Shopify’s Merchant Trust Team has been blocking merchant accounts, requiring extensive documentation for reinstatement including proof of address, business registration, inventory records, and social media presence.
Common Issues:
Accounts terminated without clear initial explanation
Response times ranging from 2 weeks to over 2 months
Regular Shopify support cannot access Trust Team cases or expedite reviews
Even after reinstatement, merchants receive no explanation for the original closure
Documentation Required:
Utility bills or lease agreements (proof of address)
Business licenses or registration documents
Supplier invoices or manufacturing agreements
Social media links or traffic generation explanation
Impact on Merchants:
One merchant reports 60+ unfulfilled orders and 20 misdirected shipments
Capital locked in suspended accounts
Significant stress and time loss, even for stores not yet live
Merchants questioning platform reliability for future operations
Several users successfully regained access after 4-8 weeks, though the lack of transparency and communication remains a major concern for those considering whether to continue with Shopify.
Summarized with AI on October 31.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
A week ago I received an email from the shopify merchant trust team about the termination of my account.
At first I thought it would be an easy appeal and then I could enter to my account back again since the problem was not sending some documents in less than a week. However after receiving this email:
"Thank you for reaching out to us. Please be informed that In order to reconsider your account for eligibility to use Shopify we require some additional information with regards to your business model. You can send the following documents as attachments in response to this email:
Proof of address - Utility bill (e.g. water, electricity, or gas bill from the past 3 months), lease agreement (dated) or property insurance (dated)
Proof of business association (i.e. business license, business registration documents (with company number) or business tax filing record).
Proof of inventory (i.e. dated supplier invoices, dated manufacturing agreements)
Social media links related to your business (if none, please explain how are you driving traffic to your store)
Please make an effort to provide all of the above. However if one is unavailable, please either provide a relevant substitute and/or an explanation as to why it cannot be provided.
Please provide the above at your earliest convenience so that we can assist you further, in addition to any relevant context on your business model."
It’s been a week and after replying in less than 30 minutes I have had no answer from them.
Reached Shopify support team for over 7 times now, the answer is always the same: they can’t reach that team and I should wait for their answer.
I’m afraid of not getting a reply, can someone help me with this?
I am having the exact same issue. It’s only been 2 days but I am worried it will go on 2 weeks with no reply. I don’t understand what I have done wrong for Shopify to flag my website? What did Shopify say was the issue with your website?
It took a bit over two months. There is also no way, at least I found none, to contact the “Shopify Merchant Trust Team”. If you ask the general support, they tell you that they have no access to that data - I guess you know already.
For us, at least, it was no loss in money or customer reputation, as the shop was not live yet. It was “only” a loss in time and effort, and now I’, asking myself if should go an with shopify. What if I will be shutdown out of nowhere a second time, and than having a shop thats live and making money.
I see, for us it’s disaster. we have all our capital in there and over 60 unfulfilled orders and 20 orders shipped in wrong directions. and we can’t even do anything.