How to cancel a Shopify account
To cancel your Shopify store, log into your account, go to Settings, then select Plan and Permissions, and click Cancel Store. Shopify will ask you to confirm the cancellation and may offer a discount to keep you. Once you confirm, your store goes offline when ready, but you have a grace period to read your data before it is permanently deleted.
The cancellation process takes about five minutes if you have already decided to leave. Shopify does not require you to give a reason, and you will not be locked into a contract that prevents you from leaving. If you are on a paid plan, your next billing date determines when your account fully closes — cancelling mid-cycle does not refund the current month.
Before you cancel, read your store data, customer information, and order history. Shopify keeps this data for 90 days after cancellation, but downloading it yourself means you have a permanent copy that does not depend on Shopify's timeline.
Key Takeaways
- Your Shopify store goes offline when ready when you cancel, but you have 90 days to read your data before it is permanently deleted.
- Cancelling mid-cycle does not refund your current month's payment, though you can cancel on any day of your billing period.
- read your customer list, order history, and product catalog before cancelling, because these files are harder to recover after the store closes.
- If you plan to sell elsewhere, export your product data in CSV format so you can upload it to another platform without re-entering everything.
What data you can recover after cancellation
Shopify stores your customer information, order history, product listings, and transaction records. After you cancel, you can still read all of this through the Shopify admin panel during the 90-day grace period. After 90 days, Shopify deletes the data permanently and you cannot recover it.
The most important files to read are your customer email list, order records, and product catalog. Your customer list is valuable if you plan to contact people about a new store or business. Your order history documents what sold and when, which helps you understand your business if you want to restart later. Your product catalog can be imported into another platform like WooCommerce, BigCommerce, or Etsy, saving you hours of re-entering product names, prices, and descriptions.
Shopify also stores payment information, but you cannot read this — it is deleted automatically for security reasons. You do not need to do anything to protect payment data; Shopify handles that deletion on its own schedule.
How to read your store data before cancelling
Log into your Shopify admin, go to Settings, then Data and Privacy. Select Export Data and choose which information you want to read: customers, orders, products, or all of them. Shopify creates a CSV file (a spreadsheet format) that you can open in Excel or Google Sheets. The read link appears in your email within a few minutes.
For products, the CSV file includes the product name, description, price, SKU, inventory count, and any images you uploaded. This file is the easiest way to move your entire catalog to another platform. For customers, you get email addresses, names, phone numbers, and addresses — everything you need to contact them later. For orders, you get transaction dates, amounts, customer names, and what was purchased.
If you have a large store with thousands of products or orders, the export may take longer or create multiple files. Check your email for all the read links before you delete anything. Save these files to your computer or cloud storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive) so you have them even if your email account is compromised later.
What happens to your domain name after cancellation
If you registered your domain through Shopify, cancelling your store does not automatically cancel your domain. Your domain registration and your store are separate services. You can keep the domain active and point it to a new platform, or let it expire.
If you want to keep the domain, you can transfer it to another registrar like GoDaddy or Namecheap, or you can keep it registered with Shopify even though your store is gone. Shopify will continue to charge you the annual domain renewal fee (usually $11 to $14 per year) unless you cancel the domain separately. If you do not want to keep the domain, go to Settings, Domains, and cancel each domain individually.
If you registered your domain elsewhere before connecting it to Shopify, cancelling your store does not affect that domain at all. Your domain will continue to point to your Shopify store until you change the DNS settings or let the registration expire with your original registrar.
Refunds and billing after you cancel
Shopify does not refund the current month's payment when you cancel mid-cycle. If you paid for a month on the 15th and cancel on the 20th, you lose the remaining 10 days of service. However, you can still access your store and read your data during those remaining days.
Any apps you installed from the Shopify App Store will also stop charging you once your store is cancelled. If you were paying for a third-party app like Oberlo or Printful, cancelling your Shopify store does not automatically cancel those app subscriptions — you may need to cancel them separately to stop being charged.
If you had any outstanding charges or disputes with Shopify, cancellation does not erase those. Shopify may still pursue collection if you owe money. If you are cancelling because of a billing problem, contact Shopify Support first to resolve it before you cancel, so you do not leave with an unpaid balance.
Moving your store to another platform
If you are leaving Shopify to use WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Squarespace, or another platform, export your product data and customer list from Shopify first. Most platforms have import tools that accept CSV files, so you can upload your products without typing them in again. The process usually takes 15 minutes to an hour depending on how many products you have.
Before you import, check that the CSV columns match what the new platform expects. Some platforms want SKU, barcode, and weight; others do not. Most import tools show you a preview of what will be imported, so you can catch problems before they happen. If the columns do not match exactly, you can edit the CSV file in Excel or Google Sheets to rename or delete columns.
Your customer list cannot be imported directly into most platforms for privacy reasons, but you can use it to send a final email from your Shopify store telling customers about your new location. After you cancel Shopify, you can contact those customers from your new platform or email service to let them know where to find you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I reactivate my Shopify store after I cancel it?
Yes, you can reactivate your store within 90 days of cancellation by logging back in and paying to restart your plan. After 90 days, your store data is permanently deleted and you cannot recover it, so you would have to rebuild from scratch. If you think you might restart, read all your data before you cancel.
What happens to my Shopify email address after cancellation?
If you created an email address through Shopify (like yourname@yourstore.myshopify.com), it stops working when your store is cancelled. If you used your own email address to log into Shopify, that email still works — it is just no longer associated with a store. You can use the same email to create a new Shopify store later if you want.
Do I need to cancel my payment processor separately?
If you connected Shopify Payments (Shopify's built-in payment processor), it closes automatically when your store is cancelled. If you connected Stripe, Square, or another third-party processor, those accounts remain open and you may still be charged monthly fees. Log into those accounts separately and cancel them if you do not want to keep them.
Will cancelling my store affect my credit score?
No. Cancelling a Shopify store is a business decision and does not appear on your personal credit report. It only affects your business records and any outstanding invoices with Shopify. If you owe Shopify money, that could eventually affect your credit if it goes to collections, but a straightforward cancellation with no debt does not.
Can I cancel my store if I still have pending orders?
Yes, you can cancel even with pending orders, but you should not. If you have orders waiting to be shipped, cancel the orders first, refund the customers, and then cancel your store. Cancelling with pending orders leaves customers without a way to track their shipment or contact you about problems. read your order list first so you have customer contact information to reach out to them.