Customer accounts in aShopify migration:what happens topasswords and data

In short

Customer data, addresses and order history all move with you when you migrate to Shopify. Passwords don’t, but that no longer matters: since 2026, Shopify customers sign in without a password, using their email address and a one-time code. Existing customers enter their email and instantly see their past orders. The part that needs the most care isn’t the login. It’s the newsletter consents.

Login without a password

In February 2026, Shopify retired the old password-based customer accounts (Shopify Changelog). New stores only get the new customer accounts, and existing stores are expected to switch.

Here’s how login works now:

1. The customer enters their email address.
2. Shopify sends them a six-digit code.
3. They type in the code and they’re signed in.

For your migration, that means the old question “How do we get the passwords over?” is gone. Every imported customer can sign in on day one, with no invitation and no password reset.

What comes along

Migrating newsletter consents the right way

This is where the most expensive migration mistakes happen. Import all your customers as newsletter subscribers across the board and you’re sending marketing without consent. In Germany, that’s a risk of a formal legal warning (Abmahnung).

The rule is simple:

• Only people who opted in on the old store get imported as subscribers. Ideally with the date of their consent.
• Everyone else comes over as a customer without marketing consent. They get order emails, but no marketing.
• Unsubscribes stay unsubscribed. Anyone who opted out on the old store must not reappear on the new one.

If you use an email tool like Klaviyo, the consents often live there. In that case, the tool gets connected to Shopify and the list stays where it is. When in doubt, have a lawyer check the process.

5 steps so customers barely notice the move

1. Clean up the data. Merge duplicate accounts, delete test customers. Shopify won’t accept two accounts with the same email.
2. Test import. Start with a few hundred customers, then check: are the addresses, tags and consents right?
3. Final import shortly before go-live. So the customers from the last few days are included too.
4. Short announcement by email. “Our store is new. Signing in now works without a password, just your email.” Send it to everyone with consent, and show it as a note on the login page for everyone else.
5. Test the login yourself. Sign in with a real existing account and check that the old orders are there.

FAQ

Do customers have to reactivate their account? No. With the new customer accounts, the email address is enough. Invitation emails and password resets are a thing of the past.

What if a customer no longer has access to their old email? Then you can change the address in the Shopify admin. The code then goes to the new address.

Do customers see their old orders? Yes, if the order history was migrated too. There are migration apps for that, or an import via the API.

Can I keep offering passwords? Not with the new customer accounts. No new store gets the old password-based accounts anymore, and Shopify has announced their end.

Do you handle the customer migration? Yes, in every migration: cleanup, import, consents and testing.