Auto-Tag Slow Movers as Clearance After a Set Date

Products that have been sitting unsold past a certain point should be in clearance — but manual catalogue reviews almost never happen on schedule. Setting a review date on products lets DateCue do the tagging automatically when the time is up.

The slow-mover problem

Most stores have inventory that isn't moving. The standard solution is a clearance or sale section, but populating it requires someone to periodically review the catalogue and identify what should go in. That review either doesn't happen, or it happens inconsistently. DateCue replaces the review with a date-driven trigger.

The approach: when you stock a product (or identify it as a slow mover), set a custom.clearance_date on it. If the product is still around and unsold when that date arrives, DateCue tags it "clearance" and it appears in your clearance collection. If it sold before then, no action is needed — the date is ignored.

Step 1: Create the clearance date metafield

Go to Settings → Custom data → Products and create:

• Namespace and key: custom.clearance_date
• Type: Date

Set this on products you're giving a defined sell-by window. For example: stock a product today, give it 90 days, set the clearance date 90 days from now. If it hasn't sold by then, it moves to clearance automatically.

Step 2: Create the clearance smart collection

In Shopify admin, go to Products → Collections → Create collection. Set it to Automated with the rule: Product tag → is equal to → clearance. Save. This collection fills itself as products get tagged.

Step 3: The DateCue workflow

That's the whole workflow. When the clearance date arrives, DateCue tags the product. It appears in your clearance collection. If you've sold it before then, it doesn't matter — the tag fires either way, but an out-of-stock product won't be visible to customers in the collection regardless.

Adding a stock check filter

If you only want to move products to clearance when they still have stock (not when they're already sold out), you can add a filter to the workflow by tagging slow movers with a specific tag first and filtering on that. The cleanest approach is usually to just let the tag fire and rely on Shopify's zero-inventory rules to hide out-of-stock products from the collection.

Removing the clearance tag when items sell out

Once a clearance product is gone, you'll want to remove the tag so it doesn't appear as an empty slot in the collection. This is a manual step — once inventory hits zero, go into the product and remove the "clearance" tag, or archive the product. DateCue handles the date-based tagging; inventory management is still in your control.