Cancel Shopify Subscription is the termination of current arrangement or agreement with Shopify to use their services for ecommerce, typically by halting regular payments and discontinuing access to Shopify's platform and features.
Shopify subscription canceling is sometimes necessary for business owners facing various challenges or changes, due to budgetary constraints, shifting to a different platform, or business closure.
While canceling is an option, there are alternatives that may better suit your needs such as pausing your store temporarily or downgrading to a more affordable plan.
After cancelling subscription, you will lose access to Shopify to manage your online store, customer data, or access any app or integration associated with your Shopify account.
What Are the Different Possible Reasons to Cancel Shopify Subscription?
There are different possible reasons to cancel Shopify subscription.
Discontinue Online Business
Many businesses cancel their Shopify subscription when they decide to discontinue their online operations, seeking to avoid ongoing costs associated with maintaining an ecommerce platform.
Financial Reasons
Financial reasons cover various aspects such as cost-effectiveness, budget constraints, and profitability concerns. For instance, if a business experiences financial challenges or is not generating sufficient revenue through its Shopify store, continuing the subscription may not be sustainable. Additionally, reevaluating expenses to optimize profitability could lead to decisions to cut costs.
Product or Market Shift
Products offered through Shopify may no longer align with market demands or market conditions have changed, making the Shopify platform less suitable for the current needs or goals of the product.
Technical Limitations
Technical limitations indicate that features or infrastructure provided by Shopify do not adequately support the specific technical requirements or scalability needs of the business, leading to decision to seek a different platform or solution that better meet those requirements.
Personal Reasons
Personal reasons can include a wide range of factors changing business focus, personal priorities, financial considerations, dissatisfaction with Shopify support affecting the operation of the online store.
Transition to Another Platform
Transition to another Platform is shifting from using Shopify to a different platform or service for better features, more suitable pricing, improved customer support, or a platform that better meets with the specific needs of the business.
When to Consider Cancel Shopify Subscription?
Canceling your Shopify subscription should be considered when merchants identify specific conditions or reasons to discontinue their use of Shopify platform.
Financial constraints: Confronted with financial difficulties and unable to sustain the monthly subscription fees, can lead to cancel subscription.
Low sales: An online store consistently experiencing minimal or no sales over an extended period find continuing to pay the monthly subscription fee an unnecessary expense.
Seasonal business: Businesses that operate seasonally, find maintaining the subscription year-round results in unnecessary expenses. Cancelling the subscription during the low season and reactivating it when sales are expected to increase proves more cost-effective.
Merge: Upon your business being acquired or merging with another company that uses a different e-commerce platform, it may become necessary to cancel your Shopify subscription.
Trial period ending: As the free trial concludes, merchants must evaluate whether the platform has met their e-commerce needs and decide whether to transition to a paid plan. If the trial period shows that the store hasn't generated sufficient sales, attracted enough traffic, or if the features don't align with business requirements, cancelling the subscription becomes a viable option.
What Are the Steps to Cancel Shopify Subscription?
There are five steps to cancel Shopify subscription.
- Preparing To Cancel
- Accessing the Shopify admin
- Navigating to Subscription Settings
- Cancel the Subscription
- Post Cancellation Actions
1. Preparing To Cancel
Preparing to cancel is the proactive actions taking to safeguard and manage data, assets, and obligations associated with your Shopify store before initiating the cancellation process.
- Backup Your Data: Export all necessary data from your Shopify store, including customer information, product details, orders, and any other relevant data.
- Download Files and assets: Ensure you download any files or assets on Shopify that you need to retain, such as images, documents, or custom templates.
- App Data Backup: If any third-party apps are used, check if they store data within Shopify or separately. Export or backup app-related data according to their instructions.
- Reviewing Your Current Plan and Billing Cycle: Before canceling, review your current Shopify plan and billing cycle to understand any potential charges or implications associated with mid-cycle.
- Domain Transfer: If you've purchased a domain through Shopify or any third party, consider transferring it to another registrar or managing it separately to avoid losing access.
2. Accessing the Shopify admin
Accessing the Shopify admin refers to logging into the administrative interface provided by Shopify to manage various aspects of an online store, including products, orders, settings, and billing information.
- Logging into your Shopify account: Go to Shopify Log in.
- Navigating the Admin Dashboard: After logging in, you'll be directed to your Shopify Admin dashboard.
The dashboard provides an overview of your store's performance, orders, products, customers, and more.
3. Navigating Subscription Setting
Navigating to the subscription setting is the finding and accessing the specific section within the Shopify Admin dashboard where you can manage and modify your stores subscription plan and billing information.
Identify Subscription Details: In Shopify admin dashboard, click on the Settings at the bottom left of the sidebar.
Select Billing, you'll find details about your current Shopify subscription plan, billing cycle, and next payment date.
4. Cancel the Subscription
Cancel the Subscription stops any further billing for the Shopify plan, and it may result in the loss of access to specific features, tools, and data associated with the platform.
- Go to Setting on admin dashboard, click on the Plan.
- Click on Deactivate store. Then enter the reason to deactivate the store and click Continue.
- Enter the password and click on Deactivate now for confirmation.
- After confirmation, you will receive an email from Shopify.
5. Post- Cancellation Actions
Post cancellation Actions are the steps and measures that merchants should take after they have successfully terminated their Shopify plan.
- Checking for any remaining charges: Review your Shopify account billing history to ensure there are no pending charges or outstanding balances. You might still face Other additional charges even after cancellation like domain renewal, app subscriptions and other ongoing service linked to account.
- Downloading invoices and receipts: Go to Shopify admin dashboard, navigate to Settings > Billing, and download copies of all invoices and receipts for your records.
- Informing customers about store closure: Notify your customers that your online store will no longer be operational through, email notification, update your storefront, social media and other Platforms.
What Happens After Cancelling Shopify Subscription?
After canceling your Shopify subscription, your store will be deactivated. Resulting lose access to your Shopify admin, and your storefront will no longer be live. However, your data (like orders, customer information, and product data) will be preserved for 2 years after cancellation.
If you wish to delete the personal data of your customer, you can request to Shopify contact before that timeframe. Once data is deleted, it cannot be recoverable by Shopify support also.
If you change your mind to not delete the personal data again contact to Shopify support before the 14 days passed to prevent the data deletion.
So, ”can you reactivate the Shopify subscription”? Yes, you can reactivate the Shopify subscription. By just logging in to your store. Click on Re-open <shop-name>.myshopify.com.
Review and Select the subscription plan, make the payment.
Click on Subscribe to reactivate the store.
What Are Alternatives of Canceling Shopify Subscription?
Canceling alternatives includes other options or actions that can be taken instead of terminating a subscription. These alternatives are considered to retain benefit, minimize disruption, or address underlying issues without proceeding to full cancellation.
Pausing your Shopify store is an option provided by Shopify that allows to temporarily halt all store operations without completely canceling your subscription. It is useful for taking a break from selling or during seasonal downtime. While a store is paused, the owner will not be charged for their Shopify subscription and can continue the store later without losing any data or setup. Customers will not be able to access the store or make purchases, but the store owner can still manage orders, products, and settings through the Shopify admin panel.
Downgrading Plan
Downgrading Shopify plans is reducing the paid services and features associated with your Shopify subscription to a lower-cost.
To downgrade the Shopify plan.
- Log in to the Shopify admin account.
- Select the Setting from the left-hand menu, then click Plan.
- Click Change Plan select the plan you want to downgrade to.
Optimizing Your Store
Optimizing your store includes organizing your store data and settings for potential migration.
- Removing unnecessary apps and services to streamline your store functionality by identifying and uninstalling any third-party applications or services that are no longer essential according to your needs. Additionally, custom apps designed specifically for your specific needs can enhance efficiency by providing exactly the functionalities you require without relying on external apps.
- Integrate Shopify with new additional sales channels such as social media platforms, marketplaces, or offline sales, to reach the border audience.
Can Shopify Refund Subscription Fee After Cancellation?
No, Shopify does not refund subscription fees after cancellation. According to Shopify's terms of service, subscription fees are paid in advance and are non-refundable. Once a Shopify subscription is canceled, the store owner will not be charged for any future subscription fees.
What Are the Alternatives to Shopify?
Alternatives to Shopify are other e-commerce platforms that can be used instead of Shopify to build and manage an online store. These alternatives may offer similar or different features and functionality compared to Shopify, and may vary in terms of pricing, ease of use, customization options, and scalability.
Exploring alternatives to Shopify can be a useful step for store owners who are seeking to terminate their Shopify subscription, as it allows them to assess other options and determine which platform best meets their needs and budget.
