Publishing and Scheduling a Product

The four states, and when to use each

Shopify has two separate things that control whether a product is visible: the status (Draft or Active) and whether it is published to the Online Store sales channel. A product needs both to be visible.

Step by step

Complete in order. Do not proceed past a checkpoint until its condition is met.

1. Create the product as a DraftProducts → Add product

   Enter the title and whatever information is available. Set Status to Draft using the dropdown at the top right before saving. A Draft is invisible to customers, so it is safe to leave a product in this state for as long as needed.

   Status shows Draft

2. Enter the product informationProduct page

   Fill in the title, description, media, pricing fields and the Jessar specification fields. Which fields are required for which kind of product, and what each one does to the page, is covered in JES-PRD-02 and the new product checklist.

   Checklist complete for this category

3. Assign the product to its collectionsProduct page → Product type and Tags

   Collection membership on this site is automatic — products are placed by their product type and their shelf tags, not by adding them to collections by hand. Set these correctly and the product appears in the right places on its own. See JES-COL-01 and the shelf tag reference.

   Correct product type and shelf tag applied

4. Check the page before going liveProduct page → Preview

   Use the preview to view the page as a customer would. Sections of the page appear only when their information is present, so a missing field shows up as a missing section rather than as an error.

   No empty or broken-looking sections

5. Set the product to ActiveProduct page → Status

   Change Status from Draft to Active. On its own this does not publish the product — the next step does.

   Status shows Active

6. Publish to the Online StoreProduct page → Publishing

   In the Publishing panel, confirm Online Store is ticked. If it is not, the product will not appear on the website regardless of its status. This is the step most often missed.

   Online Store listed and ticked

7. Confirm it is livejessar.ca

   Open the product page on the website and confirm it loads, then check that it appears in its collection.

   Page loads and product appears in its collection

Setting a launch date in advance

When a product is finished but should not appear until a particular day, set a publish date rather than trying to remember to publish it manually on the morning.

1. Finish the product and set it to ActiveProduct page → Status

   Complete the product exactly as in the previous section, including setting the status to Active. Scheduling does not work on a Draft.

   Status is Active and all information complete

2. Set the date on the Online Store channelProduct page → Publishing

   In the Publishing panel, open the Online Store options and choose to schedule availability. Set the date and time the product should appear. Shopify uses the store's timezone, not yours if you are elsewhere.

   Publishing panel shows the product as scheduled, with the date

3. Note it for the launch dayOutside Shopify

   Keep a note of scheduled products so that someone confirms on the day that they appeared as expected.

   The date is recorded somewhere the team will see it

If a product is not showing on the website

Work through these four in order. In practice it is almost always the second one.

If all four are correct and the product still does not appear, allow a few minutes — collections update shortly after a change rather than instantly. If it is still missing after that, contact RevShift with the product's SKU.

Three ways, depending on why

Archive is right for a product you are finished with. It is not the only option, and it is the wrong one for a product you still intend to sell.

Archiving removes a product from every collection automatically. If a collection looks short after archiving, that is why — nothing else needs changing.