I am posting here because I genuinely need help understanding an issue I have been facing repeatedly across Shopify for a long time.
Over time, multiple Shopify stores connected to my business activity have been restricted, suspended, or closed repeatedly. Sometimes this happened after only a short period of activity, and in some cases even before the stores had meaningful sales or customer volume.
At this point, I am starting to feel like the issue may go beyond a single store. I am trying to understand whether there is some kind of underlying trust, verification, account integrity, or risk-related issue affecting my ability to create and operate stores normally on Shopify.
I want to clearly state that my goal is not to violate or circumvent Shopify policies in any way. My objective is the opposite: I genuinely want to understand what is causing these repeated issues so I can operate correctly and build stable stores long-term on Shopify.
My business operates in e-commerce through Shopify stores selling physical products online, using platforms such as Meta Ads and TikTok Ads for customer acquisition.
Right now, I mainly need help understanding:
if there is an account-level or trust-related issue affecting me,
why these restrictions keep happening repeatedly,
and what I need to concretely change or verify in order to be able to create and operate stores normally again in the future.
I fully understand Shopify’s responsibility regarding platform safety, fraud prevention, and merchant risk management. I simply feel lost at this stage because the restrictions keep happening without me fully understanding the exact root cause.
I would sincerely appreciate if someone from the Shopify team or someone experienced with these situations could guide me, clarify what may be happening, or escalate this to the appropriate Risk / Account Integrity team for a proper manual review.
Thank you for your time and any help or clarification.
Honest answer, what you’re describing is almost certainly an account-level link, not individual store issues. Shopify’s risk system fingerprints accounts across device, IP, payment method, business details and even tax IDs. Once one store gets flagged for a serious violation, every new store you create on the same identifiers carries that history forward silently. New stores then get terminated faster (sometimes before any real activity) because they’re being flagged based on the prior link, not anything the new store actually did.
Quick heads up too, this is a public community forum, mostly merchants and partners. Shopify Trust doesn’t action cases from here, posting alone won’t move it. What’s worked for some merchants in your situation: email merchanttrust@shopify.com directly with full transparency, list every store you’ve operated, your business entity, and ask explicitly what behavior triggered the original action and what specific steps (if any) would restore your account standing. Going in with full honesty actually works better than asking for review on individual stores, because the team sees you’re not trying to circumvent. If they respond with “no path to reinstatement”, that’s hard but at least you know.
Based on what you described, it sounds like your information has been caught in Shopify automated risk system.
When a store gets restricted, Shopify links your IP address, email, physical address, and payment details together into a risk profile. If you try to open a new store using any of those same details, the system will automatically flag and close it before you even make a sale. This is exactly why it feels like an account level ban.
Here are a few common hidden triggers that might be causing this loop:
Inconsistent business details. Make sure the name on your Shopify account perfectly matches your banking details, billing address, and government ID.
Logging in with a VPN. The risk algorithms frequently flag and suspend accounts that use VPNs or proxies because it masks your true location.
High risk product categories. Even if you are selling normal physical goods, certain niches or trademarked keywords can trigger automated copyright or high risk payment flags.
Because this is a platform security measure, regular chat support cannot bypass it. You need to go to the Shopify Help Center, open a ticket, and explicitly request that your case be escalated to the Risk Operations team for a manual review. Share exactly what you wrote here, explaining that you want to comply and need to know which specific detail is triggering the automated network blocks.
Do not create any new Shopify stores while this issue is active. Multiple new stores can increase risk flags instead of resolving the problem.
Make sure all business details are consistent
Ensure the following are exactly the same across everything you use:
Legal business name
Address
Email and phone number
Banking/payment details
Identity verification documents
Any mismatch can trigger automated risk reviews.
Remove risk triggers from your setup
Check and fix the following:
Do not use VPNs or proxy connections
Use one stable device and network where possible
Avoid repeatedly changing login environments
Ensure ads and product claims are compliant with Shopify policies
4. Contact Shopify Support and request escalation
You must contact Shopify and clearly ask for:
Manual investigation of all affected stores linked to your business
5. Provide full transparency
When speaking to Shopify, clearly share:
All stores you have operated
Timeline of restrictions or closures
Your business model
Confirmation that you want to comply fully with Shopify policies
6. Ask for the root cause, not only reinstatement
Specifically request:
Exact reason for repeated restrictions
Which policy or risk signal is triggering it
What changes are required to operate safely in future
7. Wait for manual review from Risk Team
Only Shopify’s Merchant Trust / Risk Operations team can:
Confirm if an account-level flag exists
Remove restrictions
Provide final compliance guidance
Repeated shop bans often relate to signals around account integrity, payment risk, or setup consistency and not to the performance of the individual shop. Common flags include mismatching business information between profiles, sharing identity or payment info, having unresolved chargebacks, or selling in high risk categories coupled with heavy paid traffic from new stores.
A sensible way forward is to have one verified business identity, ensure your legal and banking information is identical, start over from one clean account with complete policies, domain and supplier docs, then begin running ads. Do not create multiple shops while one is in review, as this can multiply your risk signals on the network.