Staggering task start and end times
Give every PriceDip task its own start and end time, and space the tasks out by about 5 minutes for every 3,000 product variants in the earlier task. When two tasks start together, the order they start in is not guaranteed, and if both change the same products, the price can be changed twice, by an amount you cannot predict.
What happens if two tasks start at the same time?
Section titled “What happens if two tasks start at the same time?”Two tasks scheduled to start at the same moment have no guaranteed order. If they change the same products, the price can be changed twice, by an amount you cannot predict. For example, a second 30% price cut on top of a first takes a $100 product to $49, not $70. A task can also get stuck. Our advice: do not stack tasks on the same products at the same time.
This applies to end times as much as start times.
Several tasks can be active over the same period, as long as each product is in one active task at a time. Keep the start and end moments of tasks apart. See what happens when several tasks change the same product.
How long does a price change take?
Section titled “How long does a price change take?”A price change takes about 5 minutes for every 3,000 product variants. Our estimate is that a revert takes about as long.
Base the gap between two tasks on the size of the earlier task, so the first task has time to finish before the second starts.
Example: task 1 has 3,000 product variants and is scheduled to start at 11:00 pm today. Task 2 should be scheduled to start at 11:10 pm at the earliest: the 5 minutes of processing plus a 5-minute buffer.
Estimated gaps for larger tasks
Section titled “Estimated gaps for larger tasks”The rows below scale that rate in a straight line. They are our estimates. Our advice: add 5 minutes to each of them for the gap between two tasks.
| Variants in the earlier task | Estimated processing time |
|---|---|
| Up to 3,000 | 5 minutes |
| 6,000 | 10 minutes |
| 9,000 | 15 minutes |
| 15,000 | 25 minutes |
| 30,000 | 50 minutes |
Count variants, not products. A product with 6 sizes is 6 variants.
Worked example: a Black Friday launch
Section titled “Worked example: a Black Friday launch”Example: you want three sales live for Black Friday, each on different products. Each gap is the earlier task’s processing time plus 5 minutes.
| Task | Variants | Gap to allow after it | Start | End |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outerwear, 30% off | 3,000 | 10 min | Thu 11:00 pm | Mon 11:00 pm |
| Footwear, 20% off | 6,000 | 15 min | Thu 11:10 pm | Mon 11:10 pm |
| Accessories, 40% off | 1,500 | 10 min | Thu 11:25 pm | Mon 11:25 pm |
On our estimate the last task finishes at about 11:30 pm, so everything is live before midnight. Each task finishes its price change before the next one starts. Space the end times by the same gaps.
Our advice: announce the sale from midnight, when the last task should have finished on our estimate, to Monday 11:00 pm, when the first task ends. Prices can stay a little past an end time, so allow for that in what you promise shoppers.
How to plan a schedule
Section titled “How to plan a schedule”- List every task for the event.
- Estimate the variants in each.
- Sort them. Our advice: put your best sellers first, so they are live even if a later task overruns.
- Give the first task its start time.
- Add each task’s processing time plus 5 minutes to get the next start time.
- Apply the same gaps to the end times. Our estimate is that reverts take about as long as the price change.
- If the sale must be live at a set moment, work backwards so the last task finishes before it.
Recurring tasks
Section titled “Recurring tasks”Give weekly and monthly tasks different times too. If two recurring tasks both run on Fridays, do not let them start or end at the same time. For recurring schedules, see Recurring daily or weekly deals.
A task looks stuck
Section titled “A task looks stuck”- On the app dashboard, find the task in Task overview.
- Check whether another task was scheduled to start or end at the same time.
- Wait for the processing time: about 5 minutes for every 3,000 product variants.
- Open a few of the task’s products in Shopify admin and on your storefront, and note which prices changed and which did not.
- If prices have still not changed, contact support@pricedip.app. Include the task name, the name of any task scheduled for the same time, and the products you checked. Do not delete the task: deleting an Active task leaves its prices as they are. More checks, including the task’s Status and start time, are in the Troubleshooting & FAQ.