Can you assign variable prices to POS items?

Retail & Point of Sale

Topic summary

Ability to set variable/open prices for POS items (enter price at checkout per item) remains unsupported natively in Shopify POS, despite requests dating back to 2014. Merchants need this for items like remnants or unique pieces while retaining inventory and reporting.

Current state: Shopify POS lets staff override price via Discounts > Price override on an item, but it only reduces price—cannot increase above the set price. “Quick sale/Custom sale” works but requires typing item names each time and lacks per-item/category reporting.

Workarounds noted:

  • Use “meal-dollars/meal-cents” products and adjust quantities to reach total price.
  • Apply discounts or keep a calculator to hit target totals.
  • Developer JS template to create products on the fly (impractical at busy checkout).

Recent updates:

  • Third‑party app “POS Variable Price Products” (Filljoy) enables variable pricing; includes tax‑exempt line items, inventory adjustment, and COGS reporting. A demo video is provided.
  • “Draftable” app adds the ability to increase line‑item prices in draft orders for invoicing online without changing store prices.

Outcomes and sentiment: Some merchants switched to MOBI Pos, Square for Retail, or PayPal Here. Screenshots and videos are central to the posted workarounds.

Status: Unresolved natively. Reliant on apps and imperfect workarounds; no confirmed Shopify roadmap for open‑price items.

Summarized with AI on December 24. AI used: gpt-5.
92

Hi JenniferKTB and Kyrellrissler,

This is possible with an app! (unfortunately an app is required).

I have recently added a feature to my Draftable app (https://apps.shopify.com/draft-helper), which allow adjustment of price of line items in a draft order, you can set a higher price for the item in the draft order (higher than the price listed on your store).

After installing the app, you can go to your draft order, and select “More actions” > “Increase item prices”, then you can select the items which you want to increase prices, and input the new prices and click “Apply”.

The items in the draft order will then have this new price applied, and the product price listing on your store will remain unchanged.

soulchild37_0-1721932009060.png
soulchild37_0-1721932009060.png999×933 133 KB

soulchild37_1-1721932009039.png
soulchild37_1-1721932009039.png999×599 132 KB

soulchild37_2-1721932010939.png
soulchild37_2-1721932010939.png999×581 93.6 KB

Hope this can help! The Draftable app (https://apps.shopify.com/draft-helper) has a free plan which you can try this feature out.

Regards,

Axel Kee (developer of the Draft Order Helper app)