Convert a Migrated Shopify Checkout store to a full Shopify Checkout

Converting a migrated Shopify Checkout store to a full Shopify Checkout happens when you still have existing subscribers with payment methods stored in Recharge that need to be migrated to Shopify. For example, this can happen after previously converting from Recharge Checkout on Shopify to Shopify Checkout Integration. 

To fully convert your store you must perform an Existing Subscriber Migration (ESM). This migrates existing subscribers to Shopify for unified order processing, tax and shipping calculations, and payment management.

As part of Shopify’s mandate and our goal to unify payment and subscription processing, all existing subscribers must be migrated by October 14, 2026. After this date, any subscriptions that haven’t been migrated will stop processing.

This guide walks through the process of performing an Existing Subscriber Migration.

Before you start

• Billing Address Warning: If your current legacy payment gateway does not have accurate billing address data, some recurring orders may show blank or incorrect billing addresses after the migration. If having an accurate billing address on a payment method is important for your business, let us know in advance so we can take extra precautions to mitigate any potential issues.
• Tax Setting Changes: Once the migration is complete, Shopify calculates taxes instead of Recharge. Make sure your Shopify tax settings match your current Recharge tax setup. 
• Matching the customer email: The customer email in Recharge must match the email associated with the customer's Shopify Customer ID or migration errors may occur. 
• Manually adding customers post migration: After the full conversion and subscriber migration, manually adding customers to Recharge does not work. If this use case applies to your business, let us know in advance and we can offer an alternative solution.

Step 1 - Adding and activating a legacy payment gateway 

Note: You can only add one legacy payment gateway that processes credit card transactions in Shopify. If you use two providers to process credit card payments, you must consolidate your credit card customers to one payment gateway through a processor-to-processor migration. The assessment team will assist with consulting on payment processor migrations if applicable.

Stripe

1. Copy and paste the following URL into your browser:https://admin.shopify.com/store/{SHOP}/settings/payments/third-party-providers/39813121?secondarySubscriptionGateway=true
2. Prepend your Shop URL to the beginning of the URL. Input your Shop Name where {SHOP} is located in the URL. Do not include myshopify.com.
3. Example:https://admin.shopify.com/store/my-great-store/settings/payments/third-party-providers/39813121?secondarySubscriptionGateway=true
4. Click Install on the Stripe Cards Payments page.

Braintree

1. Copy and paste the following URL into your browser: https://admin.shopify.com/store/{SHOP}/settings/payments/third-party-providers/47742977?secondarySubscriptionGateway=true
2. Prepend your Shop URL to the beginning of the URL. Input your Shop Name where {SHOP} is located in the URL. Do not include myshopify.com. 
3. Example: https://admin.shopify.com/store/my-great-store/settings/payments/third-party-providers/47742977?secondarySubscriptionGateway=true
4. Authorize your credentials, and log in to your Braintree account.
   
5. Grant Shopify access to your Braintree Account, using the Merchant Account ID, Public Key, and Private Key. This information can be found in your Braintree Account Settings > Business > Merchant Account ID. 
   • Note that:
   • Only users with the Admin Role set can provide their credentials for sign-up.
   • Installing PayPal should automatically deactivate the active merchant app as your secondary gateway.
6. Reference your payment credentials in Recharge's payment settings, and ensure the private and public keys match the ones currently saved in Shopify.
   • Note that the Recharge Merchant ID in Recharge is different than the Merchant Account ID in Shopify. As such, it is important not to compare these two IDs.
7. Click Install.

PayPal

1. Launch your Shopify admin and click Settings.
2. Select Payments and enable PayPal under Additional payment methods.

Note: If you use PayPal and another legacy payment processor, use these directions to connect PayPal and the applicable payment processor directions to connect your legacy payment processor. This allows you to use both a legacy payment processor and PayPal.

Authorize.net

1. Copy and paste the following URL into your browser:https://admin.shopify.com/store/{SHOP}/settings/payments/third-party-providers/44859393?secondarySubscriptionGateway=true
2. Prepend your Shop URL to the beginning of the URL. Input your Shop Name where {SHOP} is located in the URL. Do not include myshopify.com.
3. Example: https://admin.shopify.com/store/my-great-store/settings/payments/third-party-providers/44859393?secondarySubscriptionGateway=true
4. Click Install on the Authorize.net page.

You may want to review your subscribers' billing addresses in your payment gateway. Shopify references this data during the migration, so even if address information in Recharge is correct, if it is wrong in your gateway, it will be migrated incorrectly into Shopify. 

Step 2 - Request the Existing Subscriber Migration

Once your store is ready and your legacy gateway is connected, begin the process to request your migration.

1. Log in to the Recharge merchant portal.
2. Locate the homepage banner to schedule your conversion to the Shopify Checkout Integration.
3. Follow the guidance provided. You will either be prompted to complete the readiness form or reach out to Shopify. 

After your request is submitted or next steps are completed, Recharge will review your request, check your store for readiness, and follow up with questions and any additional requests. Recharge will then confirm you are in the queue and what to expect on migration day.

On migration day, Recharge runs the migration and a variety of checks to ensure data accuracy and contact you to confirm the status of the migration.

Step 3 - Complete post-migration validation

After completing the existing subscriber migration, perform the following tasks to confirm everything is working as expected.

1. Download the Payment Methods - All Export from Recharge.
2. Search for the customer_id. 
3. Confirm the process_name column now shows shopify_payments. This indicates the gateway configuration is now managed in Shopify.
4. Monitor recurring charges for migrated customers as processing begins.
5. Confirm that third-party apps are configured for Shopify Checkout, and adjust settings with the app provider as needed. You'll want to consider any data reconciliation across third-party applications (e.g. account, tax, inventory/fulfillment) based on order data that Recharge passes into Shopify. For example, NetSuite needs to reconcile Stripe transactions with Shopify orders generated by Recharge's subscription billing attempts. 
6. If you have any third-party apps, like Avalara, enabled in Recharge for your legacy subscribers, you can turn them off now, as Shopify now handles tax calculations. 

If you run into any issues or have questions during your testing, reach out to Recharge support.

Unsupported Payment Gateways on SCI

If you are using our custom gateway billing feature in the SCIm state and the gateway is unsupported in Shopify, customers currently on these gateways must update their payment methods so that future charges run through your new gateway in Shopify.

These unsupported gateways on Shopify include:

• Stripe Link - As Stripe Link is a payment wallet, it's not possible to migrate the customer data between gateways.  
• Klarna - Klarna is not currently supported for subscription billing.  If support is added, it's unlikely that migration pathways will exist for your existing customers’ payment methods.
• Amazon Pay - Amazon Pay is a payment wallet.  While Amazon Pay is supported in Shopify Payments, it is not the same account and generally you cannot migrate the customer data between gateways. 
• Ideal/Sepa - Currently this is on the Shopify roadmap, but it’s not clear when support will be added and when it is supported it will not be possible to migrate existing customers’ payment methods. 
• Afterpay - Klarna is not currently supported for subscription billing.  If support is added, it's unlikely that migration pathways will exist for your existing customers’ payment methods.

Recharge recommends running a slow drip campaign to prompt your existing customers who use these payment methods to re-enter their payment information so it can be securely vaulted into Shopify’s updated system.  Recharge has seen higher success rates by running targeted campaigns to these subscribers, asking them to update credit card info for security purposes in their new system using Recharge’s e-mail or sms features, or via integrations with Klaviyo and other messaging platforms.  

Make sure you confirm your new legacy-supported gateway is set up in Shopify, and the “Update payment method” option is enabled in your customer portal before running these campaigns on existing subscribers.

For more information on the technical details and feature compatibility, refer to Shopify Checkout Integration technical details and requirements.

Frequently asked questions