Selling a private drop behind a password
Some things are not meant for everyone. A limited run for the people who follow you, an early look for your subscribers, a restock you want your regulars to see first. For those, you can put your whole shop behind a password.
Anyone with the password shops as normal. Anyone without it sees your shop's name, a line that reads This store is private. Enter the password to continue., and a box for the password. Nothing else.
Turning it on
Open Settings, then Store, and scroll to the bottom. It sits inside a collapsed panel called Advanced settings, with Private store written under it. Open the panel and turn on Require a password to view this store.
A Password field appears under the switch with its own Save password button. Type the password, press Save password, and only then treat it as set. The switch works the moment you flip it, but the password waits for that button. That is on purpose, so a half typed word never becomes the key to your shop.
Your shop needs to be published for this to work. A private shop is a live shop with a lock on the door. An unpublished shop is not open at all.
Running a drop
- Add the drop products, then turn the password on before you announce anything.
- Open your shop link in a private browser window and check that it asks for the password and that yours works.
- Share the password only where your people are: your mailing list, a close friends story, the members' group chat.
- Say when the drop opens and when it ends, so nobody is left guessing.
Search engines are told not to list a private shop, so the drop will not turn up in search results. The password is what keeps it within your group.
Worth knowing before you share it
It is one password for everyone. It is not a login for each customer. Anyone you give it to can pass it on, so think of it like the code on a door: right for a group you chose, not for anything that must stay secret.
Someone who gets in stays in for 30 days. Once a buyer enters the password, their browser stays unlocked for 30 days. Changing the password stops anyone new getting in with the old one, but it does not lock out people who are already in.
A wrong password shows Incorrect password. Repeated guesses in quick succession are slowed down, so nobody can sit and work through a list.
Ending the drop needs one extra step. Turning the switch off opens the whole shop to everyone, drop included. If those products should not stay on sale, set them to draft first, then switch the password off.
Setting up a new shop is a different job
If you only want to keep a half finished shop out of sight while you set it up, you do not need a password. A shop that has not been published is not open to customers yet, and visitors see a page saying it is getting ready. Once you are live, the Pause button on your dashboard takes the shop offline until you publish it again, which also suits a short break.
The password is for when your shop is open, just not to everyone.
Start your store at berkedai.com