Early-bird pricing: the honest ways to do it

Early-bird pricing means a lower price for the people who book first. The app has no setting that changes a ticket's price on a date by itself, and no screen creates a scheduled price change. The four routes below work today, and you can combine them.

Route 1: a promo code with an end date

This is the closest match to a price that goes up on a date.

1. Open the event, click Event settings and open the Promo codes tab.
2. Click Add promo code, then type a code, such as EARLYBIRD20, and a percentage.
3. Under Active time interval, set To to the last early-bird day.
4. Turn on Show on product page and Auto-apply at checkout.
5. Click Add promo code.

Until the To date, the product page shows the code in a banner and applies it for the shopper. After it, the discount stops and shoppers pay the full price. Dates count in UTC, so allow a few hours if your store is far from UTC.

Promo codes and the discount banner has every setting.

Route 2: a separate early-bird ticket type

Use this when the offer should end after a number of tickets, such as the first 50.

1. On the event's Tickets tab, click Add ticket type.
2. Name it, for example "Early bird", and give it the lower price and an Inventory of 50.
3. Click Add.

When the 50 are sold, the type shows "Sold out" and shoppers pick the regular type. To end it sooner, click Edit and lower Inventory to the number already sold. Don't type 0, because 0 means no cap. A type that has sold tickets can't be deleted.

This route needs Shared inventory off, since the per-type Inventory box is hidden while the pool is on. Ticket types and inventory explains stock and the pool.

Route 3: open and close sales by hand

Sale start and end times can't be scheduled in the admin. Two manual actions cover the same need. Find them in the row menu on the Events list, or in the More menu on the event page.

• Set as upcoming keeps the product page visible with sales closed, and the button reads "Tickets available soon". Choose Remove upcoming status when sales open.
• Pause ticket sales stops sales while the page stays fully visible, and the button reads "Ticket sales are paused". Choose Resume ticket sales to continue.

Both are switched by hand, so put a reminder in your calendar for the day. Pausing, hiding and archiving events covers every event state.

Route 4: duplicate the event for the next edition

Duplicate, in the row menu on the Events list, copies an event's ticket types, including an early-bird type with its price and stock. It also prefills the promo code settings: percentage, Max uses, banner title, banner and auto-apply.

The code and its dates are left empty, because Shopify codes must be unique in your store. Type a new code and new dates before you save. The upcoming and paused states are not copied.