Send a customer account invite in Shopify
After a customer list moves into Shopify, the customers have profiles but no passwords, so they cannot sign in. An account invite is the email that lets them create their own password and activate an account. This tutorial sends one invite, and tracks twelve, with the 30-day expiry doing the counting.
Written · Shopify admin, desktop steps · 4 minutes read
The worked example
| Invites sent | 12 |
| Accepted within 30 days | 9 |
| Expired unused | 3 |
| Invite sent | 11 November 2026 |
| Invite expires | 11 December 2026 |
Download the invite tracker: account-invite-tracker.csv (813 bytes, md5 9373494f9b17e70ff62bd9458d5d739b).
A tracker for the twelve invites in this tutorial: who was invited, when the invite was sent, when it expires, and whether it was accepted. 9 accepted and 3 expired, adding to 12.
1Check that legacy customer accounts are in use
Account invites belong to legacy customer accounts, where customers sign in with an email and a password. To use them, go to Settings, then Customer accounts, and in the Choose which version of customer accounts to use section, select Legacy. If your store uses the newer passwordless accounts instead, there is no invite email to send, because those customers sign in with a code.
2Open the customer you want to invite
From your Shopify admin, go to Customers, then click the name of the customer you want to invite. You can invite only existing customers: if the person is not in your customer list yet, add their profile first.
3Send the invite
Click Send account invite. In the Subject field, edit the subject line if you want to; in the Custom message field, add a message for the customer. If you leave the message blank, the default message is sent.
4Review and send
Click Review, check the email, then click Send notification. The customer receives an email prompting them to create their own password.
5Watch the 30-day clock
The invitation email is only valid for 30 days. An invite sent 11 November 2026 expires 11 December 2026. If the customer misses it, send a fresh invite; the old one cannot be extended.
The arithmetic
Twelve invites went out after a customer import.
| Outcome | Invites | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Accepted within 30 days | 9 | 75.00% |
| Expired unused | 3 | 25.00% |
| Invites sent | 12 | 100.00% |
9 accepted plus 3 expired equals 12 sent. 9 divided by 12 is 75.00%. The expiry date is the send date plus 30 days: 11 November 2026 plus 30 days is 11 December 2026.
Held at the counter
The invite expires after 30 days. A customer who clicks the link on day 31 gets nothing. Track the send date, and send a fresh invite instead of asking the customer to keep trying the old link.
Invite only existing customers. The invite button needs a customer profile to send to. A person who is not in your customer list yet needs a profile first, and that is a separate step.
An activated account needs a password reset, not an invite. If the customer already activated an account and cannot sign in, send a password reset email instead of a second invite.
Sources
- Setting up and managing legacy customer accounts — Shopify's help pages: the 30-day invite validity, the individual invite steps, and the note that only existing customers can be invited.