Before you leave, put a dated notice on every page and at checkout, change the delivery estimates or pause ordering, set an email reply saying when shipping resumes, and put the ship date in the order confirmation.

The shop that never closes

An online shop run by one or two people does not close when they do. Through a two-week summer holiday it keeps taking orders, and the payments arrive on time.

The parcels do not. Every order placed after the packing table was cleared waits until someone comes home.

Nobody told the customers. The product page still said ships within two business days, and the confirmation email said the same.

By the second week some buyers are emailing, some are asking on the shop's Facebook page, and one has called their card company.

Where the delivery promise is written

The fourth gets forgotten, because owners rarely read their own confirmation email. Every buyer gets it, keeps it, and quotes it back when the parcel does not come.

How a quiet delay becomes a dispute

A customer who expected a parcel in a few days waits a week, then emails. If the reply is silence, because nobody is reading the shop's inbox, the delay starts to look like something worse.

Some then ask their card company to reverse the charge for goods not received. The shop has to answer with evidence, usually within a deadline, and the payment processor often charges a fee for the dispute.

Answering from a holiday is hard. And the strongest evidence, a delivery date the customer saw before paying, is exactly what was missing.

A notice on every page

Put a short notice across the top of the whole site rather than the home page alone. Plenty of visitors land straight on a product page through a search result or a shared link.

Give dates, not a vague mention of holidays: orders placed from July 18 to August 2 ship on August 4. Each customer can then decide whether the wait suits them.

Repeat it where the decision is made, in the cart and on the checkout page, close to the button that takes payment.

A later delivery date, or a pause

If you keep selling, change the delivery estimates on product pages and at checkout for the period away, so the promise customers see is one you can keep.

Many customers will happily wait for something they cannot buy elsewhere. A clear date turns a delay into a pre-order.

The other choice is to pause ordering. Most shop software can switch off checkout or mark products unavailable while leaving the pages up, and some can take email addresses from people who want to hear when ordering reopens.

Pausing gives up some sales and keeps every promise. Selling with an honest date keeps more of them, provided the notice is seen.

A worked example

A taiko drumming group that plays festivals and corporate events sells practice sticks, drum covers, recordings and T-shirts through a small online shop. One member packs every order from home.

Each summer the group spends two weeks performing out of town, and that member goes too. Last summer the shop kept promising shipment within two days the whole time.

About twenty orders waited. Several buyers emailed twice without a reply, one disputed the charge, and the group spent an evening after the tour gathering evidence for it.

Before a ten-day tour this spring, the notice went up a week ahead on every page and at checkout, with the date shipping would resume. Product pages and the confirmation email showed the later date.

An automatic reply on the shop's email said the same, and the member who packs orders checked the inbox every few days for anything that could not wait. Orders still came in, and nobody disputed one.

The confirmation email and the inbox

Change the order confirmation email for the period away so it states the date the order will ship. Customers keep that email, and it answers their first question before they ask it.

Set an automatic reply on the shop's email address with the same dates. If someone else can handle urgent questions, name them; if nobody can, say when replies resume.

Check the inbox briefly every few days if you can. One reply to a worried customer costs less than a disputed charge.

If someone else can ship

Some shops can avoid the delay altogether. A family member, a neighbour or a shipping service that stores stock and sends orders can keep parcels moving while you are away.

Leave written instructions, packing materials, the shipping account and a list of anything fragile, then run one order through together before you go.

If the stand-in can only ship twice a week, say so on the site. Slower delivery is fine when it is the delivery customers were promised.

Coming back to a full queue

Plan the first day back. Orders ship in the order they arrived, and two weeks of them rarely clear in an afternoon, so the date in the notice should allow for the whole backlog.

Check stock before leaving and again on return, since items sold at markets or events while away may already be gone.

Then take the notice down. One left up into September tells visitors the shop is still closed.

The counter-case

A shop with a second person at home, or one that already uses a shipping service, need not change anything, provided someone is answering email.

A shop taking an order or two a month may prefer to email each buyer personally with the new date instead of editing the whole site.

And a long weekend rarely needs more than an automatic email reply.

For anything longer than a working week, the notice, the dates and the confirmation email are an hour's work that protects every order placed while you are gone.

Before you leave

  1. Pick the date shipping will resume.
  2. Add a notice to every page.
  3. Repeat it in the cart and at checkout.
  4. Change delivery estimates or pause ordering.
  5. Edit the confirmation email to state the ship date.
  6. Set an automatic email reply with the dates.
  7. Remove it all when the queue is cleared.

Step five is the one customers hold on to. A notice can be missed, but the confirmation email sits in every buyer's inbox, and a date written there answers their first question.

Whether a shop can show a notice and pause checkout easily often depends on its age, a problem covered in an online shop built on software from 2009.

Frequently asked questions

Should I close my online shop while away?

Not necessarily. Selling with a clear ship date suits customers happy to wait, while pausing checkout keeps every promise. Either works if customers know before they pay.

Where should the holiday notice go?

Across the top of the whole site, because many visitors land on product pages first, and again in the cart and at checkout, close to the button that takes payment.

What should the notice say?

Dates rather than a vague mention of holidays: when you are away and the day orders will ship, so customers can decide whether the wait suits them.

Why do delays turn into disputed charges?

A customer who expected quick delivery and hears nothing back starts to suspect something worse, and asks their card company to reverse the charge for goods not received.

Do I need to change the confirmation email?

Yes. Every buyer receives it and keeps it, so the ship date belongs there. It answers their first question and supports the shop if a charge is disputed.

What should I do when I return?

Ship in order of arrival, give a ship date that allows for the whole backlog, check stock, and take the notice down once the queue clears.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Summer holiday coming for a one-person shop?

Tell us when you will be away. We will set up the notice, the delivery dates and the emails before you leave.

Start a Conversation