How do I set up Shopify compare-at price for a sale correctly?

The compare-at price setup in Shopify is where many boutiques make costly errors. For every sale item, the compare-at price field should contain your original retail price, and the regular price field should contain your discounted price. This is what creates the strikethrough display on your product pages showing customers exactly how much they're saving.

If you skip this step or reverse the fields, customers can't tell whether an item is on sale or at full price. One Shopify Community member reported leaving a store entirely because they couldn't figure out which items actually had the discount applied. That confusion kills conversions at checkout.

Never delete or overwrite the compare-at price once it's set. If you've already changed your prices without setting it, go back into each affected product, enter the original retail price in the compare-at field, and save. Preview the product page to confirm the strikethrough appears before moving on.