Pausing or deactivating your store

If you're the store owner and your store is eligible, then you can use your Shopify admin to pause your store temporarily or deactivate your store completely.

If you want to take a pause from selling on Shopify, but continue working on your store, then you can use the Pause and Build plan.

Note

To be eligible to pause your store using Pause and Build, your store needs to be past the free trial period, and on a paid plan. If your store doesn't meet these criteria, then you can't pause your store.

Selecting the Pause and Build plan means that when you decide to unpause, you'll need to select a new plan as your old plan is no longer valid.

Deactivate your store

Caution

Before you pause or deactivate your store, make sure that you review and understand the terms of service.

Tip

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You can deactivate your store by cancelling your subscription and deactivating your Shopify store.

If you're on a free trial and you haven't chosen a pricing plan yet, then you don't need to take any action to deactivate your account. You can't pause your store during the free trial.

If you want to deactivate your store, but can't remember your email or password, then you can recover your Shopify login details.

For more help with pausing or deactivating your store, contact Shopify Support.

Considerations for pausing your store

• If you have received funding through Shopify Capital, then pausing your store will affect your remaining Capital advances. For more information, contact Shopify Support.
• The Pause and Build plan isn't available to Shopify Plus stores.
• You can only select the Pause and Build plan if your store is on a paid plan.
• Consider uninstalling any third-party apps that have recurring charges so that you're not billed for those apps after you pause your store.

Pause your store and continue to work on it

When you use the Pause and Build plan, your store continues to run at a reduced cost of $9 USD per month. You can access your Shopify admin and edit your products when you need to, but your checkout is deactivated. This means that customers can review your products, but they can't purchase them.

The Pause and Build plan might be the right choice for you if, for example, your store is seasonal, or if it's only open for a specific period of time.

While you're on the Pause and Build plan, you can do the following:

• Access your Shopify admin.
• Access basic reports about your site's performance.
• View your online storefront.

During the time that your store is paused, you can't use online store checkout, POS, discounts, abandoned checkout recovery, gift cards, or third-party integrations such as Facebook and Google to publish your products. You can send draft order invoices, but the customer won't be able to complete the checkout process and draft orders can't be converted to live orders.

Steps:

1. Log in to your store as the store owner.
2. From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Plan.
3. Click Deactivate store > Pause and build plan.
4. Carefully review the plan details, and then click Switch to Pause and build.

Your store will be paused and running at for a reduced subscription fee. If you want to start selling products again, then you can reopen your store at any time by choosing a new plan.

Work on your store while you're on the Pause and Build plan

While you're on the Pause and Build plan, customers can still review your products, but they can't buy them. To improve your customer experience, you can customize your theme to hide your product prices and hide the Add to cart buttons so that customers don't try to buy anything while your store is paused.

If you don't want to display your products while your store is paused, then you can use a password to protect your online store. This way, customers can't access your products while your store is paused. You can customize your password page and write a message that displays to your customers while your store is paused.

All your apps remain active after you pause your store. If you want to pause your apps, then you need to cancel them individually.

Reopen your store after you pause and build

Selecting the Pause and Build plan means that when you decide to unpause, you'll need to select a new plan as your old plan is no longer valid. When you're ready to reopen your store, log in, and then select a new plan that's best suited for you.

Steps:

1. Log in to your store as the store owner.
2. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Plan.
3. Click Pick a plan, and then click Choose plan for the plan that you want.
4. Carefully review the plan details, and then click Start plan.

After you select a plan, you can start selling again.

If you set up a password for your store while it was paused, then you can remove your online store password.

Cancel your subscription and deactivate your Shopify store

If you don't want to run your store anymore, then you can deactivate it at any time. After you deactivate your store, your Shopify subscription is canceled and you won't have access to your Shopify admin. If you want to log back in, then you will have to enter a valid payment method to reactivate your store.

Note

For security reasons, Shopify Support can't deactivate your store for you. You need to deactivate the store yourself. If you have any questions about the process, then you can contact Shopify Support.

Considerations before deactivating your store

Before you deactivate your store, review some considerations for how to prevent potential issues regarding closing your store.

Note

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

Consider what store information and assets you want to retain:

• If you deactivate your online store, then you can't create a new online store that uses the same myshopify.com domain. You can create a new store that is branded with the same name, but your myshopify.com domain is unique to each store. For example, you deactivate a store that you named Very Good Things and that had the URL very-good-things.myshopify.com. If you decide to create a new store, then you can still name it Very Good Things, but you can't reuse the URL very-good-things.myshopify.com.
• Save your store information by exporting CSV files.
• If you've purchased a theme, then consider downloading a backup of your theme. Themes are licensed only to the store you originally buy it for, but you can also contact Shopify Support to have the license transferred to another Shopify store you own.

Consider how your financial obligations will resolve:

• Any outstanding balance that you might have on your account (like transaction fees, shipping label charges, or app subscriptions) will be charged during cancelation. If you have no outstanding charges against your account, then you won't receive a final invoice. For more information about billing, refer to understanding your Shopify bill.
• Save your bills by exporting your billing history. If you're using Shopify Payments, then consider exporting your payout history and transactions for your records.
• If you have any third-party apps that have your payment information outside of Shopify, then cancel your service with those apps to avoid being billed externally after you deactivate your store.
• If you're using a Shopify financial product (like Shopify Balance, Shopify Capital, or Shopify Credit), then deactivating your store will impact your ability to access and use those products.

Consider how your existing customers with unfulfilled orders might be impacted:

• If you sell gift cards, then you might need to resolve outstanding cards. You can export your store's gift card CSV file that contains the information that you need to resolve any outstanding cards.
• If you sell products with different purchase options (like subscriptions or preorders), then you might need to resolve outstanding orders. Learn more about issuing refunds.
• Chargebacks can still be issued by a cardholder even if the store has been deactivated. Deactivating your store means you won't be able to submit additional evidence via the Shopify admin in the event of a chargeback.

Consider how your custom domain might be impacted:

• If you have a custom domain that you bought through Shopify, then you can transfer it to a third-party domain provider.
• If you have a custom domain that you bought through a third-party, then you can remove it from your store using your Shopify admin. If you don't remove your domain from your Shopify store before deactivating it, then you might not be able to use it for another website.
• Make sure to turn off auto renewal for your custom domain on your registrar's website to avoid unexpected charges.
• If you plan to deactivate your store and transfer your domain to a new platform, then be aware that Shopify's HTTP Strict Transfer Security (HSTS) policy remains in effect on your domain for 90 days after you deactivate your store. This policy helps to ensure the safety of the information about your business and your customers.

If you transfer your domain to another platform that uses HTTPS, then you don't need to take any additional steps.

If you transfer your domain to a platform that doesn't use HTTPS, then for the next 90 days, an error message is displayed in the browser when anyone attempts to visit your domain. The error message might state that the site is not trusted or that the certificate is not valid. Wait until the 90-day period is over, or consider transferring your domain to a platform that supports HTTPS.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Plan.
2. Click Deactivate store.
3. If applicable, then review the options to switch to the Pause and build plan, or start a new store.
4. If you still want to deactivate, then click Deactivate store.
5. Select a reason for the deactivation, and then click Continue.
6. Enter your password, and then click Deactivate now.

You receive an email to confirm that your store's deactivated. You can still re-open your store or view your past bills, and your store's information is guaranteed for 2 years. You can also re-open your store and pause your plan.

Q&A

Q: "I deactivated my store, so why do I keep receiving invoices?"

A: Deactivating your store cancels your Shopify subscription. If you continue to receive invoices after your store's been deactivated, then it might be due to a third party invoicing you (like for an app or domain), or a chargeback. If it's a Shopify invoice, then you might have another store that's incurring charges.

Learn more about investigating unknown charges.