Delayed listing

Hold an item back from a sales channel for a set number of days after you add it, so your shop floor gets first refusal before the record goes online. The delay is set per sales channel and can be anywhere from 1 to 365 days.

What it does

Most sellers want a new arrival online the moment it is priced and shelved. Sometimes you want the opposite. A crate of fresh stock is worth more to your regulars if they see it on the counter before it appears on a sales channel, and a heavy pre-order is easier to handle if it reaches the marketplace in your own time rather than all at once.

A listing delay does this without changing how you work. You add the item and tick the channels exactly as you always do. Cratebase creates the listing straight away, holds it, and publishes it to the delayed channel once the waiting period is up. Channels without a delay are unaffected and go live immediately.

The delay belongs to the channel, not the item. Every item that channel is switched on for waits the same number of days.

Setting it up

1. Open the sales channel. Go to Settings, then Sales channels, and select the channel you want to delay.
2. Find Listing delay. It sits in the Inventory & pricing section, under the pricing rule.
3. Enter the number of days. Whole days only, up to 365. Leave the field empty or enter 0 to list immediately, which is the default.
4. Save delay. The delay applies from that moment on. Items already waiting keep the publish date they were given, so changing the setting never moves a schedule that is already running.

What happens next

Cratebase checks for listings that have come due every ten minutes, so a listing appears on the channel within about ten minutes of its publish time rather than exactly on the second.

A waiting listing is not an error and does not need fixing. Your item still counts as in sync, and running Sync to channels deliberately leaves it alone rather than pushing it early.

When the countdown starts

The clock starts the moment a channel is switched on for an item, whichever way you do it. It does not restart when an item that was already on the channel comes back into stock.

These start the delay

• Adding an item with the channel ticked.
• Editing an existing item to switch the channel on.
• The bulk action Sales channel set to Active.
• Switching a channel back on for an item you had previously switched it off for.

These do not

• Restocking a sold-out item. The channel never went off, so the listing returns straight away.
• A cancelled order putting stock back. The listing is restored immediately.
• Editing price, condition or location. Ordinary edits never touch a publish date.
• Changing the channel’s delay setting. Only future activations use the new number.

Seeing and changing the date

Open the item and look at the channel list. A waiting listing shows a small clock next to the channel name with the date and time it will publish. Nothing else in Cratebase needs checking to know where an item stands.

To change the date, click it. A date and time picker opens, and the new time is saved when you click away. Use this to bring a record forward for a weekend, or push it back while you wait on a second copy.

To publish immediately, click the timer icon beside the date. The listing is sent to the channel within moments and the countdown is discarded.

Once a listing is live, its date is gone for good. The clock and the publish button only appear while a listing is still waiting. A published listing is edited and removed like any other.

While an item is waiting

A publish date is a promise to publish if the record is still there to sell. Cratebase re-checks the item at the moment it comes due, so a delayed listing can never put something on sale that you no longer have.

The record sells first — cancelled

Sold in the shop, or on another channel, before the delay is up. The waiting listing is cancelled and never reaches the delayed channel. If you had more than one copy and only one sold, the rest still publish on schedule.

It is reserved when the date arrives — keeps waiting

An open order has the last copy held. Cratebase waits rather than listing something it cannot fulfil. If the order is cancelled, the listing publishes at the next check. If the order completes, the listing is cancelled.

The item is paused — keeps waiting

A paused or inactive item is skipped, and its listing keeps waiting. Set the item active again and it publishes at the next check, even if the original date has passed.

The item is still a draft — publishes

A draft item does publish, as a draft listing on the channel. It is not visible to buyers until you make it active, so nothing goes on sale before you intend it to.

You switch the channel off — cancelled

Turning the channel off for that item drops the publish date with it. Switching the channel back on later starts a fresh countdown from that moment.

Stock runs out and returns — publishes

If the item hits zero but is not sold out for good, the listing keeps its date. Once stock is back and the date has passed, it publishes at the next check.

Quick reference

If you…	Then
Add an item to a delayed channel	It publishes after the delay, counted from now
Switch a delayed channel on for an older item	Same. The countdown starts when you switch it on
Sell the record before the date	The listing is cancelled and never published
Restock an item that already sold out on that channel	It returns to the channel immediately, with no new delay
Want it online sooner	Open the item and use the publish button next to the date
Want it online later	Click the date on the item and pick a new one
Change the channel’s delay from 14 to 30 days	Items already waiting keep their dates. New activations use 30
Remove the delay entirely	Everything activated from then on lists immediately

A listing delay only applies to channels that publish to a marketplace. Your offline store records stock without publishing anywhere, so a delay has no effect on it.