I Wasted an Hour on Black Friday Badges. Do This Instead

Quick answer: Shopify themes like Dawn only give you one generic "Sale" badge, and adding badges in Canva by hand took me about 3 minutes per product (almost an hour for 16). With Viking Watermark I put a Black Friday badge on my hoodies and a 20% off badge on my t-shirts, one collection at a time. 8 products took about 20 seconds. After the sale, Rollback all brought back the original images for all 16 products in about 40 seconds.

Disclosure: Viking Watermark sponsored this video and post. I tested the app on my own development store, and the results and opinions here are mine.

Key takeaways

• Your theme's sale badge can't say what the deal is. It shows one word ("Sale") on every product, with the same shape everywhere.

• Badges by hand don't scale. 3 minutes a product sounds fine until you have 16 products, or 300. And then you have to take them all off again.

• Pick a badge you can actually see. A dark badge on a dark store with transparent product photos disappears.

• The badge is part of the image. It shows on the product page and in the cart, but also on Google Shopping, TikTok Shop, Amazon and Meta. Keep the main image clean if you sell there.

• Plan the removal before the sale. The app keeps your original images, so turning everything off is two clicks.

Watch the video

Prefer to watch? The 7-minute video shows every step on my store, from the theme badge and Canva to the rollback.

What I wanted for Black Friday

My demo store, Cloud Nine Wear, sells hoodies and t-shirts. The prices were already set: hoodies 30% off, t-shirts 20% off. What I wanted was simple: when someone scrolls the store, they should see the deal before they click. Hoodies get a Black Friday badge, t-shirts get their own badge.

Sounds easy, right? It took me way longer than I want to admit. Here's what didn't work, what did, and how to set it up in a few minutes and take it off in a few minutes when the sale is over.

Related: if you're still planning the offers themselves, read the 3 Shopify offers that always sell.

Try 1: the theme's sale badge

Dawn already has a sale badge. Add a compare-at price to a product and you get this:

That's it. The whole personality of the badge is one word: Sale. I can't write 30% off, I can't write Black Friday, and I can't have one badge for hoodies and another for t-shirts. Same word, same shape, on every product.

Try 2: badges by hand in Canva

Plan B was doing it by hand: open the product image in Canva, put a badge on it, export it, upload it back to Shopify, replace the old image. Then the next product, and again.

One product took me 3 minutes. That sounds OK, but I have 16 products, so that's almost an hour I don't have. Imagine 300 products.

Then I realized the worst part: after Black Friday, I'd have to take all of them off by hand again, one by one. And if I miss one, someone sees a Black Friday badge in December. Not good.

I don't want to do this every sale. I want something I set up once, use for the sale, and then turn off.

Viking Watermark: badges that keep your originals

That's when I found Viking Watermark. It's made for watermarks that protect your product images, but it also has sale badges. The part I liked most: it keeps a copy of your original images, so after the sale you can put everything back the way it was.

Step 1: Pick a badge you can actually see

The badge gallery has a lot to choose from: 149 badges in 12 categories, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday badges, percent-off badges and more.

I started with a dark Black Friday badge, and it looked good in the gallery. But a black badge on a black store with transparent product images? The badge itself disappears and only the yellow text is left floating.

First lesson: pick a badge you can actually see on your store. I went with the light one.

Step 2: Badge settings, size and position

The default settings are made for a watermark: 40% opacity and 20% size. For a sale badge, nobody will see that. I set it to 100% opacity, 35% size, top right.

I tried top left first, but on mobile the theme's zoom icon sits on top of it and cuts it. Top right stays clear:

You can also pick one of your own products and preview the badge before anything changes in your store. Use that preview, because there's one catch:

After you save, you can't change the badge's size or position. You can change the badge itself, but for a new size or position you'll need to make a new watermark.

For the t-shirts I made a second watermark with the 20% off badge and the same settings.

Badges don't change your prices

The badge is just a label on the image. It doesn't create a discount. Set your discounts or compare-at prices in Shopify first. If the badge says 20% off and the cart says full price, that's a bad day for you.

Related: Shopify conversion rate optimization, because a badge that promises a deal the cart doesn't show costs you trust.

Step 3: Apply the badges to whole collections

This is the part that would take almost an hour by hand. In Apply watermark, I chose Collections → Hoodies, then the Black Friday badge.

On the last step there's a checkbox: "Don't watermark the first image of each product." I left it off. The first image is the one people see when they scroll, and that's the whole point. But remember this checkbox, it matters in a minute.

Before it changes anything, the app saves the original images in Shopify Files. 8 products took about 20 seconds.

Then the same for the t-shirts with the 20% off badge. The hoodies keep their badge: each collection has its own, at the same time. If a product is in both collections, the first batch wins and it never gets two badges.

Step 4 (optional): Auto watermark new products

If you only use one badge, you can turn on Auto watermark. Then every new product you add gets the badge by itself. You choose whether it covers all new images and products, or only products that already have a watermark.

How it looks in the store

Hoodies have Black Friday, t-shirts have 20% off. The badge is on the product page, and in the cart too, because the badge is in the image.

Google Shopping, TikTok Shop, Amazon: keep the main image clean

Then I realized something. The badge is in the image, so wherever the image goes, the badge goes. If you sell on Google Shopping, TikTok Shop, Amazon or Meta, your product images go there too.

And almost all of these platforms want a clean main image: no text and no badges. Google doesn't allow promotional elements on product images, Amazon's main image rules say no text, logos or watermarks, and TikTok Shop asks for a main image without text, graphics or stickers.

Remember that checkbox? If you sell on these channels, tick "Don't watermark the first image." The main photo stays clean. You lose the badge in your collection grid, but your listings stay safe. Check each channel's rules before the sale so you know what can happen.

My store only sells on its own website, so I left it off.

Take the badges off: rollback in 2 clicks

This is the part I really cared about. Before I trust this for Black Friday, I want to know I can take it off easily. If this doesn't work, I'm back in Canva removing badges one by one.

Products → Rollback all → all 16 products. It runs in the background: 16 products took about 40 seconds.

I checked the store while it ran, and it's back: the original images, the alt text, all of it. Almost an hour by hand, two clicks here. That's what I do when the sale ends.

A warning, and how to end one deal early

Don't delete a watermark during the sale to clean up the app. If you delete it, it takes the badge off every image that uses it.

But that warning is useful if you want to end only the t-shirt deal early. There's no rollback button for one collection. You can roll products back one by one (about 10 seconds each), or delete the 20% off badge and every t-shirt goes back in about 20 seconds. The hoodies keep theirs. You just make the badge again next time.

Use it all year

That's it, four steps: pick a badge, put it on, run the sale, take it off. The same four steps work for Cyber Monday, Christmas, a summer sale, new products or low stock. And because the badges go away when the deal ends, nobody sees an old deal in your store.

Related: Shopify Editions Fall 2026: 7 updates that matter before Black Friday.

Bonus: storefront protection

One more useful feature: Storefront protection. Turn on the copy lock and people can't copy any text from your store, not even the product titles. It blocks right click too.

Just know it won't stop screenshots. The app says it itself: it's a deterrent, not a vault.

Bonus: an AI-generated badge for AI photos

If you use AI-generated product photos, there's an AI Generated badge. It puts a visible badge on the image and also an invisible tag inside the photo file.

Related: AI product photography: can it replace traditional photoshoots?

FAQ

How do I add a Black Friday badge to Shopify product images?
Most themes only show a generic "Sale" badge when a product has a compare-at price. To show a custom badge like "Black Friday" or "20% off" on the image itself, use a watermark or badge app like Viking Watermark: pick a badge, set size and position, and apply it to a collection or your whole catalog.

Can I change the text of the Shopify "Sale" badge?
You can rename it in the theme's default content (Online Store → Themes → Edit default theme content), but it's still one text for every discounted product. You can't show a different badge per collection or the actual discount without editing the theme code. A badge on the image avoids that.

How do I remove sale badges from Shopify after Black Friday?
If you added them by hand, you have to replace every image again. With Viking Watermark, the originals are saved in Shopify Files, so Rollback all restores every product. For me, 16 products took about 40 seconds.

Do badges on product images break Google Shopping or Amazon listings?
They can. Google, Amazon and TikTok Shop all want a clean main image without promotional text or overlays. If you sell there, tick "Don't watermark the first image" so the main photo stays clean.

Does a sale badge change the product price?
No. The badge is only a label on the image. Set your discount or compare-at price in Shopify first, so the cart matches what the badge promises.

Watch the full walkthrough

The full 7-minute video, with every click on my store, is above. Watch it on YouTube, and if you want help getting your store ready for the sale, work with me.

Still planning your Black Friday offers? Start with the 3 offers that always sell.