With Shopify alone
A flash sale with Shopify alone means lowering prices and setting compare-at prices right at the start, then putting them back a few hours later: two rounds of bulk edits at the exact minute. Outside Shopify Plus with Launchpad, nothing changes product prices at a set time.
A discount code or an automatic discount can be scheduled for a few hours, but it applies at checkout: shoppers who come from your email or post see full prices on the product pages. Whether they see a countdown depends on your theme.
Step by step with Market Manager
- Create a sale and pick the products, a collection or the whole catalog, or describe it to AI.
- Set the discount, then the start and the end time in your store's time zone. Check each variant's new price in the preview.
- Turn on the countdown and the sale badges in the theme editor, once.
- Schedule it. Within a minute of the start the sale is active; when it ends, every original price comes back.
What Market Manager does
- Starts and ends the sale at the times you set, in your store's time zone
- A countdown to the end of the sale, and sale badges on products in it
- Shows the saving with the compare-at price
- Puts every original price back when the sale ends, or at once if you cancel it
- Keeps every price above your price protection rules
What it doesn't
- Changing prices takes time on a big sale: about 9 minutes for 50,000 variants. On a large catalog, allow for it in a short sale.
- The countdown and badges are theme app blocks: you turn them on once in the theme editor.
- On the Free plan a sale holds up to 25 products and one sale runs at a time.
On the Free plan
Your questions
Can a flash sale run for just one evening?
Yes. Set the start and the end time; the sale starts and ends on its own in your store's time zone.
Does the countdown show the time left on the product page?
Yes, once you turn the countdown block on in the theme editor. It counts down to the end of the sale.
Can I end a flash sale early?
Yes. Cancel the sale and every saved price comes back at once.
Learn it step by step
- TutorialEdit, pause and repeat salesChange a sale while it runs, move its dates on the timeline, pause one product or the whole sale, make it repeat, and run an ended sale again.
- TutorialHoliday sales and templatesPlan Black Friday, Christmas and other holiday sales from Coming up, the Sales calendar and ready templates, and save your own sale as a template.
- TutorialCountdown, banner and low stockShow the time left in a sale on product pages, an announcement banner while a sale runs, and an honest Only N left badge from your real stock.
Related use cases
- How to Schedule a Sale on Shopify, Step by StepHow to schedule a sale on Shopify so prices drop and come back on their own: what Shopify offers, what it doesn't, and the steps with Market Manager.
- Black Friday Sale on Shopify: Plan It Once, Let It RunSchedule a Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale on Shopify: prices drop at the start, a countdown runs and every original price comes back after.
- Compare-at Price on Shopify: Show the Saving, Then UndoShow the original price crossed out during a Shopify sale with compare-at prices, and put every price and compare-at back when the sale ends.
Run your next sale with Market Manager
Free plan. Paid plans start with a 7-day free trial.