How To Temporarily Disable A WooCommerce Store

July 3, 2024,

Ever felt like your online store needs a little time off? Maybe the holidays are coming and things are crazy, your team needs a break, or you're running low on stock. While taking a breather is a good idea, completely shutting down your store isn't the best option.

You shouldn’t disappear all of a sudden from the view of your customers and for many other reasons.

Some reasons why you must not opt for a complete website shutdown are:

Losing momentum: Customers might think you're closed for good, leading them to your competitors.
SEO hit: Disappearing store pages can negatively impact your search ranking.

The smarter solution? Temporarily disable WooCommerce while keeping your website live!

Here's the thing: growing an online business is all about moving forward, but sometimes hitting pause is the smartest move. Maybe the holidays are around the corner or you're revamping your products. Whatever the reason, temporarily taking your WooCommerce store offline can be a strategic decision.

This allows you to:

Maintain customer engagement: Website visitors can still browse your blog, portfolio, or contact information.
Set expectations: Display a clear message explaining the temporary closure and your return date.

This guide will explore why store owners choose to do this, what to consider when taking a break, and four easy methods for putting your shop on hold—without losing momentum!

Why Temporarily Disable Your WooCommerce Store?

Here are some reasons to temporarily close your WooCommerce Store.

Taking a Break: Vacation time is a common reason, especially for stores selling physical products. Disabling the store during holidays like Christmas allows you to avoid order fulfillment, customer service, and product return hassles. This also reduces pressure on a limited staff managing the store during your absence.
Inventory Refresh: Taking your store offline for inventory adjustments ensures a smooth experience for everyone. This will prevent customers from buying items that are out of stock, so you won't have problems filling their orders later. So, when the purpose is to restock the inventory, closing WooCommerce store temporarily is the ideal solution that fits.
Brand Refresh on Deck: Planning a complete makeover for your store's look and products? Temporarily disabling WooCommerce lets you prepare the relaunch behind the scenes. This way, you can unveil your fresh offerings without confusing your existing customers.
Website Maintenance: When in a WooCommerce maintenance mode, upgrades, theme changes, or plugin updates might necessitate disabling the store to prevent customers from encountering errors or incomplete information.

Disabling the store entirely isn't recommended for out-of-stock or backordered products. This can lead customers to believe you no longer sell the item, pushing them to competitors. It can also negatively impact SEO, with shop pages inaccessible to search engines. In such cases, consider hiding the "Add to Cart" button for the specific product instead.

Method 1: Adding a Code Snippet

For developers comfortable with code, a custom code snippet can be added to your theme's functions.php file to disable WooCommerce functionalities like cart and checkout.

Here is an example snippet:

Before ”?>,” add these code snippets to the file:

// Trigger Holiday Mode

add_action ('init', 'bbloomer_woocommerce_holiday_mode');

// Disable Cart, Checkout, Add Cart

function bbloomer_woocommerce_holiday_mode() {

remove_action( 'woocommerce_after_shop_loop_item', 'woocommerce_template_loop_add_to_cart', 10 );

remove_action( 'woocommerce_single_product_summary', 'woocommerce_template_single_add_to_cart', 30 );

remove_action( 'woocommerce_proceed_to_checkout', 'woocommerce_button_proceed_to_checkout', 20 );

remove_action( 'woocommerce_checkout_order_review', 'woocommerce_checkout_payment', 20 );

add_action( 'woocommerce_before_main_content', 'bbloomer_wc_shop_disabled', 5 );

add_action( 'woocommerce_before_cart', 'bbloomer_wc_shop_disabled', 5 );

add_action( 'woocommerce_before_checkout_form', 'bbloomer_wc_shop_disabled', 5 );

}

// Show Holiday Notice

function bbloomer_wc_shop_disabled() {

wc_print_notice( 'Our Online Shop is Closed Today :)

', 'error');

This code snippet will redirect users away from the cart, checkout, and product pages, effectively disabling WooCommerce functionalities.

Method 2: Unpublishing Products

A simpler approach is to unpublish individual products. This removes them from public view and prevents customers from adding them to their carts. To do this:

Go to your WordPress dashboard.
Navigate to Products.
Select the products you want to unpublish.
In the Bulk Actions dropdown, select Edit and click Apply.
Change the Status to Draft and update.

Method 3: WooCommerce Shop Visibility

WooCommerce offers a "hidden" visibility option for the shop page. This allows visitors to access other parts of your website (like blogs) while hiding the shop. To enable this:

Go to Pages in your WordPress dashboard.
Find your shop page and edit it.
In the Publish box, change the Visibility to Private and update the page.

Method 4: Using Open/Close Store Hours, Maintenance Mode & Coming Soon Banner Plugin

Manage the operational hours of your WooCommerce store with this open/close store plugin. Be it a special event or any holiday, you can close your WooCommerce store temporarily and get back to your customers right on time. This plugin also offers the functionality to hide the “Add to Cart” button during closed hours.

Let’s explore what features this plugin comes with, along with every detail to configure it here:

Key Features of WooCommerce Product Visibility by User Roles

These are some features you get with the plugin to temporarily close your store:

Show/Hide Products by User Role
Show/Hide Categories by User Role
Hide/Show Products for Not Logged-In Users
Hide/Show Products for All Registered Users
Custom Error Messages for Restricted Pages
Allow/Disallow Search Engines to Crawl Hidden Pages
Intuitive Settings Page
Quick Activation and Management via WooCommerce Menu
Simultaneous Visibility Control for All User Roles
Separate Tabs for Global and Role-Based Visibility Settings

Now explore how to include these features in your online store.

Installation

To get started, install and activate the plugin by following these steps.
Download the WooCommerce Open Close Store Plugin .zip file from FME Addons
Go to: WordPress Admin > Plugins > Add New and click Upload Plugin.
Select the .zip file you downloaded and click Install Now.
Activate the plugin after installation.

Plugin Configuration

From the admin panel, go to WooCommerce > Settings and click the Open/Close store.

Here you will find these tabs: General Settings, Display Settings, Daily Schedule, Holidays Schedule, and Close Store.

Let’s find out what each tab allows you to do:

General Settings

In the general settings, you can manage:

Choose between the notification type: Bar notification or popup notification
Manage time zone settings
Set a message when the store is closed, open, or on break
Hide add to cart for products when the store is closed
Include or exclude products and categories for which you want to add to the cart to be removed
Manage the countdown timer settings
Manage the “Remind me” settings

Display Settings

In the display settings tab, you can:

Manage Notification Bar Settings
Manage Notification Popup Settings
Manage Holiday Popup Settings

All these settings will help you customize the popup notification, along with managing the popup style and color factors.

Daily Schedule

To schedule your daily timings, you can choose the store opening time and closing time. You can also schedule breaks for each day during the work hours. Moreover, choose the days on which your store will be open and closed.

Holidays Schedule

For holidays like Christmas and the New Year, you can close your store for the entire day or for a number of days, or choose specific store opening hours on these days. You can also delete any previously created holidays or edit them, whatever you want.

Here in this tab, you will also find the “Add New Schedule” button to add a new holiday schedule.

After clicking this button:

Name the new holiday schedule
Set the date and time
Click on “All Day” if you want to close the store for the whole day
Type in the custom message you want to covey

Close Store

Here in this tab, you can close your WooCommerce store manually with just a single click. You can also set the message for your customers to view when the store is closed. Make sure to add a “Remind Me” option for the users so that they get to know about the store when it is open through email notifications

You can also manage much more settings, which you can explore in this plugin’s user guide.

Benefits of Using a WooCommerce Temporarily Close Shop Plugin

While the passage outlines several methods for temporarily disabling your WooCommerce store, using a dedicated WooCommerce Temporarily Close Shop Plugin offers significant advantages:

Clear Message To The Store Visistors: You do not have to worry about keeping your customers and store visitors updated about your store being closed temporarily with this plugin. You can display banners and popup notifications enlisting the reason for store closure and when the store will be open again.
Improved User Experience: This plugin also allows you to disable the Add to Cart button when the store is closed. This reduces confusion and frustration caused by items for which you can not process the orders at the moment.
Flexibility and Ease of Use: The plugin provides a user-friendly interface for temporarily closing your WooCommerce store. You can easily configure settings without needing to edit code snippets or unpublish large numbers of products.
Customizable Messages: Craft messages to display when the store is closed and when the store opens. Explain the reason for store closure so that the user has the knowledge of you coming back for their service.
SEO Considerations: The plugin allows you to control search engine crawling for hidden products. This helps maintain SEO value for temporarily unavailable items, preventing them from negatively impacting your search ranking.

Final Remarks

By implementing these strategies, you can ensure a smooth shopping experience for your customers, even when your WooCommerce store is on a temporary pause. So go ahead, take that vacation, focus on your brick-and-mortar store, or simply catch your breath—your online shop can wait!

Get this plugin installed without any delay!