Answers to the most common questions. If you do not find what you need, contact us using the email at the bottom of this page and include your store URL.
Getting started
What does DropGate do? It limits how many units of a limited drop one person can buy, and enforces that at checkout where the usual cart-based limits get bypassed.
Do I need theme code changes? No. DropGate enforces through Shopify’s checkout (a validation function) plus post-order webhooks. Nothing is injected into your theme.
How do I set up my first drop? Open DropGate, create a campaign (pick the drop products, set the cap and choose what happens if it is exceeded after checkout), and save. We recommend running it in dry-run first.
Limits and bypasses
People bypass my current limit app by editing the cart. Does DropGate stop that? Yes. The limit is checked at checkout, not in the cart or theme, so cart edits and direct checkout links cannot get around it.
Can someone use a second email to buy again? DropGate links accounts that share a normalized email or phone on every campaign, so an email alias (same address with a plus tag or extra dots) is recognized as the same person and carries the same count. This runs on every drop.
What about two orders placed seconds apart? That race can slip past the checkout check, so DropGate’s second layer recomputes the true count after each order and applies the post-checkout action you chose (do nothing, cancel and refund the order, or hold for your review).
Can DropGate stop a determined reseller completely? No, and it does not claim to. Someone with two real phone numbers and two shipping addresses can still get two. No limit app beats that without hard ID verification. DropGate closes the easy bypasses so the “someone bought ten” tickets stop.
Campaigns
Per product or per variant? Per product (default) sums the cap across all variants, so switching size or grade cannot earn extra units. Per variant caps each variant on its own; use it only when you intend a single-variant drop.
Can I schedule a drop? Yes. Set a launch date and an end date; checkout of the drop is blocked before and after the window.
What happens if someone gets over the cap after checkout? You choose one of three peer actions for the campaign: do nothing (the checkout block is the only enforcement), cancel and refund the order, or hold the order for your review. Blocking guest checkout is a separate, independent toggle. Per-identity collapse (gmail aliases and second accounts that share a normalized email or phone) is always on for every campaign, not something you switch on.
Can I test before a real drop? Yes. Turn on dry-run (monitor mode) to log what would be blocked without affecting any checkout. Run it before your first live drop.
Customers and cancellations
What happens to a blocked shopper? They see your campaign message at checkout. On a require-account drop, a guest is asked to sign in.
What does a cancellation look like? If you chose Cancel and refund the order, a duplicate that slipped through is cancelled and refunded with a polite, templated explanation email. If you chose Hold for my review, the order is held from fulfillment so it cannot ship until you decide.
Where do I review held orders? On the Held for review page in the app. Orders you set to hold are tagged dropgate-review and held from fulfillment; release the hold there to let an order fulfill, or open the order to cancel it. The hold is DropGate’s own, so releasing it never affects any other hold on the order.
Account and data
What customer data does DropGate use? Only what it needs to count purchases per person: normalized email and phone (to link identities), drop order line items, and a per-identity count stored on the Shopify customer record. See the Privacy Policy for details.
What happens when I uninstall? The app stops accessing your store and its stored credentials are deleted. DropGate honors Shopify’s privacy and deletion requests.
Still need help?
Contact us using the email below. Please include your store URL and the campaign you are running. We are glad to help.