How can I merge orders for a specific customer to consolidate shipping?

[studio-umbrella]

Hi all!

I'm looking for a solution to merge a particular customers' orders in order to consolidate shipping. Heres' the scenario:

A customer has a subscription for a group of products ("box") that they get monthly. If this customer orders something additional (either same day or let's say within a week), it would be great to combine these orders so that they can both be shipped in the same box, saving costs for the customer and for the merchant.

I can't realyl find an app to do this, and the Shopify Scripts and/or Flow doesn't seem to give a solution for this (the merchant is a Shopify Plus member).

Thank you for any help!! 

[Dallas]

Hey, there. 

This is Dallas from the Social Care Team here at Shopify. 

That is actually a great question. When it comes to orders there isn't a way for you to combine more than one together. All orders have specific order numbers that relate to each of them so it would mess up some internal data and other bits of reference on the back end of your site. 

With that being said, however, I may have come up with a workaround for you that would work. Once the multiple orders have been Placed by your customer you can go under Orders > Draft Orders in your Store Admin and click Create Order to make a combined order of what you are wanting.

Once you have created the duplicate orders into one you will be able to make a shipping label so that you can send all of the products out as one package rather than making multiple shipments to the same location. 

Worried about inventory levels? After you have created this draft order, made shipping labels and received a tracking number you can put the tracking number into your original orders, cancel the fulfillment and delete the draft order. That way your customer will still have a reference for where their items are on their postal journey and you won't have any inventory discrepancies. 

I hope that helps to answer your question. If you would like more assistance or need more help with this let me know by replying to this forum. I am more than happy to help. 

All the best, 
Dallas

[jcm1]

I sort of used this technique.  I created a draft order, combining two orders to the same customer (she had incorrectly marked one of the orders as "in store pickup").  I had to further mark the order as paid, and when I created the shipping label, it automatically fulfilled the order.  So now I have the combined order (with the tracking #), plus the two unfulfilled orders.  I'll probably just leave the orders as unfulfilled (I can manually correct inventory if needed).  I don't know if mine works a little differently because of the version of Shopify I use (the 'Lite' version).  So I think I accomplished what I needed to and don't think it will mess anything up too much, but it didn't work exactly as shown here.

[Sweetheartsclub]

You say that once I have created the duplicate order I can create the shipping label? Should I mark it as paid, pending, or pay with card? I don't have the option the print the label right away. 

[ClearChoiceAqua]

I create a shipping label for one of them, then just manually fill the other with the tracking number from the first and send 2 packing lists.  the other way just seems a bit to manual for me and leave the chance of screwing up inventory.  

[brocknsp]

This is completely inefficient and unscalable. I'm shocked there isn't a solution for this. Especially for merchants that work at high volumes. I'm using Clickfunnels to create orders and send them over to Shopify. If someone opts for an order bump then it comes as a separate order. There is no way at the scale we want to work to manually combine orders and then delete orders all day so our fulfillment partner can ship out with the correct labels. 

[DianaL]

Brock,

If you are having this order merging issue as a result from selling on Clickfunnels, I recommend you use the Shopfunnel app

It allows you to merge orders from Clickfunnel purchases and send to Shopify as one.

Its on the shopify app store here:
https://apps.shopify.com/clickfunnels-integration-app 

Or -- if you sell from a different platform, go to there website shopfunnel.io and contact them asking about other integrations. They may have other ones for you. 

Good luck @brocknsp 

[scottnemiro]

there is an app called order merger that does all this automatically. It can also send emails to the customer automatically as well. Good luck. 

If anyone knows how to create a flow to just notify us of two open orders for the same customer we would be greatful.

[RachelFox]

Shopify definitely needs to improve and create an automatic way to either merge orders or the option to transfer shipping data into other orders. I realize that there are apps out there that do this, but none of them are free and this seems like something that should be integral.

[Anthohn]

Is that still the easiest way or has their been an update to this? It seems pretty basic and necessary...just one button on ebay.

Will it affect revenue or other stats by constantly creating more orders and deleting?

Any help would be appreciated as I sale doubles constantly but have been using another platform for shipping.

Would like to use shopify for all shipments though...

Thank you,

Anthony

[6feetsafe]

Is it possible to do this when dropshipping? we have an upsell that triggers after checkout.  if the customer engages with the upsell, it creates 2 separate orders and 2 separate shipping costs.  is there any way to combine this order to be sent for fulfillment to save on the extra shipping charge?

thank you

[AlexRev]

This is a poor solution. If the customer is dishonest and issues a chargeback on orders that you combined, you would lose as the tracking does not show proof of delivery as they were never individually sent out. I would strongly discourage this workaround. 

[BestApper]

Hello there

I think this problem could be solved easily regarding these points:

1- Mergify can send emails to the customers, notifying them about merging their orders and their new combined order. So you have an email that you can prove the order delivery process.

2- Mergify logs all mergings in the history tab of the app.

3- It only considers unfulfilled, not refunded items to make the new order, so no fulfillments regarding these items have happened before. Now, that you ship these items to the customer, you have their tracking data.

4- The last and the most important matter is Financial Transactions data available on the original orders, and Mergify does not transfer them to the new merged order. You as a store owner, are responsible for delivering items that you are paid for, you have shipping data that proves you have delivered items to the customer, and you have financial transactions data that you can use to prove, you aren't paid more than what's needed.

We would be glad to have your ideas about these points!

[ColtsOffice]

Hi, I know I'm responding to an old thread but I had the same scenario where I wanted to combine orders.

I had a customer who created two orders for local pickup and wasn't able to pick them up, so I wanted to create one order and ship them.

I've followed the instructions in this thread, but I don't see how it really works. In order to create a shipping label on the new order, the draft order gets converted into a real order. At the point when the shipping label is created the items are automatically fulfilled. So, how would one "cancel the fulfillment and delete the draft order" after the shipping label is created? 

I'm willing to do this process manually because it doesn't come up very often, but I don't think this answer actually works. Any suggestions for workarounds?

Thanks!

[MBowland]

Good answer for getting a correct shipping label but what about reimbursing your customer who paid for shipping twice? Is there a way to fix that? The only option I see is to cancel both the orders and give a refund then she can resubmit her online order with all the products in one order. This is great for the customer, but the merchant ( me ) ends up paying three different transaction fees because when you do a refund transaction fees aren’t refunded back to the merchant from credit card companies so you’re actually out money in the end. Anyone have any ideas on how to work around that one? Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[studio-umbrella]

Hi Dallas,

Thanks for the help! I'll look into this but this is too manual to do. It means that I have to manually create orders and then delete the originals all the while initially identifying that this is a mulptiple order by the same customer (sometimes days/weeks apart).

So there isn't a way to automate it? Are there any apps that could do this? I saw that BOLD once had something like this, but no longer does.. 

Thanks again.

[TrashNuts]

100000000% this. Imagine if Shopify had built a covered wagon for weary travelers, but stopped short of mounting the wheels. The solution? Spend the next 20 years suggesting "that's why wagons are so convenient — plenty of room to store the wheels...right inside the wagon!"

It's endlessly ludicrous. 

[Dallas]

Hey, there. 

I completely understand what you mean! Unfortunatley there isn't anything in place for this at the moment. 

Keep an eye open, however, because new apps are being added to the store all the time. 

Happy Holidays, 

Dallas

[WebMonkey]

I find it really frustrating that Shopify relies on 3rd party apps rather than just improving the core product. It's been two years since this conversation, and the solution is still ship one and paste the tracking number into the others, or you can pay for an app...

[CottonGOs]

Trying to keep this discussion alive because we are now in 2021 and Shopify still doesn't have a native option for us to merge orders for shipping.

Has anyone in this discussion found a better solution or workaround that isn't so manually demanding?

[w-works]

Agreed. This should be something that does not require a third-party app. Add me to the list of those looking to see this option as standard.

[armv1024]

Same here! Super disappointed that Shopify doesn't offer a native function to merge orders after three years of this post/question being active. Totally inefficient and labor intensive. C'mon Shopify!

[norbertsf]

Any update on internally combining orders, or an App that allows one to combine--easily (physical product) orders from the same customer?

Norbert

[BestApper]

Hello there

We have developed an app called Mergify. It helps you to merge orders. You can define all fields of the new merged order and check the app functionality by creating draft orders. When you are sure about your settings, you can make orders directly. Mergify notifies customers, cancels or archives orders, refunds extra shipping costs if you want. 

You can define some rules to help it find mergeable orders for you. For example, you may not want to merge orders with a special tag, or only consider the last 48 hours orders. Mergify then shows you merging suggestions that you can take action with just a few clicks. Even this process can be automated, so if a customer creates orders with the same shipping address that passes your defined rules, Mergify merges it automatically.

Of course, this app can not work as clean as a Shopify native solution, but we are really working on it, and we really appreciate your comments and suggestions. 

[extech]

Make it free. ShipStation does this for free as part of their monthly plan. We already pay shopify for a sub, then a certain %age... Where does it end? Basic functionality like this should be free. It is a joke we have to have all these 3rd party apps to do basic stuff. 

[extech]

Yeah, use ShipStation. does this for free. Absolute joke we have to use all these 3rd party apps, paid as well then others do this for free. 

[extech]

Two years later and it is all about paid apps to do something which ShipStation does for free. Combining/Merging orders is a basic logistics feature which should be free. After all the bs app addons we have to pay to do basic things like this. I think it is a scam to get everyone to pay $$$. I should be a shopify app dev instead of a merchant. 

[SineShipandco]

Hi @studio-umbrella  ,

Depending on the carrier you are using, but Ship&co application allows you to combine orders and make a shipment. Ship&co supports major carriers such as UPS, FedEx, and DHL. Please see this link how the process is done inside the application. After combine the ordered items, tracking number & order status will be sent back to Shopify store but in such case, if you have two orders combined, you will have to fulfill one order and mark it as shipped manually.

It is completely free to get started since you will start 14-day free trial right after signup so that you can try out our services without any charges and without payment information.

See more info from the links below:

• About Ship&co 
• How to start
• How to add your Shopify store in Ship&co
• Tutorial Video

Hope this helps give you some idea how it works!

Best,

[Muriel_Santos]

The way we do it:

Let's say we have 3 different orders for the same client/address. We go ahead and create a shipping label for one of them and for the other 2 we just click on fulfill (one at a time) and add the tracking number from the shipping label we created for the first one. That way, you will be able to ship everything in one box. Not practical but its one way to deal with Shopify's flaws. The day Shopify realizes that we don't like Apps, they will do so much better than they are. Are you listening, Shopify??? 

[Nicole44]

Hello there, unfortunately, there isn't a built-in feature in Shopify that allows you to merge orders and ship them all at once. There are however a couple of ways to tackle this issue.

Here’s the manual method:

• Create a combined duplicate of the orders you want to ship together under Orders > Drafts first.
• You can now create a shipping label for the combined duplicate order.

BUT if you deal with high order volumes, this method of manually combining orders is not very scalable.

If you believe this is far too much work and require an automated solution, a tool such as Order Merger can assist. You can use this tool to merge multiple orders into a single order, notify the customer, and decide what happens to the extra shipping fee. You also have full control over what orders get merged, what to do with the old orders, etc.

Also, make sure to scan orders for delivery issues and solve them proactively for a smooth customer experience. You can use Helplama Helpdesk for automatic order scanning. Good luck!

[BestApper]

The app you mentioned exclusively focuses on automated order merging. If a merchant requires the ability to preview mergeable orders before merging them, it may not be a suitable app. However, in such cases, Mergify can serve as a suitable alternative.

Mergify merges orders through smart suggestions in addition to automatically merging orders. Smart suggestions mode provides merchants with the flexibility to choose specific settings for both the original orders and the final merged order. This allows them to verify whether the orders should be merged or not. Mergify empowers merchants to customize different properties for individual orders.

Mergify | https://apps.shopify.com/bestapper-mergify
Merge & combine orders to save on shipping costs

[FitnessFox]

It's 2023 and still an issue. Although I've only needed it a few times, I've just sent out two packages. But now I have two orders to Canada that I really want to merge. I've come to the conclusion that Shopify would rather make money off third party apps then update the core product. Which is disappointing considering the sheer number of merchants and volume on the platform. 

[nataliebaj]

I am having the same problem ... in 2023. I have insurance concerns as I insure my packages and all of the workarounds could leave me in a bad position if items are lost / stolen in transit. I don't want to put myself in a position where valuable merchandise goes missing and I am not covered via shipsurance because I used a workaround. I think this is so disappointing that this has been an issue for so long and continues to be a pain point for sellers. 

[GLKA]

Its now 2024 and Shopify has yet to help or fix any of this. I have been printing labels and letting shopify automatically fulfill orders, then taking that tracking # and copy/paste into the second order, and manually marking it as fulfilled. That was working... until I had a package go missing that had 2 orders in it. They won't cover it with insurance because there is 'no proof' the other items were in that package. It was over $300.

I would think that Shopify could easily fix this, as they seem to just move buttons around and change the color of things instead of working on real improvements. 

[pinsonmain]

Agreed. I posted in the community in 2019 asking why you cannot assign different items different sized shipping packages (so shipping charges calculate correctly) without a third party app. It's 2024 and that issue still hasn't changed. Shopify basically knows we have stockholm syndrome with them and won't leave for another company because it's so much work to do so, so they're never going to bother making actual improvements.

[WebMonkey]

I was asking that back in 2013. I set my default box to a size and weight that avoids charging 1st Class for something that ships Priority:

10 × 10 × 9 in, 7.2 oz

You also have to bump the weights on items that ship dimensional.

For such an integral part of ecommerce, shipping is largely overlooked by cart providers.