Domain transfer

[Antonella]

Hey needing some help I am trying to transfer my shopify domain to square to I can delete shopify. Square is asking to cha ge the dns but I have no idea what all this means HELP!! TIA

[Arie]

Hi @Antonella,

Thanks for writing in to the Seller Community with this question 👋 I also noticed it's your first post here, so welcome! 

There are two options here; you can either transfer your domain or connect your domain. Transferring your domain would mean that your domain and website would both be managed by Square, and this process takes approximately 7-10 days to complete. Connecting your domain means that your domain is still hosted where you purchased it, but your website will point to Square and display the website you've created with us. We suggest connecting your domain first, so you can avoid having to wait 7-1o days for the transfer to be complete. 

If you've purchased your domain via Shopify, or another third party such as Godaddy, reach out to their support team directly for assistance editing your DNS settings to connect your domain. They might even be able to edit this for you. You'll want to make sure your DNS settings are as follows:

1 A - type Record with the host/value set as the "@" or the * symbol (depends on your registrar) pointing to "199.34.228.164"

&

Another A-type Record with the host value as "www" and pointing to "199.34.228.164".

Once you've done this, you can commence the domain transfer process which is outlined here. 

Please let us know if you have any further questions, we're happy to help 🙂

[Antonella]

Hi Arie, thanks for replying back 🙂 

Silly question but what do you meant by transfer and connect domain. 

My goal is to add my domain to square and completely delete shopify .

Would this be transfering?

Thanks in advance,

Antonia

[Arie]

Not a silly question at all, @Antonella!

It sounds like transferring your domain would be the right step for you in this case. Because the transfer process takes up to 10 days, you might want to connect your domain in the meantime so when your customers visit your website, there wouldn't be any downtime. 

I think a good example to explain the transfer and connection process for your domain would be to think of it as if you were moving house. Connecting your domain is like mail forwarding, so even though your old address is on the letter, it gets delivered to you. So while your domain is still with Shopify, your DNS setting would now point to Square so your customers are directed to your website. 

Transferring your domain is the actual move, and therefore takes longer. If you haven't set up the "forwarding" by connecting your domain before the transfer, there won't be a web address for your customers while the transfer takes place. If this isn't a concern for you, you can also use a free Square subdomain while the transfer takes place. So your website address could be mybusiness.square.site while you're waiting for mybusiness.com to be transferred. 

I hope this clears things up a bit. Don't hesitate to ask more questions 🙂