If you're running a vapor, vape, or CBD store on Shopify, you may have already received the dreaded account suspension notice — or you know someone who has. Shopify has been increasingly banning merchants in these industries from their platform, citing their Acceptable Use Policy restrictions on products that may be subject to age-gating or regulated sales.
This isn't a new trend. Shopify has a long history of restricting access for merchants in high-risk or regulated categories — and vapor/CBD merchants are among the most affected. If this has happened to you, you're not alone, and there's a clear path forward.
WooCommerce is the most popular alternative for merchants who need more control over their storefront and aren't subject to Shopify's platform-level policies.
WooCommerce is a free, open-source ecommerce plugin for WordPress. Because it runs on your own hosting, you're not subject to a platform deciding what you can or can't sell. You own your store, your data, and your customer relationships.
For vapor and CBD merchants specifically, this is a critical advantage. You won't wake up to an account suspension with 24 hours to move your business.
WooCommerce also has a thriving ecosystem of plugins, payment processors, and age-verification tools that are built for regulated industries — including Real ID.
If you were using Real ID on Shopify, your verification rules, age requirements, and ID check history don't have to disappear. Here's how the migration works:
Start by installing the Real ID plugin for WooCommerce on your new WordPress site. It's available for free from the WordPress plugin directory.
You can begin configuring your verification rules immediately — no account required to get started.
Once installed, you can set up your verification rules to match your previous Shopify configuration: which products require ID, what age thresholds to enforce, what happens when a check fails, and so on.
Don't want to redo all that work? Reach out to us and we can copy your existing Real ID settings directly from your Shopify store to your new WooCommerce installation. Just contact us through the Real ID dashboard or email our support team and we'll handle it.
When you're ready to go live, sign up for a Real ID account. Your dashboard is where you manage your subscription, review ID check results, and monitor your store's verification activity.
From your dashboard, subscribe to a plan that fits your store's volume. Once subscribed, activate the plugin on your WooCommerce site using your API key. Your store is now live with full ID verification.
Before you go live, you'll need to import your existing Shopify customers into WooCommerce. Shopify lets you export your customer list as a CSV from your admin — WooCommerce can import that same file with a bit of field mapping.
This step is essential. Without it, returning customers won't have accounts on your new store and will have no purchase history when they land on launch day.
Once your customers are imported and everything is configured, update your DNS records to point your existing domain to your new WooCommerce hosting provider. Your customers will land on the same URL they've always used — just your new, Shopify-free storefront.
Most hosting providers (WP Engine, SiteGround, Kinsta, etc.) have step-by-step guides for this. Your domain registrar's nameservers just need to point to your new host.
This is the part most merchants overlook during a migration: your existing customers and their ID check records.
Importing your customers into WooCommerce gets them accounts on the new store — but it doesn't tell Real ID that they've already been verified. Without that mapping, every returning customer will be asked to verify their identity again on their first order. That's unnecessary friction that can cost you sales.
We can handle this mapping for you. Once you've imported your Shopify customers into WooCommerce, reach out to us and we'll map your existing Real ID verification records to their new WooCommerce accounts. Returning customers will be recognized as already verified from day one.
Importing past orders from Shopify into WooCommerce is optional — most merchants skip it to keep things simple. But if you want your order history carried over for reporting or compliance purposes, we can map your historic Real ID checks to those imported orders as well.
Just let us know before your launch date and we'll sort out the level of data migration that makes sense for your store.
Losing your Shopify store is stressful, but your business doesn't have to stop. WooCommerce gives you a stable, independent platform — and Real ID ensures you can keep meeting your compliance and verification requirements without missing a beat.
If you need help at any point in this process, contact us directly. We work with vapor and CBD merchants regularly and understand the compliance requirements you're navigating.
You can also visit our WooCommerce page for more information about what Real ID offers for WooCommerce stores.