How do I point my domain to Shopify?

If your online store is on Shopify but your domain's DNS is managed by Hoopla Hosting, you connect the two by adding a few DNS records in cPanel's Zone Editor. This guide covers pointing your website at Shopify, keeping your email working, and the extra records Shopify asks for so your store's emails come from your own domain.

Before you start

• Your DNS needs to be with us. You'll need a Hoopla Hosting web hosting plan (or DNS hosting) and your domain using our nameservers. If you're not sure where your DNS is managed, see Where is my DNS managed?
• Your email isn't affected. Pointing your website at Shopify only changes the website records. If your email is with Hoopla Hosting, leave your MX records as they are and your email will keep working.
• Allow some time. DNS changes usually show up within an hour or two, but can take up to 48 hours to reach everyone.

Step 1: Open the Zone Editor

1. Go to Services → My Services (https://www.hooplahosting.co.nz/client/clientarea.php?action=services), open your hosting service and click Log in to cPanel.
2. Under Domains, click Zone Editor.
3. Click Manage next to your domain. You'll see a list of its DNS records.

Don't see your domain? If it isn't on your hosting account yet, add it first under Domains → Domains → Create A New Domain. See Add an addon domain or alias to your hosting.

Step 2: Point your website at Shopify

Shopify needs these records. Copy the values from your Shopify admin if they're different, as Shopify occasionally updates them.

1. Edit the A record for your main domain. Find the A record whose name is just your domain, click Edit, change the record to 23.227.38.65 and click Save Record.
2. Edit or add the AAAA record. If there's an AAAA record for your main domain, edit it to 2620:0127:f00f:5::. If there isn't one, add it from the Add Record menu.
3. Remove any other A or AAAA records for your main domain. Shopify needs to be the only one. Leave records for other names, such as mail, webmail or cpanel, alone.
4. Set up www. If www is an A record, delete it. Then add a CNAME record (or edit the existing one) with the name www and the value shops.myshopify.com. (include the full stop at the end).

Step 3: Connect the domain in Shopify

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Settings → Domains.
2. Click Connect existing domain.
3. Enter your domain without www (for example example.co.nz) and click Next.
4. Click Connect domain. If Shopify says the records aren't found yet, wait a while and click Verify connection again.

Shopify then issues an SSL certificate for your store automatically. It can show as pending for a few hours. After connecting, Shopify may show a slightly different A record for your region (for example ending in .32). That's normal.

Step 4: Authenticate your domain for Shopify emails

If your store sends order confirmations and other emails from an address on your domain (for example orders@example.co.nz), Shopify asks you to add some CNAME records so those emails are trusted and don't land in spam. Without them, Shopify sends from a shopifyemail.com address instead.

1. In Shopify, go to Settings → Notifications, find the Sender email section and click authenticate your domain. Shopify shows a list of CNAME records. The names usually look like mailer123 and something._domainkey.
2. In cPanel's Zone Editor, add each one as a CNAME record. Copy the name and value exactly as Shopify shows them.
3. Back in Shopify, click to check the records. Verification can take up to 48 hours.

Tip: cPanel automatically adds your domain to the end of the name. If Shopify shows the full name (for example mailer123.example.co.nz), you can type it in full. If it shows just the first part (mailer123), type only that. Either way, check the saved record doesn't end up with your domain twice, like mailer123.example.co.nz.example.co.nz.

Shopify says "Update recommended"? This means Shopify has newer records available. Your domain is still authenticated and your emails keep sending. To update, go to Settings → Notifications → Sender email → Email domain authentication and choose Manual update. Add any records that don't have a tick in the Status column, then click I updated DNS records. Keep your existing Shopify CNAME records. The new ones are added alongside them, not instead of them.

Step 5: Add a DMARC record (if you don't already have one)

Gmail and Yahoo also expect a DMARC record before they'll accept email "from" your domain. Shopify's CNAME records don't create one for you.

1. In the Zone Editor, check whether there's already a TXT record named _dmarc. Your domain can only have one, so if it exists, leave it in place.
2. If there isn't one, add a TXT record with the name _dmarc and the value v=DMARC1; p=none;

For more about SPF, DKIM and DMARC, see Emails going to spam: set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC.

Troubleshooting

• Shopify can't verify the domain. Check there's only one A record for your main domain and it's Shopify's. Leftover A or AAAA records pointing at our server are the most common cause. You can check what the world sees with a tool like dnschecker.org.
• www works but the main domain doesn't (or the other way round). Check both the A record and the www CNAME are set as in Step 2.
• I changed the records in cPanel but nothing happened. Your DNS may be managed somewhere else, such as Cloudflare or your domain registrar. See Where is my DNS managed?
• My email stopped working. Check your MX records weren't changed or deleted. If you're stuck, we can check them for you.

Would you rather we added the records for you? Open a support ticket and paste in the exact records from your Shopify admin (type, name and value), and we'll set them up.