Some questons before creating shopify account

Start a Business

Topic summary

Main topic: Requirements and workflow for using Shopify’s Buy Button to sell digital products from an existing website.

Key answers/clarifications:

  • Phone number: Not universally required; may depend on region and verification needs. Check Shopify Help Center for your locale.
  • Address: Required for all accounts (valid billing address needed).
  • Payments: You can link a PayPal account to receive payments, but there may be limitations (e.g., feature access, potential fund holds tied to volume). Alternatives like Stripe or Authorize.net may offer more flexibility.
  • Deactivation risk: Shopify can deactivate accounts for reasons such as Terms of Service violations, suspicious activity, or chargebacks; they typically communicate and warn before deactivation.
  • Buy Button scope: It only starts checkout on Shopify’s platform; it does not handle file delivery or order management on your site. For digital fulfillment, use a compatible app (e.g., Shopify Digital Downloads).

Resources/next steps: Review Shopify Help Center, Buy Button docs, and Digital Downloads app.

Status: Informational response provided; phone number requirement remains region-specific, so further verification is needed.

Summarized with AI on January 10. AI used: gpt-5.
1

I have a website where I sell some digital products (Apps/Themes/Plugins).
I want to use Shopify’s Buy Button on my website, there are some questions that I can’t find clear answers for, so I had to create this topic. my questions are :

  • Is a phone number required for account verification?
  • Is the address required to verify the account?
  • Is it possible to link the PayPal account to Shopify to transfer income, or does it have to be a bank card number?
  • Is it possible for the account to be deactivated again (without mentioning the reason) after the account is approved? Because I worked with a PayPal business account for several years, and after this time, when I added a new product ($99) and this product had about 5 sales in one day, my account was closed forever without any reason.
  • After the purchase of customers using the purchase link, will it be transferred to the receiving site and will it respond so that we can give the possibility of downloading on our site and manage the order process on our site?

thank you

2

Hi @Reyhaneh

As far as I know:

  • Phone number: Not required for all accounts. For some it might be optional, while others might need it. You can check the Shopify Help Center for specific requirements in your region: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/organization-settings/security/verify-domain
  • Address: Required for all accounts. You need a valid billing address regardless of verification methods.
  • PayPal: You can link a PayPal account to Shopify for receiving payments. However, some limitations exist like limited access to advanced features and potential holds on funds depending on your sales volume. Consider exploring other options like Stripe or Authorize.net for more flexibility.
  • Shopify reserves the right to deactivate accounts for specific reasons like violating their Terms of Service, suspicious activity, or chargebacks. However, they usually provide clear communication and warnings before deactivation.
  • Buy Button functionality: The buy button itself doesn’t handle downloads or order management. It simply initiates the checkout process on Shopify’s platform.

Here are some additional resources that might be helpful:

Hope it helps and Merry Christmas! :christmas_tree:

1 Like