> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.uselayers.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Time a product drop

> Make sure products appear on your storefront at launch time by scheduling them in Shopify, and know what to expect from bulk publishing apps.

How quickly a drop appears in Layers depends on how the products are published in Shopify.

## Recommended: schedule the publication in Shopify

When you schedule a product to publish to the Online Store at a future date and time, Layers records the schedule ahead of time and makes the product visible at that exact time. You don't need to resync or change anything in Layers. See [Scheduled publications](https://docs.uselayers.com/shopify-integration/catalog-sync.md#scheduled-publications).

Before the drop:

1. Add the products to their collections and schedule their publication in Shopify.
2. Pin them or add them to merchandising rules in Layers. You can merchandise products before they're published. See [Draft products and filtering](https://docs.uselayers.com/platform/merchandising/draft-and-filtering.md).
3. At launch time, the products appear in search, collections, and blocks in their pinned positions.

## Bulk publishing apps and manual publishing

Apps that publish products in bulk when an event starts, such as launch schedulers that don't use Shopify's scheduled publication, send ordinary product updates to Layers at launch time. Layers processes them like any other product change. During a large drop, these updates can queue behind other catalog changes, so some products may take a few minutes to appear.

To keep a launch on time:

* Use Shopify's scheduled publication for drops where timing matters.
* If you must use a bulk publisher, publish a few minutes before you announce the drop.
* After the drop goes live, spot-check the collection. Resync any product that's missing. See [Resync a single product](https://docs.uselayers.com/help/catalog/resync-single-product.md).

## Next steps

* [Pinned products not appearing](https://docs.uselayers.com/help/troubleshooting/pins-not-showing.md)
* [Catalog sync](https://docs.uselayers.com/shopify-integration/catalog-sync.md)