One of the reasons you chose Shopify was that you would not have to think about servers, security patches or software updates. On the platform side that is true: Shopify store maintenance involves none of it. Then, a few months in, a customer messages to say the size chart has vanished from a product page, a discount code that should have expired is still working, and an app you removed is still showing a little badge in the footer. None of it is Shopify being broken. It is the part of the store that is yours to look after.
Caring for a store on Shopify is lighter than looking after a self-hosted site, but it is not zero. This post sets out what Shopify handles, what stays with you, and a calendar of checks you can actually keep to, whether you do them yourself or hand them to someone.
Shopify store maintenance: what the platform does and what you do
Shopify runs the platform. That includes the hosting, the servers, the core software, the checkout’s underlying systems, and the SSL certificate for domains connected to your store. You do not install updates to Shopify itself, and you do not need a hosting plan.
Everything built on top of the platform is yours:
- Your theme, including any code changes a developer made, and decisions about when to update it.
- Your apps, what they are allowed to access, what they charge and what they leave behind.
- Your content, products, prices, stock levels, collections, pages and policies.
- Your settings, including payments, shipping rates, taxes, notifications and discounts.
- Your accounts, who has staff access and how they log in.
- Things outside Shopify, such as your domain renewal if it is registered elsewhere, your business email and your payment gateway account.
When an established Shopify store misbehaves, the cause is usually somewhere on this list, often a change that seemed small at the time.
Looking after a Shopify store: a realistic calendar
The checks below are grouped by how often they are worth doing. Adjust the rhythm to how busy your store is.
Every week
- Read the orders, not just the count. Look for orders stuck unfulfilled, payments marked pending for too long, or several orders from the same address that look like test or fraud attempts.
- Check stock on your best sellers. A product that shows in stock but is not, or the reverse, costs you either a cancelled order or a lost sale.
- Glance at customer messages for patterns. Three people asking the same question about a product page usually means the page is missing something.
Every month
- Place a test order. Use a real payment method on a low-value product, or your gateway’s test mode if it offers one, and follow it through to the confirmation email and the gateway dashboard. Then refund or cancel it.
- Review discount codes. Expire codes that should have ended. Check that automatic discounts are not stacking in ways you did not intend.
- Go through your Shopify bill line by line. Every app charge should match an app you meant to keep.
- Click through the store on a phone. Home page, a collection, a product, the cart. Look for broken images, empty sections and links to products that no longer exist.
- Check the notification emails. Order confirmation and shipping emails should show your current logo, address and support contact.
Every quarter
- Audit your apps. List each one with the job it does. Uninstall what no longer has a job, then check the storefront for anything it left in the theme. Our guide on deciding which apps deserve their fee has a fuller audit routine.
- Review staff accounts. Remove people who have left, and reduce permissions for people who do not need full access. Make sure every account with access uses two-step authentication.
- Check app permissions. Some apps ask for access to customer data or orders. If an app no longer needs that access, it should not be installed.
- Look at theme updates. See whether a newer version of your theme is available and what it changes. Do not apply it to the live theme straight away; see the next section.
- Export your data. Download product and customer exports as CSV files and keep them somewhere safe. Your own copies are a fallback you control if an app or a bulk edit goes wrong.
- Re-read your policies. Shipping, returns, refund and privacy pages should match what you actually do today.
Before every sale or busy season
- Set up discounts in advance and test them on a real cart.
- Check stock levels and set realistic quantities for sale items.
- Confirm your courier and gateway are ready for more volume.
- Remove anything slow or unnecessary from the home page, such as large videos or extra app widgets.
- Decide who will watch orders and customer messages during the sale.
Updating a theme without breaking the store
Theme updates bring fixes and new features, but if your theme’s code was customised, an update can undo that work. A safe routine:
- Note what was customised and where. If you do not know, ask whoever built the store.
- Add the updated version to your theme library rather than replacing the live theme.
- Carry your settings and any custom code across to the new version.
- Preview it thoroughly on a phone and a computer, including product pages with variants, the cart and search.
- Publish it at a quiet time and keep the previous version in the library for a while in case you need to switch back.
If you are still choosing a theme, how much you plan to customise it affects how much of this work you sign up for. We go into that in our comparison of free and paid Shopify themes.
Things that quietly go wrong
These are typical of a store nobody has checked for a while:
- Leftover app code. An app was removed, but its script or snippet remains in the theme, slowing the page or showing an empty box.
- Stale shipping rates. The courier changed its charges, the store did not, and every order loses a little.
- Broken links after product changes. A product’s handle was edited, or a product was deleted, and old links in menus, blog posts or ads now lead nowhere. Shopify can create URL redirects, but only if someone sets them up.
- Old staff accounts. A freelancer from the build stage still has full access months later.
- Domain renewals. A domain registered outside Shopify expires because the renewal reminder went to an old email address.
- Images that grew. Large photos uploaded straight from a camera make product pages heavy on mobile data.
What maintenance costs, in time and money
Most of the checklist above is time, not money. A store owner who keeps a monthly routine can do much of it in an afternoon. The cost side is mostly apps, theme updates that need a developer, and occasional fixes. When you plan the full shopify store cost in india, set aside a little for this every year rather than treating the build as the last spend.
If you also run a WooCommerce store, or are thinking about one, the maintenance picture is heavier there because you also look after hosting and updates. Our ecommerce maintenance service page describes what that involves.
Keep a short store log
The single habit that makes Shopify store maintenance easier is keeping a log. One line per change: the date, what was changed, who changed it and why. “Installed review app, replaced old one.” “Edited product template to add size chart.” “Removed staff access for the photographer.” When something breaks, the log usually points straight at the cause.
If you hand the checks to someone else
Many owners would rather sell than run checklists, which is reasonable. If a staff member, freelancer or agency takes this on, a few things keep it working:
- Give them their own staff account, with only the permissions the work needs. Never share the owner login.
- Agree what they may change without asking and what needs your approval first. Prices, discounts and app installs usually belong in the second group.
- Ask for a short written note each month: what was checked, what was found and what was changed. The store log described above is a good format.
- Keep ownership with you. The store account, the domain and the gateway account should be in the business’s name and under your email address, whoever does the work.
When the arrangement ends, remove their access the same day and change any shared passwords outside Shopify, such as the courier portal.
Where we fit
We build and customise stores through our Shopify website development work and can take on fixes when a check turns up a problem. You do not need us to keep a store healthy, though. Put the monthly test order in your calendar today. It catches a lot for very little effort.
Next in this series: Shopify vs Custom Ecommerce Website: What You Pay For
