Can I start a merchandise shop under 18 with parental consent?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

A 17-year-old wants to start a merchandise shop on Shopify with parental consent but is unsure how to proceed given age restrictions.

Key Requirements:

  • Shopify’s Terms of Service prohibit account ownership for anyone under 18, regardless of parental permission
  • Minors cannot legally enter binding contracts required for payment gateways and merchant accounts

Recommended Solution:

  • Have a parent or legal guardian create and own the store account
  • The minor can be added as a staff member to help run the business
  • The parent’s information and bank account must be used for all official purposes
  • Once the user turns 18, ownership can be transferred and account details updated

Important Distinction:
One commenter confused buying online (which minors can do) with selling online (which requires being 18+ to own the account).

The discussion remains open regarding what specific products the user plans to sell.

Summarized with AI on October 30. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
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I’m currently 17 and I want to start a shop for merchandise but I have to be 18 to do it, but I also have parent permission to make a shop but I’m not quite sure how to go along with it. Any suggestions?

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Hi @BigTDM10 ,

It’s fantastic to hear you’re considering Shopify for your business.

Our Terms of Service don’t permit the use of our platform when an account owner is under 18, regardless of one’s circumstances, so you can only run a Shopify store either when you turn 18 or set the store ownership to an adult. If you haven’t signed up for a store yet, you can have somebody over 18 create a store on your behalf and add you as a staff member.

Creating a store on Shopify and setting up a payment gateway or using the one we provide constitutes a legal and binding agreement to our Terms of Service. Using our payment gateway also sets up a merchant account for your business with the banks that power our payment gateway. In many countries a minor is not able to legally agree to contracts or services like these.

To summarize, until you reach age of majority (18 years old) the business account owner information needs to be that of your legal guardian. This will make them our official point of contact if something happens to your account and the registered business owner in our system. Once age of majority is reached, you can transfer ownership to yourself and update the information on file about the business with our account team.

Have you thought about what kind of products you would like to sell?

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i dont know about that but my sister is 16 and she always buys online

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Hi Vahukomm,

Buying online is different from selling.

For Selling only:

According to Shopify’s Terms of Service, you have to be over 18 in order to own the account. Right now, you’ll have to get consent from your parents or guardians but there’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to continue using the account in their name; however, you’ll also have to have their bank account attached. When you hit 18, you can check out transferring account ownership here, then after that you can swap the bank details