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Keep approving customers on Shopify's Customer Accounts

Approve customers with a Customer Fields form, tag them on approval and restrict prices or pages by tag.

If you review customers before they get access to your store, for example members, trade customers or license holders, you can keep doing that after you switch to Shopify's Customer Accounts. Your approval form still works. What changes is where it lives and how you protect what approved customers see.

If you run a wholesale program with company accounts, price lists and payment terms, see Approve wholesale customers with Onboard B2B instead.

Signed in doesn't mean approved

With Shopify's Customer Accounts, Shopify hosts the sign-in page. Anyone can enter their email, receive a one-time code and get a customer account. Apps and themes can't change that page, so Customer Fields can't put your approval form in front of it.

That means being signed in no longer tells you a customer was approved. A tag does. The setup below gives approved customers a tag, and you show prices or pages only to customers with that tag.

Before you start

Account approval is included in the Advanced plan. On the Basic and Pro plans, the Require account approval option shows a lock icon.

Step 1: Put your approval form on its own page

Use a Storefront form with Require account approval selected under Settings > Account options. If you already have an approval form, you can keep using it.

  1. Create a page in your Shopify admin, for example "Apply for an account".

  2. Add the form to that page with an app block or a shortcode.

  3. Link to the page from your navigation, home page or wherever customers look for it. The Account icon in your theme now opens Shopify's sign-in page, not your form.

Step 2: Review and approve

Approval works the same way it always has. When a customer submits the form, Customer Fields saves them as pending and sends the Application received email. Pending customers are in the Review tab of the customer directory, and they don't exist in Shopify yet.

When you approve a customer, Customer Fields creates the customer in Shopify and sends the Application approved email. This email is written for Shopify's Customer Accounts: there's no password to set. The customer signs in with their email and a one-time code. You can edit the email under App settings > Email notifications, or choose Approve without sending email if you'd rather contact the customer yourself.

If the email on the submission already belongs to a Shopify customer, for example because they signed in before applying, Customer Fields shows a conflict when you approve and lets you merge the two records. See How does account approval work? for details.

Step 3: Tag customers when you approve them

Customer Fields adds a Customer approved trigger to Shopify Flow. It runs when you approve a pending customer, after the customer has been created in Shopify. It runs whether or not you send the approval email.

  1. Open the Shopify Flow app and create a new workflow.

  2. Choose the Customer approved trigger from Customer Fields.

  3. Add the Add customer tags action and enter your tag, for example approved.

  4. Turn on the workflow.

You can also tag from the form itself with a form rule or an auto-tag field. On an approval form, those tags reach Shopify only when you approve the customer. The Flow trigger is the simpler choice when every approved customer should get the same tag.

Step 4: Show prices and pages only to tagged customers

Customer Fields collects and approves. It doesn't hide parts of your store. To restrict prices, products, collections or pages to approved customers, use an access control app such as Locksmith, or have a developer add theme code that checks for your tag. See Can I restrict access to my store?

⚠️ Hiding something in your theme doesn't stop someone from buying it. Theme code only changes what's displayed. If unapproved customers must not be able to check out, make sure your access control also covers the cart and checkout, not only the product pages.

Common questions

Can I put the approval form on Shopify's sign-in or registration page?

No. Shopify hosts those pages and doesn't let apps change them.

Can customers who are already signed in edit their details with the approval form?

No. An approval form doesn't update the signed-in customer's profile. Each submission creates a pending customer for the email entered on the form, whatever account the person is signed in to. When you approve it, Customer Fields creates a new customer, or, if that email already belongs to a customer, asks you to merge the two.

To let signed-in customers update their own details, use either:

  • an Account/Checkout form in their customer account (see Customer account extensions), or

  • a Storefront form with Default selected under Account options, on a page only signed-in customers can open. You can limit the page with your own store restriction or an access control app (see Can I restrict access to my store?).

Can I use a storefront form for something other than approval?

Yes. Choose Default under Account options and Customer Fields creates or updates the customer as soon as the form is submitted, with no review. See Collect customer information in Shopify's Customer Accounts.

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