How can we merge accounts on Shopify?

[MudandHoneyCF]

I've bee following this topic for a while now and see that there are still NO UPDATES!! Theres a lengthy work around but... who has time for that. Get it together SHOPIFY!! People have been asking for this feature for YEARS and nothing! Maybe posting about this more often will get them to pay attention. We will see...

[Imogen · Accepted solution]

Hey there, @MudandHoneyCF. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this post in the Shopify Community. 

First, let me thank you for making this post and providing some additional feedback on the long requested 'Account Merge' feature. You're absolutely correct that this has been something that has been requested by users for years, and it's always good to poke the Shopi-bear and remind us about requests when things become quiet. 

I'm happy to let you know that our Team has absolutely seen all of the requests for this feature over the years, and are actively looking into this. Though I have no information that I'm able to share publicly at this time, you can rest assured that folks are absolutely looking into this request, and the many pieces of feedback we've received on the request over the years. I've got ahead and made the team aware of this post, as well, just for give them more examples of the value this feature would bring. 

If it's not too much to ask, I'd love to hear about why this feature would be helpful for you and your business. Context is key when it comes to feedback, so we'd love to hear about the 'why' behind this request from your unique perspective. I'm also interested in learning more about your business, too! My family operates a small art store in Western Canada, so whenever I have the chance to chat with other merchants about how to improve the Shopify Platform, I always try to get as much value from the interaction as possible. 

Feel free to follow up with me here! Also, if you have any additional feedback for us, please feel free to let us know, and I'll pass that info along.

[hstb]

For me, we're bricks and mortar first. So when we switched to shopify, two
things happened. One, which really won't drive your development, is that I
imported our customer list three times. Didn't realize there was no primary
key and no way for it to merge. I thought I was making updates and cleaning
up the data on the second and third import. So basically 75-90% of our
customers are listed three times. Second, which is relevant, is that a lot
of our existing customers realized they can shop online, especially during
COVID, and they created an additional account for themselves. Their
exissting account(s) have significant history attached to it, but their new
accounts are nnow the preferred account and have been the ones we use from
that point on since we want them to have access to all their sales data.
So, many customers have quite a few sales records across multiple accounts.
Finally. when reporting to see customer analytics, it's difficult at best.
We know our data is inaccurate because of this. Hope this helps move things
forward!

[Imogen]

Hey there, @hstb. Thanks for joining in on the conversation here!

Thanks a bunch for all of the great context you provided here. The multiple CSVs uploads may have been a mistake, but the ability to merge accounts would've minimized the impact of that, which absolutely shows the sort of value this feature would bring. 

The fact that many of your customers made new accounts for online shopping, and the resulting sales data jumble, is another good example of why merging accounts would be helpful. It's awesome that your customers pivoted to shopping online, but the inability to merge the accounts made this customer retention a larger headache that it needed to be. I can also see how reporting this information in the analytics would be an issue, too, as you'd have so many customer accounts reporting different data that it's a given that numbers could be mixed up when analyzing figures. 

Information like this is key to justifying feedback, and why a feature would be helpful, so thank you so much for taking the time to write your comment today. In addition to the information you've already shared, why don't you tell us a bit more about your business, and what it is that you sell! You can leave your store link in a follow up reply if you like, so folks can take a look! 

Thanks again for the feedback! If you have any additional feedback you'd like to share, just follow up with us here and let me know!

[hstb]

Thanks @Imogen 

We started as a small women's and girl's boutique with "everything but the outfit" but have slowly grown to include clothing as well as for boys and mens. It's Head Shoulders Toes and Bows. Thanks for the opportunity!

[Imogen]

Hey there, @hstb! Sorry for the delayed reply! I've been out of the office recently (I was feeling a little under the weather) but I'm back in house now and happy to follow up!

First, let me say that I LOVE the themeing of your shop. The colour scheme you have is awesome, you have the cutest logo, and your promo images are gorgeous. I wanted to provide you with some feedback on some things I noticed while exploring your shop, just to help fine tune some things!

Empty 'Featured' Section - As I was scrolling through your homepage, I noticed that you had an empty 'featured collection' section! A bit more scrolling showed me that you had this exact collection featured properly just underneath this. You'll want to remove the section I'm showing here in my screenshot, just to help keep your homepage completed and professional! I also noticed a couple other empty sections as I got closer to the bottom of your home page, so you'll definitely want to check those out and edit those as needed! Empty section on your homepage

'Shipping' Page - I always like to check out the 'Footer' section of folks stores, just to see what sort of additional pages people have built! I noticed, however, that you're missing some of my favourite pages to feature! A really good one to feature is a 'Shipping' page. This page acts as a sort of 'FAQ' hub for your store so that when folks have questions about ordering or purchasing something, they can visit this page before reaching out directly. I have an awesome resource here that goes over how to build a great Shipping page!

'About Us' Page - Another page I think you could benefit from would be an 'About Us' Page. This is a really cool tool that stores use to tell a bit of the story behind why the business exists! It helps customers feel connected to the shop, understand why the owner wanted to open up their own business, and adds another layer of legitimacy to your online store. I love reading the passionate stories that shop's posted on their 'About' pages, so if you have a great story to share, you should! Here is a resource for you that explains how to build such a page!

I hope you find all of the above feedback helpful! If you're interested in discussing your store further, feel free to follow up with me here and let me know!

[Seachange]

Hi @Imogen Please tell us that this functionality is being rolled out within the week as we have been waiting far too many years. I'm on numerous other feeds for this and yet, NOTHING. I love that your replies are more detailed than other shopify support staff, however they all inevitably say the same... "noted".  This feature is a fundamental requirement for all growing stores and businesses, be it who operate bricks and mortar and online or customers like me who have purchased other businesses and want to merge them. We can't lose all our orders and sales records, and active gift vouchers so it's essential that the stores are merged. Thanks and look forward to a prompt response. @Shopify 

[Sophia]

Hi! I understand that it can be frustrating to wonder whether Shopify is moving forward with an update based on a feature request, or when a new feature might be available. While we are not able to provide updates, all new features will be published in the Shopify Changelog once they are released. 

Shopify Support is able to submit feedback and feature requests to our developers for consideration in future updates, but we do not have insight into what is in progress. We will continue to share feedback with our developers so that they understand why these features would benefit your business. 

Previous posts in this thread were regarding merging customer profiles, and there is a solution noted in this post. Details on this feature can be found in the Help Center, including what information gets merged, and limitations to merging accounts: Merging customers. 

I understand based on your comment here that you're looking to merge stores, not customer profiles. Please know that this feedback has been shared with our developers as well.