How can I import a customer blacklist into my ecommerce store?

Topic summary

Goal: Import a blacklist (~100 emails) into Shopify to alert/block transactions.

Shopify Support: Flow cannot bulk upload emails; a feature request will be shared with developers. Fraud Filter also can’t bulk import, but it can flag orders, email notifications, auto-cancel orders, and block checkout by specific IPs (setup guides linked).

Third‑party options: Traffic Guard and Shop Secure can block IP addresses or entire countries and help deter unwanted visitors; Shop Secure can also disable right‑click/shortcut menus. For app-specific help, contact developers via the app pages.

Workaround (code-based): Import customers tagged “blocked” and prevent their login (Classic Accounts), then require login before checkout to stop purchases. Limitation: customers could circumvent blocks by using different email addresses; stronger controls may require additional registration fields or manual verification via an app.

Status: No native bulk import/alert solution available. Practical paths are Fraud Filter configurations, IP-blocking apps, and the login-block workaround; discussion remains open without a definitive resolution.

Summarized with AI on January 13. AI used: gpt-5.

I have a list of 100 email addresses of customers that were blacklisted from another system. I wanted to import that list into my shopify store and alert me if one of these email addresses tried to complete a transaction. I saw a Flow way to alert me if an email address made a transaction but I’d have to type in the email manually. Is there a way I can do this with a mass list?

Regards,

Jesse

Hello, @jessehayer .

Elias here with Shopify Support. That is a great question!

I understand you’re looking for a way to bulk import a list of emails so Flow can notify you when an email from this list tries to complete a transaction on your store. I’m afraid there isn’t a way to bulk upload a list for Flow. Nonetheless, I’d be happy to share this feedback as a feature request with our developers.

Instead of using Flow for notifications of these transactions, I would recommend using Fraud Filter. Although Fraud Filter, like Flow, isn’t able to import a bulk list; however, Fraud Filter is able to flag these orders and notify you via email. Fraud Filter also has a function to automatically cancel the order, which may help reduce your workload. Fraud Filter can also prevent specific IPs from checking out on your website. If you’re interested, we have a guide to help you with setting up Fraud Filter as well.

That said, if you’d like to block certain individuals from visiting your store, there are third-party apps that can block their IP from accessing your website completely. I’ve handpicked a couple for you to look into:

  • Traffic Guard - allows you to block specific IP addresses or entire countries, and can redirect the traffic.
  • Shop Secure - this one can also block IP addresses or countries, and can disable the right click/shortcut menus.

If you need any assistance with these apps, you can always reach out to the developers directly through the contact information found in the Support section of the app’s page.

I hope this provides a couple of solutions for you to explore. If you have any further questions regarding this topic, feel free to reply to this thread and I’d be happy to help.

We wrote a code solution that may be of help in some cases, it prevents registered customers (with email address) to log in. To read more here

You could import those customers with the ‘blocked’ tag and then they couldn’t login (Classic Accounts). Then ‘Require login before checkout’ to prevent them completing purchases

Keep in mind that customers identify their accounts in Shopify using their email addresses, so they could potentially bypass the block by logging in with a different email address. For a more robust implementation, consider requiring specific information during registration or even manually verifying every new account with the help of an app, like the one in my signature.