Frustrating - Shopify needs a feature to put inactive shops back into development mode

[shopfy-2020]

Shopify needs a feature where stores can go back into development mode or a parked mode.

A lot of work goes into developing a store and sometimes the shop owner wants to take a break of a few months, or are planning a restructure. Of course no one wants to pay fees when a store is not open for sale. But once you cancel the subscription the store is deleted right away! Hundreds of hours of work is gone, plus all the costs for themes, etc. Very frustrating.

[Shay]

Hi @shopfy-2020 

I wanted to let you know that your store data is maintained for 2 years once the online store is deactivated. You can sign back in using the account owner login at any time in that 2 years to reactivate the store account and all your data will still be there. You can also see this information in our Help Center along with the different options for pausing and closing a store: Pausing or deactivating your store · Shopify Help Center.

We also offer the "Pause and Build" plan for eligible stores where you pay a reduced monthly fee and have access to the admin and store features. Allowing you to build and work on the store at your own speed. 

[shopfy-2020]

That doesn't help, unfortunately. I want the store back into development mode to have it worked on. I don't want to pay fees while it's in development mode...  to get stores redone can take a long time. Why should I pay $39 a month for that?

[Shay]

Thank you for the feedback. I can definitely appreciate how being able to transfer a store back to a development store status could be beneficial. You could technically export the available data into a development store to work on while the main store is closed, but not all data is exportable in that fashion. You can see what data can be exported/imported here: Backups and duplication.

I also wanted to note that the Pause and Build plan is $9 USD a month, which is a low price to access and maintain the availability of the store, and search engine rankings,  while working on it.

[shopfy-2020]

Paying anything for a store in development mode is not acceptable, in my view.  The whole store may be changing to a different inventory. And if you use paid themes, backup and duplication also don't work unless you pay for a second theme so that everything will be accurately setup like for the original theme.... I don't see why Shopify can't offer the option to reverse shops into development mode instead of taking them offline completely.

[Brandality]

I agree with this, it only makes sense. 

[OurWiseTribe]

Its another example of where you go looking for a logical feature, attribute or functionality you are met with a T&Cs scenario where Shopify just want to exert as much out of the ecosystem they are building without reflecting on real needs, further eroding our dev, partner and merchant goodwill.