Do you have a backup for your Shopify store? If not – then it’s a good idea to create one immediately.
Why? Say you make a mistake and delete a blog post or product – only to realize you can’t restore it. That’s why it’s critical to have a backup of all your store data.
Don’t worry if you aren’t sure how to backup your Shopify store. There are lots of ways you can create a backup solution on Shopify. Read on to learn the most reliable ways to do so.
Building a Custom Backup for Your Store
If you have a large team, you can opt to build a custom backup solution. This technique requires extra human resources – so it’s not a good idea for smaller stores. It involves using Shopify’s publically available APIs.
It’s challenging because Shopify’s APIs are constantly changing. You’ll need to dedicate someone on your team to keep up with the updates. Otherwise, the backup solution you build may become obsolete or dysfunctional.
You’ll need to understand which APIs do what so you can use them to back up the data on your store. You’ll also need to pay attention to the frequency of the API calls.
In case of a disaster – you’ll need to sort through the data that you backed up. From there, you can restore either certain items or the entire store – depending on what you backed up.
Manually Backing Up Your Store with CSV Files
Another solution is to export CSV files to backup specific data types from your store. That is a better solution for smaller stores lacking the human resources to create a custom backup. The types of data you can back up with CV files include:
- Customers
- Financial information
- Discounts
- Gift cards
- Product orders
- Product descriptions
If you don’t want to lose your store’s theme, you can back that up too. All you need to do is download it to your computer from the Shopify admin.
Here’s how you can export various types of data as CSV files:
- From your Shopify admin, go to one of the pages listed above (customers, discounts, etc.)
- Click on Export > CSV file
That’s all it takes to export a CSV backup of your crucial store data. Bear in mind; this method is not entirely foolproof. There are some risks involved in using CSV files. These include:
- Importing a sorted CSV file may overwrite existing products with corrupted data. In this case, you cannot restore the data.
- Once you import a CSV file, you cannot undo the action.
- If you sort your CSV files in a spreadsheet program like Excel – product variants may occur. Also, image URLs can become disassociated.
Backing Up the Rest of Your Data
You see – CSV files will only back up certain types of data that Shopify deems relevant. Sadly, that doesn’t include all of your store data. Certain items, such as images, custom categories, and indexing – won’t be included.
You’ll need to copy and paste the remaining data into a spreadsheet or document to remedy this. That way – you won’t completely lose it in case of an emergency.
To visualize this – let’s consider an example. You choose to backup a product on your Shopify store with a CSV file. The file backs up the product and description but not the image.
So if you were to lose that product and restore it with the CSV file – the image wouldn’t be there. It would be gone forever if you didn’t manually back it up as well. That’s why it’s imperative to backup not only CSV files but also images, categories, indexing, and more.
Ensure that you check each item you export with a CSV file to see any missing data.
That’s how you’ll know what you need to manually backup by copy and pasting.
Another example would be backing up blog posts. The CSV file will only export the text from the post. You’ll need to copy and paste any images, as well as the category for indexing purposes.
Organizing and Securing Your Manual Backup
Now that you have all your data saved and backed up, it must stay secure. You should also organize your data in a way that’s easy to navigate and retrieve when you need it. Remember – your copy and pasted items will be separate from your CSV files. Organize them in a way where they complement one another, so it’s not confusing.
An example would look like this: ‘Blog post 1 CSV file with Blog post 1 image and category.’
That way – you know which additional files to add to your CSV files when restoring your store.
You’ll also need to ensure that your backed-up data is entirely secure. If not, then it’s vulnerable to hackers and malware. There are a few methods you can use to secure your manual backup. They include:
- Regular testing. Vulnerability testing will help you identify weaknesses in your security. That will enable you to solve any issues before hackers get a chance to exploit them.
- Encrypt your files. One of the most reliable security measures is to use encryption. That involves scrambling your data and protecting it with a code. Special keys are required that go to authorized users to unlock the code.
- Keep multiple copies. A good rule of thumb is to keep three copies of your backup. Keep one with you, another on a different medium, and the last one off-site.
Keep Up with New Changes
Once all these steps are complete, you have to keep up with them. Whenever you add a new product to your store or make changes, you’ll need to change your backup as well. That way – you always have an up-to-date backup on hand if things go wrong.
Final Takeaways
That’s how to backup your Shopify store. As you can see – there are a few ways to backup your store data. You can go for the custom backup route if you have a larger team. If not, the most common way is to use a combination of CSV files and manual copy and pasting. For more great content to help you develop your Shopify strategies, check out the rest of the merchant posts on the site. If you want to see a list of our top recommended Shopify apps visit this link here.
