How to password protect a WooCommerce shop the easy way

If you're looking to add an extra layer of security to your WooCommerce shop, password protecting it can be a great protection option. This is particularly useful for wholesale stores, membership sites, and other types of WordPress sites that require restricted access. Learn how to password protect your WooCommerce shop page and safeguard your online store with ease.

But, by default, WooCommerce doesn't provide any way to add a WooCommerce password to your entire shop. That means, as is the WordPress way, you're going to need a little help from a plugin.

To that end, I'm going to spend this post showing you how to password protect a WooCommerce shop page using a simple but effective plugin with just a few settings. I'll provide full written instructions plus a step-by-step tutorial video. When you finish, you'll know exactly how to get functionality like this for your shop using the WooCommerce Private Store plugin:

example of how to password protect a woocommerce shop

Importance of password protection for WooCommerce shops

Password protection for WooCommerce shop pages is essential for a number of reasons. Firstly, it can help to ensure that only authorized users are able to access certain areas of your entire store. For example, if you're running a wholesale store, you may want to restrict access to pricing information and other sensitive details to approved users only. Similarly, if you're running a membership site, you may want to ensure that only paying members are able to access premium content.

By using a WooCommerce password to protect your shop page, you can also add an extra layer of security to your online store. This can be especially important if you're dealing with sensitive customer data, such as credit card details and other personal information. WooCommerce password protection can help to prevent unauthorized access and potential data breaches, safeguarding your business and your customers' privacy.

In addition to these benefits, password protect WooCommerce plugin can also help you to create a sense of exclusivity and demand for your products. By making certain products or areas of your WooCommerce store password protected, you can create a sense of exclusivity and scarcity that can help to increase sales and drive customer engagement.

Now, let's look at a couple of real-life examples from companies that needed to password protect WooCommerce shop page.

Case study #1: Sprezzatura Imports

Sprezzatura Imports is a wholesale coffee distributor in the US. They specialize in importing the Italian coffee brand ICAF and sell to distributors through a private password protected WooCommerce shop page. This is where our WooCommerce Private Store plugin comes into play.

Only distributors can access the price list and purchase single products, that’s why this area is locked away behind a login screen. To secure the private online shop, Sprezzatura Imports used our WooCommerce Private Store plugin. Everything Sprezzatura Imports want to hide from the public can be hidden in this secure area.

And to keep things simple, registered distributors can quickly access the WooCommerce orders password protected area as the login page has been added to the navigation menu.

Sprezzatura Imports login screen

Case study #2: Montana Medicinals

WooCommerce Private Store Case Study Montana Medicinals
The Montana Medicinals homepage

Gecko Designs were building a ecommerce website for Montana Medicinals, which operates a medical marijuana dispensary in the State of Montana. For legal reasons, they needed to password protect their WooCommerce shop so that only pre-authorized customers could access it.

The developers achieved this in minutes using the WooCommerce Private Store plugin.

First, they used a sitewide WordPress age verification plugin to ensure that no one over age 18 can access the website at all. For added security, they used WooCommerce Private Store to password protect the WooCommerce shop.

When you click on the Shop link in the navigation menu, you are prompted for a password:

WooCommerce Private Store Case Study

If Montana Medicinals has given you the password, then you can unlock the WooCommerce shop and purchase the medicinal marijuana within. If you do not have a correct password, then you cannot unlock the shop to view password protect products or buy.

The developer was delighted with the plugin and wrote a glowing review:

Worked perfectly!
We used this plugin to comply with a US state law in Montana that required a medical marijuana dispensary password protect their WooCommerce catalog. It worked perfectly and was easy to configure!

How to password protect a WooCommerce shop

Beyond the obvious of having a WooCommerce store that actually needs password protecting, all you'll need to follow this guide is the WooCommerce Private Store plugin. WooCommerce Private Store lets you protect your shop with one or more passwords, as well as choose:

  • How long the store stays unlocked when a user enters the password
  • What page users can log in to the store from
  • Where to take users after they log in

When you use the plugin, every aspect of your shop is hidden until a user enters the password, including:

  • Shop pages
  • Navigation menu links
  • Sidebar widgets

While the store functionality is hidden until the user enters a password, the rest of your site will function like normal. By using the password protection visibility option for your WooCommerce shop, your website visitors will still be able to view your homepage, blog, and regular WordPress pages. Only the password-protected content will be hidden and accessible only to approved or logged-in users.

Features and benefits of the plugin for WooCommerce shops

The WooCommerce Private Store plugin is a powerful and flexible tool for password protecting your WooCommerce shop. Here are some of the key features and benefits of this plugin:

  1. Password Protection: The WooCommerce Private Store plugin allows you to password protect your entire shop or specific product categories, products, or pages. This helps to keep your products and pages private and secure and allows you to restrict access to specific user groups or individuals.
  2. Customization: With the WooCommerce Private Store plugin, you have full control over the design and functionality of your password-protected shop. You can customize the message displayed to users when they attempt to access your shop, and can also choose whether to hide or show product prices and checkout buttons.
  3. User Management: The plugin includes user management features that allow you to add, edit, and delete users with ease. You can also create user roles and assign specific permissions to different user groups, giving you granular control over who can access your shop.
  4. Security: The WooCommerce Private Store plugin includes several security features to help protect your shop and your customers' data. You can require strong passwords and enable two-factor authentication, and can also choose to log out inactive users automatically after a certain period of time.
  5. Integration: The plugin is fully compatible with other WooCommerce plugins and themes, allowing you to customize and extend the functionality of your shop as needed.

Step 1: Set up general settings

Once you've activated the plugin and entered your license key, go to WooCommerce → Settings → Private Store to set up the passwords that unlock your store, as well as a few other general options.

You can use a single password for everyone. Or, you can use the Plus icon to create multiple passwords that unlock your store.

Below the passwords, you should also enter a value for Password expires after. This plugin settings lets you control how long, in days, the store remains unlocked after a user enters the password:

how to password protect a woocommerce shop

Below that, you can use the Redirect URL field to redirect the user to a specific products page after they enter the password. If you leave this blank, visitors will just go to your normal shop page after they enter the password.

Finally, you can also choose whether or not to automatically unlock the store for Logged in users or specific user roles.

If you check this box, anyone who's logged in to your WordPress website will not need to enter the password in order to see the store:

how long to unlock store

Step 2: Configure login form

Below the general settings page, you can use the Login form section to configure the page where users log in.

The settings are all fairly self-explanatory:

login page details

How the plugin works in more detail

Once you have installed the password protect WooCommerce shop page plugin, all traces of your store will disappear from the front end of your site. All of your regular WP content will function normally, though:

regular site

If a user:

  • Goes to the store login page
  • Tries to access any WooCommerce page via a direct URL

They will see your login form like this:

store login page

And as soon as they enter a valid password, they'll instantly see all of your:

  • Store and product pages
  • Navigation menu items
  • Widgets
unlocked store

And that's all there is to it!

For a more surgical approach, you can also use the WooCommerce Password Protected Categories plugin to password protect a single product category, rather than your entire shop. You can also use our plugins to build a members-only WooCommerce store.

Protect your WooCommerce shop page today!

If you're running a WooCommerce shop, it's crucial that you take steps to ensure the security and privacy of your customers' data. One of the simplest and most effective ways to do this is by using a password protect WooCommerce shop page plugin.

By password protecting your WooCommerce shop page, you can restrict access to sensitive information and prevent unauthorized users from viewing or making purchases. This can help to safeguard your business and your customers' privacy, and prevent data breaches and other security issues.

Adding password protection for your WooCommerce shop page is easy and straightforward. There are many plugins and tools available to help you get started. Whether you're running a wholesale store, a membership site, or any other type of online store, password protected pages are an important consideration for enhancing the security and functionality of your shop.

So if you haven't yet implemented password protection for your WooCommerce shop page, we encourage you to take action today. With the right tools and resources, you can quickly and easily enhance the security of your online store, and provide your customers with the peace of mind they need to shop with confidence.

If you have any other questions about how to password protect a WooCommerce shop, leave a comment and we'll be sure to help out.

5 Comments

  1. I want to use this for my store, but I did not understand if it was possible to set the lock/password to expire after just an hour or two- the guide here talks about days?

    • Hi Pernilla, thank you for your interest in our plugins. The minimum expiration period is one day. It is not possible to set it lower. More info on password expiry. If you have further questions, you can reach us via our Support Center. Thank you.

  2. I'm not sure what I have configured wrong. Whenever someone types in the password, it redirects them to log in to WordPress.

    • Hi, Kerm. I'm sorry to hear you're having difficulty with what sounds to be the store login redirecting to your site's WordPress login page after submitting the password. So that we may assist you best with this, please could you submit a plugin support request via our Support Center and include either the email address you used to purchase WooCommerce Private Store or your License key. Many thanks.

  3. I have read the post and it has helped me a lot to understand about the password protection procedure. You can easily password protect a WooCommerce shop. You can give a password to the plugin from the admin panel.

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