Merchant requirements (shopify payments transaction - 90 days!!)

[Chez1981]

Good afternoon

After setting up my online dropshipping store through Shopify. I found out that the reason my shop was inactive is due to not meeting one merchant requirement. 

The requirement was "Your first shopify payments transaction was at least 90 days ago".

I don't quite understand what this means? Does it mean that when a customer purchases from my store I have to wait 90 days until my store is back online again??? This seems ridiculous. I'm paying Shopify fees every month and what exactly am I paying for if they are blocking my shop for 90 days? 

This is why I'm struggling to understand what it means. 90 days is a very long time to wait in between purchases. I'm pretty sure this doesn't happen to everyone otherwise no-one would use Shopify.

Could someone please enlighten me.

Thanks

Cheryl

[Imogen · Accepted solution]

Thanks so much for your reply, and all of that additional information, @Chez1981. Thanks to those screenshots, I can explain to you what all of that messaging is all about. 

Your store is active. So do not stress about your store not being open and available online to customers. This messaging is specifically in regards to the visibility of your store on the Shop App. Your store is still completely shoppable by people visiting your website. You do not need to wait for 90 days for people to be able to place new orders, or anything like that. I'll explain the meaning of the messaging below. It looks like there has been a misunderstanding between what the messaging means, Cheryl, but I'm happy to clear it up. 

The "Your first shopify payments transaction was at least 90 days ago" message is in regards to the requirements for your store to appear on the Shop App, which is a mobile app customers can use for order tracking or product purchasing. The message you're seeing is saying that it hasn't been 90 days since your first payment was collected via Shopify Payments. Once your first Shopify Payments transaction is older than 90 days, that requirement will be met, and your store will be visible in the Shop App. This requirement is something that every store that wishes to be visible on the Shop App has to meet. 

While those 90 days go by, your store is still completely active via it's website. Customers can shop for it freely, can place orders freely, and there are no restrictions on how many orders can be placed. If there was a 90 day restriction between individual purchases in your store, then it would make no sense at all to even open up! We here at Shopify want to help you make money, so an odd restriction like that, would totally be against our mission. 

Requirements like these are in place to product the integrity of the Shop App selling channel. The '90 days since your first Shopify Payments transaction' helps ensure that the app isn't being flooded by newly created stores that may launch in an uncompleted state, which would impact the trust relationship between that specific store and it's potential customers. 

Long story short, your business is available to be shopped, there are no delays between when customers can place orders,  and your store hasn't, and won't be, blocked for 90 days when customers place orders. As soon as your first transaction that had money processed through Shopify Payments is older than 90 days, you will satisfy the final merchant requirement, and any messaging related to this situation will vanish. As mentioned above, this requirement is only related to the Shop App. Your store still functions entirely as expected, with no restrictions, while time passes to fulfil the requirement. 

I hope this information clears things up for you. Please, reply to this thread if you have any additional questions. 

[Imogen]

Hey there, @Chez1981. 

Thanks for coming to the Shopify Community today with your question. I'm more than happy to talk with you here about this and shred some light on your situation. 

In order to ensure I'm providing you with relevant information, I have a few questions I'd like to ask you: 

• In your first sentence, you mentioned that your shop has been 'inactive'. For how long has your store in such a state? 
• Where are you seeing this messaging regarding not meeting a merchant requirement? Was this information provided to you in an email? Or, are you seeing it within your Shopify Admin? 
• Do you have a screenshot of the message that I can take a look at?

Please get back to me when you can with the requested information. I'd be more than happy to discuss things with you here, but I want to make sure I have a complete grasp of your situation before doing so. 

[Chez1981]

Hello Imogen.

Thank you for your response.

I don't think my store has been showing as inactive for very long. I only noticed a few days ago.

I received an email from a Shopify support team member and she informed me that under merchant requirements all but one requirement was met and she highlighted the sentence that said 'Your first Shopify payments transaction was at least 90 days ago'.

Also in the screen where it shows my shopping is active, it says 'shopping is inactive and your Shop Store is not discoverable because it does not meet Shop Merchant Guidelines'.

Under Shop Store I have the message;

'Your Shop Store is limited because shopping is inactive'

Your products are no longer available and your Shop Store will not be discoverable on the shop app. To activate shopping features make sure you meet Shop Merchant Guidelines.

Please see screenshots below;

[Imogen · Accepted solution]

Thanks so much for your reply, and all of that additional information, @Chez1981. Thanks to those screenshots, I can explain to you what all of that messaging is all about. 

Your store is active. So do not stress about your store not being open and available online to customers. This messaging is specifically in regards to the visibility of your store on the Shop App. Your store is still completely shoppable by people visiting your website. You do not need to wait for 90 days for people to be able to place new orders, or anything like that. I'll explain the meaning of the messaging below. It looks like there has been a misunderstanding between what the messaging means, Cheryl, but I'm happy to clear it up. 

The "Your first shopify payments transaction was at least 90 days ago" message is in regards to the requirements for your store to appear on the Shop App, which is a mobile app customers can use for order tracking or product purchasing. The message you're seeing is saying that it hasn't been 90 days since your first payment was collected via Shopify Payments. Once your first Shopify Payments transaction is older than 90 days, that requirement will be met, and your store will be visible in the Shop App. This requirement is something that every store that wishes to be visible on the Shop App has to meet. 

While those 90 days go by, your store is still completely active via it's website. Customers can shop for it freely, can place orders freely, and there are no restrictions on how many orders can be placed. If there was a 90 day restriction between individual purchases in your store, then it would make no sense at all to even open up! We here at Shopify want to help you make money, so an odd restriction like that, would totally be against our mission. 

Requirements like these are in place to product the integrity of the Shop App selling channel. The '90 days since your first Shopify Payments transaction' helps ensure that the app isn't being flooded by newly created stores that may launch in an uncompleted state, which would impact the trust relationship between that specific store and it's potential customers. 

Long story short, your business is available to be shopped, there are no delays between when customers can place orders,  and your store hasn't, and won't be, blocked for 90 days when customers place orders. As soon as your first transaction that had money processed through Shopify Payments is older than 90 days, you will satisfy the final merchant requirement, and any messaging related to this situation will vanish. As mentioned above, this requirement is only related to the Shop App. Your store still functions entirely as expected, with no restrictions, while time passes to fulfil the requirement. 

I hope this information clears things up for you. Please, reply to this thread if you have any additional questions. 

[Chez1981]

Hello Imogen

Thank you very much for your detailed reply in helping me understand the process.

It all makes sense to me now and I'm happy.

Thanks again,

Cheryl

[Imogen · Accepted solution]

Hey again, @Chez1981!

I'm happy to hear that things are clear now! I'm sorry that you were worried about your store! 

We'll always be here to help out anytime that you have questions. If anything ever does pop up in the future, feel free to follow up here and let me know and I'll see what I can do!

All the best!