Password protect a single product or password protect a category

Hi all,

I sell single custom one off items that are pre-ordered by clients, once I've made the item I want to sell it via my website but obviously only want it available to the client who commissioned it.

Ideally, I'd have a category within the shop that was password protected, but I don't think that's possible.

Can anyone think of a solution to this issue, I'm sure I'm not the only one trying to do this 

Best regards

Jason

The easiest way IMO and I prob would do this is to toggle the visibility of a sub category your product is in.

I tested it myself just then.

The method

Create your product > Create a 'category' for the product to be in > Edit the category > Enable Page ON > Filter Visibility OFF > Back > Done > Save and Publish

Whatever the link you saved it as, copy it and give it to your client to purchase that product as per normal

Here's my hidden product https://onyxhive.com.au/cakes/p/customonyx-jtls6

You can't see this product in my main products area at all.

Unfortunately you can't set a password. But the chances of a random customer going to a random link of your commissioned product and buying it is pretty much nil.

Thanks for that solution, I'll give that a go.

I'm surprised that there aren't more people after a similar way to sell commisioned goods

@paul2009 I'm wondering if you think this solution is a good idea? I have to come up with something for a client where her past clinic participants can have access to updated (physical) manuals and we dont want just anyone to find them. They will be purchasable product blocks on a page. And if I could I would like to hide the page from search engines too.
Your opinion? (Which I really value!) And no they aren't ready to to membership areas yet but that may be in the works later this year.

On 3/26/2022 at 10:49 PM, jaisequoia said:

I'm wondering if you think this solution is a good idea?

@jaisequoia If we ignore Member Areas there's only one guaranteed way to hide a purchasable product and that's to place it on a separate password-protected store page, and then share the password with past participants. This will guarantee that search engines and users cannot stumble upon this content.

Other options don't work for the following reasons:

If you place a product in a public store page it cannot be hidden and purchasable at the same time. When you filter a product's visibility by changing it to hidden, the item is removed from sale. It cannot be viewed or purchased unless you are logged in to the site. Hidden products cannot be linked successfully to a product block either.

If you place a product in a separate store page and set the page SEO setting to "Hide Page from Search Results" this should (but doesn't guarantee) that products on this page won't be read by search engines but it doesn't stop the products being found by the Squarespace internal search tool (when it is working correctly).

7 hours ago, paul2009 said:

@jaisequoia If we ignore Member Areas there's only one guaranteed way to hide a purchasable product and that's to place it on a separate password-protected store page, and then share the password with past participants. This will guarantee that search engines and users cannot stumble upon this content.

Other options don't work for the following reasons:

If you place a product in a public store page it cannot be hidden and purchasable at the same time. When you filter a product's visibility by changing it to hidden, the item is removed from sale. It cannot be viewed or purchased unless you are logged in to the site. Hidden products cannot be linked successfully to a product block either.

If you place a product in a separate store page and set the page SEO setting to "Hide Page from Search Results" this should (but doesn't guarantee) that products on this page won't be read by search engines but it doesn't stop the products being found by the Squarespace internal search tool (when it is working correctly).

Wow thanks so much Paul. I knew you’d have the grounded knowledge to guide my thinking on this. With sqsp I find so much of my learning happens when I need to know a specific thing. This makes me so grateful for this community filled with people like yourself that have more knowledge than me. 

@paul2009

On 3/28/2022 at 8:29 AM, paul2009 said:

@jaisequoia If we ignore Member Areas there's only one guaranteed way to hide a purchasable product and that's to place it on a separate password-protected store page, and then share the password with past participants. This will guarantee that search engines and users cannot stumble upon this content.

Other options don't work for the following reasons:

If you place a product in a public store page it cannot be hidden and purchasable at the same time. When you filter a product's visibility by changing it to hidden, the item is removed from sale. It cannot be viewed or purchased unless you are logged in to the site. Hidden products cannot be linked successfully to a product block either.

If you place a product in a separate store page and set the page SEO setting to "Hide Page from Search Results" this should (but doesn't guarantee) that products on this page won't be read by search engines but it doesn't stop the products being found by the Squarespace internal search tool (when it is working correctly).

I like your solution – but it seems there is no way to duplicate a store page? I am trying to have a second password-protected store that is identical to my first store, but with wholesale prices instead of consumer prices, so it's a private portal for my wholesale customers.

If I create a new store page, a lot of my custom css gets messed up and I have to populate it manually. Do you have any ideas for solutions to this? Thank you!

On 8/3/2022 at 5:00 PM, crisisandcreativity said:

I like your solution – but it seems there is no way to duplicate a store page?

Although there isn't "duplicate page" button, you can export your products to a CSV file, edit the store page name within the CSV file and then import the CSV file into a new Store page. This will effectively duplicate the store page.

My solution was to create a new store page, place a password on it, then go to my first store, duplicate the products I wanted to, then use the Move feature (inside the ellipses of the product) to move them to the new store and edit them as needed.