Can customer passwords be migrated to Shopify?

Shopify is direct about this. Because passwords are encrypted outside of Shopify, you can't migrate customer passwords from another online store using a CSV. After you import customers, Shopify says you need to invite them to create new passwords so they can register their accounts.

The customer records themselves do move. If a customer has a customer profile in your Shopify admin, then they already have an account, and they can sign in with the email address on that profile to see their orders and account details.

Shopify also sets an order for the import. First, products. Then customers. Then any historical orders, so products and customers connect properly to those orders. Two limits apply to the customer file: a customer CSV can be 15 MB or smaller, and you can't import order information with it.

What about keeping an outside login system? Multipass lets customers signed in on an external site log in to your Shopify store without entering credentials again, but Shopify says it is no longer available to new stores, and it requires a Shopify Plus plan. On Shopify Plus you can instead connect your own identity provider, which replaces the default sign-in experience for customer accounts.

Shopify B2B requires customer accounts. Shopify says you must activate customer accounts and that you can't use legacy customer accounts for B2B orders and customers. B2B buyers are also set up as companies, which can have multiple locations and customers assigned to them.

Customer accounts change the sign-in question. When you turn on sign-in links, customers sign in with passwordless authentication: they enter their email address and receive a one-time 6-digit verification code. A password isn't required. Sign-in sessions persist for up to 365 days, so a buyer who reorders every month does not sign in each time.

Shopify also offers Sign in with Shop and Google or Facebook sign-in. One caution for checkout: Shopify lists accelerated checkouts, including Shop Pay, as incompatible with B2B.

Our recommendation is practical. Before cutover, tell your buyers that they will sign in with the same email and an emailed code, so the first order after launch does not stall at the login screen. The setup steps for customer accounts are in how to set up B2B on Shopify, and the full move is planned in our Shopify migration work, which typically takes 10 to 16 weeks with a median cutover around 14 weeks (see the Shopify B2B migration timeline). For budgets, see the cost to migrate to Shopify, and for what an import tool covers, see is a Shopify migration app enough for B2B. When you are ready, Talk to Our Experts.