Store owners want Vacation Mode
Merchants want the option to temporarily disable purchasing on their shops without having to do something drastic like password protect their website.
I get it too, you might want to take a vacation, maybe you’re sick, or maybe you have a product mix where you want to sell products during a specific timeframe or season. You want your customers to know that you’re still operating as a business, you’re just on a temporary break.
“I know this has been asked before, maybe Shopify will respond to this some day – fingers crossed. I have to leave for a week for a family funeral. I do not want to pause and reactivate my store and I do not want to make it password protected.
If password protected the screen defaults to a message that applies to a new store about to open: “Be the first to know blah blah blah’. This is in the middle of the page and my custom message is in a smaller font at the top of the page, barely visible.
Why is there not a simple way to tell visitors that we will be closed for a week and that we will processing orders when we return?”
Kricklewood Shopify User
The native Shopify options suck
Shopify only offers two default options for vacation mode.
- There’s a short term option where you could add a password to your store so that customers can’t visit it.
- Downgrade your plan to their pause and build plan which removes the ability for customers to make purchases on your site.
Neither of these options are ideal because most users complain about the potential impact of having their online store password protected. Customers will just see a page with a password and won’t be able to browse your store while you’re away. Google may also penalize you for having your website content completely hidden from users and from search.
How to put your store on Vacation Mode natively
As a Shopify merchant, it makes sense to want a built-in solution for vacation mode. But unfortunately, the native options kind of suck. They have some drawbacks and limitations, but may work for you depending on your situation.
Below I’ll walk you through the two ways you can set up vacation mode within Shopify, how to do it, and what potential issues you might run into with each.
1. Password Protect Your Store
You can simply restrict access to your store through a password-protected page.
This will create a landing page that will require your customers to enter a password in order to visit your store. This page can be customized with a message to inform your customers that you are temporarily away.
How to do it:
According to the Shopify Help Center:
- From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Preferences.
- Scroll to the Password protection area, and check Restrict access to visitors with the password.
- In Password, enter the password that you’ll give to the customers who you want to be able to access your online store. Don’t use the same password that you use to log into your admin.
- In Message for your visitors, enter the message that you want to show on the password page. If you don’t want to show a message, then leave this field blank.
- Click Save.
Potential issues
- There’s no way to notify customers when the store is live again. They will have to remember from the message left for visitors on the password page.
- Customers will not be able to browse your store.
2. Pause and Build Plan
Shopify has a Pause and Build Plan which will disable your checkout process while allowing you to work on building your store. This way, your customers would still be able to see your products but not purchase them.
To be eligible to pause your store:
- Your Shopify store must be on a paid plan.
- You must not be on a Shopify Plus plan.
- You also need to have an active store for at least 60 days after your free trial period.
On the Pause and Build Plan, you will not be able to use POS, discounts, abandoned checkout recovery, gift cards, or third-party integrations like Facebook and Google to publish your products.
Draft order invoices can be sent but your customer can’t complete the checkout process and draft orders can’t be converted to live orders.
Using the Pause and Build Plan will reduce your monthly subscription cost to $9 USD per month. You’ll have to switch to a paid plan once you decide to make your store live again.
And according to an answer from a Shopify staff member in the Shopify Community Forum:
“I would recommend that you uninstall any third-party apps if looking to reduce the cost.”
Hank, Shopify Staff
Shopify also recommends customizing your theme to hide your product price and Add to Cart buttons so customers don’t attempt to purchase anything while your store is on pause. However, Shopify also warns that this requires advanced coding knowledge and they recommend hiring a Shopify expert to assist setting this up.
With all of that in mind, this option may be best suited for merchants that are still building their store and would rather not pay the full subscription fee. For someone who is going on vacation, or just needs to pause sales temporarily, this solution would not allow them to notify their customers once they are back.
How to do it:
According to the Shopify Help Center:
- Log in to your store as the store owner.
- From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Plan.
- Click Deactivate store > Pause and build plan.
- Carefully review the plan details, and then click Switch to Pause and build.
Potential issues:
- Not all stores are eligible for the Pause and Build plan.
- Cannot use POS, discounts, abandoned checkout recovery, gift cards, or third-party integrations like Facebook and Google to publish your products.
- Additional customization like hiding product prices and Add to Cart buttons requires advanced coding.
- No way to notify customers when the store is live. They would have to remember based on any possible prompt the merchants insert on the store.
Which native solution is best?
Let’s recap the two native options:
- Password-protect your store – This option is simple but there isn’t a way to notify customers when the store is live again. Customers will not be able to browse your store either.
- Shopify’s Pause and Build Plan – This option will reduce your subscription but not all stores are eligible. On this plan, features are greatly reduced and there is no easy way to hide prices or the Add to Cart button. Again, there isn’t a way to let customers know when you’re live again.
In my experience speaking with Shopify merchants, one thing that comes up a lot is time. No one really wants to spend hours tinkering with their website or dealing with Shopify just to change their plan.
While neither native option is perfect, password-protecting your store is the quickest and easiest for most people to manage.
That said, merchants shouldn’t feel like they’re trapped between two not-so-great choices. There are better ways to add vacation mode to your store.
Don’t use Shopify’s native vacation mode – There’s a better way
When Shopify’s admin features don’t meet merchants’ needs, store owners can often find what they’re looking for in the Shopify App Store.
The Shopify App Store has hundreds of apps that offer simple, ready-made solutions, so you can avoid the hassle of custom coding. These apps make it easy to add new features.
You could develop your own app, but this would require a lot of technical skills that the average merchant doesn’t have.
Apps on the marketplace are generally affordable, easy to install, set up, and come with ongoing support to help you configure and manage the app.
The Magical Vacation Mode app is the best solution for pausing sales on your store
Magical Vacation Mode is an app that allows merchants to pause sales in their stores while notifying their customers that the business is currently not taking any orders. This app’s features are similar to eBay’s and Etsy’s vacation setting features.
As of today, it is the only true Vacation Mode app on the Shopify app store.
With Magical Vacation Mode, taking a break from your online store is easy and stress-free. You can temporarily disable purchase options, hide prices, and remove the ‘Add to Cart’ button, making sure customers won’t be confused while you’re away. You can also add a custom message across your site to keep visitors in the loop about why you’re closed and for how long.
Magical Vacation Mode not only pauses your sales but also keeps your store visible, so you don’t lose out on valuable traffic. Unlike Shopify’s Pause and Build Plan, this app lets you continue using other sales channels, like POS, while your store is on hold. Since customers can still browse your store, they’re now more likely to return to make a purchase once you’re back up and running.
One of the app’s top features is the ability to collect email addresses from interested customers during your downtime. This means you can easily notify them when your store reopens and even use this as a chance for future marketing and engagement.
If you will be taking periodic breaks over the year, switching between active and vacation mode is a breeze. You can even set automatic start and end dates, so your break transitions seamlessly without any extra effort.
Learn how to setup Magical Vacation Mode app on your Shopify store here.
I recommend using an app to set up Shopify Vacation Mode on your store
After reviewing the available methods to add vacation mode to your Shopify store natively, I found both options underwhelming.
Here’s why:
- A password protected landing page might seem like a quick fix, but it’s often too basic for most merchants, leaving customers confused about what’s happening with your store.
- Shopify’s ‘Pause and Build Plan’ works for some merchants if they’re eligible, but comes with greatly reduced features and no way to hide prices or the Add to Cart button.
Neither option lets customers know when you’ll be back, which can lead to lost sales.
After testing these methods, it is clear to me that the Magical Vacation Mode app is the far more flexible and user-friendly solution. It allows you to pause sales without the restrictions of Shopify’s native options, and it’s available to any store, regardless of the plan or how long you’ve been live.
If you’re looking for a hassle-free way to pause your store, using an app is the way to go!
Magical Vacation Mode
Use the Magical Vacation Mode App to pause your online sales letting you take a break, go on holiday, or get caught up.