Merchant guide

Installing

Install Hammerdown from the Shopify App Store, or enter your store domain on the home page. Shopify shows you what the app is asking for and installs nothing until you approve it. Once installed, the app appears in your Shopify admin under Apps.

Every store starts on the Free plan. You can run an auction and take a real bid without entering payment details.

Adding the auction block

Installing the app does not change your storefront. Until you add the auction block to your theme, an auction runs invisibly and shoppers see an ordinary product page. This is the most common reason for "I created an auction and nothing is showing".

The block is a native Shopify app block, so you place it by dragging it where you want it. It works on any theme, including custom-coded ones, and there is no CSS selector to configure.

1. 1 In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store, then Themes, and choose Customize on the theme you are using.
2. 2 Use the template picker at the top of the editor to open a Product page.
3. 3 In the left sidebar choose Add block, open the Apps tab, and pick Auction.
4. 4 Drag the block to where you want it, usually just under the price or the add-to-cart button.
5. 5 Save the theme, then open a product with a live auction on your storefront to confirm the widget appears.

Showing several auctions at once

There is a second block, Auction grid, which lists every live auction on the store. Add it the same way, but to a regular page rather than the product template, so shoppers have somewhere to browse what is running. This one needs the Starter plan or above: on Free the block is placed but stays empty.

Running your first auction

Open the app in your Shopify admin and use Create auction on the Auctions tab. You pick the product and the specific variant being auctioned, then set the terms.

Starting price

The lowest a first bid can be.

Minimum increment

How much each bid must beat the last one by, which stops a race of one-cent bids.

Reserve price

A private floor. If bidding ends below it, there is no winner and you are not obliged to sell.

Buy it now price

An optional price that ends the auction immediately and awards it to whoever pays it.

Start and end time

When bidding opens and closes. Leave the start empty to open it yourself later.

Anti-snipe

A bid in the closing moments pushes the end time out, so an auction ends when the bidding does rather than when the clock says.

Automatic bidding

Lets a shopper set a private maximum and have the app bid for them up to it.

Every auction is created scheduled, not live, so it takes no bids yet. One with a start time opens itself when that time arrives. One with the start left empty waits for you, and its row in the Auctions tab has a Go live button to open it.

One-of-a-kind lots

Most auctions are for a single item, and the cleanest way to model that in Shopify is one variant with a quantity of 1. Auction that variant, and when it settles the app leaves it tracked with no inventory, which reads as sold out. That is the correct resting state for a lot that has sold.

If you auction the same product repeatedly, give each round its own variant rather than reusing one. A variant can only be under one auction at a time, and a finished auction keeps hold of its variant until the win is settled or cancelled.

Why nobody can just buy the item

While an auction is running, the app blocks the auctioned item at checkout for everyone except the eventual winner. This is enforced on Shopify's servers, not by hiding the button, so it holds even if a shopper reaches checkout by a direct link or a saved cart.

The block can also hide the theme's own price, add-to-cart, and buy-now elements on an auctioned product, which you turn on in the app's Settings tab. Those are cosmetic. The checkout protection is what actually prevents the sale.

When an auction ends

At the end time the highest bid wins, provided it met the reserve. The app creates a draft order for the winner at the price they bid and sends them a checkout link, so you are never working out the total by hand. If the reserve was never met, the auction ends with no winner and nothing is charged.

If a winner never pays, open the auction's details and use Winner didn't pay. That releases the item so you can relist it or offer it to the next bidder.

What each plan includes

Real-time bidding, popcorn bidding, checkout enforcement, bidder emails, and invoicing a winner are on every plan, free included. Paid plans raise how many auctions can run at once and add automation. See pricing for the current rates.