How can I conceal my home address on invoices?

[eastcoastgirl]

Hi,

I want to hide my store address from absolutely everything and everyone because it's my personal home address. The Settings tag in Shopify admin has a section for store address but it says...

Store address

This address will appear on your invoices. You can edit the address used to calculate shipping rates in your shipping settings

Your primary business location could affect which apps can be used on your store. Learn more about app compatibility

How can I ensure that my home address will not appear on any invoices or anything at all?

Thanks,

A

[Visely-Team]

You cannot do that. Moreover, any app that you install has read access to your shop information which includes the primary business address.

[Stretchingcards]

Thank you for your response to this matter. This information will make or break whether I continue moving forward with Shopify. Just so I am clear... There is absolutely no way to avoid making our personal address and phone numbers public to our customers?

[Visely-Team]

Yes, absolutely no way.

[RemyRemy]

This is not acceptable. I also need to keep my businesses main address private to protect me from potential criminals. There must be a  solution.

[sparkcurio]

I used a Google Voice to hide my phone number. You get a free Google Voice number which will route calls to your real number. Havent figured out address situation yet. Might just have to set up a PO box 😞

[Selahbo]

Same, I went to print label for shipping and saw my personal address is on there. Do not feel comfortable with that.

[CanadaRules]

I agree with you...this is unacceptable and a security risk.

[Visely-Team]

@CanadaRules isn't it as insecure as it is for your shoppers to buy from a merchant that is looking to hide from them 🙂

[Royalrose757]

I too would like to know if this could be hidden. I personally have a protective order against someone and do not wish for my home address to be displayed.

[JSPiper]

You'll have to use a PO Box

[sky6]

While that sounds clever. It's clearly not. If the shopper is wrong, they only lose $30-40 of their order. If the owner is wrong, they get their home broken into or have a crazy person show up. See the difference?

[perrydonovan]

what a snarky and absurdly unhelpful response haha. why would anyone want to give their address to fans who are potentially not good at boundaries and might show up at your door.

[TheDragon]

Or maybe there are restraining orders on people? how about you don't assume it's bad to hide a home address?

[Audib19]

Do we know where the CEO of every business we buy from lives? NO we do not! So just another thing to keep the small man down.

[BeeTrading]

Do you think it would be secure if jeff bezos put his personal address for all customers?

[snabudabby]

No, it is not the same. Merchants don't tend to show up on customer porches, harassing them and their families. Customers are customers. Merchants can be separate entities from a residential being. Merchants often depend on the use of post office boxes to handle orders, which is not a residential address. There are many reasons that a merchant wouldn't want a personal address, one being that there is a negative and unrightly so perception that if a person runs a business out of a house, they're not a business they want to work with. Considering just how many shopify customers do just these things, it seems shopify would have a better pulse on the system to let their customers list an address of their choosing for customers to contact. It's not that far-fetched of a practice, and I haven't seen it anywhere except here on shopify. It's not cool.

[Bellbook]

hi there im new here and I also have been researching how to hide my address from invoices and since I have come to conclusion that I cannot here is the alternative that I have found helpful. I recently searched what I can do about my personal address and the answer I have found is to rent a virtual address that I can use on my business. It will show on the statements for customers but of course you have to make it your default address. another upside to renting a virtual address is that they flush out junk mail at your request, they can recycle it for you at your request and they will forward you any packages or documents so if a customer returns their items to you they will be basically re-routed to you. I hope that helps.

I used: ipostal1.com it is starting subscription at 9.99 a month and there are other subscriptions versions you can get. Be sure to read through the description im not a professional from that company just a store owner like yourself

[Valhalla_Todd]

IMHO this is the current best solution for not using your personal address for Shopify business credentials.

And as of yesterday 10/03/2023, still the best price and options for a business address that works with all the major carriers. Most other options are $30 a month to use for business (using business name instead of your name). ipostal.com is still $9.99 for standard personal or business virtual mailbox. You get a physical street address, NOT a P.O. Box, so you can use it when registering your LLC. In the same regard, then you don't have your personal address listed when you search your business LLC info online. The only other fee associated with this virtual mailbox is when you first establish it. To activate the account and gain the ability to receive mail at this address, you must first complete a form (Form 1583) which requires 2 ID's (1 picture/1 address). You can use a local notary, however if you are not a US citizen and/or you want to ship international, you must use their online Notary System, but it is fairly affordable at $25. You can also add someone to your account for no cost if you so it at sign up, if you add someone later you'll have to do another Notary session.

Use this along with a reputable virtual second phone line service and you can help protect your self and your anonymity, and create separation from your business. I am probably going to stick with Sideline vs Google Voice or any others. It's not free (about $15 a month) but, it's feature packed including alt ring tone and caller ID to differentiate calls between personal/business and uses your own cellular service, not VoIP, so you get better call connection and clarity which is key when using for customer assurance and support.

I just thought I would share my experience from the last couple days. Especially, since registering your LLC, getting an address, and establishing phone and email all inter-connect.

[ArialBurnz]

I use PhysicalAddress.com and it's only $5.99 a month, or you can pay for the full year at $57.48.

[ForeverLuna]

Hi in regards to this because I’m looking into getting a virtual mailbox address. If I were to get it would that mean I have to put that address on all my business. For example IRS, etc ?

[tmllc_biz]

Hi,

You don’t have to put the address on other forms unless you choose to. It
would benefit you to keep your business address the same. iPostal1 also has
physical locations that will hold your mail (and packages at an additional
charge), and can forward your mail over to you. This is on top of them
scanning received mail for you to see on your account. They will open the
mail and scan that too with your permission. This may be an additional
charge too.

So with getting an address for Shopify, it can be usually strictly for
Shopify or for all of your business needs.

[ForeverLuna]

Thank you so much!!! Now I see people are hiding their address with a YouTube video for Shopify but if we hide our address on the slips how would the shipping companies know where to send it back to me?

[ArialBurnz]

Just adding my two pence based on what I do. As Tmllc_biz mentioned, virtual mailboxes can handle and forward to you the incoming mail, which includes packages. This might cause additional time to your process, but if you build expectations for your customers, letting them know it takes X-amount of days to handle returns, then you have yourself covered. Does that answer your question?

[ForeverLuna]

Yes thank you so much! I appreciate it!

[MentoPlatforms]

Hi, I know the feeling, the best thing to do is get a P.O box. 

[tmllc_biz]

@Stretchingcards Hi! I recommend a physical or digital P.O. BOX if you can factor it into your business budget.

[ArialBurnz]

They also tend to be less expensive than a physical P.O. Box and are less of a hassle since they can forward your email to your home address while still maintaining a business address on the public-facing side.

[TaylorA]

I literally created this community account JUST to clear up what has been said here. 

Your street address will be printed on your invoices from Shopify, not printed on invoices you might send to your customers!  I had this same concern. Not to worry, your address will not be leaked. 

[Royalrose757]

Thank you for clearing that up. 

[Ade22]

Just a suggestion... perhaps you could use your accountant's postal address.

I mean... and I'm not happy about it... it looks like we're all stuck with having to use an address. So why not use your accountant's address and avoid having to pay for a PO box that you'll probably (hopefully) never use. 

In my case we're talking drop shipping - I'm not in the same country as either my customers or suppliers. 

Might need to let the accountant know though. Then again... I don't anticipate EVER getting mail there. 

[Pineappleparade]

What about returns? will they then go to the accountant?

[Vinca]

Have you figured out this? I'm also looking for a return option where my home address is not shown.

[ArialBurnz]

Mentioned above, but I use a virtual mailbox. They can forward any mail that goes to your virtual mailbox location. As Tmllc_biz said above...

"iPostal1 also has physical locations that will hold your mail (and packages at an additional charge), and can forward your mail over to you. This is on top of them scanning received mail for you to see on your account. They will open the mail and scan that too with your  permission. This may be an additional charge too."

---

He mentions iPostal1. I use PhysicalAddress.com and have been very happy with them. Super affordable!

[malanisthings]

Thank you for clarifying that!  Your answer helped me alot! 

[Charger45]

How do you know that that is the case tho. How do you know it does print address to your customers. This is a big concern for me so i really need you to break it down for me thanks. 

[TheStylePlug]

You address is shown on your shipping label as well

[Fway]

my address is appearing everywhere. on invoices, at checkout, at the bottom of e-mails. its driving me demented. I don't mind my postcode being on view- so that people have a return address of sorts- but i don't want my whole address readily available everywhere. All of the google tips i have seen don't work, there is no General section, or check box beside your address. It is totally unnecessary to have it everywhere, when it is your personal address. I have seen many videos that delete the coding of your address, but i am not comfortable with that either. this is something shopify should have a quick fix for.

[MariahGee]

Still waiting on a solid answer for this

[msstitches]

I'm also trying to do the same thing. I just rented a PO box hoping this would cure the issue, but I didn't realize this would prevent me from shipping via UPS. I can't seem to find a work around. I spoke with a Shopify rep through chat yesterday who recommend the ShipRobot app, but I can't tell that is the solution I need either. 

[KP41]

I went into the edit packing slip and took out my full address and just put in the city and state.

There is instructions on how to do this.

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/orders/packing-slips#editing-packing-slips

Hope this helps you out 

[URTHEKING]

Nice one. Exactly what I was looking for.

[CMM8]

This worked like a charm! Cheers

[PluginHive]

Hi,

In Shopify, there is no option to change the "from address" on the shipping label or any other document. As others have suggested, one of the solutions you can try is to use a P.O Box address but, that may create issues with returns. 

May I know which carrier you are using to ship? If you are using FedEx, the Multi Carrier Shipping Label app can help you solve this. With the app, you get a separate option to change the address on the shipping label according to your requirement. As of now, this feature is available only for FedEx. For other carriers, the feature integration is under development. 

[OfficeOzone]

Have you considered to use a 3PL? This will solve the problem

[Osaivier]

I own a clothing brand. What’s a 3pl? Because I am scared customers will know where I live

[Vinca]

Do you have suggestion in the UK? 

[victory81]

If you're using a PO box how can you use Shopify Payments when they ask to verify your home address? 

[caseyandrewsart]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJMzag3eDb8

I used the info in this video and it removed my address from my packing slips! hope this helps!

[ForeverLuna]

question with this how would the shipping companies know where to send it back to if it’s not in the packing slips?