The methods for disabling your eCom store vary: some changes are temporary and cosmetic, while others are permanent and irreversible. Choose a method based on your wishes.
The following list contains the methods to disable your eCom store. Click on each method for more information.
Notify your customers - You want to announce that you will be closed for the holidays and that the delivery of the products may take longer than usual. To do this you can create a new headline on your front page, make adjustments to your delivery times and change your email notifications.
Show a demo bar - You want to announce that your site is under construction, but you don't want to hide your eCom store. Customers can still make purchases with this setting enabled. For this you need to enable the demo bar in the settings.
Preventing customer purchases - You want customers to see your eCom store, but you don't want them to make purchases. For this you have to disable the shopping cart and checkout in the settings.
Create a full-page maintenance message - You may be designing your eCom store and want to prevent your customers from viewing an unfinished website. This requires changes to your custom CSS, translations, and activating your demo bar.
Disconnecting your domain - You are moving your eCom store to another platform and want to cancel eCom when the transfer is complete. This requires domain changes and a phone call to our billing department.
Canceling your eCom subscription - You want to disable eCom because you no longer have an eCom business and you want to completely delete your online presence.
Notify your customers
You can use the following methods to inform your customers:
Create a headline explaining why your eCom store is temporarily closed with any other information you want to provide. Most themes display headlines as prominent images on your eCom store's home page. Remove all other existing headlines to make your post more visible. For more information about headings click here.
Adjust your delivery times to be consistent with the time it will take if a change is needed. For more information about adding delivery times, click here.
Make changes to the automatic emails Lightspeed eCom sends to customers. For example, you can include a vacation time statement in the body of your email notifications. For more information about making this change, click here.
Show a demo bar
To enable your eCom store's demo bar, follow these directions:
Activate the demo bar in your eCom Back Office by clicking Settings > Advanced.
In the STORE section, turn on the switch next to Show demo bar
Click on Save.
Preventing customer purchases
To prevent customers from making purchases from your eCom store, follow these directions:
Disable the shopping cart in your eCom Back Office by clicking Settings > Advanced.
In the STORE section, scroll down to Shopping Cart and select Disabled from the menu.
Click on Save.
Creating a maintenance notification (full page)
Create a full page maintenance notification by customizing the demo bar using CSS. This prevents your customers from seeing and interacting with your website. This does not require you to open your theme's code editor. It's very easy to remove them when you're ready for your customers to use your eCom store again. For instructions click here.
Disconnect from your domain
Disconnecting your domain is a way to temporarily disable your eCom store. However, this option should only be considered when switching to a new eCom platform. Otherwise, we have a more temporary method to disable your eCom store, as explained above.
Disconnecting your domain will disable your eCom store and prevent it from being accessible at your current custom URL. This negatively affects your search engine ranking and customer experience.
By following these directions, your website will remain available at the URLs URL webshopapp.com or shoplightspeed.com. To remove these too, see Cancel eCom subscription.
To disconnect from your domain, follow the instructions here, in reverse order:
Set your .webshopapp or .shoplightspeed domain as the default domain.
Disable your domain provider's DNS records.
Remove the domain from your eCom store.
Cancel your eCom subscription
After your subscription is canceled, customers will no longer be able to view your eCom store. You will also no longer have access to your eCom administrator. Contact us to cancel your subscription.
NOTE: While we may suspend your eCom store's online presence, your subscription may continue until its expiration date.