Does migrating to Shopify mean my customers have to create new accounts?

No — customer records, saved addresses, and order history transfer across in a proper migration. Passwords can't be moved (they're hashed on the old platform), so at cutover customers get a one-click password-reset email and they're back in immediately with everything intact.

Order history typically comes over for the last 24 months by default, longer on request. Loyalty points and active subscriptions are a separate step — they depend on the apps involved (Recharge, Smile, LoyaltyLion each export differently), so map those during the migration rather than assuming they auto-transfer.