Guide Leaving Shopify
Export before you are terminated
A one-afternoon checklist for Shopify stores selling glass, vaporizer hardware, cigars, kratom or CBD.
- 21 steps to tick off
- One afternoon
- 4 sources linked
Why this exists
Shopify enforces its ENDS rule by private email to each store, with a short removal window. The notice reads “regardless of nicotine content.”
Section 14 of Shopify's Terms of Service lets Shopify terminate “for any reason, without notice and at any time”. After that:
- “you will no longer be able to access your Account”
- “your Shopify Store will be taken offline.”
There is no export right in that section. What the notice says
Part 1: Export today, in this order
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Products
Products, then Export, then All products
Plain CSV, all columns. Open the header row and check whether your metafields are there. Keep the file.
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Customers
Customers, then Export, then All customers
No passwords are in it, ever; no platform can export them.
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Orders
Orders, then Export, then All orders
Large exports arrive by email; wait for the file.
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Discounts
Discounts, then Export
Check that your automatic discounts are in the file. They are not always included and may need to be written down by hand.
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URL redirects
Online Store, then Navigation, then URL redirects, then Export
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Gift cards
Products, then Gift cards, then Export
Note the outstanding balances; on any new platform they become codes, not cards.
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Theme
Online Store, then Themes, then Actions, then Download theme file
The theme itself will not run elsewhere; the images and copy inside it will.
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Pages and blog posts
There is no CSV. Copy each page's text, and each post's text and image, into a folder.
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Photographs
The product CSV holds cdn.shopify.com links only. Download every image now. The links die with the account.
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Reviews
Export from Yotpo, Judge.me, Stamped or whichever app you use. If the app prints reviews into the page, they can also be read from the public site while it is up.
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Subscriptions
Export the subscriber list from Loop, Recharge or Shopify Subscriptions. Stored cards do not move; every subscriber will re-enter a card once, on any platform.
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Flow
Screenshot every workflow, with its on/off state.
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Google Merchant Center
Note that the Shopify Google app generates your feed. It stops with Shopify.
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Your Shopify notice email
Save it, with the date.
Tick each number as you finish. Ticks stay in this tab; nothing is sent or saved.
Part 2: The merchant account
Start today; it takes weeks.
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Find out which gateway you use now
Shopify Payments refuses tobacco and cannabis-related goods, so most stores in these categories already run a third-party gateway such as Authorize.net or NMI.
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Get a written quote from a high-risk processor
Ask for:
Ask for month to month. A rolling reserve of 5% to 10% held 90 to 180 days is normal in these categories.
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Ask whether the account can run on Authorize.net
Most high-risk processors offer it, and it is what most hosted alternatives, including ours, connect to.
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Publish the policy pages underwriters look for
On your current site: refund, shipping, terms, privacy and a contact page.
Part 3: Access you must hold yourself
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Domain registrar login
Who has it, and is two-step on.
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DNS
Which account holds the zone: Cloudflare, GoDaddy, or an agency.
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App logins
Klaviyo, ShipStation, AgeChecker, Authorize.net, your review app, your loyalty app, each with an owner you control.
Part 4: Do not do these
- Do not cancel Shopify until your last Shopify-paid order has shipped and every order has synced to the new store. Keep the plan read-only for 30 days for a final export.
- Do not generate a new Authorize.net Transaction Key early. Generating one can invalidate the key your live Shopify checkout is using. Authorize.net lets the old key run for 24 hours after a new one is made unless you tick “disable immediately”; use that overlap on switch day, not before.
- Do not email your customer list about a move until the new store's login and password reset are working.
Part 5: What a hosted move looks like
So you can compare offers.
- Products load with their Shopify handles, so every indexed URL keeps working.
- Customers and orders load as history; nothing is re-charged or re-emailed.
- Discount codes, redirects, reviews, blog posts and policy pages load.
- Customers set a password once, or sign in by emailed code.
- Subscribers get one link to re-enter a card.
- Your Klaviyo flows come across as drafts under the same event names; you switch them on. Segments are rebuilt on the new event names.
Sources
- Shopify Terms of Service, sections 8 and 14, last updated 1 August 2026: shopify.com/legal/terms
- Shopify Community, “ENDS Policy”, 19 August 2026, including the advice to “export your customers, orders and products to CSV now”: community.shopify.com
- Shopify Payments prohibited categories are set by its processors; see Shopify Payments Terms of Service (US) and the processor list.
- Durango Merchant Services on rolling reserves: durangomerchantservices.com
Every menu path above was checked in the Shopify admin, item by item. No newsletter is attached to this page.