How can I set a vacation notice on my online store?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Store owners are seeking a straightforward vacation mode feature that allows them to temporarily disable checkout while keeping their store visible to customers. Currently, Shopify lacks a built-in vacation mode toggle.

Available workarounds include:

  • Password protection (customizable via Theme Editor > Password page)
  • Pause and Build plan ($9/month, disables checkout but keeps store browsable)
  • Announcement banners to communicate delays
  • Third-party apps like Magical Vacation Mode ($5/year)

Key concerns raised:

  • Password protection makes stores appear closed and may impact SEO
  • Pause and Build is unavailable for yearly payment plans
  • Banners alone don’t prevent orders from being placed
  • Lack of this basic feature compared to competitors (Etsy, Amazon Handmade)

Current status: No official vacation mode exists despite years of merchant requests. Shopify staff acknowledge the feedback but provide no implementation timeline. Many users express frustration that this standard e-commerce feature requires paid workarounds or complex solutions, with some questioning their platform choice after a decade of use.

Summarized with AI on October 30. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

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 re

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Hi, @kricklewood .

Firstly, I’m sorry to hear about your loss. I know that this may be a difficult time for you, so I can understand your concerns about managing your store and setting the proper order and fulfilment expectations for customers while you’re away.

While there isn’t a specific vacation mode that you can toggle within the Shopify admin directly, typically stores will either make their store password protected, like you mentioned, or add a specific messaging via a banner or homepage image. You can find instructions on adding an announcement banner in our help guide here.

If you’d like to password protect your store, just a note that you’ll be able to change the default messaging that you mentioned by going to Online store > Themes > click Customize on your current theme. This will take you to the Theme editor, and from there you’ll need to click on the Homepage dropdown at the top of your page, and type in “password” within the search box. You should then be presented with the Password page as one of your results, and if you click on this it’ll take you to your store’s Password page editor, where you can then make changes to the messaging that appears there, as seen below:

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I understand how beneficial adding a specific vacation mode will be to our admin directly, however. So I’ll be sure to pass on your feedback to our internal development team for consideration. While we can’t guarantee if or when features are implemented, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us nonetheless about the need for a vacation mode, as we can only improve our platform from feedback like merchants like yourself.

For the latest updates to Shopify, be sure to bookmark and check our Changelog here.

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Thank you, I was able to edit the password page so at least it looks
consistent with the rest of our site.

Dale

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Gotcha, glad to hear that. Appreciate the update @kricklewood .

Feel free to create another post here in our Community Forums if anything else comes up, and if you need assistance from our wider Shopify Community.

5

This is still such a bad option for something that is basically in all other shops (Etsy has a vacation mode, Amazon handmade has a vacation mode). It seems super easy to implement (just need something to disable checkout) and the fact that it is not is making me rethink using shopify as my store. I have been using you guys for close to 10 years now and paid a lot of money and for this to still not be an option is lacking greatly!

It seems by doing what you suggest I will be loosing SEO and placement in google and other search engines and possible customers unless you can tell me otherwise?

Having customers be able to continue to browse your store and favorite or add items to their cart for later purchase is not something new and should be a feature of Shopify. Even though a shop owner cannot currently fulfill orders or wants to take a few weeks off they should not be forced to close the shop by password protecting so their products cannot continue to be seen.

Please Im begging you guys to implement a simple little slider to say Vacation Mode or Turn off Checkout. This is not to much to ask in my opinion.

Until then is there at least some way to turn off checkout internally as I can put up a banner saying “we are on vacation but please continue to browse our items”??

I know I could just put up a banner but again saying your item will be process in 3 weeks just does not make sense.

Is there a timeline when something like vacation mode will be added? Pretty sure I probably ranted about this like 6 years ago so please don’t just say oh that’s a good idea and i’ll let our developers know… cause that does not seem to work. :disappointed_face:

Sorry if i sound frustration and impatient but I guess after this long it’s hard not to be.

Thank you… from a Looong time shopify user.

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OK after more research and searching it seems Shopify even has a help article on pausing your store where checkout is disabled but customers till have access to browse your store but just cannot checkout. So why was this not given to the original Poster as a solution? I don’t know if it was just overlooked or maybe because by doing this your shopify subscription goes down to $9 a month. My current payment is $39 a month so that is a big savings for me but a big loss for Shopify.

Not saying that why it was not mentioned just seems strange as this is a viable method and is supported by Shopify.

For those that want to pause your checkout here is what it states from shopify:

Pause your store and continue to work on it

When you use the Pause and Build plan, your store continues to run at a reduced cost of $9 USD per month. You can access your Shopify admin and edit your products when you need to, but your checkout is deactivated. This means that customers can review your products, but they can’t purchase them.

The Pause and Build plan might be the right choice for you if, for example, your store is seasonal, or if it’s only open for a specific period of time.

While you’re on the Pause and Build plan, you can do the following:

  • Access your Shopify admin.
  • Access basic reports about your site’s performance.
  • View your online storefront.

During the time that your store is paused, you can’t use online store checkout, POS, discounts, abandoned checkout recovery, gift cards, or third-party integrations such as Facebook and Google to publish your products. You can send draft order invoices, but the customer won’t be able to complete the checkout process and draft orders can’t be converted to live orders.

Click here for full article:

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/your-account/pause-deactivate-store#pause-and-build-your-store

I have not tried this yet myself so please read through the documentation and be sure this is what you need to do.

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This is still a workaround, not really vacation mode unfortunately. You would have to add a message on your home page to let customers know that they can do orders but can’t check out. I agree Shopify needs to add a true vacation mode. Last time I needed this I put on password protection mode and customized the password page. It still says ‘enter using password’ but at least I was able to make the page look more like our regular website while it was closed.

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Hi, thank you for this clarification. Here is another consideration I’d like to inquire about, namely: What happens to my SEO (and Google organic traffic) when we set the store on “Password Protected”, say, for the period of 2 weeks (for vacation)? What happens to the traffic that go to our popular blogs?

Does Google penalize the website for that, and can anybody comment on how traffic is impacted? Any help is appreciated!

Thank you!

9

It is possible to activate a true vacation mode (like you might find on Etsy or Ebay) on your Shopify store with a 3rd party app called Magical Vacation Mode.

https://apps.shopify.com/magical-vacation-mode

Shopify does not have an official vacation mode setting, and encourage merchants to either use the password protected option, or change your plan to pause and build. Neither of these solutions are ideal if you simply want to pause your sales (hide purchase options) while keeping your store live.

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10

This is a great app and option to pause a store but not take it offline. Thanks for this suggestion!

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Hi

Can you give your development team a nudge on this please because a sophisticated product like Shopify stores should have this customer feature as a given. It’s just too unprofessional in its current format and stressful for the seller / store owner. We need to be able to have a break because were human and the people we serve happen to be humans too and the senior development team at shopify are also supposed to be human although we understand that they dont have holiday breaks because theyre always working at the computer screen. Just give them another nudge. Tata for now

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Hey, @Habbymart I understand the importance! In the meantime, you can use a free app to create a announcement bar at the top of your pages to display this message:

  • Shipping Bar By Hextom lets you create announcement bars specifically for promoting free shipping offers. However, you can repurpose it to display vacation notices or other important messages.

If there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know.

13

Thank you very much for this insight. its exactly what i need and trust i can still change my banner to state i am on holiday

14

Hi Dirk, I use the banner to announce if I’m going to be away for a few days and shipping will be delayed, but some customers still miss it. Is there a way to have an announcement on the Payment page too? Thanks

15

This is very helpful.

16

I used to change the processing time from 3 to 7 days or the time will be off.

17

YES, i just installed this for my upcoming vacation and I am impressed. 5$ a YEAR for an app (which Shopify should have included in every build, but whatever) it was easy for a non-techy person with autism so that should tell you how user friendly this app is to use. bravo to them!

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18

Pause and build stopped working for shops that are on a yearly payment basis. They suggested to use the password protection mode. This is ridiculous! I don’t mind paying while on vacation mode.

19

Dirk,

Why did you change the pause & build mode not to be available to yearly paying plans? This is ridiculous to not have a vacation mode. All the other sites keep charging the same amount if on vacation or not so Shopify would not loosing money . Please talk to the IT dept about implementing this. Yes we did put a banner on our site but orders were still made resulting in unhappy customers. We had to put the password protection on which makes it look like we have closed down. PLEASE HELP!!

20

Thank you for your response. I would like to disable the add to cart option so my customers can still see our products. Otherwise it looks like we don’t have a website anymore if we do password protection.

I can always put a banner on the site saying we are away from the warehouse

What are the steps to disable cart?

Sandy Pugh
The Costume Party Shop

1 Like