How to schedule product badges on Shopify

Why schedule badges

Campaign badges tend to go up late and come down later. A "Weekend sale" badge still showing on Tuesday makes the store look neglected, and can confuse shoppers if the discount has already ended. Scheduling lets you prepare the badge in advance and have it start and stop on its own.

• Prepare seasonal campaigns days or weeks ahead.
• Avoid outdated promotional messages after an event ends.
• Run several campaigns back to back, each with its own badge.
• Show a "Coming soon" or launch badge only during the launch week.

Scheduling also reduces mistakes in busy weeks. When several promotions overlap, it is easy to forget one badge. Setting the dates while you plan the campaign means the storefront follows the plan even on days you are not at your desk.

Your options on Shopify

Shopify lets you schedule some things natively, for example discounts with a start and end date. Product badges added by a theme don't usually have their own schedule: a theme sale badge appears whenever a product has a compare-at price, and custom badges added with code stay until you remove them.

If you schedule a discount in Shopify, scheduling the matching badge on the same dates keeps your store consistent. See Shopify's guide to discounts for the discount side.

Step by step: schedule a badge

1. Create or open the label

   Use + Add Label or + Add Automation Label, or click Edit on an existing label. Scheduling works for both kinds.

2. Design it

   Finish the General and Design tabs as usual.

3. Set Custom Date

   On Display condition, change Visibility Date from Immediately to Custom Date.

4. Pick the dates

   Choose a Start date and/or an End date. Leave one empty for no limit on that side. Use the clear button next to a date to remove it.

5. Activate and save now

   Click Activate, then Save. The label is active but stays hidden until the start date, so you can set it up well in advance.

6. Check the list

   On Product Labels, the label shows as Active. It appears on your storefront only inside its date range.

Visibility Date settings and timing

How midnight UTC affects your dates

Each date means midnight UTC at the start of the day you pick. The label appears from midnight UTC on the Start date and is hidden from midnight UTC on the End date. In practice:

• To show a badge through the whole of 25 December, set the End date to 26 December.
• Stores west of UTC (for example the Americas) see the switch the previous evening local time. Midnight UTC is 7 pm the day before in New York during winter.
• Stores east of UTC (for example Asia and Australia) see the switch in the morning local time.

Example: a back-to-back campaign calendar

A homeware store plans November and December in one sitting:

Each label is activated and saved in early November. The store owner doesn't need to remember to switch anything on or off.

Notice that the automation sale label is scheduled too. The On sale condition decides which products get it, and Visibility Date decides when it is allowed to show, so the discount badge only appears during the sale even if some products keep a compare-at price afterwards.

Tips and common mistakes

• Activate scheduled labels. A label must be Active for its dates to work. An inactive label never shows, even inside its date range.
• Add a day to the end date if you want the badge to last through the final day.
• Combine with targeting. Dates work alongside Products, Show On Pages and Show On Locations. A label shows only when all of them match.
• Don't delete finished campaigns straight away. Expired labels stay hidden. You can edit the dates next year and reuse the design.
• Not showing? Check that today, in UTC, is between the dates, then refresh your storefront.

Frequently asked questions