How to Bulk Edit Cost

Update the per-unit Cost of many variants at once with EditEngine, the bulk editor for Shopify. Cost is what you pay for the product — it powers margin, profit, and inventory valuation reports in Shopify, but isn't shown to customers. Set every variant to a fixed amount, raise or lower by an absolute amount or percent, or clear cost entirely. Optional rounding lets you snap results to .99, .95, whole numbers, or a custom ending.

Cost is a variant field. Each variant has its own cost, so the action runs once per matched variant. A product with three variants gets three cost updates.

The currency prefix in the input matches your store's currency. Cost has no per-variant currency override.

Step 1: Pick the Cost field

In the Configure Product Edits panel, click Select Field.

The Select Field modal opens. Cost lives under Variant Fields.

Click Cost. The configuration panel switches to a How to edit Cost dropdown defaulting to Set cost to value.

Step 2: Choose how to change the cost

Six actions are available, in three groups.

Direct value

• Set cost to value — every matched variant becomes this exact cost.
• Set to null/blank — clear the cost. Margin/profit reports for those variants will show as missing data.

Adjust the existing cost

• Increase by amount — add a flat amount (e.g. raise every cost by 2.00 to absorb a supplier increase).
• Decrease by amount — subtract a flat amount.
• Increase by percent — raise by a %.
• Decrease by percent — lower by a %.

The inputs change based on what you pick.

Cost doesn't have the Set as percent of Price / Set as percent of Compare-at derived options that the Price field has. If you need cost to follow another field, use Increase/Decrease by percent in combination with knowing your existing cost.

Step 3: Enter the value (and optional rounding)

Set cost to value

A single currency-prefixed number input. Type the new cost.

Below the value, a Rounding dropdown lets you snap the result. The rounding options are:

• End prices in .99 — common ending (4.34 → 4.99)
• End prices in .95 / .90 — same idea, different ending
• Round whole number — drops decimals (4.99 → 5)
• Round whole number up — always rounds up (4.01 → 5)
• Round decimals — to nearest cent
• Custom ending — pick your own decimal (e.g. 0.50 for .50 endings)
• Don't round the value — default. Output is whatever the math produces.

Rounding cost mostly matters when you're using percent-style adjustments — a fixed value already lands wherever you typed it.

Increase / Decrease by amount or percent

A single number input — amount uses the currency prefix, percent uses a % suffix. The same Rounding dropdown applies.

In this example, every matched variant's cost goes up by 10% and the result is rounded to end in .99. So 15.00 → 16.50 → 16.99.

Re-running a percent edit re-applies the change. A 10% raise re-run produces another 10% raise — it's not idempotent.

Variants where the current cost is 0 won't move under percent actions — 0 × anything = 0. Filter those out, or use Set cost to value instead.

Set to null/blank

No input — the panel just confirms what the action does.

Clearing cost won't break the storefront — customers never see cost. But Shopify reports that depend on it (margin, profit, inventory value) will show as missing data for those variants until you re-enter a cost.

After the run

• Cost changes are reversible from the History page using Undo.
• Variants without a cost set today will pick up the new cost when you use Set cost to value — the action doesn't skip blank costs.
• For Increase/Decrease by percent, variants with a current cost of 0 or blank won't change in absolute terms (math on 0 stays 0; blank is treated as no cost to adjust).
• Use the Edit Preview on the right to verify the new cost on a few variants before clicking Start Bulk Edit Now.