Can we control the front end store access before going live for competition reasons?

Yes, the StoreHippo ecommerce platform allows you to control frontend store access before going live. Suppose, your e-commerce site is going live after a month and you want only admin users to view the frontend till then. For that, you can set up the single page banner and assign a password for that. Doing so, only the users who have a password can access your ecommerce site. To set the password page, follow the steps mentioned below:

• Go to the “Settings” -> “General Settings” section in the StoreHippo Admin Panel.
• Find the “Password page” field. 
• Select the checkbox in the “Enable” field. 
• Set the password that you wish to have for the password page.
• Save the changes.

Now, when any user will visit your ecommerce site the banner will be displayed containing your store logo and giving other info. The users having a password can still login by entering it. To know more about the password, go to the helpcenter - https://help.storehippo.com/topic/password-page