Domain transfer from one shopify store to another of the same owner

Shopify Discussion
1

I started a new Shopify store under Basic Plan and bought a domain from Shopify.

Since the Store did not get any sales I wanted to downgrade to the Starter Plan. This was not permitted as per the Help Section. Hence I paused my first store and started a new Shopify store under the Starter Plan with Shopify subdomain, registering with a new email.

I would now like to change the Starter Plan store name to that of the first one by transferring the domain name from the Basic Plan store. ( Since I have paid for one year and wish to renew the domain name next year.)

Is it possible to change the domain name of the already-running Starter Plan website?

Or should I start a new one again?

As soon as the transfer is effected should I close the Basic plan website which is on Pause mode as of now?

I understand that I can’t have two websites with the same domain name.

Please help me as soon as possible.

2

Hey, @vibrantart .

Thank you for reaching out and posting this question!

The Shopify Starter Plan is only available to new merchants and it can be upgraded to one of our standard monthly plans. However, while the Starter plan isn’t available for downgrading from another plan, you can connect the custom domain that you’ve purchased and follow our guide to transfer your Shopify-managed domain to a different Shopify store.

That being said, since you’re a new member of Shopify and the Shopify Communtiy, then I’d love to hear more about your business and share some resources to help you get started. What types of products are you selling? Do you have a marketing plan prepared for your store?

1 Like
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Thank you for your prompt help. I will follow the steps in the help article suggested by you.

Please let me know on the following:

  1. As soon as the transfer is effected should I close the Basic plan website which is on Pause mode as of now?

  2. When I close the Basic plan store, will I be refunded the fees paid proportionately.

I am a self taught artist and have been selling original art online on marketplaces successfully. But I find it very difficult to drive traffic to my shopify website and tried Google Ads too. I am not satisfied with the meagre traffic I got. I can’t afford to go on spending on Google/social media ads etc. so I switched to the starter plan. I keep posting on Instagram and Twitter but it looks like organic traffic is simply not possible on social media which want to extract by way of ads. I will however continue to try with the Starter plan website.

Any inputs from you and community members on making my store a success at a reasonable cost are very welcome! I wonder sometimes if artist websites are successful at all.

4

Hey, @vibrantart .

Thanks for following up with the additional context.

I’d recommend waiting a couple of days to make sure the transfer is complete before deactivating the old store. When you close the store, the subscription fees will be proactively refunded as billing credits based on the remainder of the 30-day billing cycle. However, since the original store will be closed, then you can have the billing credits transferred to your new store. While I’m unable to assist you with transferring the credits as we’re unable to provide account-specific support via the Shopify Community, we’d be happy to further assist you through live chats. Simply visit the Shopify Help Center and login to your account to create a support request.

That being said, if you’d like to learn more about marketing your store, then I’d recommend taking a look at our guide on marketing and promotions. Improving the search engine optimizations and Shopify Collabs can be more cost-efficient strategies for increasing traffic. We also have an amazing blog on selling art online that could be beneficial to you as well.

If you have any other questions, then don’t hesitate to let me know!