How to Backup Shopify Store: 3 Easy and Effective Methods

Did you know that a cyberattack happens every 39 seconds? For store owners, the risk doesn’t stop there – accidentally deleting a product or messing up your store settings can also cause that familiar mini heart attack. That’s why having a reliable backup strategy for your Shopify store is essential to keep your business safe from these unexpected mishaps.

In this guide, we will help you effectively answer the question of how to backup Shopify store, covering data protection, maintaining consistency, and minimizing possible obstacles for both beginner and seasoned e-commerce professionals.

Why We Should Backup Shopify store?

Backing up your Shopify store is essential for several reasons, as it helps protect your business and data in various scenarios.

Data Loss Risks

Several scenarios can lead to data loss, including:

• Updates and Deletions: Accidental deletion of products, collections, or customer data can happen during routine updates or clean-ups. Even a small mistake can lead to the permanent loss of important data.
• Migrations: When migrating data to a new platform or even upgrading themes, errors can occur, resulting in data being overwritten or lost.
• App or Theme Customizations: Installing a new app or making design changes can sometimes cause conflicts or unexpected behavior, leading to potential data corruption.
• Cyberattacks: Although Shopify offers robust security, no system is completely immune to cyber threats. A targeted attack could compromise your store’s data, making recovery difficult without proper backups.

Therefore, to avoid losing valuable information from your Shopify store due to unexpected events like technical issues, human errors, or even cyberattacks, it’s essential to have a backup plan in place for all aspects of your online store.

Shopify’s Backup Limitations

While Shopify protects the hosting environment, it doesn’t provide automatic backups of your store’s product details, theme settings, or order history. This makes it your responsibility to ensure all critical data is backed up and recoverable in case of any issues.

Business Continuity

Backing up your Shopify store ensures that you can quickly restore your store’s data, reducing downtime and maintaining business continuity. Regular backups provide peace of mind, knowing that even if something goes wrong – whether it’s a migration error or a security breach – your store can be restored with minimal disruption.

In conclusion, to protect your Shopify store, it’s advisable to schedule regular automated backups and store them securely offsite.

Read more: Shopify 3PL: Effective Service To Enhance Your Shopify Store

3 Ways to Backup Shopify store

There are three primary ways to back up your Shopify store, each with its own advantages and limitations. Depending on your needs, you can choose the method that works best for your store’s data protection.

Strategy 1: Use CSV files

One of the simplest ways to back up your Shopify store is by exporting key data, such as products, orders, and customers, as CSV (Comma-Separated Values) files. Shopify provides an option to export this data directly from your admin panel.

The information you can download from Shopify via CSV includes:

• Customer information
• Financial data
• Products information
• Orders
• Gift card
• Discount codes

Before diving into the steps of using CSV files to back up your Shopify store, let’s take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of this strategy:

Pros:

• Simple and free to use.
• Available directly from Shopify’s admin dashboard.
• Can be easily imported back if needed.

Cons:

• Limited data coverage: doesn’t include themes, app data, or settings.
• Manual process, requiring regular exports to keep backups up-to-date.
• Not a comprehensive solution for restoring the entire store.

Next, follow these steps to use CSV files as a backup solution for your Shopify store:

• Step 1: Access your Shopify admin dashboard by logging in and select “Products” from the left side.
• Step 2: Navigate to the section you wish to export (e.g., product tab, order tab, etc.).

• Step 3: Click “Export” in the upper right corner.

• Step 4: Select “All products” and export as “CSV for Excel, Numbers, or other spreadsheet programs”. Then, click “Export products” to export and download the CSV files.

However, it’s crucial to remember that some data, including picture URLs, could change throughout the process because of duplication. As a result, importing CSV backups can replace current data with incorrect data.

Strategy 2: Establish a backup store

It’s a good idea to create a duplicate store to protect your Shopify store data and protect the security and integrity of your online business information.

Here are the pros and cons of this strategy:

Pros:

• Comprehensive backup: Includes products, themes, and settings, offering a fuller backup compared to CSV files.
• Testing ground: Ideal for testing new apps or themes before applying them to your live store.
• Easy restoration: You have a full duplicate of your store, allowing for quick recovery if needed.

Cons:

• More effort required: Managing two stores takes extra time and resources.
• Not automatically updated: Requires manual syncing to keep the backup store up-to-date.
• Additional costs: You’ll need a second Shopify subscription to maintain the backup store.

To have a backup store, follow these steps:

• Step 1: Sign up for a new Shopify store using a different email address.
• Step 2: Use CSV files to effectively transfer product listings, descriptions, images, and other relevant details from your primary store to your backup store.
• Step 3: Replicate the customized theme settings from your main store in the backup store, ensuring overall design alignment to maintain a consistent brand image.
• Step 4: Reinstall and configure apps to match your original store’s setup.
• Step 5: Regularly update the backup store with any changes made to the primary store, such as new product additions, product information updates, pricing adjustments, and other relevant settings.

If you pay close attention to these guidelines, you can create an additional store that serves as an effective backup for the data on your Shopify store, giving an effective recovery strategy in case something unexpected happens.

Strategy 3: Utilize backup apps

Using backup apps is needed to answer the question of how to backup Shopify store. Backup apps are important for protecting Shopify store data, ensuring it remains secure and accessible despite potential challenges like system failures, data corruption, or accidental deletions.

While this strategy seems to be the most ideal, it still presents some challenges for your business:

Pros:

• Automated backups: Backup apps automatically create backups, so you don’t need to remember to do it manually.
• Comprehensive data coverage: They back up everything, including products, themes, settings, orders, and customer information.
• Easy restoration: With most apps, you can restore specific items or your entire store with just one click.
• Secure cloud storage: Backup apps often store your data in secure, encrypted cloud servers.

Cons:

• Cost: Many backup apps come with a monthly fee, adding to your store’s operational costs.
• Reliance on third-party apps: While backup apps are generally reliable, you are dependent on third-party services for data security.

To help you choose the right solution for your business, here are three popular backup apps that offer automated backups, comprehensive coverage, and easy data restoration.

1. Rewind Backups

Rewind Backups is one of the most popular and trusted backup solutions for Shopify stores. It provides automated, comprehensive backups that ensure your data is always safe. Whether it’s a single product or an entire store, Rewind allows you to restore data with just one click.

Key Features:

• Automated daily backups: Rewind backs up your entire store daily, ensuring your data is always up-to-date.
• One-click restore: Easily restore individual items or your entire store with a single click.
• Comprehensive coverage: Backs up products, orders, customers, themes, and more.

Pricing Plans:

• Standard plan: $9/month for stores with up to 300 orders per month.
• Pro plan: $39/month for stores with up to 600 orders per month.
• Business plan: $59/month for stores with up to 1,000 orders per month.
• Protection Suite plan: $79/month for stores with all backup and restore features.

2. BackupMaster Backups

BackupMaster is a powerful backup app that provides real-time protection for your Shopify store. This app automatically backs up your data as soon as changes are made, offering reliable, real-time backup services for store owners who want to minimize risks.

Key Features:

• Real-time backup: Data is backed up as soon as changes are made to your store, giving you real-time protection.
• Easy recovery: Restore specific data or your entire store at any point in time.
• Secure storage: Your backup is stored in secure cloud servers, ensuring maximum protection.

Pricing Plans:

• Essentials plan: $19/month for up to 3000 orders.
• Pro plan: $39/month for up to 600 orders.
• Plus plan: Custom pricing for large stores with specific backup needs.

3. Filey ‑ Files Backup & Export

With Filey‘s automated backup options for Shopify store data, companies can reduce data loss in situations of system failures while maintaining consistent preservation of vital data like as product listings, customer details, and order histories.

Key Features:

• Automated file backups: Regularly backs up all media files, including product images, videos, and other assets.
• Easy file export: Allows you to export files in bulk for storage on your preferred cloud services.
• Flexible backup scheduling: Set automated backups to occur daily, weekly, or monthly.

Pricing Plans:

• Basic plan: Free, providing essential features for small businesses.
• Pro plan: $4.99/month, offering enhanced features and capabilities for growing businesses.

Considerations Before Backing Up Your Shopify Store

Backing up your Shopify store is crucial for ensuring your data is safe and can be easily restored in case of any issues. However, before you begin, there are a few key factors to consider to make sure your backup process is as efficient and secure as possible:

Data Types to Back Up

Not all data in your Shopify store is equally critical, so it’s essential to know what needs to be backed up:

• Products and Collections: Ensure your product descriptions, images, SKUs, and collections are backed up, as they form the core of your store.
• Orders and Customer Information: This includes all customer data and order histories, which are vital for operations and customer relationships.
• Themes and Settings: Don’t forget to back up your store’s theme and any design customizations, as rebuilding this from scratch can be time-consuming.
• Apps and Integrations: Some apps store important data that may need to be included in your backups, so ensure any essential third-party integrations are covered.

Frequency of Backups

How often you back up your store will depend on how frequently you update it:

• Daily backups: If your store handles a lot of daily transactions or product updates, daily backups are recommended to ensure minimal data loss.
• Weekly backups: For stores that don’t update as often, weekly backups may suffice.
• Real-time backups: If your store processes high volumes of transactions or customer data, consider real-time backups to ensure no data is lost between scheduled backups.

Security Measures

Data security is a top priority when backing up your Shopify store:

• Encryption: Ensure that your backup data is encrypted, both in transit and at rest, to protect it from unauthorized access.
• Storage Location: Store your backups in secure locations, preferably on cloud services with strong security protocols. It’s best to use offsite storage or a different server to minimize the risk of losing both the live site and backup data in case of an issue.

Costs Involved

While some backup methods are free, others come with a cost:

• Free options: Manually exporting data via CSV is a free option, but it’s not comprehensive and requires manual effort.
• Paid apps: Automated backup solutions, like Rewind Backups or BackupMaster, typically come with a monthly subscription fee, but they save time and offer comprehensive coverage.
• Long-term cost: Weigh the long-term costs of maintaining paid backup apps versus the time and resources needed for manual backups, considering the value of data security and ease of restoration.

Final thoughts

In conclusion, effective backup strategies are important for responsible e-commerce management, providing peace of mind and protection against sudden errors that can threaten business growth.

Throughout this guide, we have provided business owners strategies to answer the question – how to back up Shopify store? A strong backup plan can maintain the security and resilience of your Shopify store by protecting important data and enabling quick recovery from difficulties.

So, stay proactive, stay protected, and let the reliability of your backup plan be the foundation of your online success.