The store settings have access modes: Public and Group only. It means that now your store can work by invitations.
You can divide the store's users into groups. So you can separate regular clients or send a newsletter about new sushi in the menu to those who order it most often.
You can show the store to clients from a certain group. For example, if you have wholesale buyers, you can create a store with wholesale prices and open access only for them. To do this:
Go to the General Settings, open the Access mode and change Public to Group only.
Select a Group with access to this store. If you’re doing this for the first time, create a group.
Enter the Access denied message. This text will be seen by users without access to the group. For example, «Unfortunately, you don’t have access to this store. Contact our support to get it».
If you select the Group only mode, the store will be available only to users from the group. Everyone else will receive the Access denied message from the settings.
How to tell clients about updates
When you add a client to a group, he automatically receives a message with the text that you created earlier. So you can explain to the recipient that now he is in a group, for example, «Wholesale customers» and can shop in your store at wholesale prices.
And later you can send to clients from this group a newsletter with a detailed message about new features and an invitation to a «private» store.