Updated September 2026
Every few weeks a new thread pops up on Reddit or the Shopify Community with the same energy: “Shopify added this Shop button to my store without asking. What is it, and how do I remove it?” The reactions range from mild annoyance to full conspiracy mode. Merchants worry Shopify is funneling their customers into a marketplace full of competitors. Some think it's a sales channel they never opted into. Others just don't like an extra button on their store.
I get it. When something shows up on your store that you didn't put there, the instinct is to push back. But I've used the Shop app as a customer for years, and I work at Pasilobus, where we build Shopify apps for a living. I think most of the reaction comes from misunderstanding what the Shop buttons actually do and who they're for. So here's what each one is, how to switch it off if you really want to, and why I'd think twice before you do.
What the Shop app actually is
A lot of the confusion comes from not realizing that Shop is made by Shopify. It isn't a third-party tool or a random marketplace integration. Shopify describes it as a shopping destination and delivery tracking app, available on iOS, Android and the web, and increasingly inside AI shopping experiences too.
It grew out of Arrive, an order-tracking app Shopify owned. In 2020 Shopify combined Arrive's tracking with Shop Pay, its accelerated checkout, and launched the result as Shop. Today customers use it to track orders from any Shopify store, follow brands they like, discover new products and check out with Shop Pay.
Think of it less as a marketplace competing with your store and more as a loyalty layer across Shopify stores. Your customers are already buying from you. Shop gives them one place to keep track of those orders, hear about your new products and come back without having to remember your URL or dig through their email for your last order confirmation.
The three Shop buttons, and what each one does
“The Shop button” usually means one of three different things:
- Follow on Shop. A button in your theme's footer that lets customers follow your store in the Shop app, so they get recommendations and notifications about your products. It needs the Shop channel installed and Shop Pay activated. You control it in the theme editor: Online Store → Themes → Customize, open the Footer section and check or uncheck Follow on Shop.
- Sign in with Shop. Lets customers sign in with their Shop account and saved passkeys, so Shop Pay can prefill their shipping and payment details. If Shop Pay is active, this is turned on automatically and can only be removed by deactivating Shop Pay. Without Shop Pay, you'll find it under Settings → Customer accounts → Authentication.
- Claim with Shop. This is the one that started the Reddit thread that inspired this post. It appears on eligible Shopify Forms, like a newsletter sign-up with a discount, and lets people sign in or create a Shop account to claim the offer instead of typing their email. You can turn Sign in with Shop off for an individual form in the Shopify Forms app.
The customer perspective (from someone who actually uses it)
Before Shop, my relationship with smaller online stores was basically transactional. I'd find a product through an ad or a recommendation, buy it, and forget the store existed. Maybe I'd get a marketing email months later and unsubscribe because I didn't remember signing up. That's the reality for most independent brands: you fight hard to win a customer, then lose them to the noise.
With Shop, the stores I buy from stay on my radar. I follow them, and when they launch a product or run a sale I see it next to my order tracking, which I'm already checking. It's the most natural retention mechanism I've come across as a shopper, because it's built into something I do anyway: checking where my package is.
I've also found stores through Shop that I'd never have found otherwise, because after I bought from one brand the app suggested similar ones. It felt more like a friend's recommendation than an ad.
Why merchants should see this as an opportunity
The fear in those threads usually boils down to “Shopify is going to steal my customers.” That's not what's happening. Your customers aren't leaving your store for the Shop app. They're using it to stay connected to your store in a way that's easier than email and more persistent than a browser bookmark.
Here's what the Shop channel gives you:
- A listing in front of Shop's users. If your store meets Shop's merchant guidelines, your store and products are listed automatically.
- Followers. Customers who follow you get your updates in the app.
- Faster repeat checkout. Returning customers with Shop Pay don't retype their details.
- No marketplace fees. The Shop channel is free, and Shopify says you pay no marketplace fees to sell on Shop. Paid promotion through Shop Campaigns is optional and billed only when a campaign drives a sale.
The stores that get the most from Shop treat it as a storefront within a storefront: a proper store description, a banner image, a clean product catalog with good photos. It's worth ten minutes in the Shop channel to check how your store looks there.
“But it's inserting itself between me and my customer”
It can feel that way. But from the customer's side, Claim with Shop or Sign in with Shop is just a quicker way to fill in a form or log in, and the order tracking that follows is better than a generic confirmation email and a carrier website. That reflects well on you, not on Shopify.
And yes, you can remove it. The buttons can be switched off as described above, and the Shop channel itself can be uninstalled from Settings → Sales channels. Before you do, ask yourself whether removing it protects your business or whether you're just reacting to something unfamiliar.
What about competitors inside the app?
This is the legitimate concern buried under the noise. If your customers are in Shop, will they discover your competitors? Sometimes, yes. The app recommends other stores based on what people browse and buy. But that's true of every platform your customers use. Social feeds show them competitor ads. Search results show them competitor stores. Big marketplaces show competitor products on your own listing.
The difference with Shop is that people open it with purchase intent: they bought something and want to track it, or they're looking for something new. If your products are good and your brand is strong, being discovered in that context is a win. Competition exists everywhere; the question is whether you'd rather be present where your customers already are.
The bigger picture
Shopify has been steadily moving from “a platform where you build a store” to “an ecosystem where commerce happens”. Shop is a big part of that, along with Shop Pay and the agentic storefronts that put your products into AI conversations.
You can see that as Shopify overreaching, or as Shopify building the kind of convenience that keeps independent stores competitive with the big marketplaces: fast checkout, reliable tracking and everything in one place, while the customer still buys from you. I think the merchants who lean into it will do better than the ones who fight it. We make a similar argument about delivery expectations in how a Shopify store can compete with Prime delivery.
At Pasilobus we build apps and look after stores for Shopify merchants. If you'd like help setting up your Shop presence, or deciding which of these buttons makes sense for your store, talk to us.
Resources
- Shop channel overview (Shopify Help Center)
- Adding Shop buttons to your store
- Shop sign-in features
- Shop Pay: how it works