How To Close a Shopify Store – Easy Guide [2024]

As a business that sells products online on Shopify, there may be times when things become so overwhelming that you need to take a breather. Whether you’re experiencing burnout or simply need to regroup, knowing how to deactivate your Shopify store can offer you the flexibility to pause without losing everything you’ve built.

In more unfortunate cases where the business didn’t just pan out, and you want to mitigate the financial risks by shutting down your operations, understanding how to close your Shopify store safely and efficiently becomes crucial to avoid any lingering obligations or fees.

In this guide, we’ll show you the proper way to make a safe exit from Shopify, whether you’re pausing your operations or closing up shop for good.

💡Check out this video guide on how to pause a Shopify store + the important actions to take to avoid future inconveniences:

How to Deactivate Shopify Store – Things You Should Know Before Closing Shop

Obviously, you can't simply close Shopify, and you'll no longer have anything to do with it. So there are a few things you need to consider strictly so that you don't have to worry about security or suddenly incurring a fee even after you have entirely canceled or closed your Shopify account. To fully understand how to close a Shopify store or how to deactivate a Shopify store, you should be aware of the following steps:

• Carefully consider why you want to cancel Shopify: If it is only temporary, then you should use Pause and Build or Deactivate instead of closing it entirely because after closing, you will not be able to reopen your store later.
• If you have received funding through Shopify Capital, pausing your store will affect your remaining Capital advances. 

• If you just pause your Shopify store without deactivating or closing it, you still have to pay a reduced subscription fee of $9/month.
• You immediately lose access to your admin panel, so make sure you disconnect or transfer any domains away before closing your account. Otherwise, the domain will no longer be available for your new store or website. 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 security of your business and your customers.

• It is advised that you manually uninstall all connected apps to avoid further and unexpected charges. Even if you close Shopify, third-party apps may still collect your monthly subscription. Understanding how to delete your Shopify account properly includes taking care of these small but crucial details to avoid unnecessary expenses.

• Finish all your outstanding charges including your past bills, subscription fees, and notice your billing cycle to make sure you don't have to pay for next month's subscription.
• Make sure you have exported all your store data before closing it as you may need it in the future for analysis purposes or even reopening another non-Shopify store. Shopify still keeps your store data for two years, but you will have to purchase a pricing plan to be able to review or access any data or assets of your store.
• If you want to open a store on another e-commerce platform, do your research and carefully compare which new platform will be Mr. Right for you before closing Shopify altogether. Knowing how to close or how to cancel your Shopify account while ensuring a smooth transition to a new platform will help you avoid any disruptions to your business operations.

How To Cancel Shopify Account Free Trial

Some new users may want to know how to deactivate their Shopify account whilst on free trial because they want to extend the trial period by signing up again. Because let’s be honest, three days isn’t enough to know Shopify.

However, why go through the hassle of knowing how to cancel your Shopify account for another three days. Would you want to repeat the process over and over again?

Why not just choose any Shopify plan and enjoy your first month for only 1 dollar? Shopify in fact offers the first month for any Shopify account for just 1 dollar. So if you want a continuous learning process, we highly suggest this alternative.

How To Pause A Shopify Store

Have you made up your mind that you want to indeed discontinue your Shopify store for good? Or are you just burned out and you want a breather?

If it’s the latter, we recommend following these advice to pause your Shopify store.

When Should You Pause Your Shopify Store?

When your store is on pause, customers can still visit your products; thus, your views and reputation will not be lost. It's just that they can't check out any products during the time you're pausing the shop. So it is the most effective and temporary way when you want to:

• Upgrade and “refurbish” your online store to make it more suitable according to seasons, occasions, and trends.
• Upload new products and edit old products.

4 Simple Steps To Pause Your Shopify Store

• Step 1: Log in to you Shopify store
• Step 2: Click the Settings in the lower-left corner of your Shopify admin
• Step 3: Within the Settings, click the Plan menu and click Deactivate store

• Step 4: In the pop-up window, click Switch to Pause and Build. Upon clicking, you will be prompted to subscribe to Shopify for $9 per month. In this plan, you can still access your store and you can reduce your monthly subscription expenses while you rest or while you improve your Shopify store.

How To Delete Shopify Account

If you’ve made up your mind and you truly want out, follow these steps on how to close your Shopify store by deactivating it.

Unfortunately, there are no steps on how to delete your Shopify account altogether because Shopify doesn’t allow it. Instead, you only have the option to “deactivate” your store – which is better because after deactivating your store,

There are some reasons why you would want to delete or deactivate their stores:

• The business is not going well, low online sales rates
• Shopify’s subscription is high
• The feature is too complicated to use
• Want to migrate to another platform, etc.

Whatever your reason is, we know that you know better. So before we teach you the deactivation process, make sure that you have canceled all your app subscriptions and that you have uninstalled them from your store. After that, you’re ready for the deactivation process.

How To Close Your Shopify Store – Deactivation Process

• Step 1: Log in to you Shopify store
• Step 2: Click the Settings in the lower-left corner of your Shopify admin
• Step 3: Within the Settings, click the Plan menu and click Deactivate store

• Step 4: In the pop-up window, click Deactivate Store. Follow the final steps and your store will be closed. Your store’s information will be retained for two years after the deactivation.

Final Notes Before You Close Your Shopify Store

There are a few things to validate and will decide whether you will be able to Pause, Deactivate or Close your store or not. So you can immediately stop your Shopify account when you meet these three conditions:

• First of all, your store must be eligible due to Shopify Terms of Service.
• Your store must be on a paid plan and at least 60 days past the Shopify free trial period.
• You have paid all outstanding charges in Shopify.

And a small note for you, the Pause and Build plan isn't available to Shopify Plus stores. So make sure about your store status to choose a suitable plan.

Conclusion

Closing a Shopify store may entail some sad emotions especially if you’ve been invested in the business in the past few years. Even for a startup, closing down a business could still be heartbreaking because of the high hopes entailed to it.

Nevertheless, closing down your Shopify store does not mean that it’s the end of the road. In fact, it could be a blessing in disguise because you get to recalibrate your plans early on.

As such, after closing down your Shopify store, take a breather and rest for a while. After that, stand up and try your luck again as an entrepreneur. But this time, you’ll reemerge stronger and with more wisdom to guide you.