Running a store is not always a straight line. You may travel, take a holiday, restructure your business or decide to stop selling. We give our sellers controls for each situation. Here is how they work.
Settings names come from our seller dashboard at admin.airsoko.com and may change over time. Data retention details come from our page on closing your store.
Holiday mode
Under Settings > General, the store availability settings include Holiday mode. You can:
- Enable holiday mode.
- Set a start date and end date.
- Write a holiday message for customers. The default example reads "We are on holiday and will be back soon."
When to use it
- You are travelling and cannot ship.
- Your shop is closed for a public holiday period.
- You are restocking and temporarily cannot fulfil orders.
Why it matters
Our Sanction Policy treats order cancellations seriously and asks sellers to keep quantities and prices updated, setting quantity to zero if they cannot fulfil an order. Pausing properly protects your record.
Sales channel availability
The same settings area includes Sales channel availability, a way to quickly enable or pause every installed channel. "All channels online" means your store is selling everywhere it is set up to sell.
Transferring store ownership
The General settings include Transfer store ownership, where you enter the new owner's email. This is useful when a business is sold, a partner takes over, or you want to move the store to a company account.
Before transferring:
- Settle any outstanding issues, such as open orders, returns and disputes.
- Make sure payout details will be updated for the new owner.
- Keep your own copies of records you may need.
Closing your store
The General settings also include a Close store option. Under our Seller SLA, voluntary termination requires 30 days' notice, and outstanding fees must be settled before deactivation.
What happens to your data
Here is what we do with your data when you close a store:
- Immediate deactivation. The store is taken offline and hidden from customers.
- Account and profile: kept for 12 months, and you can reactivate your store at any time during that period.
- Transaction and payment records: kept securely for 5 years for tax and accounting purposes.
- Customer orders: kept for up to 3 years to help with refunds, disputes or chargebacks.
- Marketing and analytics data: deleted or anonymised within 6 months.
- Notice before deletion: we will email you 30 days before permanently deleting your account and non-financial data, so you can download or save anything important.
After the retention period, account and profile information is permanently deleted, customer and marketing data is anonymised or deleted, and financial records remain stored for 5 years.
A checklist before closing
- Fulfil or resolve all open orders.
- Process pending returns and refunds.
- Collect any returned items to avoid demurrage charges under our Sanction Policy.
- Retrieve AFS stock if you use Airsoko Fulfillment Services.
- Check final payouts and settle any fees.
- Download records you need.
- Give notice in line with the SLA.
Pause instead of close?
If you might return, holiday mode or pausing channels may suit you better than closing. And if you do close, your account details are kept for 12 months so you can reactivate.
An example: a December break
For example, say a handmade crafts seller plans to travel upcountry for two weeks in December. A week before, she posts on the Community Feed to tell followers. She ships every open order, then enables holiday mode with start and end dates and a friendly message. When she returns, she checks stock, disables holiday mode and posts a "we are back" update.
Note on these settings
Holiday mode, channel availability, ownership transfer and the close store option are seller dashboard settings; availability and wording may change as the dashboard evolves.
Communicate with customers
Whatever control you use, tell your customers. Use your holiday message, post an update on the Community Feed, and reply to messages explaining when you will be back. If you are transferring or closing the store, let regular customers know where they can find you next. Clear communication protects the reputation you have built, even when you step away.
Stay in control
Holiday mode, channel availability, ownership transfer and store closure give you control over how and when you sell on Airsoko. Use the right tool for the situation and keep your customers informed.
Manage your store settings at admin.airsoko.com and read the store closure data page.
