Can I maintain my store after cancelling Shopify Basics subscription?

alondrag37
New Member
4 0 0

What if I get Shopify Basics for a few months and then decide to cancel my subscription, will I still have an online store? Basically, can I keep my store running without having to make any changes even if I decide to cancel Shopify subscription later down the road? 

Replies 7 (7)

Miles
Shopify Staff (Retired)
480 68 156

Hi, @alondrag37!

I'm Miles from the Social Care team at Shopify. Thanks for your question. We hope you won't want to cancel your store, but I'm happy to let you know what would happen if you do.

Your monthly subscription covers the cost of hosting your website and account. So by cancelling your store, the storefront and Shopify admin would be cancelled along with it. We would hold the data for up to 90 days so that if you decide to reactivate the store, you won't lose any data or progress. After the 90 days, we may begin to purge the data. Once a store is cancelled, customers will see a notice like this:

To stop your billing, you would need to close your store. To close your store, simply login to your admin and go to Settings > Plan and Permissions. Under "Store Status" and click "Sell or close store" and follow the steps on the screen. Check out our help doc for more information on pausing and closing stores.

I'd love to understand a bit more about the circumstances where you would need to temporarily close the store. If there's anything you're unsure about, be sure to reach out to our 24/7 support team who will be happy to help you.

If you still want to have the storefront running and take a step away from your store, you can switch across to our Pause and Build plan. This plan is $9 USD/month and has the same features as our Basic plan - except we remove the checkout functionality. This means, customers will be able to see your website, but won't be able to purchase anything until you're back on the Basic plan or higher.

If you're just starting out, or building a store after previous attempts, I'd recommend checking out Shopify Compass (https://bit.ly/2LyfedE). Shopify Compass provides you with free webinars and courses on things like store design, marketing and more. There's new content being added frequently and it's 100% free - with or without a Shopify account.

Thanks!

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

alondrag37
New Member
4 0 0
So if I choose to cancel my Shopify subscription, I will no longer have a
store?
Im asking because I want to get started soon, but what if I find less
expensive options than using Shopify? Ideally it would be smarter to
switch. In the webinars it says that I keep my domain. What exactly does
that mean? I figured it means that I could keep my store running even
without Shopify.
Please answer all of my questions whenever possible.

Miles
Shopify Staff (Retired)
480 68 156

Hi, @alondrag37!

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. Essentially, if you close your store, you'll lose the content of the store itself. A domain is your URL, so you get a free .myshopify.com domain with your account. If you purchase a custom domain (e.g. yourstore.com), that domain is yours and you can connect it to another platform, but that is merely the domain name. The content of the store is held on your Shopify admin, so you would need to rebuild your store with your new provider.

My suggestion for you would be to shop around now, as building a site with us, then moving to another provider will take time as you'll have to rebuild the site and reupload products, customers and other components. It's best to work out what the best options for you are right now, so you can make a better more informed decision.

Hope that helps, but let me know if you have any lingering questions.

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

alondrag37
New Member
4 0 0
Yes that definitely helps, thank you.
Lastly, if I picked a theme for my website could I make adjustments as I
go? Or is the one I pick permanent?

Miles
Shopify Staff (Retired)
480 68 156

Great to hear that helped!

You can pick up to 20 themes from the Shopify Theme Store to have loaded in your store at any given time. At this stage, themes aren't interchangeable which means you would need to build each different theme separately. With that being said, you can customise each theme as many times as you'd like. Only one will be published to your store at any given time. I'd recommend checking out this guide for more information on themes.

Thanks!

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

willmarsden
Visitor
1 0 0

Hi,

I've recently changed the theme of my website from Impulse to Debut. With Impulse being a paid theme and Debut a free one, is there a way for me to cancel my subscription for Impulse whilst still retaining the content on my website, without having to make a whole new one?

My reason for asking is that you mentioned prior, that if you were to cancel your subscription with Shopify, you lose your whole admin account and therefore your sales. Obviously I don't want this to happen so could you assist in the best way of going about this, as the $180 payment for Impulse is no longer a required expense.

Thanks, Will.

Miles
Shopify Staff (Retired)
480 68 156

Hey, @willmarsden!

Due to the digital nature of the purchase of a theme, all theme sales are final. When purchasing a theme, you're presented with a payment confirmation page that confirms it is a non-refundable purchase:

The money for theme purchases is paid to our theme designers at the moment of purchase. There is a preview function on all paid themes, so moving forward you can try them out before committing to making a payment.

As you now own the license to use Impulse, you may wish to transfer the theme to a new store. To this, you need to follow these steps:

  1. Download the theme to your computer. This is done in Online Store > Themes. You will be sent an email from which you can download the theme file.
  2. Delete the theme off of the original store.
  3. Close the original store.
  4. Upload the theme file to the new store.
  5. Purchase the theme again for the new store. This will allow you to get updates for the theme in the future.
  6. Contact our live support team (https://bit.ly/3cJkx8V) for assistance in refunding the original purchase.

You can add up to 20 themes to your online store, but only one theme can be published at a time. A published theme is the theme that customers see when they visit your online store. Your published theme appears in the Current theme section of the Themes page, and your unpublished themes appear in the Theme library section. If you do decide to switch themes, you will be starting fresh, so any customisations and settings you've set up on Impulse will need to be added to your new theme.

Please let me know if you need any assistance.

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.