Test products and $0 items on Shopify: how to find and hide them

Why they matter

Test products are easy to forget. You add Test product or asdf while setting up a theme or an app, and it stays published long after launch. Shoppers can then come across it in your search results, in the All products collection, in your sitemap and sometimes in Google.

A stray test product makes a store look unfinished, which is the opposite of what a new visitor needs to see before trusting you with a card. A $0 item is a bigger problem: if it is in stock, anyone can add it to the cart and complete checkout without paying, leaving you with an order to cancel or fulfil.

How to find them

Start in your Shopify admin. On the Products page, search for words like test, sample, copy and demo, and filter by status and sales channel to see what is live on your Online Store.

Prices are set per variant, which makes $0 items easy to miss in the product list. Two reliable ways to see every price at once:

• Export your products to a CSV file from the Products page and sort by the variant price column.
• Look at your public product feed. Shopify stores publish a list of products available on the Online Store at /products.json. Anyone can open it in a browser, which is also why it is a good picture of what shoppers can find.

https://yourstore.com/products.json?limit=250&page=1

Search the result for "price":"0.00" and for titles that look like tests. If you have more than 250 products, change the page number to see the rest.

Three ways to hide them

Pick the option that matches what the product is for:

• Set it to Draft if you might still use it. Draft products are hidden from every sales channel but stay in your admin.
• Remove it from the Online Store sales channel if it should stay available somewhere else, for example on your point of sale, but not on your website.
• Archive it if it is finished with. Archived products are hidden from sales channels and moved out of your main product list, and you can restore them later.

Deleting is also an option for pure test products, but it can't be undone, so drafting or archiving is the safer habit.

Some $0 items are deliberate, such as a free sample or a gift with purchase added by an app. Check with whoever set them up before hiding them, and consider whether they should be bought on their own at all.

Other products that look unfinished

While you are in there, look for two related problems:

• Sold-out products that are still published. A few are normal, but a collection full of Sold out labels can make a store look inactive. Many themes have a setting to hide or move sold-out items, or you can take long-discontinued products off the Online Store channel.
• Products without images. These show your theme's placeholder graphic, look broken in collections and give link previews with no picture. Add at least one photo or hide the product until you have one. See why your link preview shows no picture.

Keep it from happening again

1. Create test products as Draft from the start. Most checkout testing works with draft orders or a development store instead.
2. Before launching a sale or campaign, export products and sort by price to catch anything at $0.
3. Check your public product feed every so often, or let a scan do it, since new apps and staff can add products without you noticing.