Create the Black Friday sort
Click Create sort, pick the collections of your sale (or all collections), then add:
- Discount Percentage, descending, weight 8: the biggest discounts come first.
- Stock Availability, descending, weight 6: no sold-out deal at the top.
- Optionally Recent Sales, weight 3: between two equal discounts, the best seller wins.
Set the dates
In the Schedule card, tick "Run this sort between two dates only" and enter the start and the end, for example Friday 00:00 and Monday 23:59. You can also enter only a start (the sort then runs from that date on) or only an end.
If the start is in the future, the sort does not run when you save it: your collections keep their current order until the start date.
Checklist before November 27
A few minutes the week before saves a stressful Friday:
- Check your store's time zone in the Schedule card, under the date fields.
- Make sure your sale prices use a compare-at price, or the Discount Percentage criterion has nothing to read.
- Use Preview on one collection of the sale to see the Before and After order.
- Run the 10-minute test below on a small collection.
- Check that each collection of the sale is covered by only one scheduled sort.
- Check that a usual active sort covers the same collections, so they get their normal order back on Tuesday.
- After the start, open the dashboard: the sort should show "Running until" with the end date.
What happens during the sale
From the start date, the scheduled sort orders its collections and your other sorts leave those collections alone. It runs again every hour until the end, so discounts added during the weekend move up too. Collections outside the sale keep their usual sort. The dashboard shows "Running until" with the end date.
Discounts are detected from the compare-at price, so set your sale prices in Shopify (or with a price scheduling app) for the products to move up.
After the sale
At the end date, your usual sorts take their collections back within a minute. Keep the scheduled sort: next year, change its dates and it is ready.
Frequently asked questions
Which time zone are the dates in?
Your store's time zone, set in Shopify under Settings → General. The app shows it under the date fields. A sale that starts at 00:00 starts at midnight for your store, wherever you are when you set it.
How precise is the start and the end?
Within a minute. MDPositions checks schedules at the start of every minute, whatever your plan's usual interval; large collections then take a few seconds to reorder.
Do my sale prices need to be in place before the start?
Ideally, yes: the sort reads the compare-at prices when it runs. During the period it runs again every hour, so prices set a little later are picked up within the hour. If your prices change at midnight, start the sort at 00:15 to get the right order right away.
What happens when the sale ends?
Your usual sorts run again on the collections the scheduled sort had taken over. If no other active sort covers a collection, it keeps the Black Friday order until you change it.
Which plan do I need?
Scheduled sorts need the Starter plan or higher, because they rely on automatic runs.
Can two scheduled sorts cover the same collection?
Avoid it: if their periods overlap, the last one to run sets the order. Give each sale its own dates, or its own collections.
Can I test it before the big day?
Yes. Schedule a copy of the sort to start in 10 minutes and end 10 minutes later, on a small collection, and watch the order change twice.
Does the Black Friday sort count toward my plan's sort limit?
Yes. Every sort you create counts, scheduled or not: the Starter plan allows 5 sorts, Pro is unlimited. On Starter, make sure you have a free slot before you create it.
Can I keep a hero deal at the very top?
Yes. Add it under Pinned products in the scheduled sort: it stays first in the sale's collections, and the rest is ordered by discount. Starter allows 5 pinned products per sort, Pro is unlimited. The pin ends with the sale, since it belongs to the scheduled sort.