Developer advisory:  Coming Soon Mode by default

In the upcoming WooCommerce 9.6, we’re changing the default behavior for fresh installations to ensure new stores start in “Coming Soon” mode. This change aligns with user expectations and prevents unexpected store exposure while it’s still being set up.

The details

When installing WooCommerce 9.6 on a fresh site, the store pages will be hidden from visitors by default.

Specifically, two key options will be enabled by default:

• woocommerce_coming_soon = yes: Displays a “Coming Soon” page to visitors
• woocommerce_store_pages_only = yes: Applies the Coming Soon mode only to WooCommerce store pages

How can I tell if this affects me?

This change affects if you:

• Have code that assumes the store is live immediately after WooCommerce installation
• Rely on unrestricted frontend store access for specific workflows
• Run E2E or integration tests that don’t account for “Coming Soon” mode.

What action should I take?

1. Review and Update Plugins: Ensure your plugins respect the new default “Coming Soon” mode settings.
2. Update Your Tests: Update E2E and integration tests to appropriately handle the “Coming Soon” defaults. For example, you can add steps to disable the Coming Soon mode for shopper-related tests like we did on this PR.