Auto assign address to customer order from affiliate link in order to merge orders

[BrookeMac]

I've been working around this issue for two years and still can't find a solution that fits.

We have a main Shopify store, and a second Shopify store which takes individual orders. These orders are then combined manually using a report from Report Toaster, and entered in the main store for fulfilment. We have now connected our second store to our 3PL using ShipHero, and we have the ability to merge orders using this software, however the address must be identical for the merge to happen. 

Currently, our products in the order taker store are set as 'no shipping required', so at checkout customers only enter a billing address. I can't reply on customers to enter the identical order information for their school or club at checkout each time (we get hundreds of orders for one school/group). What I am trying to achieve is that when the customer arrives at the store using their affiliate link, the shipping address of the affiliate is applied to the checkout and locked. 

Alternatively, another solution would be a software that was able to combine orders in the order taker store by tag, as again we won't have identical addresses for all orders.

I'd love any ideas that could fix this issue - our entire process is automated besides this st

[PaulNewton · Accepted solution]

Hi @BrookeMac 

If you need any of the below automated, customized or consulted on,  then contact me directly by mail for services.
Please always provide context, examples: store url, theme name, post url(s) , or any further detail.
Contact Info in signature.

Permalinks

Either try and prefill the address using something like permalinks

https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-design/cart-use-permalinks-to-pre-load-the-cart/td-p/613702 

Automation apps

Or use automation software to edit the order addresses on the first or second store.

Shopify flow

One route is using shopify-flow to make rows in a google sheet then ingest that in the other systems. Note that shopify-flow cannot edit orders.

Mechanic app

The mechanic app can be scripted for either editing addresses or combining orders.

Though obviously you wont find an existing task for such a niche need but there are some starting points for the different parts to lego together something bigger.

https://tasks.mechanic.dev/?q=order%20address 

https://tasks.mechanic.dev/update-empty-customer-data-from-addresses 

https://tasks.mechanic.dev/export-a-csv-of-order-shipping-addresses 

Mechanic also integrates with report toaster and can connect to third party apis , possibly ShipHero if they have a simple http authentication api not requiring something like ouath.

Combining orders

Note that when generating orders there ~ 500 line item limit, not quantity, but rows of unique items. And of course there's the issue of managing payments for such a combined order depending on how your doing things.

Shopify Plus B2B

A much more expensive alternative is for Shopify Plus enterprise using it's B2B features for 1 company address for related orders.

Beyond that is building your own middleware apps.

Good Hunting.

[BrookeMac]

Thanks Paul, this is a much appreciated reply and I will reach out via email. Brooke.