Urgent Help Needed: Store Blocked Without Warning, No Support from Shopify
Dear Shopify Community and Support Team,
We are reaching out for urgent assistance and advice regarding an issue with our new Shopify store. Here’s the situation:
We’ve been in the luxury branded watch business for over five years, primarily handling wholesale and generating millions of dollars in revenue. About 2–3 years ago, we expanded into retail with two Shopify-hosted stores. Our main store did $700,000 in sales last year, and our secondary store generated $50,000 since its recent setup.
On January 1, 2025, we launched our third store as part of our global expansion strategy. Months of effort went into uploading 10,000 SKUs, creating over 1,000 collections, optimizing the theme for SEO, coordinating with external marketing teams, and setting up social media accounts. We also invested over $5,000 to get everything running smoothly.
From day one, the store showed promising activity—add-to-carts, abandoned checkouts, and growing organic traffic thanks to SEO. But without any prior warning or communication, Shopify sent us an email (attached below) stating our account was in violation of their Acceptable Use Policy and that our store had been shut down.
Key points of concern:
- No Prior Notice: We received no warnings, inquiries, or alerts before this sudden action.
- Communication Issues: We have responded to Shopify’s email, filled out the linked appeal form, and provided all necessary documentation, including letters of authorization for the brands we carry and our articles of incorporation. Despite this, we’ve received no response.
- Customer Support Problems: We’ve also contacted Shopify Help through the Help Center, but the agents have been unable to assist, and it feels like we’re being ignored.
- Impact on Business: This abrupt action is devastating. We had just received our first two orders, and this decision jeopardizes months of effort, planning, and investment.
What’s baffling is that our other two stores, hosted on Shopify for three years, sell the same inventory sourced from the same suppliers. We’ve spent over $20,000 in Shopify fees annually across our stores and are expecting to do over $1M in business this year.
Shopify has always been a trusted partner for our business, but this experience has been disheartening. We’re losing valuable time and money and are left feeling unsupported.
We kindly request the following:
- Immediate escalation of this case to someone in Shopify’s Merchant Trust or Legal Teams.
- A review of the decision to block our store, as we have complied with all policies and have valid authorizations for the brands we sell.
- A way to directly communicate with a team member who can provide clear answers and resolve this issue.
We sincerely hope this matter can be resolved without needing legal intervention. Shopify has been a key part of our business, and we want to continue this partnership. However, this lack of support and transparency is unacceptable.
We’d greatly appreciate advice from fellow store owners who may have faced similar issues, as well as immediate attention from Shopify Support.
Thank you in advance for any help or guidance!
Sincerely,
