Merge Customers - Feedback and questions

[Shopify]

Earlier this week we added the ability to merge customer profiles.

We’ve followed up in the various topics that have been posted about this followed by starting this topic so we could collect your feedback and questions.

You can now merge customer profiles. Thanks to your advocacy and feedback - you can merge customer profiles to ensure you have the most accurate view of your customers.

Identify duplicated customer profiles with the same name, phone number, email address, or another overlapping attribute then merge customers to make sure you maintain quality customer data.

To merge customer profiles:

1. Search for a duplicate customer in the Customers page of your Shopify admin
2. Click on the customer’s name and review their customer profile data to identify what data needs to be kept or removed. 
3. Click into one of the duplicate profiles 
4. On the bottom right of the profile you will see a heading called, Customer Data
5. Click the button in that section that says Merge customer
6. Search for the customer profile you intend to merge. 
7. Complete the merge steps. 

Keep in mind, not every customer profile can be merged. There are some limitations for merging profiles that you can review in the Shopify Help Center.

We know this has taken time, and we appreciate your patience. We are excited to be launching this improvement for you today and look forward to hearing your feedback so we can keep improving your experience maintaining customer data in Shopify.  

If you haven’t already make sure you review the Shopify Help Center; Managing customers section which contains a new area, Merging customer profiles and let us know your thoughts! 

[taylortoolworks]

We just tried this with one of our customers and it worked! It was one of our customers who made an order with a typo in their email. We merged the wrong customer profile to the right one and the information and orders merged with it.

We had to double check the email though. We went to the correct customer profile and merged the wrong one to it, and we weren't able to review the information to see which email would be the one it would default to. The wrong customer email is the one that defaulted (which was odd to me considering we were merging to the correct customer profile). It was an easy fix to update the email on the merged profile, just something to be cautious of moving forward.

Thank you Shopify staff for fixing this.

[SCTrading]

Works now for us too. Issue seems to be solved. Thank you!

[hstb]

Need to be able to merge any accounts. If that means deleting cc info,
fine. If that means resetting passwords, fine.

[Dan_Knowlson]

Thank you, that's a long-needed feature. So far so good with my tests

What would be a great addition would be to have the ability to hit a button that runs a search that highlights potential duplicate accounts (based on email, name or whichever field we specify) without us having to specify an actual name/email/etc

There are bound to be duplicate accounts that I'm not aware of and this would help tidying the customer database

[Dirk]

---

@Dan_Knowlson wrote:

Thank you, that's a long-needed feature. So far so good with my tests

What would be a great addition would be to have the ability to hit a button that runs a search that highlights potential duplicate accounts (based on email, name or whichever field we specify) without us having to specify an actual name/email/etc

There are bound to be duplicate accounts that I'm not aware of and this would help tidying the customer database

---

Hey, @Dan_Knowlson! I totally see how that could be both beneficial and time-saving to merging customers. I'd be happy to pass this feedback along to our developers for potential future implementation.

If there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know.

[MartinHansen]

Dear Dirk,

I hope this message finds you well. I am reaching out to inquire about the progress we have made in addressing the issue of duplicate customers in our system. Additionally, I am seeking potential workarounds to help mitigate the problem more effectively.

At the moment, we are encountering challenges in identifying duplicate customers until they are discovered within the system. This has led to confusion and difficulties in managing our customer database. I would like to propose the idea of sorting customers by their email addresses or a combination of email and phone number to identify potential matches more easily.

If you could kindly provide us with a solution for this issue or assist us in resolving the duplicate customer problem, it would greatly enhance the efficiency of our system.

Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I look forward to your assistance in addressing this issue.

Best regards.

[CherylA]

Hi Martin 

excellent suggetion, the search and sort functions for the customer page, are insufficient. You can not sort via name or even order alphabetically (well not that I could see), or via email addresses or phone numbers.

regards

Cheryl

[MartinHansen]

Dear Dirk,

Any new updates?

[ekeshen]

Hi Dan, 

Thanks for your reply - glad to hear it's working for you. 

Identifying the source of duplicates and surfacing them for you in the Shopify admin are top problems our team is working to solve. We will keep you and the community posted as we have update. 

[Biordi]

Thank you for adding this feature. Can you add the ability to SORT by last
name & first name?

[Dirk]

---

@Biordi wrote:
Thank you for adding this feature. Can you add the ability to SORT by last
name & first name?

---

Hey, @Biordi! We really appreciate your input on suggesting some additional sorting functionality by first & last name. Although we don't have a timetable for this being considered to roll out as a feature, we certainly appreciate the feedback. I've gone ahead and submitted this feedback to our development team for potential future implementation. 

If there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know.

[Biordi]

Thank you for adding this feature. I have 1-more request: the ability to SORT the Customer Database by Last Name & First name?

[Rachel_Marshall]

this is great news!! thank you.

[MrLaundry]

Very good news... I only have one problem, it tells me that it cannot be merged "because the client has metafields", and I don't use metafields at all!

[ekeshen]

Hey MrLaundry, 

Please submit a help ticket with this issue - https://help.shopify.com/en/support/login so our support team can gather more context and help resolve the issue. They will need to see the example of the customers you are merging where the merge is blocked for this reason. That will help them better investigate. 

[Lawson_Thalmann]

@MrLaundry  I have this same issue. I made sure to delete all my existing metafields, but it still gives me that error on about 60% of the ones I try to merge. It only lets me merge about 5% of the ones I try to... 

[stellalee]

Hello! We are also currently blocking "private metafields", which are created by Partner Apps. Please verify that there are no metafields added by apps and try again.

[JudahA]

me too i would like to know how to merge with this issue 

[MrLaundry]

I have an even more serious problem, I managed to merge a client but it leaves the statistics at ZERO, number of orders and Average value of orders (see attached)

[ekeshen]

Hi MrLaundry, 

Thanks for sharing the screenshot here. The product team is working to resolve this for you and I will share an update asap. 

[Francisco_MW]

I have the same issue

Search of my customers shows "customer 1" below showing 3 orders $221 total spent

When I click on the customer name it shows they only have one order. The timeline does have the correct information and shows all their orders.

 

 

[Ryans99]

I am also having the same issue.

Merged 2 customers who both had 2 orders each. But after merge Order = 2 and Average order value showing wrong value. It does show all orders when I check orders list.

When I search customer from Customer, it shows 4 orders.

[stellalee]

Hello! This is a known issue -- rest assured, the data is not lost. Our customer data platform team is tackling this bug and will make sure that the correct statistics are displayed.

[yeshe]

Great news!

[Katdrawdy]

THANK YOU! It's working for us! 

[tmc222]

When attempting to use this feature we receive an error message "Customers can't be merged. Customer merge failed." without any other information as to why.

[ekeshen]

@tmc222 It sounds like there could be an issue, but the team would need to investigate further. Please submit a help ticket here - https://help.shopify.com/en/support/login - and our team will be able to follow up with you specifically. 

[LB_B]

Customers must be-able to have more than one email address. It is critical as many retail customers order under different email addresses. In addition many business require duplicate correspondence to be emailed to different people within an organization which requires 2 or more email addresses! This is critically important.

[AbdrhmnShata]

Can you pls provide more info?

[amandamwarren]

Just FYI for anyone doing this- it triggered abandoned cart flows in my Klaviyo for items we haven't had in forever. I just happened to check Klaviyo activity after accidentally sending flows to my best customers 🤦‍♀️ Turned off the flows while I work on it, but I guarantee there are a lot of confused customers wondering why they're getting emails about dresses they looked at in 2019...

[FontFixation]

This is EXCELLENT -- and we were able to merge one customer with her other email address flawlessly. THANK YOU. 

We DID encounter an issue when we went to merge subsequent duplicate customer accounts -- because they had previously been given Gift Cards. 

Whether anyone who has gift cards are that are spent or disabled, the system will not allow for merging of accounts. How do we allow the system to override the gift card issue when we have confirmed that there are NO ACTIVE gift cards on the account?

Thanks!

[FontFixation]

This is EXCELLENT -- and we were able to merge one customer with her other email address flawlessly. THANK YOU. 

We DID encounter an issue when we went to merge subsequent duplicate customer accounts -- because they had previously been given Gift Cards. 

Whether anyone who has gift cards are that are spent or disabled, the system will not allow for merging of accounts. How do we allow the system to override the gift card issue when we have confirmed that there are NO ACTIVE gift cards on the account?

Thanks!

[stellalee]

Hello! We are currently blocking any customer merges with gift cards
(disabled, expired, or enabled). However, the team is actively working on
this and it should be available at some time after BFCM.

Hope this helps,
Stella

[FontFixation]

Hi! Just looking for an update on merging accounts with gift cards. I know the resolution was said to be coming after BFCM, but I was curious if that resolution is this year or planned for 2023? Thanks so much!

[ADCC]

Any updates on when this will be resolved? I have the same issue of not being able to merge a customer because she used a gift card 18 months ago. 

[RobertChin]

Thanks a lot. It's working fine for us. Everything is fine. 🙂

[Matt37]

It works well.  And thank you!  It's super helpful try and clean up our database.  

Will a multi select be coming soon?  (I'm looking at you Google!  Frickin' John Smith...) 

[Dina24]

This worked in the past, but I just tried this again.

My customer used us 26 times and now changed his email. He placed 2 orders under then new email and would like his records, orders and rewards merged.

The "merge customers" did not work. It states a server error and wants me to delete an account.

What can I do?

[WDSAdmin]

Thanks for getting this feature added in finally...has long been an issue for us (since 2012!)

For our particular situation, there is an issue - we sell only digital download content. We use FetchApp as our software distribution service that integrates with Shopify. The problem arises when you use the merge feature that the email account on all the different orders is changed to the master one (understandably) - but this then breaks all the order linkages back to FetchApp so the customer can't go in and access their old orders unless I go in and manually change them all in FetchApp.

The work around I am currently using is the manually change the customer on each order to get it under the correct account (which is also a relatively new change y'all have made) - and that method leaves the order email alone and allows the customer to be able to access all of their orders from their main account window. I would imagine anyone who sells digital items is experiencing the same problem... would be wonderful if provision could be made for this instance in some fashion.

A further request as well - Customers need to be able to change their own email addresses. People get new emails all the time, and this is a big cause for duplicate accounts in the first place. Giving them the ability to do this when they login to their Store account would be immensely helpful.

Thanks for listening to the community and making change happen...it really helps out with the management of our Store.

[CherylA]

Love the merge customer functionality. It has been a long time coming. Can you work on being able to merge duplicate customers who have gift cards.  Surely that should not be too hard for the developers. 

T

[Dina24]

Even if they have used the Gift Card, you can not merge because they "had one".  

[LB_B]

There are so many limitations to this that it is absolutely useless! Many of these customers are B2B as businesses often have multiple email addresses.

• Profiles can't be merged in the following cases:
  • either of the customer profiles has a subscription contract
  • either of the customer profiles is a B2B customer
  • either of the customer profiles has active or inactive gift cards
  • either of the customer profiles has discounts applied
  • either of the customer profiles has metafields applied
  • either of the customer profiles has been redacted or a data redaction request is in progress
  • a customer profile merge is in progress
  • a customer data request is in progress

[j_holden]

Has the merge feature been removed again? The option is no longer showing when I view a customer. 

It was helpful sometimes, but to be truly effective it needs to be available for customers who have had gift cards. 

[CW_Bat]

I came here to ask the same thing. I finally need to use it and it's nowhere to be found.

[stellalee]

Hello! There is a new dedicated Customer Merge permission that needs to be enabled for staff members to access the Merge feature. Please ask your store administrator to enable it. See General staff permissions > Customers > Merge customers

We are actively working on removing the gift cards limitation and it will be shipped in the coming weeks.

[badkarbon]

Your reply should be added to the OP. I thought the Merge Customers function was deprecated or something when I couldn't find it on the customer's profile. Or Shopify should show the option on the customer profile and give an error if the admin account doesn't have permission to edit it. Instead we need to google around searching discussions and having to go through all the replies to finally find the answer, it wastes our time and your staff's.

But thank you for your help.

[gregtau]

I get an error trying to merge, even if I use the latest API (unstable) 

INFO:root:Merge result: {"data":{"customerMerge":{"job":null,"resultingCustomerId":null,"userErrors":[{"field":["customerTwoId"],"message":"Customer name has gift cards and can’t be merged."}]}},"extensions":{"cost":{"requestedQueryCost":10,"actualQueryCost":10,"throttleStatus":{"maximumAvailable":10000.0,"currentlyAvailable":9990,"restoreRate":500.0}}}}

[Gabe_Stillwater]

Far from complete... But it's a start...

This works fine as long as the entire ecosystem of Shopify is involved. Once you provide any third-party integration into the system - it fails. So if you are using a Rewards Program, Incentive Program, or any other "Discount" App, the system generates an error indicating "(Customer XXXX) has a discount and can’t be merged." This is directly from Shopify Support representatives, who I pinged about the issue and opened a case for.

It indicates that at the Customer level, a field will not allow the merge. Or it's just some generic message they put there as a placeholder until they figure out how to correct the issue.

I find this strange because nowhere in the DEV library is there any reference to "Discount" within the Customer Object Fields: https://shopify.dev/docs/api/admin-graphql/2022-10/objects/Customer#fields

This raises the question of why? If the mere interaction with a third-party integration causes an error in the "Customer" and "Discount" Object Fields. Then I hope someone can explain or inform the thread of the specific field causing the error and for the merge process to be hung up. Or why wasn't this tested more before releasing it to the masses?

As of this writing, nobody from Shopify has been able to explain it to me thoroughly. I am a Plus Customer and have more than an average understanding of the field mappings used by the platform due to our configuration and customizations.

I am also aware that there are workarounds for doing Customer Level Price Discounts using the "Price List" and "Company" functions if you are on Plus: "If you are a plus member, you can achieve this by creating price lists, creating a company profile for that customer and assign the price list to it."

That quote is from another post here with the topic: "Apply Automatic Discount To Tagged Customers", where the simple request to use a specific tag on Customers to provide them a Discount: https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussions/apply-automatic-discount-to-tagged-customers/td-... This thread dates back to 2019, so there has been no change since then.

Again, the issue of Customer Level Discounts is not resolved, and you cannot use Merge on Customers who have ever received a discount outside of the Shopify Core Discount function. It makes me wonder if it would error out on someone who was given a discount using Shopify Discounts instead of Bold, Stamped, etc. My guess is no - it will work fine on Shopify-created discounts... SMH

With Shopify bringing so many of the functions of third-party applications internal instead of external pay-to-use applications, they should be building a better product than these third parties - not an inferior version, IMHO.

UPDATE: According to Shopify, you cannot merge ANY Customers who have EVER received a discount - regardless of how the Discount was created... This is another fine example of Shopify not understanding the Retail Environment and that sometimes Customers do wonky things, which force them to create an additional account.

So as long as your customers have never received any discount on your store - this "merge" will work. If they have ever been given a Coupon Code, Discount Code, etc. - the merge will not work. A waste of time and effort to manage customers without being able to Merge ALL of the information or actively select the fields we wish to merge.

[Dina24]

This was my intial complaint. Even if the customer used the "reward" "gift card" or any other promotion applied to their account and now it is inactive, you still can not merge.

Please let us all know when Shopify understands this issue.  We are retailers that have promotions or reward systems.