Managing rollouts

You can review and manage all of your rollouts from the Markets > Rollouts page of your Shopify admin.

The available actions for a rollout depend on the rollout's status and whether the rollout was configured to launch immediately. If the rollout was launched immediately, then no analytics are collected, the rollout can no longer be edited, and the changes are applied permanently.

To manage the rollout's changes, go to the Rollouts section on the corresponding area of the Shopify admin.

Rollout statuses

The status of a rollout displays on the Rollouts page, on each rollouts details page, and in the theme editor's menu bar. You can filter rollouts by status on the Rollouts page by clicking the status name.

Rollout management actions by status

The actions that you can perform for a rollout depend on the rollout's status.

Additionally, the information that displays when you click a rollout from the Rollouts index page depends on the following rollout statuses:

• If a rollout has the Draft or Scheduled status, then clicking the rollout name from the Rollouts index page displays the rollout's configuration details.
• After a rollout launches, while the rollout is active, then clicking the rollout name from the Rollouts index page displays the rollout's analytics.

Managing rollout changes

After you create a rollout and add changes, you can manage the rollout's details from the corresponding area of your Shopify admin related to that change.

If you're running an experiment to test changes, then editing the treatment or control copy while the experiment is active can affect experiment results.

Online store changes

If your rollout contains a theme edit or theme replacement change, then additional information displays on the Online Store > Themes page of your Shopify admin.

For a theme edit, a Rollouts submenu displays on your main theme's card. Click the icon, and then click the name of the rollout to edit the rollout's configuration details. To edit the theme changes for the rollout, click Edit theme, and then click the theme name in the menu bar, select the rollout, and then make any additional edits to your theme.

For a theme replacement, a Rollouts section displays the name of the rollout, the rollout's status, and, when the rollout is an experiment, the treatment and control themes. Click the rollout name to edit its configuration details. You can click Edit theme or to make adjustments to the replacement theme. You can also add changes to your theme content using a compatible translation app, such as the Translate & Adapt app.

Checkout and accounts pages changes

For a checkout and accounts configuration replacement, on the Settings > Checkout page, in the Configurations section, a new Rollouts section displays the name of the rollout, the rollout status, and, when the rollout is an experiment, the treatment and control configurations. You can click the rollout name to edit details, such as the rollout name or end date. You can click Edit or to make adjustments to the replacement configuration.

Pause a rollout

You can pause an active rollout.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Markets > Rollouts.

2. Click the name of the rollout that you want to review or modify.

3. Click Pause.

4. When prompted, click to confirm the action.

Resume a rollout

You can resume a paused rollout.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Markets > Rollouts.

2. Click the name of the rollout that you want to review or modify.

3. Click Resume.

4. When prompted, click to confirm the action.

End a rollout

If a rollout is active, and you want to end it before it's scheduled time, then you can manually end the rollout instead. When you end the rollout, you must roll back the changes or apply the changes permanently.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Markets > Rollouts.

2. Click the name of the active rollout that you want to review or modify.

3. Click End.

4. In the dialog, select either of the following actions:

   • To roll back the changes, click Roll back changes.
   • To apply the changes permanently, click Apply changes.

5. Click End.

Archive or delete a rollout

If you no longer need a rollout and want to remove it, then you can archive or delete the rollout from the Rollouts page of your Shopify admin. You can't archive or delete an active rollout.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Markets > Rollouts.

2. Click the name of the rollout that you want to review or modify.

3. Click More actions, and then select either of the following options:

   • To archive the rollout, click Archive.
   • To delete the rollout, click Delete.

4. When prompted, click to confirm the action.

Managing multiple active rollouts

You can schedule different rollouts to have overlapping start or end dates. You can run multiple experiments on the same resource simultaneously. Each experiment gets its own mutually exclusive segment of visitor traffic. A visitor can only be assigned to one rollout at a time for a given resource.

Traffic allocation for multiple active rollouts

If you have overlapping rollouts or experiments, then there are 2 categories of traffic allocation:

• The intended allocation is the traffic percentage you set in your rollout configuration details, such as launch reach.
• The effective traffic is the traffic percentage calculated for that rollout when divided between active rollouts.

Rollouts automatically calculate the effective traffic for multiple active rollouts and dynamically adjusts traffic allocations when rollouts start and end.

The way visitor traffic is split and allocated depends on the rollout's traffic configuration settings and the relationships between the active rollouts, including the type of rollout and the resources in the rollout.

Effective traffic is calculated proportionally based on the percentages in your rollout configurations, so the total is 100% for that resource.

For example, if you have 4 overlapping rollouts that all have a theme replacement change, and you set the launch reach for each rollout to 100%, then the traffic is split evenly between them. So, each rollout's effective allocation is 25% of your traffic. If you have 2 overlapping rollouts that all have a checkout and accounts configuration replacement change, and set the launch reach for one to 60% and the other to 100%, then the effective allocation of the traffic is 37%. The formula to calculate the effective allocation is percentage / percentage total (percentage + percentage). In this example, the formula is 60 / (60 + 100) = 37.

After a rollout ends, that rollout's traffic is reallocated either to the published resource, or to any remaining active rollouts.

Considerations for overlapping theme resource changes

Changes to the online store theme resource can be one of two types: editing the theme and publishing a new main theme. If you have any active rollouts with edits to your main theme, and launch an experiment with a theme replacement change, then the experiment will have the following impacts on your active theme edit rollouts:

• If the experiment's effective traffic is assigned to 0%, then the theme edit rollouts effective traffic is also 0%, and the rollout changes aren't displayed to any visitors.
• Any theme edit rollouts are hidden until the experiment ends.

Considerations for overlapping experiments

You can run multiple experiments simultaneously. Each experiment has its own dedicated traffic, so each visitor to your store is always be allocated to only one view. For example, you can create 2 different checkout and accounts configurations, and then create an experiment for each configuration with matching or overlapping start and end dates. When visitors navigate to the checkout, a portion of them will access the first configuration, another portion will access the second configuration, and the rest will access the control. This ensures a consistent experience for visitors while the experiment is active.

Review the following considerations for overlapping experiments:

• If you have both launch and experiment rollouts active at the same time, launch rollouts get their traffic first. Then, the remaining traffic is divided up across any active experiments according to their traffic allocation.
• If multiple active experiments on the same resource create a conflict, then rollouts manages the traffic automatically. When this happens, a message displays on the experiment details page to indicate which experiment it's sharing traffic with. You can review details about the traffic for each experiment from it's details page.
• Each experiment you create has a control, which is the default state, and a treatment, which is the change. Each experiment has it's own independent copy of the control. If you edit the control on one experiment, then other experiments controls aren't affected.

Considerations for applying a rollout permanently

You can choose to permanently apply a rollout's changes when it ends. If the rollout has the Draft, or Scheduled status, then you can edit the rollout's configuration details and select the Will be applied permanently option. If the rollout is active, and you want to end it before it's scheduled time, then you can manually end the rollout instead.

If you have any unended rollouts with theme or checkout and account changes, and you want to publish a new theme or checkout and accounts configuration, then you must first archive the other rollouts.