Launchpad: Ready for Ecommerce Takeoff

Ground Control To Major Tom

You scramble into a work meeting, coffee spilling in one hand and a folder stuffed with scrawled notes in the other that indicate you’ve kind of just barely met your deadline. Sitting across from you is Ashley. You know Ashley. She always shows up having finished every task on her to-do list, has started on projects that aren’t due for another three months and also somehow manages to fit in a social life, a regular gym routine and volunteers on the weekends. Oh those people who somehow seem to have their life together all the time, seemingly effortlessly. Aren’t they the worst?

You can be one of those people.

Launchpad is Shopify Plus’s new tool that automates and organises everything you need to put on flash sales, product launches or other high-pressure ecommerce situations. Launchpad is a special dashboard available to Shopify Plus users that lets you automate tasks, adds helpful features and see your progress in real time.

What Can I Do With Launchpad?

When you’re prepping for a flash sale, product release or any other major launch, you’re doubling up on marketing (or you should be). There’s also a ton of other behind-the-scenes stuff that needs to happen to make your launch a success. Launchpad appears as a dashboard, and gives you an interactive checklist to make sure you’re on top of everything. You can use it to automatically do the following things for you:

1. Set a start and end time of an event
Your Products
2. Change the price of your items only during that time
3. Release new products to all of your sales channels at a specific time and date (let the countdown begin)
4. Increase your inventory available for purchase at the Launch Time
Your Customer
5. Change your theme with special colours, images and banners (then change it back after The Launch)
6. Lock the store and build the hype. Someone will show up on your site an hour before and have to wait until the new product is officially released.
Your Info
7. Prevent internet bots (not real people) from ordering your stock by enabling Captcha for Launch Time
8. Collect real-time data about sales and inventory, sales channels and marketing

What Does This Mean For My Business?

Basically, it means you’ve got less risk due to human error during important business milestones. It means you’re able to put in fewer (wo)man-hours per launch. It means a better experience for your customers, who benefit from alternative themes and aesthetics during launch. It also means you have validation that you’re checking all of the boxes you need to be for a successful launch.

If you’re a Plus member, you can install Launch here.

Get started with Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus is the best ecommerce platform for growing and large enterprises. You can find out more about Shopify Plus' awesome features here. Elkfox is a Shopify Plus Expert, meaning we work with Shopify Plus users to help grow your business using creativity, data and captivating design. We can help guide you through your next Launch. Contact us today to get started.