What Is Compare at Price on Shopify? Full Guide

The Hidden Problem with Shopify's Compare at Price

If you've ever set up a sale on Shopify, you've probably seen the "Compare at price" field. It's that little box where you enter the original price so customers can see how much they're saving. Sounds simple enough, right?

Here's the problem: compare at price works great for manual markdowns, but the moment you start using discount codes or automatic discounts, everything falls apart. Your customers land on your product pages, see full prices, and leave. Never knowing there was a deal waiting for them at checkout.

This is one of the biggest missed opportunities in e-commerce. You're running promotions, spending money on ads, and sending out emails with discount codes. But around 70% of shoppers never even reach the cart page. They're making buying decisions based on what they see upfront, and what they see is your regular price, not the discounted one.

The good news? There's a way to show your compare at price savings across your entire store, not just on manually marked-down items. Let's break down how this works and how you can stop losing customers to invisible discounts.

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What Is Compare at Price on Shopify?

Compare at price is Shopify's built-in feature for showing original prices alongside sale prices. When you fill in this field, your theme displays the original price with a strikethrough next to your current selling price. This creates the classic "was $50, now $35" effect that shoppers love.

The feature exists because visible savings drive purchases. When customers see they're getting a deal, they feel smarter about buying and more motivated to act quickly.

However, compare at price has a major limitation: it only works when you manually change product prices. If you're running a Shopify discount code or automatic discount, this field doesn't update automatically. Your products still show full prices everywhere, until the customer reaches checkout.

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Why This Matters for Your Shopify Conversion Rate

Think about how people actually shop online. They browse your collection pages, click on products that catch their eye, and make quick decisions about whether something is worth buying. Most of this happens before they ever add anything to cart.

If your shopify discounts only appear at checkout, you're hiding your best selling point until it's too late. Customers who might have purchased at the discounted price never see it, so they bounce. This directly impacts your Shopify conversion rate and leads to unnecessary cart abandonment.

Research in retail psychology shows that strike-through pricing isn't just a visual trick. It creates a sense of urgency, builds trust through transparency, and helps customers feel confident they're making a good decision. But none of this works if the comparison isn't visible when it matters most.

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The Gap Between Discount Codes and Visible Pricing

Here's where things get frustrating for most Shopify store owners.

You create a promotion, maybe 20% off for first-time buyers or a seasonal sale. You set up your Shopify automatic discounts or generate a discount code. You promote it everywhere: emails, Instagram, Facebook ads. Customers click through, excited about the deal.

Then they land on your store and see... full prices. No strikethrough. No savings displayed. Just regular prices that don't reflect the promotion you just advertised.

The discount technically exists. It'll apply at checkout. But your customers don't know that. They see prices that look higher than expected and leave, thinking your ad was misleading or the deal already ended.

This disconnect between your promotions and your product displays is costing you sales every single day. You're essentially running secret sales that only reveal themselves to the small percentage of visitors who make it all the way to checkout.

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How Adsgun Makes Compare at Price Work Everywhere

This is exactly the problem Adsgun was built to solve.

Adsgun connects your Shopify discount codes and automatic discounts to your storefront display. When a customer visits your store with an active promotion, they see the discounted prices immediately on collection pages, product pages, and in the cart. No waiting until checkout. No confusion about pricing.

Here's what this looks like in practice. A customer clicks your Instagram ad promoting 25% off with code SUMMER25. They land on your store, and every eligible product shows the original price crossed out with the sale price displayed prominently. The compare at price effect you've been missing with discount codes suddenly works exactly as it should.

The difference this makes for your shopping experience is significant. Customers immediately see the value they're getting. They don't have to wonder if the discount is real or try to calculate savings in their head. Everything is transparent from the first click, which builds trust and keeps them moving toward checkout.

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Setting Up Visible Discounts With Adsgun

Getting started with Adsgun takes just a few minutes. The app integrates directly with your existing Shopify discounts, you don't need to recreate anything or change how you set up promotions.

Once installed, you configure which promotions should display visible pricing and where. Adsgun can show strike-through prices on your collection pages, product detail pages, and cart. You can also display a savings summary so customers always know exactly how much they're saving.

The setup works with any Shopify theme, and for store owners who aren't developers, the Adsgun support team handles the configuration free of charge. There's no coding required on your end.

What makes this particularly powerful is how it works across all your marketing channels. Whether customers arrive from email campaigns, paid ads on Facebook or TikTok, or organic search, they see the same consistent discounted pricing throughout their user journey. This eliminates the disconnect between your promotional messaging and your actual store display.

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Strategies to Increase Sales With Visible Pricing

Making your discounts visible is just the first step. Here are some practical ways to maximize the impact. (Want even more ideas? See our full guide on how to push sales on Shopify.)

• Match your ads to your landing pages. When you promote a specific discount, make sure customers see that exact discount reflected in prices the moment they arrive. This consistency reduces bounce rate and keeps shoppers engaged.
• Use savings summaries in cart. Showing customers a clear breakdown of how much they're saving reinforces the value of their purchase right before checkout. This reduces second-guessing and encourages them to complete the order.
• Combine with urgency elements. Visible discounts work even better when paired with countdown timers or limited-stock messaging. Customers can see both the savings and the reason to act now.
• Test different display formats. Some audiences respond better to percentage-off displays while others prefer seeing the exact dollar amount saved. Experiment to find what drives the best results for your store.

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The Bottom Line

Compare at price is one of Shopify's most powerful conversion tools, but it doesn't work with discount codes out of the box. If you're running promotions and wondering why they're not converting, this visibility gap is likely the culprit.

The fix is straightforward: display your discounted prices everywhere customers look, not just at checkout. When shoppers can see the savings upfront, they're more likely to trust your store, stay engaged, and complete their purchase.

Tools like Adsgun make this automatic by connecting your existing Shopify promotions to your storefront display. Instead of hoping customers make it to checkout to discover their discount, you show them the value immediately, which is exactly how effective retail has always worked.

If you're ready to stop losing customers to invisible discounts, making your compare at price visible across your entire store is the place to start.