Manage customer accounts with the Storefront API
You can create customers and update customer accounts using the Storefront API.
This tutorial covers how to create and activate a customer, and generate a customer access token. It also shows you how to accomplish common tasks like associating an address with a customer and recovering a customer's password.
Requirements
Anchor link to section titled "Requirements"- You've created a partner account.
- You've created a development store or have a production store.
- You've completed Querying data with the Storefront API.
Create a customer
Anchor link to section titled "Create a customer"You create a customer using the customerCreate mutation. You can use this mutation to create a sign-up form on your storefront that, when completed, provides the customer with an account on the Shopify store.
If the mutation is successful, then a welcome email is sent to the customer with the information that their account has been activated.
POST /api/2022-07/graphql.json
Variables
JSON response
Activate a customer
Anchor link to section titled "Activate a customer"The customerCreate mutation triggers an account activation email to be sent to the customer. The email includes an account activation link to Shopify where the customer can activate their account. You can use the link's activation URL to activate the customer.
If you pass an existing customer to customerCreate, then the mutation returns the following error:
In this case, the customer account already exists, but it's disabled and needs to be activated.
If your app is a custom storefront, then you can update the merchant's notification templates to link to the area of your app where the customer creates a password. You can append the activation URL to the link as a URL parameter.
When your app has the activation URL, you can activate the customer's account by using either the customerActivate mutation or the customerActivateByUrl mutation.
Update the account invite template
Anchor link to section titled "Update the account invite template"You can update the Customer account invite email template so that it links to wherever in your storefront the customer can enter a new password. Include {{ customer.account_activation_url }}
as a URL parameter at the end of the link.
- From the Shopify admin, go to Settings > Notifications.
- In the Customers notifications section, click the Customer account invite email template.
In the template editor, update the Activate your account link to point to your storefront's account activation page.
Pass the activation URL as a URL parameter by appending
?activation_url={{ customer.account_activation_url }}
. For example:In the email notifications, the Activate your account link is rendered with the customer's unique password reset URL:
customerActivate mutation
Anchor link to section titled "customerActivate mutation"Use the customerActivate mutation to send the customer's new password and an activation token to Shopify. The activation token is included in the account activation URL:
The customerActivate
mutation takes the activationToken
from the Shopify account activation URL and sends it to Shopify along with the customer's password.
Variables
customerActivateByUrl mutation
Anchor link to section titled "customerActivateByUrl mutation"You can use the customerActivateByUrl mutation to send the customer's password and activation URL to Shopify. With this method, you don't need to parse the activation URL to extract the activation token.
POST /api/2020-04/graphql.json
Variables
JSON response
The following diagram shows the customer account activation workflow using the customerActivateByUrl
mutation:
iOS Universal Links
Anchor link to section titled "iOS Universal Links"If you're using iOS Universal Links, then the Shopify account activation URL redirects to your native app. The app receives the activation URL as a request parameter.
Create an access token
Anchor link to section titled "Create an access token"After the customer account is created on your store, the customer can log in to their account. To log in a customer, you need to exchange their credentials for a customer access token. With an access token, you can query for customer accounts and perform update actions, such as associating an address with the customer.
To create a customer access token, you can use the customerAccessTokenCreate mutation.
Alternatively, if you have a valid Multipass token for a customer, then you can exchange it for a customer access token by using the customerAccessTokenCreateWithMultipass mutation.
customerAccessTokenCreate
Anchor link to section titled "customerAccessTokenCreate"You can use the customerAccessTokenCreate mutation to create a customer access token.
POST /api/2022-07/graphql.json
Variables
JSON response
customerAccessTokenCreateWithMultipass
Anchor link to section titled "customerAccessTokenCreateWithMultipass"When you redirect a Multipass customer to a store, the customerAccessTokenCreateWithMultipass mutation lets you generate an access token without the customer needing to provide their credentials.
If the customer doesn't exist in Shopify, then a new customer is created with the Multipass credentials.
The following mutation exchanges a Multipass token for a customer access token:
POST /api/2020-04/graphql.json
Variables
JSON response
The following diagram shows the workflow for viewing orders using the customerAccessTokenCreateWithMultipass
mutation:
The following diagram shows the checkout workflow using the customerAccessTokenCreateWithMultipass
mutation:
Update an address
Anchor link to section titled "Update an address"When you have a customer access token, you can use it to associate or update an address for the customer.
The following example shows how to use the customerAddressCreate mutation to create a new address for a customer:
POST /api/2022-07/graphql.json
Variables
JSON response
Recover and reset passwords
Anchor link to section titled "Recover and reset passwords"You can use the customerRecover mutation to implement a password recovery flow on your custom storefront. The mutation requires the customer's email address and is used to send an email with a link to reset the password.
The following mutation recovers the customer's password:
POST /api/2022-07/graphql.json
Variables
In response to a successful mutation, an email is sent with a reset password link. Clicking the link directs the customer to the Shopify account reset URL.
customerReset mutation
Anchor link to section titled "customerReset mutation"If you're using iOS Universal Links, then the redirect URL for the Shopify account reset redirects to your native app. In this case, you can use the customerReset mutation to send the customer's new password and reset token to Shopify. The reset token is included in the account reset redirect URL.
The following mutation takes the reset token from the Shopify account reset URL and sends it to Shopify along with the customer's new password:
POST /api/2022-07/graphql.json
Variables
JSON response
customerResetByUrl mutation
Anchor link to section titled "customerResetByUrl mutation"The customerResetByUrl mutation updates a customer's password by identifying the customer by their unique password-reset URL. This is the URL that's generated by the customer.reset_password_url
Liquid variable.
The benefit of using customerResetByUrl
over customerReset
is that you don't need the customer's ID to identify the customer.
To pass the password-reset URL to your storefront, include customer.reset_password_url
in the password reset email template.
Update the password reset template
Anchor link to section titled "Update the password reset template"Update the Customer account password reset email template so that it links to wherever in your storefront the customer can enter a new password. Include {{ customer.reset_password_url }}
as a URL parameter at the end of the link.
- From the Shopify admin, go to Settings > Notifications.
- In the Customers notifications section, click Customer account password reset email template.
In the template editor, update the Reset your password link to point to your storefront's password reset page.
Pass the password reset URL as a URL parameter by appending
?reset_url={{ customer.reset_password_url }}
:In the email notifications, the Reset your password link is rendered with the customer's unique password reset URL:
Send a password recovery email
Anchor link to section titled "Send a password recovery email"To let a customer enter a new password, use the customerRecover
mutation to send a password reset email to them:
POST /api/2022-07/graphql.json
Use the reset URL to reset the password
Anchor link to section titled "Use the reset URL to reset the password"When a customer clicks the password reset link and is directed to your storefront, get the password reset URL from the request parameters.
Use the customerResetByUrl
mutation to reset the customer's password. Pass the password reset URL as the resetUrl
argument, and the customer's new password as the password
argument.
POST /api/2022-07/graphql.json
Variables
JSON response
- Create and complete a checkout in Shopify with the Storefront API.
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- Support multiple languages on a storefront with the Storefront API.
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