Migrating to a new Shopify store, and you sell in-game items. Migrate everything to a new Shopify store.
You are moving to a new Shopify account — whether because a payment processor cut you off, you are restructuring your business, or you simply need a fresh start. The email to yourself feels straightforward: export the old store, import into the new one, done. Here is what actually happens. Shopify's own CSV export cannot carry metafields, metaobjects, orders, gift card codes, videos, themes, menus, discounts or redirects. Those things exist in your store right now. They will not come with you on their own. Even when data does move, reference-type metafields copied naively will still point at objects in the old store, so pages render with sections silently empty — your customer sees a broken layout and you do not know why. This is not a failure of process. It is the real shape of the problem. The only way through is to move deliberately, then run the whole migration a second time and compare counts — products, orders, customers, redirects, all of it — so you know what is actually missing before you flip the switch.
Move all of it into a new store, from $247
One-time packages, no per-record metering, no quotes. The order form unlocks the moment you pay, counts are matched against your old store, and the entire migration then runs a second time — the second pass has to create nothing.
What you are looking at
- CSV export sits in your email, but it contains only SKUs, prices, handles and text fields — no images, no metafields, no order history, no discounts
- The new store builds, products look half-finished, and redirects are gone so search traffic drops immediately
- Gift card codes you issued do not appear anywhere, and no one can tell you how to get them back
- Reference metafields that pointed to collections or pages now point at nothing, leaving theme sections blank
- Custom menus you spent hours building are not there, so navigation is broken
The real urgency is data loss, not speed. A reference-type metafield pointing at the old store will stay broken once you flip traffic to the new one, and by then fixing it means downtime. The genuine deadline is the period before you go live — you must validate everything works while you still have both stores running and can check the old one. After cutover, the old store is usually deleted and there is no way back.
Why it happened — specifically for in-game items
Stripe, the processor behind Shopify Payments, restricts virtual-world currency and items when you do not operate the virtual world yourself. Third-party trading — reselling skins, accounts, in-game currency or other virtual goods — lands on the restricted list. The secondary trigger is chargebacks. Delivery is invisible and unverifiable to a payment processor, so a buyer can dispute the transaction months later with no evidence against them. Minors using a parent's card without consent drive chargeback rates far higher than a processor will accept.
Rule out the easy fix first — then deal with the real one
Rule this out first. Shopify Payments does not document a route for third-party virtual items, and asking their support team will not change that answer. What merchants try instead is applying for a high-risk merchant account through a separate acquirer and connecting it via a payment gateway Shopify supports — Authorize.net on a high-risk MID, or PaymentCloud, Soar Payments and Easy Pay Direct. That application will reach an underwriter who specialises in digital goods, not Shopify's team. They will decline you too if your chargeback rate is already high or if you cannot prove delivery.
It only helps if all of these are true:
- Your chargeback rate must sit below the threshold your target acquirer publishes — typically 1–2%.
- You must be able to document delivery: transaction IDs, account confirmation emails, or API logs showing the item appeared in the buyer's inventory.
- You cannot resell items whose publisher terms prohibit trading — check the game's ToS before you list anything.
- Your buyer base must skew adult, or you must collect parental consent at checkout for any transaction from a cardholder under 18.
If any one of them does not hold, you are where everyone else on this page is: you need a store built around a gateway that will actually accept you — and everything you have built has to move into it without losing the catalog, the customers, the order history or the rankings.
What this means for a business like yours
💎 High average order value, so fraud and disputes cost more per event
A single dispute or fraud event on a high-value order is material to your reserve and your processing relationship, so your new store's fraud rules—velocity checks, address matching, 3D Secure settings—must be configured before you migrate traffic, not after. Those rules live in your payment processor, not in Shopify, so they do not move automatically. Confirm your processor has copied your rule set to the new gateway account. Also confirm that your address verification and CVV matching rules are identical between old and new, because a sudden drop in fraud detection or a change in decline thresholds will show up immediately in your dispute rate. High-value orders attract more scrutiny from underwriters, so any hiccup in fraud screening during migration looks like a control failure. Test a high-value transaction on the new store before you cut over, using the same card type and geography as your typical customer.
🔁 Recurring billing is a large share of revenue
A subscription business cannot afford downtime on stored payment methods. Your subscriber base and their billing schedules live in Shopify, and they will move with the store, but their payment method tokens are held by your processor, not by Shopify, and cannot be exported or imported at all. This means every subscriber's next billing date arrives at the exact moment you are most likely to have connectivity problems or incomplete migration. If you use Shopify Payments, tokens stay with Shopify—your new store can access them immediately. If you use a third-party processor, confirm in writing that they will release or continue to serve payment methods without interruption during the cutover window. Plan the migration for a day after your heaviest billing cycle, and notify subscribers 48 hours in advance that billing may be delayed. A lost billing cycle is revenue you will never recover.
What you actually have to fix
Underwriters do not change their minds because you asked. They change them because the facts changed. For in-game items, these are the facts that move the decision:
Build a chargeback documentation system before you reapply.
This is the single highest-yield fix. Underwriters will ask to see proof that you can prove delivery, and 'the buyer said they got it' does not count. You need transaction records, confirmation emails sent to the buyer's in-game account, API logs, or screenshots that show the item appeared in their inventory after purchase. Set this up now, capture it for every transaction going forward, and then pull a 90-day sample to show your next acquirer. You will also need a chargeback rate calculation: total disputes divided by transaction count, usually expressed as a percentage. If you do not have clean records, start from today.
Rewrite your terms of service to address minor cardholders explicitly.
Your merchant account underwriting will include a review of whether you verify cardholder age at purchase or collect parental consent. Write a clear policy: either you collect a parent's email and a signature (wet or digital), or you reject the sale if the cardholder appears to be under 18. This is both a compliance requirement for an acquirer and a chargeback defence — a parent who later disputes the charge has a harder claim if they consented in writing. Make the policy visible at checkout and store proof of consent with every transaction.
Audit the game publisher terms you are reselling under.
Check the official terms of service for every game whose items you sell. Many prohibit third-party trading or require explicit permission. If you cannot find the terms, or they forbid resale, stop listing those items immediately. An acquirer will ask to see the relevant ToS, and if it prohibits what you are doing, you will be declined or terminated. Even if you are approved, the game publisher could take action against your buyer accounts, which will destroy your reputation and your chargeback rate.
Request a chargeback rate baseline from your current processor or bank.
Contact Shopify Payments support and ask for your dispute rate, or ask your bank for a 90-day chargeback statement. You need to know the real number before you apply elsewhere, because an acquirer will pull it from the card networks and will decline you if you are already over their threshold. If you do not have this data, you will waste time and rejection fees applying blind.
What underwriting will ask you for
- Chargeback analysis: a 90-day history showing your dispute rate, the reasons given (item not received, unauthorised, buyer remorse) and how many you won on appeal.
- Proof of delivery method: screenshots or API documentation showing how you confirm the item reached the buyer and appears in their account.
- Samples of your product listings and the game publisher terms of service that govern resale of those items.
- Processor statements from any previous merchant account, showing volumes and any reserves or rate increases.
- Your refund and dispute handling policy, in writing, and evidence you have enforced it.
- Business registration and beneficial owner information.
- Bank statements covering the last three months.
Getting underwritten for in-game items
High-risk acquiring is an entire industry that exists for businesses Stripe declines, and several of them publicly underwrite in-game items. What none of them will tell you up front is the number that actually matters: what your business gets offered, once they have seen your volume, your claims and your history. Rate, reserve and settlement terms vary enormously between applicants in the same category.
Get real quotes from high-risk processors that accept in-game items
Six taps and three details. We put it in front of the high-risk acquirers that actually underwrite your category and come back with what they will offer you — rate, reserve and settlement terms — so you are comparing real numbers instead of cold-emailing brokers for a fortnight.
The recovery playbook
- Audit what your store actually containsList everything that matters: products, orders, customers, discounts, redirects, gift cards, navigation menus, theme choice, metafields and metaobjects. Do not assume you know. Log into your current store and count. Orders and gift card codes will not export through CSV — you will need those lists for manual verification later. Make a spreadsheet with baseline numbers for every category. This is the document you will compare against in step 5.
- Get a verified copy of your store out while you still have access — todayBefore you create the new account, request a full backup from Shopify support in case something goes wrong. This is the step people skip, and it is the only one with a deadline you do not control. A migration is not an instant thing — it can take days or weeks, and you will still have the old store running. But the moment you delete it, a full backup becomes impossible. If a metafield is misconfigured in the new store, or a theme does not carry over, or reference data points nowhere, you may need to look at the old store to understand why. Once it is gone, that information is gone. Backups are the only insurance you have.
- Export and move what CSV can carry, manually handle what it cannotRun Shopify's CSV export. It will contain products, variants, prices, handles and text fields. It will not contain metafields, metaobjects, orders, gift card codes, videos, themes, navigation menus, discounts or redirects. Move the CSV into the new store. Then handle the missing categories one by one: metafields must be recreated (some third-party apps can help, but none are universal); orders must be exported from reports as a separate archive; gift card codes cannot be read through any Shopify API and must be re-issued; videos and media must be re-uploaded; themes must be selected and configured again; navigation menus must be rebuilt; discounts must be recreated; redirects must be re-entered or exported from a third-party SEO app if you used one.
- Check reference metafields point to the new store, not the old oneIf you use reference-type metafields — fields that link to collections, pages, products or other objects — those references will still point at the old store after migration. Pages will render with sections blank or broken. You must systematically update each reference to point at the equivalent object in the new store. If a metafield references a collection called 'Summer Dresses', find that collection in the new store and re-link it. This is tedious. There is no way around it. Skipping it is why new stores launch with invisible sections.
- Run the migration again, count everything, and compareBefore you go live, treat this as a full second migration. Export the old store's data again. Import it into the new store again, overwriting what is there, so you capture any changes made in the old store since you started. Then count: products in old store versus new store, orders in old store versus new store, customers, redirects, discounts, everything. If all counts match, you have moved what can be moved and you know what is missing. If a count does not match, find out why before you switch traffic over. Once the old store is deleted, you cannot go back. This step is what separates a successful move from a move that looks successful until customers and search engines find the broken pieces.
And then there is the part that actually loses businesses
If you do need a new store, the payments problem turns out to be the easy half. This is what is sitting in your current store right now, and what happens to each piece when someone tries to move it by hand:
Why this category in particular
An in-game items store's data is dangerous to move by hand because delivery proof lives in custom metafields. Account usernames, character names, server IDs, item IDs and confirmation hashes are all stored as reference or text metafields that a CSV export cannot carry intact — and if you copy them naively they break or point to the old store's records. On a chargeback-sensitive category, silent data loss on the product page means you lose your proof of what you promised the buyer, which will cost you disputes.
| What you own | How much of it | What breaks doing it by hand | What we do instead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product images | 3,400images≈ 14 hrsbulk re-upload, ~15 sec each | By handthe CSV carries image URLs and alt text, but they point at your OLD store's CDN — so the moment the old store goes, every image 404s. Re-upload and Shopify appends a dedupe suffix to the filename, which breaks every theme section and product description that referenced the original URL | Automatedevery file re-uploaded through the API with its alt text and variant attachment intact, its content type preserved so image-restricted fields still accept it, and every reference to the old URL rewritten |
| Product descriptions | 850descriptions≈ 2 hrsone pass to repair inline image links — the CSV carries the text | By handdescriptions are full of inline images and links pointing at the old store's CDN. Paste them into the new store and the text survives perfectly while every embedded image quietly dies — which you usually discover from a customer, not from a report | Automatedbodies copied verbatim, then a second pass rewrites every source-CDN URL inside them to the re-uploaded file on the new store |
| Product attributes & variants | 2,550variants≈ 45 minthe CSV carries these; the time is verifying option order | By handoption ORDER is part of the product's identity. Rebuild "Size, Colour" as "Colour, Size" and every theme swatch, saved customer URL and app that keys on variant position breaks — silently, because the product page still renders | Automatedvariants upserted by SKU with option names and order preserved, so swatches, deep links and app data keep working |
| Metafields & metaobjects | 6,800metafields≈ 45 hrsonly the reference, JSON and metaobject fields, ~1 min each | By handthe product CSV carries simple text and number metafields — but not metaobjects, and not reference or JSON types, which is exactly where app data and theme content live. Reference fields are the real trap: copy the value and it still points at objects in the OLD store, so the page renders and the custom block is silently empty | Automatedwritten in dependency order after their targets exist, with embedded references re-pointed at the new store's objects — and any value whose reference cannot be resolved is dropped rather than written broken |
| SEO data & redirects | 990records≈ 3 hrsredirects one at a time, plus a handle audit | By handany handle that changes becomes a dead URL with no redirect, and existing 301s are not in the product CSV at all. Years of accumulated ranking and backlinks end up pointing at pages that no longer resolve — the most expensive thing on this page to get wrong, and the slowest to notice | AutomatedSEO titles, meta descriptions and handles carried across, and every existing 301 recreated, so nothing that used to rank starts 404ing |
| Your custom theme | 1theme≈ 6 hrs2–10 hrs depending on how customised it is | By handa theme is not just its files. The settings, section content and block ordering are stored against the store, so a file copy gives you the layout and none of the content. Hardcoded asset URLs and tracking snippets also still point at the old store | Automatedyour live theme pulled and pushed as-is, then scanned for tracking snippets and hardcoded URLs that need re-pointing |
| Product videos | 15videos≈ 1 hrsre-upload and re-attach, ~4 min each | By handthe product CSV does not carry video or 3D media, so every one is a manual re-upload. They also cannot be pulled straight from a remote URL — the bytes have to be downloaded and staged first, and a wrong content type lands the file as a generic attachment that media-restricted fields then reject | Automatedvideo bytes downloaded, staged through a proper upload target, re-attached to the right product, and verified as processed rather than silently failed |
| Customers | 12,000customers≈ 2 hrsCSV import, then cleaning up the rows that fail | By handthe importer works, but marketing consent is the exposure: the CSV carries the current opt-in state and NOT the timestamp or source behind it. Re-opting someone in is a compliance breach, dropping them burns list revenue you paid for, and you cannot prove which happened afterwards. Default-address designation is also lost | Automatedcustomers upserted by email with every address, the default-address designation, and email and SMS consent states and timestamps preserved exactly as they were |
| Order history | 18,000orders≈ 8 hrsa paid third-party importer, plus a day of mapping and reconciliation | By handShopify's own CSV importer cannot create orders at all, so the hours here assume you buy a third-party importer — key them in by hand instead and 9,400 orders is closer to 390 hours, which is why nobody does that and why order history is simply abandoned in most DIY moves. Then support cannot answer a warranty claim, repeat-purchase segments are empty, and every returning-customer flow starts from zero. Getting the mapping wrong duplicates orders or re-dates them to today, and both are worse than not importing at all | Automatedfull order history recreated through the API with line items, properties, customers re-associated, original dates and tracking numbers intact |
| Navigation menus | 3menus≈ 1 hrsabout an hour to rebuild and relink them all by hand | By handmenu items store resource IDs, not paths, so nothing about them is portable — every link has to be re-pointed at the equivalent collection, page or product on the new store | Automatedmenus rebuilt with their nesting, and every item re-pointed at the equivalent object on the new store |
| Discount codes | 45discounts≈ 1 hrsabout 1 hr via the discount CSV, or ~3 hrs rebuilt by hand | By handthe discount CSV covers basic codes, but automatic discounts, quantity breaks and combination rules are not in it and have to be reconstructed by hand. A subtly wrong rule is worse than a missing one, because nobody notices until it has been over-discounting for a fortnight | Automateddiscounts recreated through the API with their rules, usage limits and dates intact, including automatic and free-shipping types |
| Blogs & pages | 20articles & pages≈ 1 hrsrecreated one at a time, ~4 min each | By handno CSV route for either. Articles also have no SEO fields of their own — their title and description tags live in metafields — so a hand-rebuilt blog loses its SEO even when every word of the text is right | Automatedarticles and pages recreated with authors, tags and publish dates, their SEO written to the metafields Shopify actually stores it in, and inline image URLs rewritten |
| Apps & app data | 10apps≈ 10 hrsabout 1 hr per app to reinstall, reconfigure and re-test | By handmost app data lives in metafields on your products and customers, so reinstalling the app gets you an empty app: reviews gone, subscription plans gone, loyalty balances gone, bundles gone. Flows and automations have to be rebuilt by hand and re-tested, and anything with its own billing has to be re-subscribed | Automatedthe metafield data your apps rely on migrates with the products and customers it hangs off, so a reinstalled app finds its data waiting instead of an empty store |
See these numbers for YOUR store, free
The figures above are a typical store in your category. The demo scan connects read-only to yours and counts the real thing — every product, variant, image, customer, order and metafield — then tells you exactly what a migration would carry across. No card, and it never writes to your store.
▶ Run the free demo scanDoes this need a new company?
You do not need a new legal entity to sell virtual items — the category risk is behavioural, not structural. A new company will not reset a MATCH listing, which follows the person or beneficial owner for five years. If you have been declined or terminated before, a fresh entity solves nothing. Focus on the delivery proof and chargeback documentation instead.
Frequently asked
Which payment gateways work for virtual items?
Shopify Payments will not touch it, so you need a separate merchant account from an acquirer that specialises in high-risk digital goods. Authorize.net, PaymentCloud, Soar Payments and Easy Pay Direct all publicly advertise this category. Your gateway is the easy part — the hard part is the merchant account itself, because the underwriter will ask for chargeback documentation and proof of delivery before they approve you. Rather than apply cold, use a quote form or broker who can match you to an acquirer whose threshold matches your actual rate.
What reserve should I expect?
Most acquirers in this category hold 10–25% of your revenue in a rolling reserve, often for 180 days or more. That means if you process $10,000 in a month, $1,000 to $2,500 sits in the reserve account and does not reach you for six months. Plan your cash flow around this. Some acquirers offer faster releases if your chargeback rate stays low, but you will not see that negotiation until after you are approved.
Will my delivery records survive a store move?
No — not if they are stored in metafields and you move by hand. A CSV export cannot carry metafield values, so if you copy your products naively, the account names, item IDs and confirmation hashes all go missing. You will have no proof of what you promised the buyer, which makes chargebacks impossible to defend. A programmatic migration reads those fields through the API and rebuilds them in the new store, so they stay intact. That is the only safe way to move an items store.
What if a buyer says they did not receive the item?
You are liable unless you can prove delivery. Your chargeback defence is the documentation you captured at the time — a screenshot showing the item in their account, an API log, a confirmation email to their in-game username, or a transaction ID from the game's trading system. If you do not have that record, you will lose the dispute and the charge will be reversed. Set up proof-of-delivery logging now, before you reapply for processing.
Can I just export and import the CSV and call it done?
Not unless your store contains only text fields and product SKUs. Shopify's CSV export leaves behind metafields, metaobjects, orders, gift card codes, videos, themes, menus, discounts and redirects. The things most stores rely on. You can move the CSV, but then you have half a store. You need a plan for each missing category before you go live.
What happens to my customer data and order history?
Orders do not export through CSV. You must download them separately from your reports or ask Shopify support for an export. Customer email addresses and account records do not appear in CSV either — those must be exported separately as well. Customer data is critical, especially if you have consent timestamps for email marketing. Treat orders and customers as a separate export, verify the counts match the old store, and keep that list safe before you delete the old store.
Will my gift card codes transfer?
No. Gift card codes cannot be read through any Shopify API — no one can extract them, not even Shopify. That means they cannot be automatically moved. You must issue new gift cards in the new store. If you have outstanding balance on old codes that you want to honor, you will need to track and re-issue manually, or accept the loss. Check what gift cards you have issued before the move so you know what you are dealing with.
What about my theme and navigation menus?
Themes and menus do not export through CSV. You must select a theme in the new store and configure it from scratch, or pay a developer to replicate your current theme's customizations. Navigation menus must be rebuilt manually. If you used a third-party app to manage menus, check whether that app can export and re-import. The theme and navigation are visible to every customer, so do not skip them.
How do I know nothing was left behind?
Count everything. Before you go live, export the old store's data one more time. Import it into the new store again. Then compare: product count, order count, customer count, discount count, redirect count. If counts match, you have moved what can be moved. If a count is off, investigate why before you switch traffic. Do not assume the migration is complete until you have verified it. Once the old store is deleted, verification becomes impossible.
Move everything, verified twice, from $247
Pick a package and the migration order form unlocks immediately. Your existing store is only ever read from — we never write to it, so nothing you still have can be made worse. How the migration runs, step by step →