When you prepare a sale, your prices, homepage message and offer end date need to line up. If the team handles each task separately, there is a lot to check just before launch. A new Shopify Rollouts update lets you prepare and schedule catalog changes as part of that work.
On October 23, 2026, Shopify announced support for activating, deactivating or switching existing catalogs at a scheduled time, alongside theme and checkout updates. This is relevant to stores preparing different prices or product availability for different markets. Read Shopify’s official announcement.
When to use Rollouts
Start by deciding what you need to manage: a permanent change, a limited-time sale or a test. Rollouts has three modes for these purposes:
- Launch applies changes permanently.
- Event publishes changes for a defined period, then rolls them back.
- Experiment compares a changed version with a control.
For a weekend sale, start with an Event. If you want to find out which offer performs better, plan a separate experiment. The Shopify Rollouts documentation explains the different modes.
According to the current documentation, Rollouts is available on Basic and higher plans, while experiments require Grow or higher. Before preparing a campaign, check staff permissions and your store’s theme compatibility too. Review the Rollouts requirements.
How to prepare your first campaign
We recommend starting with one market and a clearly defined group of products. This makes it easier to check the result and identify which setting needs attention if the offer does not appear as intended.
- Write down the offer rules. Which products are included? What is the final price? When does the sale end? Who approves the pricing? Use this short brief as a shared reference for the store, advertising and newsletter.
- Prepare the catalog. Rollouts uses an existing catalog. Set up its prices and products first, then check its market assignment.
- Create the rollout. In the admin, go to Markets → Rollouts, select Create rollout and choose the appropriate mode. Add the catalog status change and any other changes the campaign needs.
- Check the timing. Start and end times use the store’s timezone in Settings → General. Align your newsletter and advertising schedules with that timezone, not the clock on a team member’s computer.
- Walk through the buying journey before launch. Check the product page, cart, checkout and both store languages. Record what the team should see when the sale starts and when it ends.
Shopify’s official creation guide covers catalog preparation, adding changes and scheduling. The offer brief and buying-journey checks are our recommended working process.
Two details that are easy to miss
Rolling back a catalog does not restore a snapshot of its old prices. Rollouts controls catalog status. If you edit the catalog during a running campaign, those edits remain. We therefore recommend saving the approved price list before launch and agreeing who can change it. Review the catalog limitations.
An ad can show a different offer from the store. Experiments and rollouts shown to only part of your visitors do not pass the same offer to external channels. Even a catalog change for the full audience reaches connected systems according to their own sync schedules. Check your ads, product feeds and final landing page. Read about Rollouts and external channels.
What should happen after launch
Assign someone to check the actual offer immediately after it goes live. Repeat the check when the sale ends. If you are running an experiment, avoid changing its conditions based on the first few orders.
The metrics in Rollouts analytics depend on the changes and rollout type; results cannot be filtered by device or country. Before a test, decide which question you want to answer and whether the available data will be sufficient. Review the analytics capabilities.
Our recommendation: keep your first campaign small, give it a clear end date and use an approved checklist. Automate the launch steps only once you know how you will verify the outcome.
Information checked on October 27, 2026 against the official Shopify Changelog and Shopify Help Center. Verify the options available to your particular store in its admin.