Why does Shopify need my SSN when I have an EIN?

[SharifBible]

Why is Shopify asking for my SSN when the formed with an EIN? Can I skip the SSN and enter EIN only? Do I have to be the sole owner of the business in order to manage Shopify on behalf of the organization?

Thanks for your help. 

[Victoria · Accepted solution]

Hi, @SharifBible.

Welcome to the Shopify community and thanks for reaching out. 

Where is your business based?

In order to set up Shopify Payments in the U.S, you're required to provide all 9 digits of your SSN as verification, even if you've provided an EIN for your business. You can refer to the US Shopify Payment Terms of Service: Section B-3 for any legal-related inquiries and more information surrounding the payment setup.

If you don't have an SSN number, then you'll need to use an alternative payment provider for your business. I'll share our resource on payment gateways in the United States that provide what payment providers are available. 

In regards to your second question, could you clarify what you mean by managing Shopify on behalf of the organization? Are you referring to being the account owner and staffing your Shopify store? Once you've confirmed this information I'll be able to provide you with what steps you can take and the applicable resources.

I'd also like to hear a bit more about what kind of online business you have, what products you'll be selling and what you're currently working on?

Looking forward to hearing back!

[Victoria · Accepted solution]

Hi, @SharifBible.

Welcome to the Shopify community and thanks for reaching out. 

Where is your business based?

In order to set up Shopify Payments in the U.S, you're required to provide all 9 digits of your SSN as verification, even if you've provided an EIN for your business. You can refer to the US Shopify Payment Terms of Service: Section B-3 for any legal-related inquiries and more information surrounding the payment setup.

If you don't have an SSN number, then you'll need to use an alternative payment provider for your business. I'll share our resource on payment gateways in the United States that provide what payment providers are available. 

In regards to your second question, could you clarify what you mean by managing Shopify on behalf of the organization? Are you referring to being the account owner and staffing your Shopify store? Once you've confirmed this information I'll be able to provide you with what steps you can take and the applicable resources.

I'd also like to hear a bit more about what kind of online business you have, what products you'll be selling and what you're currently working on?

Looking forward to hearing back!

[SharifBible]

Victoria! Thanks for the feedback!

I'm a US citizen living in Sacramento, California. Yes, I do have SSN. I wasn't sure if I needed to enter my SSN since we are a California non-profit organization.

Our organization is called the International Sharif Bible Society (ISBS). We sell Arabic Bibles nationwide and have the full copyright of all our products. I'm not the organization's CEO, but I'm appointed personal for the Sharif Shopify store's daily operations. Yes, please advise our next step. Also, for some reason, our Shopify store is not active.

Thanks,     

[Victoria]

Thanks for letting us know, @SharifBible.

With a non-profit organization, your details are still required for every Shopify Payments account. This information is stated within our Shopify Payments Terms of Service in all regions. 

In regards to your question about being the sole owner to manage the store on behalf of the organization, we have 3 different types of accounts on Shopify. The store owner oversees the Shopify account, assigns permissions to staff and has all access to the Shopify admin. Staff accounts have permissions granted by the store owner so they're able to access certain areas of the admin. For more information check out our help center resources on how staff permissions work and more information on managing staff. Lastly, there are organization users who are only available on the Shopify Plus plan.

Thanks for letting me know more about your non-profit organization. Do you advertise or do any kind of online marketing to bring traction to your business and website?

Could you also share a bit more information regarding your store being inactive? Are there any error messages you're seeing or any email correspondence from our support team? 

[SharifBible]

The domain we register with Shopify is used to work https://shopsharif.com. Not sure why it's not pulling my page anymore. I assume it's inactive in the settings. 

Yes. We are planning for a broad marketing when we our online store is completely set to go. If you have any marketing tips please share. 

I appreciate your help.

God Bless

[Victoria · Accepted solution]

Thanks for sharing your domain name. Are you able to log in to your admin to view your domain settings? This section can be found under Settings > Domains.

When viewing your domain you'll want to ensure the following is correct:

• A record points to the Shopify IP address 23.227.38.65. 
• The CNAME record points with the name www to shops.myshopify.com.

If you'd like us to take a closer look and assist you with these steps you can reach out to our support team via the Shopify Help Center. This is because you'll need to be authenticated and we are unable to do so via the community forums. 

As for marketing tips, have you already explored apps like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok and Pinterest? All of these social platforms can be integrated into your Shopify store. Using these social platforms and paid advertising is a great way to gain recognition and boost brand visibility, increase store traffic and sales. To set this up, take a look at our Sales Channels help center resource. I also wanted to share some low-cost and free ways to help promote your business on our Shopify Blog.