How to manually set expiry dates for Shopify products and apply discounts

If you are not using Freshly Inventory, you can still apply time-based discounts to your Shopify products. You will add an expiry date to each product variant yourself, then create a time-based discount in Simple Discounts that uses that date.

Step 1: Create the expiry date field

You only need to do this once. After it is created, the field is available on every product variant in your store.

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Custom data.

2. Click Variants.

   

3. Click Add definition in the top right corner of the page.
4. Fill in the definition:
   • Name: FC time-based discount date
   • Namespace and key: freshly.expiry_date
   • Type: Date
   • Value: One value
5. (Optional) Add a description, and pin the definition so it appears at the top of your metafield list and on your product variant pages.
6. Click Save.

Important: The namespace and key must be exactly freshly.expiry_date . If it is spelled differently, the discount will not pick up the date.

Step 2: Set the expiry date on each variant

Repeat these steps for every variant you want to discount.

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products and open the product.
2. Under Variants, click the variant you want to discount.
3. Scroll down to the Metafields section.
4. Next to FC time-based discount date, choose the expiry date.
5. Click Save.

You can change the date at any time by repeating these steps.

Note: Without Freshly Inventory, the expiry date has to be set manually on each variant. This can be done by a user in the Shopify admin or through the API.

Step 3: Create the time-based discount

1. Open the Simple Discounts app.
2. Create a new time-based discount.
3. Enter the discount percentage.
4. Choose when the discount applies:
   • Days before: the discount applies in the days leading up to the expiry date.
   • Days after: the discount applies in the days following the expiry date.
5. Save the discount.

By setting expiry dates manually, you can still run time-based promotions on your Shopify store. If you have questions about creating discounts, please contact the Simple Discounts app support team.