How to Set Up Customer Accounts in Shopify (New vs Legacy)

Who it is for

Store owners on new or legacy accounts

Time needed

15 to 30 minutes to set up

What you need

Admin access and your sender email

A shopper who has to reset a password just to see where their parcel is will often give up and email you instead. That is the problem Shopify's customer accounts solve. The shopper types their email, gets a code, and lands on a page with their orders, addresses and returns. No password, no theme template to maintain.

I set these up on almost every store I build or rebuild now, and I move older stores off legacy accounts when they come to me for other work. This guide covers the setup step by step, the upgrade from legacy accounts, the decisions you need to make, and the mistakes I see most. I checked every setting name against Shopify's Help Center on 7 November 2026.

Customer accounts vs legacy accounts

Shopify runs two systems side by side. The new system is simply called "customer accounts" in the admin. The old one is "legacy customer accounts". Shopify's upgrade guide states plainly that legacy customer accounts are deprecated, so any store still on them is working on borrowed time, even though no switch-off date has been announced.

The last two rows matter more than they look. Because the new account pages are managed separately from your theme, a theme update or a theme switch no longer breaks your login page. On legacy accounts, the account pages are part of the theme, so every redesign means checking them again.

Signed-in sessions also last up to 365 days, so a returning customer stays signed in for a long time on the same device. Saved details fill in at checkout automatically.

What to check before you switch

On a new store, there is nothing to check: turn customer accounts on and move to the next section. On an existing store with legacy accounts, spend 20 minutes on these first, because they are where upgrades go wrong:

• Theme customizations. Look at your legacy customer templates in the theme code. Shopify redirects old account URLs automatically, including links hard-coded in the theme, but a custom registration page or extra sign-up fields need a plan.
• Apps that add things to the account page. Loyalty, wishlist and subscription apps often inject content into legacy account templates. Check whether each app offers a block for the new accounts, or find a replacement.
• Shopify Flow and customer segments. Shopify warns that some triggers and customer_account_status values change. Any workflow or segment built on account status should be reviewed.
• Your sender email. Sign-in codes are sent from your store's sender address, so it should be a real, authenticated address on your own domain. My guide on connecting your domain and business email covers this.
• Multipass on Shopify Plus. An existing Multipass integration keeps working with no action needed, according to Shopify.

How to turn on customer accounts

For a store that has never used accounts, setup takes a few minutes:

1. Open the settings. In your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Customer accounts.
2. Show the sign-in link. In the Sign-in links section, turn on Show sign-in links, then click Save. Your theme decides how the link looks: usually a person icon in the header, the customer's initial, or a "Sign in" label.
3. Choose your extras. On the same page, decide whether to turn on Self-serve returns and cancellations, Store credit, Social sign-in and Sign in with Shop. Each is covered below.
4. Set the checkout rule. Go to Settings > Checkout. Under the customer contact options, leave Require customers to sign in to their account before checkout off unless you have a clear reason (see the decision flow further down).
5. Test it as a customer. Open your store in a private browser window, click the sign-in link, enter an email you control and check that the code arrives from your own address, not a generic one.

Customers don't need to "register". If someone signs in with an email that already has a customer profile, they get that account and its order history. If the email is new, Shopify creates a customer profile automatically.

How to upgrade from legacy accounts

Shopify's own upgrade path has five steps, and it builds in a safe test before you switch:

1. Duplicate your checkout configuration. Go to Settings > Checkout, click Duplicate on your current configuration and give the copy a clear name.
2. Customize the copy. Click Customize next to the copy, add your brand settings and any app blocks, and click Save.
3. Publish it. Click Publish next to the copy.
4. Test sign-in first. Go to Settings > Customer accounts, copy the account URL and open it in a new tab. Sign in with every method you plan to offer.
5. Upgrade. Back in Settings > Customer accounts, click Upgrade in the banner.

Shopify doesn't say what happens to old customer passwords, and you don't need them: customers sign in with a code from then on. I add a short line to the next newsletter, something like "You can now sign in with just your email", so regulars aren't surprised by the new screen.

The features worth turning on

Every option below is a toggle in Settings > Customer accounts. Here is how I decide on each one:

• Self-serve returns and cancellations. Customers request a return or cancellation from their order page, and you approve it in the admin. Turn it on if your return policy is simple. If returns need photos or manual checks, test the flow before relying on it.
• Store credit. Customers can see their store credit balance and spend it at checkout. Useful if you refund to credit or reward customers with credit.
• Social sign-in. Adds Google and Facebook buttons. Fewer typed emails means fewer typos, so I usually turn on Google at least.
• Sign in with Shop. Lets customers sign in with their Shop account and saved passkeys. It needs Shop Pay to be active on your store.
• URL. Serve account pages from a subdomain such as account.yourstore.com, so shoppers stay on your own domain the whole way. Worth the five minutes of DNS work.
• Identity provider. Shopify Plus stores can connect their own sign-in provider, which replaces Shopify's sign-in page. Only relevant if customers already have logins in another system.

Branding the account pages

Account pages share their styling with checkout. You edit both in the checkout and accounts editor, which opens when you click Customize on a configuration in Settings > Checkout. Set your logo, colors and fonts once and they apply to both. You can draft changes before publishing and customize by market.

Two other options are worth knowing about. Apps can add content to the account pages, such as a loyalty balance or subscription controls. And themes that support Shopify's account component show sign-in in a small window on the storefront instead of sending shoppers to a separate page, which feels quicker on a phone.

Should customers have to sign in to buy?

This is the one decision that can cost you sales if you get it wrong. A forced account adds a step between "I want this" and "paid", and every extra step loses some shoppers. Use this flow:

If you sell wholesale through Shopify B2B, note that Shopify's test order guide says B2B test orders need customer accounts to be active. B2B is available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans, and the features you get depend on your plan.

The Customer Account API, for headless stores

If your storefront is built with Hydrogen or another headless setup, the theme isn't involved, so you connect accounts through the Customer Account API. It is a GraphQL API that acts for a signed-in buyer, covering order history, profile and addresses.

• Sign-in uses the OAuth 2.0 authorization code flow. Public clients, such as a browser or mobile app, use PKCE instead of a client secret.
• Setup needs a client ID and registered redirect URIs from the Customer Account API settings, plus your JavaScript origins for web clients.
• Endpoints should be discovered from /.well-known/openid-configuration on your storefront domain rather than hard-coded.
• Checkout handover works by setting the customer's access token on the cart, so the buyer stays signed in at checkout.

This is developer work. If you're on a normal Shopify theme, you never touch the API: the settings above are all you need. When a store needs a custom account feature that no app covers, that is the kind of job I take on through custom app development, which starts from $800.

Common mistakes

1. Codes arriving from a generic address. If your sender email isn't authenticated, codes can look like spam. Authenticate your domain before you upgrade.
2. Hiding the sign-in link to "simplify" the header. Turning off Show sign-in links stops customers signing in at all, and removes the account menu from your store.
3. Upgrading without checking apps. A loyalty or subscription app that relied on legacy templates can vanish from the account page overnight.
4. Forgetting Flow and segments. Workflows keyed to account status can quietly stop firing after the switch.
5. Forcing sign-in on a retail store. It feels tidy, but it adds a step at the worst possible moment.
6. Telling customers to change their email to merge accounts. Customers can't merge profiles that way. You merge duplicate profiles in the admin from the customer profile.

Setup checklist

• Sender email set to an address on your domain, with the domain authenticated.
• Settings > Customer accounts: Show sign-in links turned on.
• Self-serve returns, store credit and social sign-in decided and set.
• Account subdomain such as account.yourstore.com connected.
• Checkout and account branding set in the checkout and accounts editor.
• Guest checkout kept on, unless you're B2B or members-only.
• Apps, Flow workflows and segments checked (existing stores).
• Sign-in tested in a private window with every method you offer.

Next steps

If you're launching, set up accounts alongside the rest of your settings, and work through my guide to the Shopify settings every store owner should check. If you're upgrading an established store, do the checks above, upgrade on a quiet day, and watch your support inbox for a week. Password questions should drop away.

Account pages are also part of how customers judge a store after the first order. When I run a CRO review, I check the post-purchase experience as well as the product page, because repeat orders come from there. If you'd like a second pair of eyes on your setup, I'll look at it for free.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Customer accounts, Shopify Help Center
2. Setting up and managing customer accounts, Shopify Help Center
3. Upgrading to customer accounts from legacy customer accounts, Shopify Help Center
4. Checkout form options, Shopify Help Center
5. Customer Account API, Shopify.dev
6. B2B requirements, Shopify Help Center

Related services and work

Written by Ashraf Siddik

I'm a Shopify developer and CRO specialist. I have built and improved Shopify stores since 2018, completed more than 1,000 projects, and hold a 4.96 average rating across 719 client reviews.

About me · Client reviews