Where Shopify's commercial invoice went
Merchants who ship abroad report that Shopify no longer makes a commercial invoice. Shopify has never said it removed one. What it has is a customs form inside its own shipping labels — from ten countries, and printed only when the destination still wants paper. Outside that, Shopify has never made one at all, and an app is usually the answer.
Shopify has never said it removed the commercial invoice. The line that circulates — "Shopify no longer has an option to generate a simple commercial invoice" — is a merchant's, from a 2023 forum thread in which no reply carries a Shopify Staff badge and every answer points to an app.
What Shopify does have is narrower than most people assume, and it explains why the invoice seems to come and go. For most stores that ship on their own carrier account, an app is the answer — they are named below, with prices.
Where the form lives
Shopify makes a customs form in one place only: when you buy an international label through Shopify Shipping. And Shopify Shipping sells labels only from ten countries — the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain.
If you ship on your own carrier account, through a warehouse, or from anywhere else — a shop in Finland, say — Shopify has never made you a commercial invoice. Nothing was taken away; it was never there.
Why it seems to disappear
Most destinations no longer want paper. Shopify's rule is that "International shipping labels for non-paperless trade countries require the customs form to be printed out and secured to the outside of the parcel." Everywhere else, the form travels electronically: "If a printed customs form is required for your shipment, then a Print customs form button displays. If this button isn't displayed, then a form doesn't need to be printed. The customs form is instead provided in the bar code scan for carrier and customs agents."
A missing button usually means the invoice went with the label — not that it was never made. For Managed Markets orders Shopify switched to this behaviour on 14 August 2024; before that, those orders showed a form whether or not it had to be printed.
The rules around it tightened in 2023. Shopify announced that from 1 March 2023 "All international shipping labels require HS codes and country of origin" for parcels going to or through countries that follow EU customs rules. Its help pages now say labels can't be printed for international orders without HS codes — so a catalogue without them stops producing labels, which can look like the invoice breaking.
Where the native form falls short
It needs HS codes. International labels will not print without them — see setting HS codes across a large catalogue.
It has a value ceiling. "If you're shipping internationally, then your shipment's declared value can't exceed $2,500 USD." That applies to every international Shopify Shipping label, not only to one carrier.
Some forms show only a few items. On USPS, "A customs form for a USPS Priority Mail Express International shipment displays up to 3 items, and a form for a USPS Priority Mail International or First-Class Package International Service shipment displays up to 10 items." The totals on the form still cover everything in the parcel.
CN22 or CN23? Which of the two postal declarations a parcel needs depends on its value and weight and on the postal service you use. Take the thresholds from your carrier, not from a blog — they are set under international postal rules, applied by each carrier, and change, and we have not found a primary source we would stand behind for the numbers.
Shipping abroad without a commercial invoice? Describe how you ship →
Making your own
An app does it per order, and it is the right answer for most stores. Customs Buddy describes itself as "Ease global trade with auto-generated invoices for customs"; it is free for 10 invoices a month, then $15, $45 or $150 a month depending on volume. Its developer is one of the repliers in that 2023 thread. Its own site says it includes HS codes and country of origin; check that it reads them from your products before you rely on it.
Order Printer Pro (free up to 50 orders a month, then from $10) is a general invoice printer whose templates can read extra product fields you add yourself — useful if you want one tool for every document.
Shopify's own free Order Printer can print one too — its templates are built with "HTML, CSS, and Liquid code", so an invoice layout is possible. The catch is data: its template fields for line items, variants and products include no HS code and no country of origin. To show them, you would copy both into extra product fields of your own and keep that copy matching the real ones — two places holding the same fact.
Managed Markets takes the paperwork away. Global-e becomes the merchant of record and "handles parts of your Managed Markets orders, including duties, tax remittance, commercial invoices, and carrier arrangements." It is for businesses based in the continental United States and certain stores in Canada and the United Kingdom, on Basic or above with Shopify Payments, and costs 3.5% of each international order (3.25% on Plus).
Which route is yours
| What you need | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| A customs form with your label | Native — Shopify Shipping, from ten countries |
| To know whether paper is needed | Native — the Print customs form button appears only when it is |
| An invoice per order when you use your own carrier | An app — Customs Buddy, from free; or Order Printer Pro |
| HS code and origin in Shopify's free Order Printer | Not native — it has no field for them |
| Someone else handling it all | Native — Managed Markets, continental US and certain CA/UK stores |
What Shopivibe does
If you ship with Shopify Shipping to paperless countries, you probably need nothing — the invoice travels with the label. If you ship on your own account, try the apps above first. For most stores one of them is the whole answer.
Where this becomes worth asking for is when the invoice needs something your orders do not hold: "one invoice covering several wholesale orders that leave on the same pallet, and a declared value applied automatically to every free replacement and sample, rather than typed in each time." That is paperwork built around the way you actually ship, rather than one document per order.
Two things to say plainly. The invoice is set up in the tools you already print from — a person here builds it for your store, in Order Printer Pro, Customs Buddy or whatever you already print with. And the invoice is only as right as your product data: a missing or wrong HS code shows up on it exactly as it is. A person here takes it on straight away and has it working in your store within 24 hours.
Shopivibe solves the problem in your store and keeps what it adds maintained, including when Shopify changes something underneath. Shopivibe is free during early access, with 3,500 credits included. Credits beyond the included 3,500 cost $0.06 each.
Know what paperwork your parcels need? Describe it in your own words →
Checked against Shopify's documentation and the App Store on 22 September 2026.