Cancel Shopify Subscription refers to discontinue the use of Shopify account or service, which stops the access to the platform features. Sometimes, it is necessary for business owners due to cut down costs, shifting to a different platform, or business closure.
There are alternatives that may better suit your needs such as pausing your store temporarily or downgrading to a more affordable plan, instead of cancel 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 Reasons to Cancel Shopify Subscription?
There are different possible reasons to cancel Shopify subscription.
Discontinue Online Business
Many businesses decide to discontinue their online operations, seeking to avoid ongoing costs associated with maintaining an ecommerce platform.
Pricing
The subscription cost may no longer be affordable based on the business current financial situation or needs.
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 provided by Shopify do not support the specific technical requirements or scalability needs of the business, leading the decision to seek a different platform or solution that better meet those requirements.
Personal Reasons
Personal reasons include a wide range of factors changing business focus, personal priorities, financial considerations, dissatisfaction with Shopify support affecting the operation of the online store.
Shift to Another Platform
Shift from using Shopify to a different platform or service for better features, more suitable pricing, improved customer support, or platform that better meets with the specific needs of business.
When to Consider Cancel Shopify Subscription?
Cancel your Shopify subscription should be consider when merchants identify specific conditions or reasons to discontinue the use of Shopify platform.
Financial constraints: When merchants encounter financial difficulties, the monthly subscription fees for Shopify become a burden, and lead to cancel subscription.
Low sales: An online store consistently experiencing minimal sales over the period finds continuing to pay monthly subscription fee an unnecessary expense.
Seasonal business: Businesses that operate seasonally, find maintaining the subscription as an unnecessary expense. Cancelling the subscription during the low season and reactivating it when sales are expected to increase is more cost-effective.
Merge: Your business is being acquired or merged with another company that uses a different e-commerce platform, then integration with Shopify will no longer align with your business requirement.
Trial period ending: If you are using Shopify on a trial basis and decide that the platform does not meet your needs or expectations, then does not go with paid subscription.
What Are the Steps to Cancel Shopify Subscription?
There are five steps to cancel Shopify subscription.
- Prepare To Cancel
- Access Shopify admin
- Navigate to Subscription Settings
- Cancel the Subscription
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Post Cancellation Actions
Prepare To Cancel
Take proactive steps to protect and manage data, assets of 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: Ensure you download any files from Shopify that you need such as images, documents, or custom templates.
- Reviewing Your Current Plan and Billing Cycle: Review your current Shopify plan and billing cycle to understand any potential charges 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. Access Shopify admin
Access Shopify Admin allows you to manage various aspects of your online store, such as products, orders, settings, and billing.
- Log in to Shopify with your store credentials.
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After logging in, you'll be directed to your Shopify Admin dashboard.
3. Navigate to Subscription Setting
Find and access the specific section within the Shopify Admin dashboard where you can manage and modify store subscription plan and billing information.
Identify Subscription Details: In Shopify admin dashboard, click Settings located at 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 of the Shopify plan, and result in loss of access to specific features, tools, and data associated with the platform.
- Go to Setting on the admin dashboard
- Click on Plan and select Deactivate store. Enter the reason for deactivation and click Continue.
- Enter the password and click Deactivate now for confirmation.
- You will receive a confirmation email from Shopify.
5. Post- Cancellation Actions
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 your 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 not remain active through email notification, newsletter, update your storefront, social media and other Platforms.
What Happens After Cancelling Shopify Subscription?
After canceling your Shopify subscription, your store will be deactivated. No longer access to admin dashboard and 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 have to request Shopify contact before that particular 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 Shopify support before the 14 days passed to prevent the data deletion.
”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 payment.
Click on Subscribe to reactivate the store.
What Are Alternatives of Canceling Shopify Subscription?
There are other options that can be used to avoid permanently discontinuing your store. These options help you minimize disruption, keep benefits, and resolve underlying issues without fully terminating your store.
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 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 helps to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
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 app develop specifically for your specific needs enhance efficiency by providing exactly the functionalities you require without relying on external apps.
Integrate Shopify with new 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 terms of service, subscription fees are paid in advance and are non-refundable. Once the subscription is canceled, the store owner will not be charged for any future fees.
What Are the Alternatives of Shopify?
Alternatives of Shopify are other ecommerce platforms used to build and manage an online store. The other platforms offer similar or different features and functionality compared to Shopify, and are different 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.
