Secret Sale for existing products

Ask & Offer
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1

Hey All!

I’m looking for help to add a “Secret Sale” to our store -
-We want this sale accessible via direct link only - likely to be distributed via ads.
-We are using duplicates of our existing products, the duplicates are discounted and tagged with “secret-sale” and the same SKU as the original products.
-We need help hiding these products from our search dropdown, search page, and hiding the sale pages from search engines.

None of us are coders here, we’ve tried to accomplish this with instructions but are in need of a pro, or some pro-advice! We are in the market for a coder for a couple projects -including this one- and more as time goes on, so please reach out!

2

Hello @littlepossums ,

I hope you are well!
Yes, we can definitely help you set this up.

We can configure a “Secret Sale” so it’s only accessible via direct link, ensure the duplicate products are hidden from your store search, dropdowns, and collections, and also block those sale pages from search engines. That way only the audience you target through ads will be able to access them.

Since you’re also looking for a reliable dev partner for ongoing projects, we’d be happy to jump in and support not just this setup but also future needs as they come up.

Please email me your requirements at ankit@aitrillion.com

3

This:
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/seo/hide-a-page-from-search-engines#custom-metafield

There is a lot of info to google about seo.hidden metafield if you need details.

This would not require any coding.
Make sure product does not get included in any automatic collections.

You may also want to redirect people who did not have a proper link to the full-priced product – that would require some code. DM me here if you like

You can also approach it differently:

  1. create a discount for this product
  2. use link which will automatically apply this discount to share via ads
    Check this How to insert discount code into URL so discount is auto-applied to all prices
4

You’re essentially creating a hidden/secret sale collection in Shopify. Here’s how you can set it up step-by-step without exposing those products in search, navigation, or SEO:

Step 1:

  • Duplicate your existing products.
  • Add a tag like secret-sale (you already mentioned this).
  • Set your Sale price.
  • Don’t add these products to any public collections or navigation menus.

Step 2: Hide Products from Search & Collections.

You will need a small Liquid code for this.

  • In your theme’s product card snippet usually snippets/card-product.liquid add this around the Product grid-item code.
    {% unless product.tags contains “secret-sale” %}
    Your Existing code.
    {% endunless %}

This will ensure that secret-sale products won’t show in:

  • Search Results.
  • Collection Pages.
  • Featured Product blocks

Step 3: Block From Search Dropdown (Predictive Search):

In snippets/predictive-search.liquid [or relevant file, based on your theme file structure] wrap results with the same condition.

{% unless item.object.tags contains “secret-sale” %}
Your Predictive Search Results code here.
{% endunless %}

Step 4: Hide From Google/SEO

In your theme.liquid file, add this to the tag only for secret-sale products/collections.

{% if product.tags contains “secret-sale” or collection.handle == “secret-sale” %}

{% endif %}

This tells Google and other search engines not to index those pages.

Step 5: Create Your “Secret Sale” Collection

  • Make an automated collection with condition Product tag is equal to secret-sale.
  • Don’t link it in navigation.
  • Share the direct collection link via your ads.

Example: https://yourstore.com/collections/secret-sale

By following the all above methods you can ensure to have a secret Sale collection.

If you need my help then you can reach me out.

5

Hello @littlepossums,

Here’s a clean approach for your Shopify “Secret Sale” setup:

Admin / Product Setup

  • Duplicate your regular products.

  • Discount them as needed.

  • Tag them with secret-sale.

  • Keep the same SKU as the originals.

  • Do not include them in your main navigation or collections.

Add noindex meta tag for secret sale products:

{% if product.tags contains ‘secret-sale’ %}

< meta name=“robots” content=“noindex, nofollow” >

{% endif %}

Link Distribution

  • Share the direct product/collection URL only via ads or email.

  • Don’t link these products anywhere on the storefront.

Or you can email me at: info@elderberrytech.com to discuss further.

Thanks,
Shivank Agrawal

6

Not sure if this will help. However, i work with teams. They have custom designs which I don’t want other customers to have access to. I jsut create a collection for them and then I use the app Locksmith to make the store private and accessible only by direct link. It is easy to set up and there are a variety of ways to address this, including making it so the collection and subsequent products do not show up in any searches.

7

Hi @littlepossums

This is Muhammed from Growth Suite app.

If you want to give “surprise discounts” for your visitors, you can use Growth Suite. Growth Suite;

  1. Keep tracks of each visitors and detect “walk-away visitors”

  2. Create one-time limited, unique discount code based on their buying intention for each “walk-away visitors”

  3. Shows discounts on product pages and cart pages.

    gs_discount_on_product_page
    gs_discount_on_product_page2778×1952 227 KB

    gs_discount_cart_page
    gs_discount_cart_page2778×1952 281 KB

    gs_checkout_unique_discount
    gs_checkout_unique_discount2778×1952 256 KB

  4. Auto apply discount code for the visitor.

  5. When the timer is done discount code will be deleted by the app and the same visitor can’t get any other discount offer in the next 7 days.

You can watch how it works here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=TLGG1n79CvWW72wyMzA5MjAyNQ&v=-q3qsVlmvGk&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fgrowth-suite-urgency-creator.myshopify.com%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE

Also if you need any help, I would like to offer one-to-one help.

Best!

8

This setup actually makes sense — the tricky part is controlling visibility without breaking normal browsing or SEO.

At a high level, the non-app way is all theme + SEO cleanup:

You can hide those “secret-sale” products from search and collections by adding a condition in your product card and search templates (Dawn: main-search.liquid, card-product.liquid) that checks for the secret-sale tag and skips rendering them. For SEO, you’d also want to add noindex meta tags on the secret collection template so Google doesn’t pick them up. That part works, but it’s fragile — theme updates can overwrite it, and it’s easy to miss one surface (predictive search, related products, recommendations, etc.).

A cleaner approach is to control access instead of constantly hiding things.

That’s where Latch fits well for this use case. You can:

  • Keep the discounted duplicate products completely hidden from search, collections, and direct browsing

  • Allow access only via direct link (or only when a customer is tagged from an ad, email, or campaign)

  • Avoid SEO issues entirely since non-eligible visitors never see the products at all

  • Reuse the same SKUs without confusing inventory or storefront logic

App link: https://apps.shopify.com/member-lock

Full disclosure: I’m the developer. I built it specifically for things like private sales, ad-only offers, and hidden collections. If you want to sanity-check whether this should be done via theme edits or access rules, I’m happy to talk it through.

9

Hi @littlepossums it is possible as you have explained your requirement for the secret sale.