How To Transfer Shopify Store Ownership, Change To New Owner's Email Easily 2026

Log into the store's admin and you'll land on the Home dashboard, with the left-hand sidebar showing Orders, Products, Customers, Analytics, and further down, Settings. Ownership isn't managed from any of the storefront-facing sections — it lives specifically under Settings → Users, so don't go looking for it near Billing or Plan even though those are close by in the sidebar.

Inside Settings, click Users to see everyone with access to the store. On a single-person store this list shows just one row — you, marked with the Active status and a role of Store owner, along with a small icon showing that the owner row can't be edited or removed the way a regular staff account can. This is the screen that confirms who currently holds ownership before you change anything.

Before ownership can move to someone, Shopify needs them to already exist as a user on the store — you can't transfer ownership to an email that's never been invited. Use Add users on the Users screen to send them a staff invitation with their email address, and have them accept it and set up their login before you attempt the transfer. Skipping this step is the most common reason people get stuck later with the transfer not showing up.

Once the new owner has accepted their staff invite, click Change ownership from their user page or from the Users list to open the Change store ownership dialog. It spells out exactly what the role includes before you commit: the new owner can add or remove staff, change permissions, and give any user access to any tool in the store — and once assigned, that person can't be removed, suspended, or deleted the way a regular staff account can. Type their email into the New store owner field carefully, since this is the address the transfer confirmation gets sent to.

After submitting the new owner's email, Shopify sends a confirmation that the new owner typically has to accept from their own login before the role actually changes hands — a transfer isn't final just because you clicked the button. Check back on the Access page for that user, which shows the current Store owner name and email at the top next to the Change ownership button, to confirm the swap actually completed rather than assuming it went through silently.

Once the new owner's role is confirmed as Store owner, decide whether you still need a staff account on the store. If you're fully exiting — after selling the business, for instance — ask the new owner to remove your staff access once you've confirmed there's nothing left to hand off, like unresolved orders or pending payouts. If billing was tied to your payment method, flag that explicitly too, since ownership transfer doesn't automatically move payment details to the new owner's card.