Price” field, enter the product's new sale price.
- Make sure that the value in the “Compare-at price” field is higher than the value in the “Price” field to display the sale price.
- Click Save.
Learn more about setting sale prices for products in Shopify.
Sale price best practices
Turn on the Automatic Product Sync setting in your Google & YouTube app so that when you set a compare-at price in Shopify, the new pricing is automatically shared with Google Merchant Center. For more information on how compare-at price will display on Google, read sale_price specifications. On your online store, the product listing should update with the sale price within a few hours.
How to activate promotions in Shopify
Promotions are referred to as discounts in Shopify.
You can create discount codes and automatic discounts directly in your Shopify admin and then sync them to the Google & YouTube app.
- In the left navigation menu of your Shopify admin page, click Discounts.
- Click on the name of the discount that you want to publish on Google & YouTube channel.
- In the “Sales channels” section, click Manage.
- Select Google & YouTube channel where you want this discount to be visible and promoted.
- Click Done.
Learn how to Create and manage promotions within Shopify.
You can manage your promotions in your Merchant Center account. Learn how to Edit a promotion or change promotion status.
Promotions best practices
- Optimize visibility: For effective promotion of your products on Google, make sure to fill out the Discounts section in Shopify correctly.
- Check your promotion status: You can check the status of all your active promotions in the Shopify admin by navigating to the “Discounts” tab and reviewing the “Status” column. If one of your promotions is disapproved, the disapproval reason will be listed on the page. You’ll also receive an email notification with instructions for how to fix the issue.
- Maintain approval rate: Keep your historical promotions approval rate high and stay updated with the latest promotion policies.
- Collections: Use collections to make it easier to group specific products and apply a promo to that group.
- Prepare for the holidays: Prepare for the holiday season by setting clear objectives and maintaining updated inventory and pricing. Look at the best sellers report for trending categories and other insights to help inform your sales strategy.
- Be ready to adjust in real-time: Continuously monitor promotion performance and adjust strategies as needed. Modify sales and promotion end dates, allocate budgets wisely, and use the report editor for evaluation.
Get ready for shopping events with sale price and promotions
Before a big retail event, make sure your Merchant Center account is fully approved and your products are optimized for Shopping ads.
- Check your account for disapproved products: Disapproved products won't show on Google platforms, so it's important to resolve any issues before your sale event. You can view your disapproved products list under the Products tab in your Merchant Center account.
- Set sale prices on any products that you're discounting for the event: Remember, the sale price must be lower than the original price, and the original price must have been in effect for at least 30 days.
- Create promotions for any special offers you're running: These promotions include offers like free shipping, bundled discounts, and flash sales.
- Make sure your product titles and descriptions are accurate and up-to-date: This will help your products show up for more relevant searches on Google Search, Shopping ads, and the Shopping tab.
- Use high-quality images for your products: Good product images will make your listings more appealing to potential customers.
- Follow all Shopping ads policies: Following these policies will help ensure that your ads are compliant and that your products are eligible to show on Google Search, Shopping ads, and the Shopping tab.