Merchant pulse: October 2026

We read the titles and opening posts of 236 public threads started on the Shopify Community between 12 October and 26 October, and grouped them into themes. Counts are threads, not merchants, and are a rough signal rather than a survey.

Theme layout customization

Merchants are trying to adjust the look and layout of theme sections, such as moving titles, resizing banners and text blocks, changing spacing and alignment, and adding borders, sticky buttons or custom text. Many say a setting they need is missing or limited, for example a single logo slot, a slider that stops at 200, or a fixed slide count. Others report features that do not show or work as expected, including footer payment icons and the mobile menu on one theme.

31 threads.

• How to change the height of countdown timer in Athens theme under 200?

• How to increase text box size - Image Banner

• Change logo color between transparent and normal header

Low store sales and traffic

Most threads come from new store owners who have traffic, often from Meta or Google ads, but see few or no add-to-carts or orders. Visitors tend to land on the homepage, leave within a minute and not buy, and several owners are unsure whether product pages, trust signals or the checkout step are the cause. Others ask for feedback on clarity, design and product pages, and one reports a sudden fall in mobile checkout conversion.

29 threads.

• 600+ vistors but no add to cart or purchase

• 68 personas llegan al checkout y 0 compran. ¿Qué me estoy perdiendo?

• 300 sessions no sales-what could I change?

Account restrictions and payment blocks

Merchants report checkout, PayPal or Shopify Payments being blocked, stores flagged or closed, and admin access lost, often shortly after a business status change or a sudden spike in sales. Several describe identity or business verification that loops or errors, and escalations or appeals to Shopify's verification and risk teams that have not been resolved. One thread covers repeated Google Merchant Center suspensions for misrepresentation, and two threads were deleted by their authors with no content.

10 threads.

• URGENT: Payments Blocked - SSN Mismatch Error 'Individual with that SSN already exists

• Urgent: Store Closed After Official Restoration Confirmation (Ticket IDs Included)

• Shopify payments verification loop - we couldn't verified your id

Product page content help

Merchants are asking how to structure and fill product pages: where trust and story sections should sit without cluttering the buy box, what to put above the fold, and how to tell a story when the product is invisible once applied or when many products share one template. Others want to serve two audiences on one page, convert honestly with very few reviews, and judge whether changes worked on low traffic. A few threads cover editor and display issues, such as a £0.00 compare-at price looking like placeholder text, hiding prices in a theme, and showing several products with quantity counters.

10 threads.

• Where should trust and story sections sit so the buy box stays clean

• Adding storytelling when ~60 products share one template?

• Which metric tells us a story change actually helped, on a low-traffic store

Payout delays and deductions

Merchants report payouts that are held, pending or not released, in some cases for weeks and with sizeable sums tied up, and say support gives little explanation or no reply. Others find deductions such as Capital repayments and chargebacks grouped under a single "Adjustments" label with no clear breakdown in the payout view. A few also describe billing problems, such as repeated monthly charges despite an annual fee being paid, and error messages on the billing page that are not corrected.

8 threads.

• Shopify Capital repayments hidden under “Adjustments”

• Shopify Payments : 12 000 € bloqués, aucune solution

• PayPal payouts held since late September, support ticket 70982518 open 12 days with no reply

Suspected fraud and phishing

Shoppers report paying shopify-hosted sellers and receiving no delivery, tracking or customer service reply, and suspect fraud. Merchants report customers being redirected from checkout to a cloned page that captures card details, with one store closed for almost 48 hours on Shopify's security advice. Others raise scam emails posing as Shopify and ask how common returns fraud is.

7 threads.

• Customers redirected to cloned checkout that captures card details — anyone else affected?

• URGENT: checkout phishing redirect – anyone else affected?

• Shopify Payments Scam

Admin interface and redesign

Merchants are unhappy with the recent admin redesign, mainly because it slows routine work. Complaints include a harder-to-read dashboard, extra steps to change a search, the Back button no longer returning to the products list, and metafield entry needing a + button instead of an open text field. Others report that the "Work with Sidekick" overlay blocks parts of the screen such as Flow, that linked products in a metafield section can no longer be opened from the product page, and one developer asks about moving an embedded app from Polaris React to Polaris web components.

7 threads.

• Disappointed in the recent Shopify update

• Shopify UI Update Frustrations

• Get rid of this stupid "Work with Sidekick" thing

Carrier and shipping setup

Merchants are hitting gaps in carrier and shipping setup. One carrier account will not reconnect after the carrier asked for MFA, and a USPS service still shows at checkout after being switched off. Others report that rates from a new or reinstalled shipping app may silently fail to appear at checkout, that rate caps by loyalty tier are hard to set up, and that Shopify Shipping does not cover dangerous goods.

5 threads.

Apps and tools mentioned: ShipStation, Pirateship and EasyPost are named as places merchants buy shipping off-site when Shopify Shipping does not cover dangerous goods.

• Canada Post disconnected since they requested MFA

• Heads-up: shipping rates from a new or reinstalled shipping app may not appear at checkout

• How do I remove first class shipping?