Shopify Suspension FAQ

Shopify suspends stores for violating their Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) or Terms of Service. The most common triggers are a chargeback rate above 1% of total orders, a refund rate exceeding 10%, prohibited keywords in product listings (trademarked brand names, restricted health claims, counterfeit language), fulfillment latency above 5 days, identity or banking information mismatches between your Shopify account and payment processor, and sudden order volume spikes that trigger automated fraud detection. Reinstate monitors all 8 of these signals in real time.

No. Opening a new Shopify store while your original is suspended will result in that new store being flagged and suspended immediately. Shopify cross-references new account registrations against suspended accounts using your name, email address, payment method, and device fingerprint. Creating a new store is treated as an attempt to circumvent their policies, which makes reinstatement of your original account significantly harder. Focus on appealing the original suspension first.

An email from Shopify Trust and Safety (risk@shopify.com or noreply@shopify.com) is an official notice of an account action. It may be a warning, a payout hold, or a full account suspension. The email will reference a specific policy section — read it carefully and copy the exact language, because you will need to address that specific violation in your Plan of Action appeal. Do not ignore these emails and check your spam folder if you expected one.

A Shopify suspension is indefinite until you submit an accepted Plan of Action appeal. There is no automatic reinstatement. Once you submit your appeal, Shopify's Trust and Safety team typically responds within 3 to 7 business days. For billing or identity verification issues, reinstatement can happen within 24 to 72 hours once you provide the required information. For Acceptable Use Policy violations, expect 7 to 14 days. If your appeal is rejected, you can submit a revised appeal, but each rejection makes the next attempt more difficult.

Yes. Shopify can permanently terminate merchant accounts for severe or repeated violations. Permanent bans are most common for: selling prohibited products, running counterfeit operations, repeated policy violations after reinstatement, and attempting to circumvent a suspension by opening new accounts. For first-time violations with a genuine corrective plan, permanent termination is uncommon — most suspensions are reversible with a well-written Plan of Action.

Shopify's internal chargeback threshold is approximately 1% of total orders over a rolling 30 to 60 day window. At 0.5% you are in a yellow warning zone. At 0.8% you are likely being monitored. At 1% or above you face immediate risk of payment processing restrictions or full account suspension. The rate is calculated on order count, not revenue — chargebacks divided by total orders processed.

A refund is initiated by you, the merchant, and resolves the customer complaint without involving the bank. A chargeback is initiated by the customer through their bank, which forces a transaction reversal and charges you a dispute fee (typically $15 to $25 per case). Refunds do not directly count against your chargeback rate. However, a high refund rate above 10% is a separate risk signal Shopify monitors. The best prevention strategy is converting potential disputes into refunds by reaching unhappy customers before they contact their bank.

The three most common reasons for chargebacks on legitimate orders are: (1) Item not received — caused by delayed fulfillment or missing tracking numbers, especially on overseas-sourced products with 15 to 20 day shipping times. (2) Item not as described — product photos or descriptions didn't match the actual item. (3) Unrecognized charge — the business name on the customer's bank statement doesn't match your store name. Fix the billing descriptor in your Shopify Payments settings to match your store name exactly.

To win a chargeback dispute you need to provide evidence that the order was fulfilled as described and delivered to the customer. The strongest evidence is: a tracking number showing delivery to the customer's address, the order confirmation email the customer received, screenshots of your product page showing the description the customer saw, and any customer communications acknowledging receipt. Upload all evidence through Shopify's dispute portal within the response window, which is typically 7 to 21 days depending on the card network.

A Shopify Plan of Action (POA) is a structured appeal document you submit to Shopify's Trust and Safety team when your store has been suspended. An effective POA has three required sections: (1) Root Cause — what specifically caused the policy violation, (2) Corrective Actions Taken — what you have already done to fix the problem, with specific details, and (3) Preventive Measures — how you will ensure this never happens again, with measurable steps. Vague apologies are rejected; specific, factual responses get approved.

To appeal a Shopify store suspension: (1) Read the suspension email carefully and identify the specific policy violation cited. (2) Diagnose the actual root cause — don't write an appeal until you understand what triggered it. (3) Write a Plan of Action with three sections: root cause, corrective actions already taken, and preventive measures. (4) Submit the POA as a reply to the original suspension email from Trust and Safety — do not use Shopify chat support, those agents cannot reinstate accounts. (5) Wait 3 to 7 business days for a response.

Shopify's Trust and Safety team typically responds to Plan of Action submissions within 3 to 7 business days. For billing and identity verification issues, reinstatement can happen within 24 to 72 hours once you provide the required information. For Acceptable Use Policy violations or duplicate-shop reviews, expect 7 to 14 days. Sending follow-up emails every day does not speed up the process and can be marked as harassment. One follow-up is appropriate after 7 business days with no response.

Read the rejection carefully — Shopify's rejections often contain specific feedback on what was missing or insufficient. A second rejection is more serious than the first, so take time to address every concern explicitly before resubmitting. If you've submitted two appeals with both rejected, add evidence to your third attempt: supplier contracts showing the issue is resolved, screenshots of process changes, or third-party audit results. Reinstate's AI Appeal Generator drafts a compliance-optimized POA that avoids the common rejection triggers.

Shopify's automated scanning flags product listings for several keyword categories: (1) Medical and health claims — 'cures', 'treats', 'FDA approved', 'eliminates chronic pain'. (2) Trademark and counterfeit references — '[Brand Name] style', 'inspired by [Brand]', 'replica', 'dupe'. (3) Age-restricted product language without proper age verification flows. (4) Guaranteed results language — 'guaranteed weight loss', 'results in 7 days'. Descriptions imported from overseas suppliers are the most common source of these unintentional violations.

A Shopify Store Health Score is a 0 to 100 composite rating that measures how well your store complies with Shopify's Acceptable Use Policy and payment gateway risk requirements. Reinstate calculates your score using 8 weighted signals: chargeback rate, refund velocity, fulfillment latency, tracking coverage, order volume anomalies, keyword violations, identity consistency, and multi-store risk. A score above 90 is excellent, 70 to 89 is good, 50 to 69 is moderate risk, and below 50 indicates high suspension risk.

Yes. Reinstate connects via official Shopify OAuth with read-only permission scopes. We can never modify your store, fulfill orders, change prices, or access customer payment details. Access tokens are encrypted with AES-256 at rest. We comply with all mandatory Shopify GDPR webhooks including customers/data_request, customers/redact, and shop/redact. All store data is permanently deleted within 30 days of app uninstall.

Scan frequency depends on your plan. The Basic plan ($9/month) scans weekly. The Standard plan ($29/month) scans daily. The Pro plan ($49/month) scans every 6 hours and includes on-demand manual scans you can trigger at any time. For merchants who are currently in a warning zone or have elevated risk, the Pro plan's 6-hour interval gives you the fastest possible alert window before Shopify's automated systems escalate.