Can I connect a .CO.UK domain bought from GoDaddy to Shopify?

[Thedrinkable]

I have just bought a domain through GoDaddy and I tried to connect it to Shopify however, it says that Shopify does not support .CO.UK domains. Is there anything I can do to connect this domain?

[Rick · Accepted solution]

Hi @Thedrinkable 

I understand you just purchased a .co.uk domain via GoDaddy, are trying to use it on your Shopify store but cannot as you are seeing an error similar to my below screenshot:

You are seeing this error because .co.uk domains cannot be transferred into Shopify. What this means is you cannot transfer the domain from GoDaddy to Shopify, and manage the domain in your Shopify admin.

However, what you should be able to do is connect the .co.uk domain to your Shopify store. This means that GoDaddy would still be your domain host, and you would continue to manage the DNS records and pay for your domain there, however it would be pointed to your Shopify store.

The steps to connect the domain to Shopify are as follows:

1. Navigate to Settings > Domains.
2. Click Connect Existing Domain.
3. Enter the name of the domain here and then click Next.
4. The system should detect the domain as a GoDaddy domain, and prompt you to login to your GoDaddy account after clicking Connect Automatically.
5. Please note: After connecting your domain, it can take several days for the DNS records to update, so it might not work immediately. 

For more detailed information I would encourage you to check out our help docs on connecting a third party domain to Shopify, and also information about transferring domains to help clarify the differences.

If you are still having issues with this, then can you confirm if the error you are seeing happens when you try to transfer the domain, and not when trying to connect as per my instructions above? Any screenshots of the errors would be helpful for troubleshooting this with you also.

[Thedrinkable]

Thank you so much it woked

[Rick]

You are very welcome @Thedrinkable 

I am glad to hear that worked out OK for you, and that you got the domain connected! Well done.

Judging by the .co.uk domain, I am guessing that you are based in the UK? Are you brand new to Shopify? We have some awesome Shopify features available to UK merchants, I will link some resources below for you to use!

• Shopify Payments UK - with our payment gateway you can accept all major card payments, avail of competitive rates, and also get free fraud analysis and 3D secure checkouts.
• Shopify Shipping - gives you the ability to show dynamically calculated shipping rates to your customers in checkout. You can also buy & print shipping labels right from within your Shopify admin and get access to discounted Shopify carrier rates.
• Shopify Markets - provides you with tools for your business to help make selling internationally easier. It introduces new functionality to help you manage and expand your global sales.

As well as this, our Shopify Help Center and Shopify Learn sites are excellent resources for learning more about Shopify and troubleshooting various topics.

[Robotkingster]

Hello My Name is Jacob I’ve recently bought a new domain and when trying to link it to my Shopify it says that it’s already being used, please email me at robotkingster@gmail.com and I have proof that I bought the domain from google. Thank you.

[Rick]

Hi @Robotkingster 

Thanks for reaching out here to let us know, Jacob.

I understand that you purchased a third party domain and when trying to add it to your Shopify store, you saw a message saying it's being used already. 

This can happen from time to time, as there may have been other merchants who purchased that same domain and used it on a Shopify store before you purchased it. When a domain has been used on another store the message will usually say 'A store with that domain name already exists' - I assume this is the message you are seeing?

If so, then as per our instructions on our Help Center guide here, you will need to reach out to our support team using this link here and one of our advisors will take a closer look. Here on the Shopify Community we are unable to access your account, so authenticating with our support team is necessary. I cannot email you directly but you can indeed choose email as a contact option, and reach out to us that way.

Besides this domain issue, how is the rest of your store going? Are you brand new to Shopify and setting up a new store? I'd love to know if you are planning anything for Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) this year? If you are keen to learn more, we have a great blog post here full of tips & tricks.