Managing the European Price Indication Directive in Shopify

Ablestar Bulk Product Editor allows you to implement the European Price Indication Directive (PID) automatically on your Shopify store.

The European Price Indication Directive (PID) may apply to merchants selling in the European Economic Area and can require merchants that announce a price reduction to show the lowest price they previously charged for the product within the last 30 days.

Lowest Price History (Past 30 Days)

When you have the Ablestar Bulk Product Editor installed, our database keeps track of price changes over time. You can view the price history for a product by going to a variant in the Shopify admin and selecting More actions → View price history from the menu at the top of the page.

We are able to display the lowest price for a product in the last 30 days (provided that the app has been installed for the past 30 days).

With this data available to us, we can set a field in Shopify to be equal to the product's prior price. First you have to make sure the prior price data is being stored and then configure your store to display the prior price data.

Step 1: Store the Prior Price

There are two ways you can store the prior price:

1. As the 'Compare-at Price' for a variant: this is the quickest way to show the value but provides less flexibility
2. As a metafield: this allows you to customize your theme and show the prior price where you want to

Using a Compare-at Price:

Refer to this article for detail on editing the Compare-at Price

Creating a Metafield Definition:

If you want to store the prior price in a metafield you need to define that metafield in the Shopify admin first. To do this:

1. Open up the Shopify Admin and go to Settings → Metafields
2. Click on Variants and then on the Add definition button to create a new metafield definition
3. Enter a name for the metafield and set it's type to 'Decimal'. Click on Save to save the definition
4. Open up the Ablestar Bulk Product Editor and go to Settings → Metafields in the left-hand menu
5. Click on Refresh button in the 'Metafields Definitions' section. This will ensure the app is aware of the new metafield

Step 2: Display the Prior Price

There are also two ways that you can set the prior price:

1. In-App Edit: this can be run manually, each time you update your prices in bulk
2. Automatic Product Rules: this would update the prior price automatically, each time your prices change

In-App Edits:

You can perform an in-app edit to manually set the prior price (the lowest price for the last 30 days):

1. In the app, search for the products you want to edit. All products will be included by default
2. Click on the Edit Products button at the top of the page
3. Click on the 'Field to Edit' button (or press enter) to choose the field to edit. This will either be the 'Compare Price' field or the new metafield you created before
4. In the 'How to edit' dropdown select 'Set to lowest price from last x days'
5. Verify that the data in the preview looks correct and click on Run Edit

The app will now go through and set the field you chose (either the 'Compare Price' or your new metafield) to the variant's lowest price for the last 30 days. If you use this method to show the prior price you will need to repeat the process if your prices change.

Automated Product Rule:

You can use automatic product rules to update the prior price automatically, whenever your prices change. This means you will no longer have to run a manual In-App Edit each time you update your prices.

Once your product set is filtered:

1. Click the Create rule button
2. From the 'Create - New rule' view, click the Add Modification button
3. In the 'Field to Edit' picklist, search for 'Compare Price' or your metafield
4. In the 'How to edit' picklist, search and select 'Set to lowest price from last x days'
5. Click the Add modification button and the view will close
6. Specify a unique title and click on Save Changes in the admin bar.
7. After the rule is created, click the Run button. This will run the rule against all matching products to set the initial prior price.

Now that the rule is created, the app will wait for price changes and automatically update the prior price if it sees a new lower price.

Unhide Settings for European Union

By default, Shopify will hide the Compare-at Prices for visitors from the European Union if your primary market is outside of the EU. You can change this setting from the Shopify admin:

1. Navigate to Settings icon → Markets → Preferences
2. Uncheck the checkbox for "Hide compare-at prices for European Economic Area (EEA) customers".

This will show the Compare-at Prices to all visitors. Note that if your primary market is in the European Union the Compare-at Prices will always be shown.

✅ Tips and Troubleshooting

• If your primary market is in the European Union the compare-at prices will always be shown.
• Our app can only retain price history while installed. If you install the app today, we cannot pull price data from last week.
• Read more about the European PID on Shopify's help site.

(07.185)