Shopify Allows Changing Email in Customer Account: Reduces Support Tickets

Shopify has just rolled out an update that, while seemingly small, will have a significant impact on the daily operations of thousands of online stores: customers can now edit their email address directly from their account, without needing to contact support. This feature eliminates one of the most frequent and frustrating reasons for contact for both customers and customer service teams.

The Problem This Update Solves

Until now, when a Shopify customer needed to change their registered email address, the process was tedious for both parties. The customer had to find the contact form, send a message explaining their request, wait for a response from the support team, and confirm the change.

Meanwhile, your customer service team would receive the ticket, verify the requester's identity, access the administration panel, locate the customer's account, manually modify the email address, and send a confirmation. This seemingly simple process took between 3 and 7 minutes per request, depending on the required identity verification.

How the New Email Edition Works

Process From the Customer Side

The process is extremely simple and intuitive. The customer logs into their store account, navigates to the profile or account settings section, and locates the current email field.

Click the email field to edit it, enter the new email address you want to use, and click Save or Update. Shopify will then immediately send a one-time verification (OTP) code to the new email address you provided.

The customer checks their inbox (or spam folder if necessary), copies the 6-digit code received, and enters it into the verification field in their Shopify account. Once the correct code is entered, the change is applied instantly, and the customer remains logged into their account without interruption.

Total Process Time

The entire process, from initiating the change to final confirmation, takes less than two minutes under normal circumstances. This represents a dramatic improvement compared to previous wait times, which could range from several hours to days depending on the availability of the support team.

Security Measures Implemented

Verification via OTP Code

One-time verification is the cornerstone of this feature's security. By requiring real-time access to the new email address, it ensures that only the legitimate owner can complete the change.

OTP codes expire after a short period (usually 10-15 minutes), adding an extra layer of protection against malicious changes. If the code is not entered correctly after several attempts, the system may temporarily block further changes.

Security Notifications

Shopify sends automatic notifications to both the old and new email addresses when a change is completed. The notification to the old email alerts the user if someone else has tried to change their email address without authorization.

The notification to the new email confirms that the change was successful and provides information on how to revert it if it was a mistake. These notifications allow for the rapid detection and response to any suspicious activity.

Impact on the Reduction of Support Tickets

Request Volume Data

Email address changes represent between 5% and 15% of the total ticket volume in e-commerce stores, depending on the customer profile and product type. For an online store that receives 100 support tickets per week, this means eliminating between 5 and 15 repetitive contacts each week.

On an annual basis, a medium-sized store with 400 monthly tickets (100 weekly) can eliminate approximately 24-60 monthly tickets related solely to email address changes. This represents a significant reduction in operational workload, allowing resources to be reallocated to higher-value tasks.

Quantifiable Time Savings

If each email change ticket consumes an average of 5 minutes of agent time (including reading, verification, action, and response), eliminating 24 tickets per month saves 2 hours of work per month. For higher-volume stores managing 60 email changes per month, the savings amount to 5 hours of work per month dedicated exclusively to this task.

This recovered time can be redirected to addressing complex product inquiries, resolving payment issues, managing returns, or providing personalized support to high-value customers. The efficiency of the support team increases significantly when mechanical and repetitive tasks are eliminated.

Benefits for Different Types of Spanish Stores

Stores with High Order Volume

Stores that process hundreds or thousands of orders per month tend to have large customer bases with greater demographic diversity. This includes customers who frequently change their email addresses (due to job changes, changes in service providers, or consolidation of personal accounts).

In this segment, email self-management not only reduces support tickets but also improves email marketing delivery rates. When customers keep their emails updated independently, marketing campaigns reach active inboxes, improving open and conversion rates.

Stores with Reduced Support Teams

Many online stores in Spain operate with small teams, often just one or two people managing customer service along with other responsibilities. For these businesses, every ticket that is resolved has a disproportionately positive impact on their workload.

Self-managed email allows these small teams to focus on interactions that truly generate value: resolving product queries, closing consultative sales, or handling exceptional situations that require human judgment. The team's perceived productivity increases significantly.

Stores with International Customers

Stores that sell to customers outside of Spain face additional challenges due to different time zones. A customer in Latin America who needs to change their email address at 10:00 PM Spanish time may not receive a response until the following day.

Self-service completely eliminates this friction, allowing customers in any time zone to update their information instantly without waiting for business hours. This significantly improves the experience for global audiences.

Requirements to Use This Functionality

New Mandatory Customer Accounts

This feature is available exclusively to stores using Shopify's new customer accounts. Stores still using classic or legacy accounts do not have access to this feature.

Shopify has announced that classic accounts will eventually be discontinued, recommending that all merchants migrate to the new accounts to access current and future features. The migration is free and can be done from the admin panel.

Verification of Current Account Type

To check which type of accounts your store uses, go to your Shopify admin panel, navigate to Settings (bottom left corner), and select "Customer accounts." In this section, you'll clearly see whether you're using classic or new customer accounts.

If you see "Legacy customer accounts," you'll need to perform a migration so your customers can edit their email independently. The migration process is relatively straightforward for standard themes, but may require technical adjustments for custom themes.

Impact on Customer Experience

Autonomy and Control

Modern consumers increasingly value the ability to manage their own data without intermediaries. The ability to update personal information instantly without waiting for responses from third parties significantly improves their perceived control over the shopping experience.

This autonomy is especially important for younger generations accustomed to digital platforms that allow complete self-management. A store that facilitates self-management of personal data is perceived as more modern and user-centric.

Friction Reduction

Each additional step required to complete a task increases the likelihood of abandonment. Having to contact support, wait for a response, verify identity via email, and confirm the change represents multiple points of friction.

With self-service, the entire process is reduced to a single session of less than two minutes, virtually eliminating friction. This is especially valuable when a customer urgently needs to access their account to check an order, manage a return, or update a payment method.

Perception of Security

Paradoxically, while self-service might seem less secure, the implementation with OTP verification and multiple notifications builds greater user trust. Customers appreciate seeing that the system requires active verification of the new email address before completing the change.

Notifications to both the old and new email addresses provide complete transparency regarding account changes, allowing users to detect unauthorized activity immediately. This transparency reinforces the perception that the store takes data security seriously.

Specific Use Cases in Spain

Customers Changing Email Providers

It's common for users to migrate from free email providers (Hotmail, Yahoo) to more modern solutions (Gmail) or corporate services. During these migrations, they need to update their accounts across dozens of online services.

Self-service options allow these customers to instantly update their email address in your store as part of their overall migration process, without adding your store to the list of services that "require contacting support." This improves your brand perception compared to less modern competitors.

Customers who register with a temporary email address

During major promotions like Black Friday or Cyber ​​Monday, many customers quickly sign up with temporary emails to complete their purchase before the offer ends. Afterward, they want to switch to their permanent personal email to receive order updates and future communications.

Previously, these customers would simply abandon their temporary account and create a new one, losing their order history. With self-service, they can preserve their account and complete history simply by updating their email in minutes.

Corporate Clients Changing Companies

Customers who purchase using corporate emails and subsequently change jobs need to update their contact information to maintain access to order history and warranties. This scenario is especially common in B2B stores but also affects retail customers who prefer corporate emails.

Self-service allows these customers to maintain access to their complete purchase history and tax documentation, simply by changing the contact email to their personal address before losing access to the corporate email.

Communicating the Change to Your Customers

Email Announcing the New Feature

Once you activate the new customer accounts, proactively inform your customer base about this new capability. Send an email highlighting that they can now update their email directly from their account without needing to contact support.

Include screenshots or a short video tutorial showing exactly where to find the option and how to complete the process. Many customers won't explore their account options on their own, so proactive communication is essential to drive adoption.

Help Center Update

Review and update all sections of your help center or FAQs that mention email changes. Remove articles that instruct users to contact support and replace them with step-by-step self-service guides.

Add a prominent section to your main FAQ titled "How do I change my email?" with clear and visual instructions. This not only reduces support tickets but also improves the user experience by providing instant answers to common questions.

Updated Automatic Responses

If you use automated responses or chatbots, update the programmed responses for email change requests. Instead of stating that an agent will process the request, provide a direct link to the self-service guide.

This turns potential tickets into customer education opportunities, teaching them that they can manage these types of changes independently in the future.

Frequently Asked Questions about Email Editing in Shopify