Is this a mistake or a bug. When you need to adjust price to a discount price we would click apply custom discount, and if the price is on the item we would change to amount per unit. Then enter the new price there. but instead its making the discount the - amount. for example a shoe was suppose to be 104.95 after the discount so new employee put in 104.95, but instead of making it that price it gave a discount of 104.95. First that is the dumbest thing in retail ive ever seen. So I started testing and there is what looks like a reverse option under that amount. so the shoe was $150 originally. click reverse arrows it shows 45.05. ok then click apply and it still did the discount as 104.95. what the heck. i cleared it all out tried again and then it worked as discount 45.05. Hmm… ok. So i started again different item to check do the same style discount, i put the discount in on another shoe just to test at the same price. This time doing the same way i did it with the reverse arrows, it did the 104.95 discount again. what the heck.
First WHY would anyone want to discount it by removing the amount per unit instead of just setting the item as per unit. meaning my employees would need to figure out what the discount is from the original to get to the 104.95 price. WHY wouldn’t you want it amount per item as in new amount per item?
Hi @sohasurfshop. This is not a bug in the core behavior. It is how Shopify POS discounts are defined.
When you select “Amount per item”, Shopify always treats the number entered as a discount value to subtract, not a final price. So:
That part is consistent and expected.
What caused the inconsistent results in your testing is likely how the value was entered or cleared between attempts. The system does not have a mode where “Amount per item” becomes “set final price” even if the interface makes it look like that might be possible.
There is no built-in option in Shopify POS checkout to directly enter a new final price per item. All manual discounts at checkout are applied as reductions from the original price.
So your conclusion is valid: staff must calculate the difference between the original price and the intended final price before entering it as a discount or use a third-party app to adjust final prices.
Hope this helps 
Hi @sohasurfshop I’m Sajini from Identixweb, a Shopify development company.
This looks more like how Shopify POS calculates custom discounts, not a pricing bug.
In Shopify POS, Amount per unit means the amount you want to discount per unit, not the final sale price. So if the shoe is $150 and you enter $104.95, Shopify treats that as $104.95 off, not set price to $104.95. Shopify’s help docs also mention that a monetary line-item discount applies per unit.
For your example:
Original price: $150
Desired final price: $104.95
Discount to enter: $45.05
Shopify POS also has a Price after discount field for setting the final discounted price directly. That is the field your staff should use when they want the item to become a specific final price.
A simple staff rule could be:
That should help avoid these pricing mix-ups at checkout.
Hi @sohasurfshop,
I completely understand why this is driving you and your team crazy. It is
definitely one of the more confusing parts of the Shopify interface because it
does not work like a traditional price override.
The issue is that Shopify views that specific field strictly as a discount
amount. This means it is looking for how much you want to take off the price,
rather than a field to set a new final price. Here is what is happening and how
to handle it:
-
Shopify is looking for the value of the reduction. If a shoe is $150 and you
want the final price to be $104.95, the system expects you to enter $45.05 as the discount.
-
When your employee enters $104.95, the system assumes they want to subtract $104.95 from the original price. This explains why the final total ended up so much lower than expected.
-
The reverse arrows you mentioned are meant to toggle between entering the discount amount or the final price. However, this feature can be glitchy if the page does not refresh or if the previous discount was not cleared out completely first.
To keep it simple for your staff and avoid these errors, it is usually safest to
have them use a calculator to find the difference before entering it. I agree
that having a simple set price option would be much better for fast retail
environments. You might want to submit this feedback to Shopify directly as they
are currently looking at ways to improve the POS and draft order experience for
retail owners.
Hope this helps.
So when your employee types 104.95, it reads that as “discount by $104.95” not “make it $104.95.” Confusing? Absolutely.
The reverse arrow button seems like a bug which you should report to shopify help center they will able to give you solution for these.
For your employees in the meantime, the workaround is: subtract the target price from the original price and enter that difference as the discount. So for a $150 shoe going to $104.95, enter $45.05.
Not ideal at all — you’re right that “set price per unit” is the more intuitive option. It’s worth submitting this as a feature request through Shopify’s feedback portal too, because the current UX assumes your staff knows the discount amount rather than the target price, which is backwards for most retail workflows.