Change or transfer ownership

You can change ownership of a store or organization that you own to a new owner in either of the following ways:

• Change ownership to an existing user from the Settings > Users page of your Shopify admin.
• Transfer ownership to an owner outside of your store or organization from the Settings > General page of your Shopify admin.

Considerations for changing ownership

Review the following considerations before you change ownership of a store or organization to an existing user:

• The store owner have complete access to every part of the Shopify admin. If the store is part of an organization, then the organization owner also has complete access to the store.
• An organization must have at least one store. If you have an organization with only one store, and remove that store from the organization, then the organization is deleted.
• A store can have only owner.
• Only the store owner can change or transfer ownership of a store.

Changing ownership to an existing user

You can change the ownership of a store or an organization to an existing user within your store or organization.

If you want to change the ownership of your organization to someone without a user account in your organization, then you must invite them first.

Steps:

Change store owner

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Users.

2. Click the name of the current store owner. You must be the store owner.

3. In the Roles section, click the button next to the Store owner role, and then click View stores.

4. In the View stores dialog, select the store that you want to change ownership of.

5. In the Store owner section, click Change ownership.

6. In the dialog, enter the new store owner's email address. The new store owner must be an existing user in the Users section of your Shopify admin settings.

7. Click Change store ownership. You might need to re-authenticate depending on how recent your last login was. Follow the suggested verification method to verify your account.

Change organization owner

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Users.

2. Click the name of the current organization owner. You must be the organization owner.

3. In the Organization owner section, click Change ownership.

4. In the dialog, enter the new store owner's email address. The new organization owner must be an existing user in the Users section of your Shopify admin settings.

5. Click Change organization ownership. You might need to re-authenticate depending on how recent your last login was. Follow the suggested verification method to verify your account.

Considerations for transferring ownership

Review the following considerations before you transfer ownership of a store to a new owner outside of your store or organization:

• If you decide to transfer a store outside of your organization, then you might want to sell your store.
• If you haven't met your billing threshold when you transfer ownership of a store to a new owner, then the new owner is responsible for paying any outstanding bills. Learn more about additional preparations for transferring a store to a new owner.
• When you change ownership of a store in your organization, or group the store to another organization that you own, users keep their store permissions, but their organization permissions are removed. You or the new store owner might need to review staff permissions after you change the store's owner or organization.
• An organization must have at least one store. If you have an organization with only one store, and remove that store from the organization, then the organization is deleted.

Preparations for transferring ownership

Note

This preparations list isn't exhaustive. There might be other considerations that apply to your store.

Before you transfer your store, review the following preparations:

• Ensure that your Shopify store is up-to-date, your store’s inventory is accurate, and all store functions and operations are working as intended.
• If you have purchased a custom domain for your store, then you must transfer ownership of the domain to the new owner as well.
• Have a business valuation completed to calculate the fair market value of your business.
• Identify which business data and information you need to retain for your records after the sale. For example, save your bills by exporting your billing history. If you're using Shopify Payments, then consider exporting your payout history and transactions.
• Determine if any existing contracts or obligations will be impacted by the sale of your store to a new owner.
  • If you're using Shopify Capital or Shopify Credit, then you will be unable to transfer your store.
  • If you have an active Shopify Balance, then you must empty your Balance account and contact Shopify Support for further assistance with a store ownership transfer.
• Outline any requirements that must be maintained with the new ownership, such as employment contracts for current staff, existing brand assets or marketing guidelines, or existing contracts or professional relationships with third parties, such as fulfillment services or payment processors.
• If you haven't met your billing threshold when you transfer ownership of a store to a new owner, then the new owner is responsible for paying. You might want to factor this into your transition plan.
• Create a plan to transition your business to new ownership, including the timeline. Depending on the size and complexity of your business, onboarding a new owner to your brand and store processes can take days to months.

Selling your store

Tip

To learn more about selling your business, refer to How To Sell Your Ecommerce Business and Business Valuation: How To Calculate the Value of Your Business on the Shopify blog.

You can sell your Shopify store to another entrepreneur and earn money from the sale.

Shopify store owners must independently conduct all sales of their Shopify stores separately from the Shopify platform. If you don’t have a buyer willing to take over ownership of your store, then you can post your store for sale on third-party online business marketplaces that broker the sales of ecommerce businesses between sellers and customers.

Business marketplaces include the following examples:

• Flippa
• Business Exits
• Acquire.com

Each third-party marketplace has different requirements and listing steps, and might include additional independent valuations of your business, legal resources, and brokers to help you find a buyer and complete the sale. Third-party marketplaces often charge additional fees for their services, which aren’t set, controlled, or collected by Shopify.

After identifying a buyer, contact a legal professional for assistance with documentation relating to the sale of your store, including drafting a contract of sale with any requirements or agreements for both parties outlined.

Checklist for preparing your store for a transfer

Note

Depending on the complexity of your business, there might be other steps required to completely transfer ownership that apply to your store.

Update the business contact information for your store in the General settings page of your Shopify admin, including the store email, store phone, and business address.

Update the store notification information to that of the new owner, such as the email address for new order notifications.

Update the contact details for any custom domains you’ve purchased for your store. If you’ve purchased a custom domain from Shopify, then follow the steps to edit your contact information.

Follow the steps to update your billing information to the new owner’s billing information. If you have any third-party apps that have your billing information outside of Shopify, then update your billing information to the new owner’s billing information as well.

Update your store’s payout information to the bank account of the new owner. Do this for all active payment methods your store supports.

• If you’re using Shopify Payments, then follow the steps to edit the bank account information on file. You also need to update your tax details.
• If you’re using third-party payment providers (such as PayPal), then switch the account associated with the store to that of the new owner, or transfer ownership of the associated account to the new owner from within the payment provider platform.

Follow the steps to officially transfer ownership of the store to the new owner. This removes account owner permissions from your Shopify login, so some parts of the store’s Shopify admin (such as payment and billing information) will become restricted to you.

Transfer ownership outside your store or organization

You can transfer a store to a new owner outside of your organization.

After you initiate the transfer, you can review the status of the transfer on the Settings > General page of your Shopify admin.

To cancel the transfer, click Cancel transfer in the Store transfer section. You can cancel the transfer only when the transfer is in progress.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > General.

2. In the Organizations and store transfers section, click Manage.

3. Select Transfer store to a new owner outside your business, and then click Continue.

4. You might need to re-authenticate to continue. Click Authenticate to follow the steps to authenticate your account.

5. Enter the email address for the new owner.

6. Click Transfer.

An email is sent to the new owner to accept the transfer. After they accept or decline, you receive an email indicating that they accepted or declined the store transfer.

Accept ownership of a transfer

When ownership of a store or organization is transferred to you, you receive an email notification with a link to complete the transfer.

You can add the store directly to one of your existing organizations, create a new organization, or transfer the store without adding it to an organization.

If you skip the organization transfer, then store ownership is transferred to your account as a single store. You can still complete the steps to group the store to your organization at a later time.

Steps:

1. From the store transfer email notification, click Get started.
2. Log in to your Shopify account.
3. Click Accept store.
4. Accept store ownership transfer using one of the following options:

• To add the store to your existing organization, click the organization that you want to transfer a store to.
• To create a new organization and add a store to it, click Create new organization, enter a name, and then click Confirm.
• To complete the transfer without adding the store to an organization, click Skip this step.