September 1, 2026 Shopify Expert

How to Add Shopify Product Badges (New, Sale & Best Seller)

Shopify product badges are a simple but powerful way to make important products stand out in your online store. Whether you want to highlight new arrivals, sale products, best sellers, or limited-time offers, badges help customers quickly identify featured items and make faster buying decisions. They also improve the shopping experience by drawing attention to products that deserve extra visibility.

Shopify offers several ways to add product badges, including built-in theme settings, Shopify apps, Liquid code, product tags, and metafields. Using the right badges can increase product visibility, improve click-through rates, boost conversions, and support your best Seo app for Shopify. In this guide, you'll learn how to add Shopify product badges, explore different methods, and follow best practices to create an engaging and high-converting Shopify store.

What Are Shopify Product Badges?

Shopify product badges are visual labels that appear on product images or product pages to highlight important information about an item. They help customers quickly identify products that are new, on sale, best sellers, low in stock, or part of a special promotion. These badges make products stand out in collections and encourage shoppers to explore featured items.

Store owners can add badges using built-in Shopify theme settings, custom Liquid code, metafields, product tags, or third-party apps. Product badges improve the shopping experience by making product information easier to understand at a glance. They also support marketing campaigns, increase customer engagement, and can boost conversions by drawing attention to popular or discounted products. When used correctly, Shopify product badges help create a more organized, attractive, and user-friendly online store.

Types of Shopify Product Badges

Product badges help customers quickly identify important products while shopping. Different badge types serve different marketing goals, such as promoting discounts, showcasing popular items, or highlighting new arrivals.

New Arrival Badge: Highlights recently added products to attract customers looking for the latest collections and fresh inventory.
Sale Badge: Displays products with discounts or special offers, encouraging shoppers to take advantage of limited-time deals.
Best Seller Badge: Marks products that are selling well, building trust through social proof and helping customers find popular choices.
Limited Stock Badge: Shows that only a few items are left in stock, creating urgency and encouraging faster purchase decisions.
Trending Badge: Highlights products that are currently popular or receiving increased customer attention.
Featured Badge: Draws attention to products selected by the store owner for promotions, seasonal campaigns, or homepage collections.
Exclusive Badge: Indicates products that are available only through your store or as part of a special collection.
Back in Stock Badge: Alerts customers that previously sold-out products are available again.
Pre-Order Badge: Lets customers order products before they are officially released or restocked.
Staff Pick Badge: Recommends products chosen by your team based on quality, popularity, or customer satisfaction.

Using the right combination of product badges helps improve product visibility, enhances the shopping experience, and encourages customers to purchase featured products more confidently.

How to Add Shopify Product Badges?

Adding Shopify product badges is a simple way to highlight important products and improve the shopping experience. Whether you use built-in theme settings, custom Liquid code, product tags, metafields, or Shopify apps, the right method depends on your store's design, customization needs, and technical skills.

Method 1: Use Shopify Theme Settings

Using your Shopify theme's built-in settings is the easiest and fastest way to add product badges to your online store. Most modern Shopify 2.0 themes already include support for common badges such as Sale, Sold Out, New Arrival, and sometimes Low Stock. Since these features are built into the theme, you don't need to install additional apps or edit your theme's code. Simply navigate to Shopify Admin → Online Store → Themes → Customize, then open the product card or collection page settings. Depending on your theme, you may find options to enable badges, change their position, customize colors, adjust text, or choose different badge styles.

Once enabled, these badges update automatically based on product data. For example, if you add a compare-at price to a product, the Sale badge will appear automatically. Similarly, when a product is out of stock, the Sold Out badge is displayed without any manual changes. Some Premium Shopify Store templates also allow you to customize badge shapes, fonts, and animations to better match your brand identity. This method is ideal for beginners because it requires no technical knowledge, is easy to maintain, and works seamlessly with your existing Shopify theme. Before using this method, check your theme documentation to see which badge options are supported.

Method 2: Add Product Badges with Liquid Code

If your Shopify theme doesn't offer the badge style or functionality you need, adding product badges through Liquid code gives you complete flexibility. Shopify's Liquid templating language allows you to create custom conditions so badges appear only when specific product criteria are met. You can edit files such as card-product.liquid, product-card.liquid, main-product.liquid, or similar product template files depending on your theme.

For example, you can display a New Arrival badge for products published within the last 30 days, show a Sale badge whenever the compare-at price is higher than the selling price, or display a Best Seller badge for products containing a specific tag. You can even create advanced badges such as Limited Stock, Online Exclusive, Staff Pick, Coming Soon, or Free Shipping by using inventory levels, metafields, or custom product attributes.

After adding the Liquid conditions, you can use CSS to fully customize the badge design. This includes changing the background color, font size, border radius, shadows, spacing, icons, and badge position. You can also make the badges responsive so they look great on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. Although this method requires some knowledge of Shopify Liquid, HTML, and CSS, it provides unlimited customization and allows you to create a unique shopping experience that matches your brand perfectly.

To Add the code in your "card-product.liquid" you can add the following code to your file:

Look for the section that outputs the product image, usually something containing:

{{ card_product.featured_media }}

Place the badge inside the product-card container, after the image/media code.

For example:

{% if card_product.compare_at_price > card_product.price %}
<span class="product-badge">Sale</span>
{% endif %}

Add the CSS

You can put the CSS at the bottom of the theme's main CSS file, commonly:

Assets → base.css

Add:

.product-badge {
background: #000;
color: #fff;
padding: 6px 12px;
font-size: 12px;
border-radius: 4px;
display: inline-block;
}

For main-product.liquid

Use this file if you want the badge to appear on the individual product page, rather than product cards in collections.

For example:

{% if product.compare_at_price > product.price %}
<span class="product-badge">Sale</span>
{% endif %}

Method 3: Use Shopify Product Badge Apps

Installing a Shopify product badge app is one of the most convenient ways to add professional-looking badges without editing your theme files. These apps are designed for merchants who want powerful features with minimal effort. After installing an app from the Shopify App Store, you can create badges using an easy-to-use dashboard where most settings are controlled through simple clicks instead of code.

Many badge apps allow you to automatically display labels based on product discounts, inventory quantity, collections, vendors, product type, customer reviews, sales performance, or custom rules. You can create badges such as Flash Sale, Best Seller, Limited Stock, Trending Now, Exclusive, Holiday Sale, Buy One Get One, or Free Shipping. Some apps even support animated badges, countdown timers, seasonal campaigns, scheduled promotions, geo-targeted badges, and dynamic discount labels.

Another major advantage is automation. Instead of manually updating badges, you can create rules that automatically add or remove badges when conditions change. For example, a Sale badge can disappear as soon as a promotion ends, or a Low Stock badge can appear when inventory falls below a specific quantity. Most apps also work with Shopify Online Store 2.0 themes and allow you to preview badge placement before publishing changes. This method is ideal for store owners who regularly run marketing campaigns and want a fast, scalable, and user-friendly solution.

After configuring your badges, preview your Shopify storefront to make sure they appear correctly on your product cards and product pages. Using Deco: Product Label & Badges is a simple and convenient option for Shopify merchants who want to highlight products, offers, and promotions without making complex theme-code changes.

Method 4: Create Automated Shopify Product Badges Using Tags

Using product tags is a simple yet highly effective way to automate Shopify product badges across your store. Instead of manually editing individual products or updating theme code every time you launch a promotion, you can assign tags such as New, Best Seller, Featured, Trending, Clearance, or Limited Edition to your products. Your Shopify theme can then detect these tags using Liquid code and automatically display the appropriate badge.

This approach is especially useful for stores with large product catalogs because updating badges only requires adding or removing product tags. Shopify's bulk editor also allows you to manage tags for multiple products at once, saving valuable time during seasonal sales or product launches. By using tags, you can keep your Shopify product badges organized, ensure consistent badge placement throughout your store, and easily update promotional campaigns without making repeated changes to your theme files.

Method 5: Display Dynamic Shopify Product Badges with Metafields

Metafields provide one of the most flexible and future-ready ways to manage Shopify product badges because they store custom product information in a structured format. Instead of relying on product tags, you can create a custom metafield called Badge and assign values such as New Arrival, Sale, Best Seller, Limited Edition, Exclusive, or any custom label that fits your marketing strategy. Your Shopify theme can then read the metafield value and display the correct badge automatically on collection pages and product pages.

This method is particularly beneficial for large Shopify stores that need advanced customization and better data organization. Metafields also integrate seamlessly with Shopify Online Store 2.0, custom sections, and many third-party apps, making them easier to manage as your business grows. By using metafields, you can build highly customized Shopify product badges that are easy to maintain, scalable for large catalogs, and consistent with your overall store design and branding.

Conclusion

Adding Shopify product badges is an effective way to improve your store's appearance and help customers find important products more quickly. Whether you use built-in Shopify theme settings, custom Liquid code, product tags, metafields, or Shopify apps, the right badges can highlight new arrivals, sale products, and best sellers with ease.

Well-designed badges improve product visibility, create urgency, increase customer engagement, and support higher conversion rates. They also make your Shopify store easier to navigate by drawing attention to featured products and special offers. Keep your badges simple, attractive, and updated regularly to match your marketing campaigns. By following the methods and best practices in this guide, you can use Shopify product badges to create a better shopping experience, boost online sales, and grow your ecommerce business successfully.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I add product badges without coding?

Yes. Many Shopify themes include built-in badge options, and several apps allow you to add and manage badges without writing any code.

How do I show a New badge automatically?

You can use Liquid code based on the product's publish date, apply product tags, or use metafields and automation apps to display a New badge for recently added products.

Can I create custom badges?

Yes. Shopify allows custom badges through theme editing, metafields, or third-party apps, giving you full control over text, colors, and placement.

Do product badges work on all Shopify themes?

Most Online Store 2.0 themes support badges. Older themes may require custom Liquid code or an app to display them properly.

Which badge increases conversions the most?

Sale and Best Seller badges often perform well because they create urgency and provide social proof. However, the best-performing badge depends on your products and target audience.