From Shopify Wiki

Overview

Shopify provides you with a free “yourstore.myshopify.com” domain address, but you can also use your own domain name like “www.yourstore.com”. Having your own domain name is often seen as more professional and makes it easier to promote your online store.

Getting a domain

Shopify offers the ability to purchase a domain from inside your store admin, and we take care of all the messy configuration for you! Go to PREFERENCES -> DOMAINS & DNS.

You can also look at the list below of vendors that other store owners have used. Many of them have instructions on how to make it work with Shopify.

Need help finding the perfect domain name? Here is a blog article with tips to help you find a unique domain.

The Basics

If you didn't buy your domain through us, here are the simple steps.

**NOTE: Forwarding with URL masking should not be used. This setting causes problems with the checkout process and will prevent your customers from being able to check out.

Contact your domain providers support team and ask them to set it up like this:

- Your "www" subdomain should point using CNAME to YourStoreName.myshopify.com (Replace YourStoreName with the subdomain you have with your store)

- Your root domain (without the www) should have an A Record pointing to 204.93.213.45

- add both of these in your Shopify Preferences --> DNS & Domains. It can take up to 48 hours for your domain to completely update.

DONE!

DNS Instructions for Popular Domain Name Sellers

Here are instructions for Do It Yourselfers, though if you're stuck, contact your domain providers support team with the instructions above in The Basics.

Once you've purchased a domain, you now need to link it to your Shopify store.

90% of the configuring must be done with your domain provider and it will involve weird acronyms like "CNAME", "DNS", "A record". Don't worry, you will find below step by step instructions for the most popular domain providers:

• GoDaddy.com, domainsmadeeasy.com, domainsinseconds, wildwest domains, and countless other registrars use the same DomainManager interface.

• For GoDaddy.com we have a walkthrough video available here:

• NameCheap
• iWantMyName
• DnsMadeEasy
• NetworkSolutions
• LiquidNet
• Bluehost
• MyDomain.com
• online.net
• Google Apps
• Powweb
• 1and1
• MyDiscountDomains
• HostRocket
• NameSecure
• Cloudflare
• For all other providers, use these generic instructions presented in the The Basics section.

If you run into any trouble, you will find it more helpful to first contact your domain provider for support as they have access to those settings (while Shopify doesn't).