How to update gold prices on Shopify automatically
Published 2026-10-24
If you sell gold, silver or platinum by weight on Shopify, every price in your store is a snapshot of a market that keeps moving. Shopify does not have a built-in setting that ties a product price to a live metal rate, so you have to do something to keep prices current. There are three realistic options.
1. Edit prices by hand
Fine for a dozen products. Past that, it breaks down: you are doing arithmetic on every variant, you cannot update as often as the market moves, and one slip in a formula can quietly underprice a whole collection.
2. Calculate in a spreadsheet and re-import
Shopify can export and import products as a CSV, so you can work out new prices in a spreadsheet and upload the file. This scales better, but you repeat the whole export, calculate and upload cycle every time you want fresh prices, and it is easy to let it slip for days.
3. Use an app that calculates and updates prices
An app fetches the current metal rate, applies a pricing formula to each product you tell it to track, and writes the new prices back to your store, on demand or on a schedule. This is the only option that keeps prices current without someone sitting at the keyboard.
The formula is the same whichever way you do it
Whatever method you choose, the price is built the same way:
price = weight × purity × live rate + making + wastage + markup + tax
We walk through each part, with a worked example, in how to price jewelry by weight on Shopify.
What to look for in an app
Prices are your margin, so it is worth being picky. Questions to ask of any app before you let it touch your catalog:
- Can I preview changes before they go live? An app that silently rewrites prices is a risk. You want to see old price, new price and percent change first.
- Is there a record of every change? When a price looks wrong, you should be able to see what changed and which rate was used.
- Can I set a floor? A stop-loss on the rate stops a sudden market drop from pulling prices below your cost.
- How do I set up a large catalog? Look for bulk import, and check whether it forces you to have SKUs on every product.
- Is the rate feed included? Some apps need you to buy a separate rate subscription.
- How often do prices update? Check what the plan allows, not just what the feature list says.
- What does it ask permission for? A pricing app should not need your customer data.
How MetalRate Sync does it
MetalRate Sync is built around those questions. You set up a formula (metal, purity, making charge, wastage, markup, tax, rounding), assign it to products with a weight, then preview every proposed price against the live rate before anything changes. Apply when you are happy, or switch on automatic sync: twice a day on Starter, up to five times a day on Pro. Every run is logged per variant with the exact rate used, a stop-loss floor holds prices if the market falls through your cost, and bulk import works even if your products have no SKUs. Live rates for gold, silver, platinum and palladium are included, and it can also show a live ticker on your storefront.
Plans are $30 a month (Starter, up to 800 products) and $50 a month (Pro, unlimited), both with a 14-day free trial.