Selecting products for a task
You choose the products for a task in the Target items dropdown, which has five options: all products, specific products, specific collections, tags or product types. The same options appear in Flash Sale tasks and Price Edit tasks. The Free plan can target all products or specific products. Targeting by collection, tag or product type is on paid plans.
The five targets
Section titled “The five targets”| Target | Applies to | A good fit for |
|---|---|---|
| All products | Every product in the store | Storewide sales |
| Specific products | Products you pick with Browse products | Small, curated sales and test runs |
| Specific collections | Products in the collections you choose | Category sales |
| Tags | Products carrying the tags you choose | Sales that cut across categories |
| Product types | Products of the types you choose | Sales by kind of product |
Plan limits
Section titled “Plan limits”| Free plan | Paid plans | |
|---|---|---|
| Target items | All products or specific products | All five options |
| Product variants | 50 product variants in total across active tasks | Unlimited |
See Plans and limits.
Which target should I use?
Section titled “Which target should I use?”- Selling everything at one discount? Use All products.
- A short list? Use Specific products.
- A group that already exists as a collection? Use Specific collections, after reading the caution about automated collections below.
- A group that does not match any collection? Add a tag to those products in Shopify admin and target the tag.
- Different discount depths? Create one tag per depth, for example
sale-20andsale-40, and one task per tag.
Variants count, not products
Section titled “Variants count, not products”Limits and timing are measured in product variants. A T-shirt in 4 sizes and 3 colours is 12 variants. This matters in two places:
- The Free plan covers 50 product variants in total across your active tasks.
- Processing time: for every 3,000 product variants, it takes about 5 minutes to run the price change.
Automated collections need care
Section titled “Automated collections need care”Example: a collection holds every product priced over $500. A 50% sale takes a $600 product to $300, Shopify removes it from the collection, and the task cannot find it when it is time to revert.
Full explanation and what to do instead: Tasks on automated collections.
Changing a collection while a task uses it
Section titled “Changing a collection while a task uses it”When a collection is the target, adding or removing products affects the task:
- A product added to a collection takes time to settle. Create or edit the collection, wait, then create the task. If you create it too soon, it may not pick up the product when it starts.
- A product removed from the collection while the task is running is not found at the revert, because the task searches the collection to find the prices to revert. It keeps its sale price.
Our advice: finish editing the collection before the task starts, and leave it alone until the task has reverted. Details: Tasks on automated collections.
When two tasks target the same product
Section titled “When two tasks target the same product”Multiple tasks can run at the same time, but keep each product in one active task at a time. A second Flash Sale task stacks on the first, a Price Edit decrease has no effect while a Flash Sale task is active on the product, and reverting the second Flash Sale task returns the product to its original price, undoing the first as well. See the worked example.
To keep results easy to predict:
- Avoid overlapping targets where you can.
- Give each task its own start and end time. A task can get stuck if two tasks start or end at the same time. See Staggering tasks.