Rollouts

A rollout is a scheduled set of changes to your online store's main theme, checkout and accounts pages, or both. You can create and configure a rollout to apply scheduled changes to your online store's theme, gradually launch changes to all your visitors, or test different types of changes with an experiment.

You might want to create a rollout for the any of following scenarios:

Prepare seasonal updates, sales, or campaigns in advance and schedule them to launch at a specific time.
Test and compare different sets of changes to understand what drives better results with your visitors by reviewing insights and analytics.
Draft customizations directly on your main theme instead of creating duplicate themes.

You can apply the changes in a rollout immediately or schedule changes for a specific date and time. If your store is on the Grow plan or higher, then you can run an experiment to compare whether the changes perform better than your live store. You create multiple rollouts, and add multiple eligible changes to the same rollout.

Plan requirements

Review the following plan requirements for using rollouts on your store:

Rollouts are available on the Basic plan or higher.
Experiments are available to stores on Grow plan or higher.

User permission requirements

The following users can edit, create, or manage rollouts:

The store owner and organization owner.
Users with the Administrator or Organization administrator roles.
Users with a Store role with the Markets > Rollouts store permissions, and the following additional store permissions for the type of changes that can be added to a rollout:
- The View and edit checkout and customer accounts permission to replace a checkout and accounts configuration.
- The Online store > Themes permission to replace and edit themes.
- The Manage and install apps and channels or Translate & Adapt permission for App and sales channel permissions to manage translations and theme and content edits to themes and checkout and account configurations.

Rollout terminology

To help you understand some of the terminology used for rollouts, review the following list of definitions and terms for rollouts.

Types of rollouts

There are 2 type of rollouts available, depending on how you configure your rollout and your plan.

A launch is the default type of rollout. This type of rollout has no change-level traffic split. Changes in a launch rollout apply to all eligible visitors. Eligible visitors are determined by the Launch reach percentage that you configure for your rollout, and the markets that the changes apply to. You can create a launch rollout to update to your online store either gradually or all at once, or to schedule time-sensitive changes, such as a seasonal sale. You can apply the changes to a launch rollout permanently, or revert the changes after the rollout ends.

An experiment is a type of rollout that lets you adjust the subset of eligible visitors that changes display to. With an experiment, you can test 2 versions of change sets, known as a treatment and control, against each other to compare them without affecting all of your visitors.

Launch rollouts and experiments provide different metrics and analytics. Learn more about analytics for your rollouts.

Types of changes in a rollout

You can add only one of each of the following types of changes to a rollout:

Edit or replace your main theme.
Replace your checkout and accounts configuration.

If you replace your theme, then you can also add changes to your theme content and languages using a compatible translation app, such as the Translate & Adapt app. Learn more about localization and translation on your store.

Common terms used in rollouts and a description of what they mean
Term	Definition
Rollout	The method used to implement customizations on your online store, which is rolled out in a controlled manner.
Unended rollout	An unended rollout is a rollout that has any of the following statuses: Active Draft Scheduled Paused
Roll back	The automated process for reverting customizations after a rollout reaches it's predetermined end date and time.
Change	The type of change added to a rollout. The following types of changes are available: Edit your main theme. Replace your main theme. Replace your checkout and accounts pages with a new configuration.
Resource	A resource refers to the area of your online store included in the rollout changes. The following resources are available for rollouts: Online store theme. Checkouts and accounts.
Launch reach	The percentage or total number of store visitors who will experience a rollout.
Launch	A type of rollout with no change-level traffic splits.
Experiment	A type of rollout for testing a new strategy by comparing control and treatment groups to evaluate the effectiveness of changes. Available to stores on the Grow plan or higher.
Control	In an experiment rollout, the control is the unmodified version of your changes, and the existing experience you're testing against. You can use the control to compare the results of other treatments. A Control is always paired with Treatment.
Treatment	In an experiment rollout, the treatment is the group of customizations applied to the rollout. A Treatment is always paired with Control.

Rollout resources and change types.
Resource	Change	Supports content changes
Online store theme	Edit main theme	✘
Online store theme	Replace main theme	✔
Checkout and accounts	Replace configuration	✔

After you add changes to a rollout, additional information displays in the corresponding area of your Shopify admin related to that change. You can review and manage the rollout's configuration from that area, or from the Markets > Rollouts page of your Shopify admin. Learn more about managing rollouts.