Markdown Optimizer help and documentation

Getting started

1. Install Markdown Optimizer from the Shopify App Store and approve a plan in Shopify. Every published plan starts with a 7-day free trial.
2. Open the app from Apps in your Shopify admin. It reads your catalogue: products, variants, listing dates, prices, costs and stock.
3. Follow Finish setup in the left navigation. It checks that your catalogue has been read, that the storefront app embeds are on, and that you have decided about products without a cost.
4. Build your first ladder on the Ladders page.

Building a ladder

A ladder is a list of steps. Each step has a waiting period, in days, months or years since the product was listed, and a discount off the original price. Steps sort themselves into the order they fire, and a later step must discount at least as much as an earlier one. Tick Final step on the step where reductions should stop.

One ladder is live per store, and it covers your whole catalogue; exclude individual products on the Products page. Bundles and gift cards are never marked down. Each saved change becomes a new version with who made it and why.

Previews and the week ahead

Before starting, open the preview: it lists the products the ladder applies to, the step each would reach and the price it would give, and downloads as CSV. A ladder cannot be started from a preview that did not load completely. Once running, the Upcoming page shows what changes over the next seven days, and Settings, Notifications controls the weekly digest and the day-before note.

Cost checks and products without a cost

Where a product has a cost per item in Shopify, a step that would sell it below cost is refused and the reason is recorded in Activity. Products without a cost cannot be checked. The app counts them and asks you to choose: allow them to be marked down, or exclude them. Until you choose or start the ladder through the notice that shows the count, they are not marked down. Your margin floor is cost, or cost plus a percentage you choose, and it applies to every step.

Approvals and team access

Tick Ask me first on a step to make it wait for approval; waiting decisions are grouped into one email and listed in the app. Settings, Approvals sets approval chains: which roles must sign off, stage by stage. Team & Access assigns roles; drafting and starting a ladder are separate permissions. If a page is not available to you, the app names the permission you need.

Suggestions and explanations

Suggestions are not switched on for every store. Where they are, they appear on the Recommendations page as Suggested, with what Decision Science verified. Accepting one saves a draft of your ladder; nothing changes until you preview and activate it. Press Why? on a product for a plain-language explanation of its step or refusal.

Order access (optional)

The ladder never needs order access. It can be granted from Settings, Sync health; if granted, the Sparande platform counts units ordered per variant over the last 30 days, and only that count reaches the app. No customer details are read or stored. You can remove it at any time from your Shopify admin.

Stopping and restoring prices

Stopping a ladder prevents further steps but leaves reduced prices as they are. To put prices back, choose Remove active markdown changes from the Account menu. It restores original prices product by product, skips any product whose price was changed after the markdown, and shows the outcome per product once the platform confirms it. Do this before uninstalling: Shopify revokes the app's access at uninstall, after which nothing can be restored.

Support

Email support@sparande.co.uk with your store domain, the ladder and what you expected to happen. If a step did not run, copy the reason from Activity into your message.

• Frequently asked questions: Short answers to common questions.
• How it works: The mechanism in order.
• Privacy and security: What data the app reads and who holds what.