When will Shopify be adding a variable price option? I have been through the forums, and this has been a feature MANY have asked about since at least 2020. We pay a lot of money for our sites and this is now the 3rd simple function that I have found (in the past 2 days alone) that Shopify does not offer and several other platforms do… for FREE. Unfortuanetly I have recently renewed, but this might be my last year here if these issues can’t be resolved.
Topic summary
Multiple merchants are requesting native variable pricing functionality in Shopify POS, particularly for products sold by weight (candy, fiber, yarn) or items with fluctuating individual prices (comics, trading cards, screws). This feature has been requested since at least 2020 but remains unavailable.
Current workarounds:
- Third-party apps exist for quantity breaks and weight-based pricing, though some don’t work with all Shopify plans (e.g., Shopify Go)
- Creating multiple product variants for different weights/prices (time-consuming)
- Using custom sale items (loses analytics and sales reporting)
Key frustrations:
- Merchants must pay $129+/month for Shopify, then additional fees for apps to achieve basic retail functionality available free on competing platforms like Square
- The feature already exists for gift cards, suggesting the code is available
- Lack of this feature creates operational stress for staff and complicates inventory tracking
- Shopify has not responded to years of requests, leading some to consider switching platforms
Status: No official updates or timeline provided by Shopify as of September 2024. Discussion remains unresolved with growing merchant dissatisfaction.
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You need to use a “Quantity Breaks” app (https://apps.shopify.com/search?q=quantity%20breaks) to support that functionality.
There are a dozen highly rated apps for this functionality, so it’s unlikely that Shopify will build this into the platform by default, since it already exists. Shopify tends to focus on adding features that aren’t already covered by apps.
Im not seeing how a quantity break will allow me to enter a price for a single item based on weight. I am not looking for BOGO sales or quantity discounts. I just want to be able to list an item for sale and enter the price based on the pre-calculated price in the POS app.
Hey @BackCreekVC
This app would allow you so sell products based on their weight via POS:
Hi I am looking for the same thing, we sell a lot of differenct screws, and I don’t want to put in 100 prices from .40cents , etc. Is there a way to set up a product with no pricing and and at Checkout you add the price without installing a third party app. I would image everyone would need this, we had it in Square and now we are live with shopify pos, etc and can’t figure this out. If we weigh candy the price is always going to be different, ever Candy $1.25, it can be any price depending on the weight. Anyone know how to do this… I would imagine more square customers would come to shopify if this existed, if I had know this we may of stayed with Square… Really putting a stress on my staff..
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It says it doesnt work with Shopify Go… is there an app that does work with Shopify Go?
So, the Shopify business model is to charge me $129 per month, then expect me to pay more for an app to perform a standard function necessary to run a brick-and-mortar retail store?
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Apparently people have been complaining about this problem in this forum since 2020 and Shopify simply doesn’t care. That’s garbage customer service for something that costs so much.
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I get that you want a feature. I also get that Shopify is extremely opaque
about how they make decisions to remove features and their roadmap for
planned features. It’s like shouting into the void. But yes, part of what
you’re paying the base amount for is for a platform that has excellent
extendability and a huge ecosystem of apps. Do you complain that iOS or
Android don’t give you every feature and that you have to pay for apps?
On the other hand, specifically with regards to POS functionality, the API
is pretty lacking so that it’s currently difficult to impossible for
certain missing functionality and features to be achieved through apps.
Variable pricing would be extremely helpful for my organization. We sell fiber/yarn by weight
1 Like
So now in September 24 do we have any updates? It seem idiotic that there is no option for entering a custom amount. If I sell a product that varies by price like a service, i’d love to just be able to input the price. I basically refuse to pay even more for ANOTHER app to connect when this should be standard. Anyone been able to code a workaround? A drop down or something?
I eventually ended up putting all my weights/ prices in as variables. NOT the easiest or ideal solution, but quicker than me computing costs on a calculator to then input into a custom item. It also allows the system to track quantities sold vs a different product for each “custom item”. But yes, I am with you - I refusee to pay additional for an app that is standard on other platforms, especially when I am a seasonal business and the App Creators refused to answer my questions.
I run a hobby store. We have hundreds of thousands of comics, trading cards and sports cards. It is insane that I cant just have a button for these with variable pricing option. They already have these coded for gift cards. It is there and ready. It is absolutely impossible to put every single card and comic in a product catalog individually. We do custom sale with item name but then we get no analytics or sales reports on these items. 1 or the other NEEDS to be fixed.