Flipping Prices in Shopify's Dawn Theme: A Journey of Code and Discovery

Ah, the wondrous world of e-commerce. It's like a bustling bazaar where each stallholder—okay, web store owner, if we're being serious—wants to showcase their goods in the best possible light. A while ago, Sarah, a wonderful friend of mine who runs a quaint Shopify store selling handmade candles, came to me with a curious conundrum. Her quest? To flip-flop the way prices were displayed in the Dawn theme—she wasn't satisfied with the “old price” hogging the limelight and the “new, exciting, look-at-me price” playing second fiddle. A reverse of roles was in order; it was time to showcase the "new price" first and the original price second.

Oh, and don't we just love a good puzzle? Roll up the sleeves; our adventure begins.

Setting the Scene: The Price Play Switch-Up

Sarah had started noticing that her hunts across the theme’s codebase felt somewhat akin to treasure-seeking—minus a cohesive map. She had stumbled upon two actors, “priceregular” and “pricesale,” performing chronologically contrary to her desires. It’s one of those seemingly minor nuisances that can baffle a buyer or cause confusion at checkout.

We took a moment, sipping jasmine tea and measuring our code-fiddling energy levels. Onward! If you’re in Sarah’s (and now our) boat, here’s the hot ticket to achieving the flip-flop magic.

Visualizing the Code Enchantment

Before altering anything, as they say in televisual thrillers, always have a plan. We ensured her theme was backed up because forethought—creating safety nets for these digital escapades—is immensely sensible. With our digital garden gated, we found ourselves at the crux of the action in Shopify's robust online code editor, which you can navigate to through Online Store > Themes > Actions > Edit Code.

Step 1: Channel Your Inner Detective

Thrust into the intricate web of theme code, our quest was clear—find the elusive snippet. Specifically, the file we needed lay within /sections/main-product.liquid. It was like finding a needle, not so much in a haystack, but in a stack of files that might as well be hay.

<span class="price__regular"> {{ regular_price }} </span>
<span class="price__sale"> {{ sale_price }} </span>

Her fingers traced the code delicately. The regular price—lording over the sale price—defied the necessary order of things like some kind of haughty aristocrat. It was time to shake things up.

Step 2: Reversing Roles

A simple swap of code blocks was all it took. Like exchanging two actors on a stage to see who captures the spotlight first, here’s what the new order looked like:

<span class="price__sale"> {{ sale_price }} </span>
<span class="price__regular"> {{ regular_price }} </span>

I could barely contain my excitement as lines changed seats in the chorus. A quick save, and the new act unfolded seamlessly when Sarah previewed her newly transformed price display—a satisfying reversal.

Step 3: Double-check, then Celebrate

Once the curtain had risen on this performance, we trotted over to the storefront to glance at the updated layout. Success! The now-boldly-leading sale price steals the shopper’s gaze as intended. We did a little dance—no, really. Sometimes that’s just what successful problem-solving calls for.

The Meta Lesson

As we closed the lid on this coding tale, I marveled at the beauty of customization. A tiny change can shift an entire experience, and isn’t that fundamentally what we’re doing all the time? Tweaking, modifying, attempting to improve how the world—or in this case, a webpage—perceives us?

Our celebratory moment ended with another round of tea (and an admission from Sarah that she'd always regarded code to be a formidable gremlin). Through collaboration and exploration, though, it transformed into an ally—puzzling, yes, but also delightfully fun.

So, dear fellow Shopify adventurer, may this guide light your way through pricing puzzles and fill your journey with revelation—and perhaps a bit of irreverent joy. We’ve unlocked a small mystery, and tomorrow, who knows what the next Shopify code adventure might hold?