Offsite backup, cloning and copying your Shopify store might prove an interesting challenge, but the API does give you all the tools you need to do cover the important things. Let's explore some free options along with any apps that might be about.

Super Backup Chrome Extension

...or is that Backup Clone for Shopify? Since the tool really does backup and cloning I've not figured out what to call this thing. I had made two graphics at the time - one for Super Backup and one for Backup Clone. Here's the latter:

I can say without bias that the first incarnation of Super Backup for Shopify wasn't ready for public consumption. It worked, but had an awful UI and required some odd steps to make things work. This was fine for my use since since I had written the code and my eyes had adjusted to that madness.

Version 2 (whatever it will be called) is a much neater tool. Considering the very small volume of donations for tools like ShopifyFD or Custom Fields I'm not 100% sure if this will stay a freebie or not, or if there'll be a fancier pro version. As part of my "giving a shit" ethos, I'd like to keep it free but long term management and support will drive that. 

It's not quite ready, but you can at least peek at an early demo showing data export from one of my test stores to a JSON file. 

And here's a quick demo of important that exported JSON into a store. Importing is much slower than exporting so I've just shown the options, rather than the entire process.

[uh oh! the image is missing...]

If you'd like to test this do give me a shout. The bigger the store the better so if you've only got small numbers of customers or products you might not be the right fit for the next round of tests. 

Apps.

There's a few apps that have appeared on the scene as well so check them out. Like all tools (mine included) you should really put them through some tests before committing. Better to find out if they are not going to fit your workflow early, then at the time you really need them to work. 

[app list to come!]

Now you might be wondering why apps are even mentioned.

This is a Chrome Extension so you're relying entirely on your browser and internet connection to do the heavy lifting here. That's not always a good idea. You might also just hate Chrome and refuse to use it.

Importantly the chrome extension won't:

• copy files (/admin/settings/files), though I might add a simple file list export
• copy themes