What is Compare At Price on Shopify? | How to use it to boost sales.
If you've set up products on your Shopify store, you may have come across a field called "compare-at-price".
This can be confusing given there's also a field called "price".
This is a common question and were going to break down what both fields mean, and how to use them to boost your on site conversions!
What is compare-at-price?
When entering your product data in Shopify, you may notice there's two price fields, one called "price" and another called "compare-at-price".
"Price" is where you enter your current selling price - ie. the price that will display on your storefront and customers will be able to purchase the product at this price.
"Price" is essential on all products.
"Compare-at-price" is an optional field that can be used to hold the product's RRP or original price.
This then allows a comparision between the "price" and the "compare-at-price".
How to use compare-at-price to boost sales conversions:
If you have discounted items on your store - that is, they are selling below RRP - using the compare-at-field is a powerful way to convert shoppers.
When your "price" is lower than your "compare-at-price", your products will be displayed as "on sale".
The exact features this triggers will vary between themes, but generally this involves adding the original price with a strikethrough and the sale price alongside. eg $̶2̶9̶9̶ $199
Why this boosts conversions:
Displaying a strikethrough price shown to dramatically influence shopper behavior and can increase conversions significantly versus if the same price was displayed on it's own.
A strikethough and sale price trigger a range of psychological effects in the shopper such as:
Anchor pricing - the original price is used as a reference point and makes the new price seem like a deal
Loss aversion - when the shopper see's "was $299 now $199" they think if I don't buy now I'm losing $100 in value
FOMO - The strikethough acts as a visual cue that the deal is temporary
Reduces hesitation - humans rely heavily on shortcuts (heuristics) to judge value - a strikethrough makes the price seem more valueable
A strikethrough is one of the most powerful pricing psychology tools available in ecommerce. It’s why every major retailer and marketplace in the world uses strikethrough pricing as a core conversion technique.
If you're not using your compare-at-field, you're almost certainly missing out on sale conversions.
How to run sales automatically using the compare-at-field:
If you’d rather skip the manual work of updating prices manually for your next sale, Discount Pal automates the entire process.
Set up your sale campaign and Discount Pal will update your "price" and "compare-at-price" fields to suit - so you can maximize conversions!
Discount Pal works like Shopify’s built-in Discounts app — you still choose products and set up sale campaigns — but it uses a smarter process that displays discounted prices across your whole store using your theme’s native sale design elements. Plus it has other useful features like auto-tagging to make campaign set up quick and easy.
Key Benefits
✅ No coding or complex setup required
✅ Works with any theme, using its built-in sale styling
✅ Shows sale price + strike-through site-wide (huge conversion boost)
✅ Syncs prices automatically to Google Shopping feed
✅ Schedule start and end times for campaigns
✅ Auto-tags products for collection creation
✅ Advanced product selection system for precision targeting
In short — it’s everything merchants wish the default Discounts app did.