Do you need to close your online store for a few weeks or months to take a vacation or go on a buying trip?

In general, your best bet is to leave your site open, but post a message to your buyers that you will accept orders, but that you will not be shipping until the 'x' date when you return. This ensures that your search engine positioning won't change and that your customers will see that your store is still available.. To do so:

• Select 'Site Maintenance' from your members page options
• Select the option for site customization
• Look for the input area for the Vacation Message/Multipurpose Text Message
• Write your message and then click the option at the bottom of the page to apply changes.

Would you prefer to have the store really look closed -- no pages accessible?

Not a problem! We offer a vacation/away page that can have customized text to give the date of your return and the specifics of your absence (if you so choose.)   This is a for-charge feature that you can order from the menu link 'extras for your store'   The fee is for both the shut down and re-activation of your site, and includes the away page and your customized text, but does not include cosmetic and graphic changes.  We generally like to have one week's notice in order to get your page set up properly, but do realize that in some instances you may have little warning and need the shutdown done quickly.

Please note that buyers do get discouraged when they come to your store and find that you're out.  We only suggest this option for a lengthy absence. If you are only going to be gone for a few days, its generally a better idea to put a note in your store news feature, or adding an additional email address to the forwarding of your orders so that you can check them remotely from another account such as yahoo, hotmail etc.

In our increasingly-connected world, you may want to keep your store active if you travel with a laptop computer or if you are traveling someplace where there is an Internet café or other public access point.  Please note that if you ARE using a public access computer, you should be ABSOLUTELY sure

1. you have closed all browser windows when you leave your borrowed computer so no one can 'pick up' and use your session;
2. you NEVER tell a public system to remember your private information -- user id or password;
3. you do NOT retrieve a customer's credit card number or information unless you explicitly clear the browser cache on the machine that you are using.

All will be back to normal when you return and drop us a note telling us to reactivate your store!

NOTE: You won't be able to update inventory or otherwise update your site while it's on "hold" with this feature. 

Please note that there is a 60 day limit for this "vacation" time. Sites not reactivated after 60 days from the date of deactivation will be removed from our system.

Although we very rarely exercise it, we reserve the right to refuse to put a site on vacation for any reason.