What Is Launchpad
Shopify Plus Launchpad is an app available exclusively to Plus merchants. It allows you to create "events" that automatically apply a series of changes to your store at a scheduled time, then revert or apply additional changes when the event ends.
For a Black Friday sale, you might schedule: a theme update (adding sale banners) to go live at midnight, discount codes to activate at the same time, and price changes to revert automatically at midnight on Monday. All of this runs unattended.
Creating an Event
Open Launchpad from your Shopify admin sidebar (under Apps if it is not visible). Click Create event. Set the event name (e.g., "Black Friday 2025"), start date/time, and optional end date/time. The end time triggers any reversal actions you configure.
Events are grouped into themes, discounts, scripts, inventory, and custom actions. Work through each section to configure what should happen when the event starts and ends.
Scheduling Price Changes
Launchpad can apply price changes to specific products or collections at event start, then revert them at event end. This is one of its most powerful features: no manual price changes at midnight, no forgetting to revert after a sale.
Set compare-at prices to show the original price as a strikethrough alongside the sale price. Configure which products or collections are included. Preview the changes before scheduling to verify they look correct.
Theme Publishing
Prepare a sale theme in Shopify by duplicating your live theme and adding sale-specific elements: promotional banners, countdown timers, sale collection spotlights. Use Launchpad to schedule this theme to publish at event start and revert to your standard theme at event end.
This approach lets your team prepare and QA the sale theme in advance, with no manual intervention needed during the event itself.
Inventory Changes
Launchpad can set products to continue selling when out of stock during an event (useful for high-demand launches where you want to capture all orders and fulfil them later) or restrict purchasing to in-stock quantities only.
Post-Event Reporting
After the event ends, Launchpad generates a performance report showing revenue generated during the event period, orders placed, and comparison to the same period before the event. Use this to evaluate your promotional strategy.
Best Practices
Test your event in a development environment before scheduling it live. Use the Preview button to check theme changes. Schedule events at least 24 hours in advance so you can fix any issues without rushing.
Ensure your customer service team knows when events are scheduled and what the promotional details are so they can answer customer queries accurately.
