How to block out holiday dates for your store

BySupport Admin

Setting holiday dates lets you pause sales or deliveries while you’re away. It manages customer expectations and prevents a backlog of overdue orders when you return.

How to set your holiday dates

  1. Log in to your WooShop Dashboard.

  2. Navigate to WooCommerce on the left menu and select Settings.

  3. Click on the Store Schedule or Holiday Mode tab.

  4. Find the Date Ranges section and click Add Holiday.

  5. Use the calendar to pick your Start Date and End Date.

  6. In the Store Message box, write a brief note for your customers (e.g., "We are away for the bank holiday. Orders placed now will ship on Tuesday").

  7. Select whether you want to Disable Checkout (no orders allowed) or simply Display a Notice (orders allowed, but shipping is delayed).

  8. Scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes.

Practical examples

  • Public Holidays: If you are a restaurant or local shop closing for a single day, set the start and end date to the same day. This automatically reactivates your store the following morning.

  • Annual Leave: If you’re taking a week off but want to keep making sales, use the "Display a Notice" option. This keeps the money coming in but warns customers that they will have to wait longer for delivery.

  • Inventory Counts: If you need to stop sales for a few hours to count stock, you can use the holiday mode to temporarily disable the checkout without hiding your products from Google.

Troubleshooting

The holiday mode hasn’t started yet
Check your store’s time zone settings in Settings > General. If your site is set to a different time zone, the "Holiday Mode" will trigger based on that clock, not your local time.

Customers are still placing orders
Ensure you selected Disable Checkout rather than just "Display a Notice." If the checkout button is still active, customers often ignore the text notice and proceed with the purchase.

The notice isn’t showing up on the site
If you are using a caching plugin or a CDN (like Cloudflare), you may need to clear your cache after saving your holiday settings to make the announcement visible to everyone immediately.

Wrap up

Blocking out dates keeps your shipping lead times accurate and your customers happy. If you want to change how your store notice looks, you can usually find those styling options in the Kadence Customizer under WooCommerce > Store Notice.

Related articles:

  • How to set regular store opening hours

  • Customizing your WooCommerce store notice appearance

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