Closing your store

You close a store from the Danger Zone tab in Store Settings. Closing takes your storefront offline, cancels your subscription and removes access for you and your team. If you have paid time left on your plan, the store stays open until that period ends, and you can change your mind before then.

Considerations

• Only the store owner sees the Danger Zone tab.
• If you have paid time remaining, closing is scheduled for the end of that period. If you have none, the store closes at once.
• Once a store is closed, its live data is no longer available to you. Orbit keeps order and tax records only as required by law.
• Selling or handing over the business is a transfer, not a closure. See Transferring your store to a new owner or an agency.
• If you want a break rather than an ending, you do not need to close. A store with an active plan can stop taking orders.

Before you close

1. Export what you will need later: your orders for tax records, your customer list and your products. Legal record-keeping duties outlive your store.
2. Settle open items: unfulfilled orders, active subscriptions and outstanding gift card balances. Customers who have paid for something keep their rights after you close, so honour or refund them first.
3. Cancel any plugin subscriptions. They are billed separately from your plan.
4. Decide what to do with your domain. A domain pointing at a closed store shows a dead end, so point it somewhere else or let it lapse on purpose.

Close your store

1. From your Orbit dashboard, go to Settings, then Store Settings.
2. Click the Danger Zone tab. The card reads Delete this store and tells you whether you have paid time remaining.
3. Click Delete store. A dialog opens that lists what closing will do.
4. Under Type the store name, type your store name exactly as it is written. Capital letters and spaces must match.
5. Under Enter your password, type your current password.
6. Click Schedule closure. If you have no paid time left, the button reads Delete store instead.
7. With paid time left, the card changes to Store closure scheduled with the close date, and the message Store closure scheduled appears. Your store keeps trading until that date.

Warning: With no paid time left, clicking Delete store closes the store straight away and signs you out. This cannot be undone.

What closing does

• Storefront: goes offline on the close date, or at once if there is no paid time left.
• Subscription: cancelled, and all billing stops. Auto-renew is turned off.
• Access: removed for you and all team members.
• Data: order and tax records are kept only as required by law. Your live store data will no longer be accessible.

Reactivate a scheduled closure

1. From your Orbit dashboard, go to Settings, then Store Settings.
2. Click the Danger Zone tab. The card reads Store closure scheduled and shows the close date.
3. Click Reactivate store. The close date is cleared and auto-renew is turned back on. No password is needed.

Warning: You can only reactivate before the close date. Once the date passes, the store closes and cannot be reopened from the dashboard.

Related guides

• Transferring your store to a new owner or an agency
• Understanding and changing your plan
• Importing and exporting products
• Setting up your domain