Merge Customers

[makers18]

Has there been any updates or progress on the ability to MERGE CUSTOMER ACCOUNTS that are duplicates?  We have a ton and we basically began online sales in early March.  This is really needed to keep up with past orders and preferences.  We also offer rewards for our repeat customers and this system has really made tracking sales difficult.  

[Rae]

Hi, @makers18! 

This is Rae from Shopify. Welcome to the Community. 

I appreciate you reaching out about this, and sharing more details about the difficulties this has created for your business. 

At this time, there isn't a way to merge customers accounts in the Shopify admin, but there are some workarounds that may help ensure sales are attributed to the most relevant customer account, such as: 

• Editing the customer's name, or email address, on the dormant account. This will ensure that new orders are placed under the active account only. 
• Adding tags to active customer accounts to signify repeat purchases, or to highlight any order preferences related to the customer. 

I understand this is an important feature for your business, so I'd like to learn more about how these duplicates are created, so I can share your experience with our teams directly. With this in mind, is there a common factor that leads to duplicate accounts? For instance, do you sell both online and in person? If so, do some customers have multiple accounts from purchasing in person, and then also online? 

Once I have more details on this, I'll send your thoughts and feedback directly to our teams. 

In the meantime though, if we have any updates to share on this feature request, we'll post more information on our Announcements page, as well as our changelog, so please keep an eye out there. 

I look forward to your reply! 

[NateDakar]

Any updates on this? Merging customers is VERY useful

[makers18]

No update unfortunately.  Basically, you can edit them all to look the same, but no merging.  It is a mess for looking up past orders as well for any type of loyalty program.  I can't believe it is not a feature being how many people use Shopify.  It is a one click solution in Square and they even suggest possible duplicates for you to review.  

[INDIEBANG]

I agree.  I moved away from Square platform to Shopify expecting it to be much better and advanced.  But a simple solution to merge customers is still not an option. WHY?  Please fix this SHOPIFY.  Thank you. 

[wildfiberstudio]

Yes, to merge customers would be great.  Our duplicate customers happened when we originally would swipe a card and it would capture the person's name.  We know put the person's name in first.  We would love to merge the old ones to the current customers as we work on a loyalty program on what they spend.  Hopefully it can be done.

[Tough_Traveler]

We also really need this feature.  For us, this usually happens under these circumstances:

1) A customer places some orders using only a phone number, and some using an email address

2) A customer has more than one email address that they use

3) A customer buys something in our store and declines to provide an email, and then orders online and provides an email address

This can be particularly annoying when a customer places an order with their email address, then later places a second order and forgets to put in their email address, but then requests to be emailed updates on their new order.  It's impossible to add their email address to their second order, because it is rejected as belonging to another customer.  

[Rae]

Hi, all! 

I appreciate you reaching out with these different use cases, and outlining how each of your businesses are impacted by duplicate customer accounts. I've shared your individual pieces of feedback with our team. 

If any other Community members would like to request this feature too, please reply in this thread with more information about how these duplicates occur, and I will pass your feedback along as well. 

While we don't have any updates on this request at this time, if we have news to share in the future we will post on our changelog and our Announcements page. Our changelog is a great resource to keep an eye on, as it outlines product updates and any recent changes made to our platform. Equally, our Announcements page is the best place to read more information on new and exciting updates. 

Thanks! 

[AndryeaNatkin]

It's so frustrating to not be able to merge customer data into one account when they are in fact the same customer. Not only do customers use multiple email addresses but they go by various names, ie. mary vs margaret or sue vs susan.

Having the ability to merge these variations into one account would be so beneficial in so many ways.

It's the 21 century... PLEASE HELP.

[CrosspoolAle]

We also require this feature. It occurs most often when an order is made and the customer has used their email address online, then purchase again with their phone number. We run customers giveaways and competitions which rely on a certain number/certain of customer purchases to qualify. This makes it more difficult to manage. I'm new to Shopify, I surprised a simple function such as this is not available actually.

Mark

[makers18]

Agree. It has been a mess for the holidays with our reorders, and not realizing someone already has an account.

[CrosspoolAle]

I've also realised that many customers signed up to the mailing list without purchasing. When they came back and made a purchase, some don't re-enter the email address and they are created as another customer account.

It's an absolute pain.

[makers18]

YES! Same with us.

[Kim-and-Isa]

Yes same issue with us.. very frustrating.  There should be a way that when they create an account with the same email address shopify recognises it and merges automatically with account being created.. 

[Beverley_McNaug]

It is a feature that should be part of the basic package. More and more I feel Shopify is lagging in providing value for money. I am seriously looking at other options. 

[mtolleson]

I agree that this is a much needed function.  I too am beginning to look at other options.  Shopify is taking too long to provide some of the simplest POS functions.

[makers18]

Please update us if you find something better.  I agree, this should be a basic function for customer management, and Shopify doesn't seem to have it as a priority.  This will ultimately be a deal breaker for us, as we grow and need to manage our database, so we can understand and service our loyal customers.

[boostryan]

Any update on this?  Customers using multiple emails makes it extremely hard to keep track of their orders and it would be nice be able to merge the customers so that we use the email they prefer while still showing the orders from both emails used.

[CurlyGirlShop]

I need this as well. Customers are creating accounts with:

1. different email addresses

2. different last names 

3. short version of their full name

Ugh. Not fun.

Hopefully this will be rectified soon.

[apetitestore]

Yes please I have the same issues I need this !!!

[KendraFCP]

We need this as well. We have customers that sign up with their email and then sign up again with their phone number. The SMS alerts do not work as well as the email alerts and we want to merge everything under the email address. This is desperately needed to improve the customer experience. Thank you!

[SouthernSpirit]

We have several duplicates due to: 

the customer checked out via POS and didn't provide email or phone or address and then bought something at a later date online and included all the information. I went back to include her email address in the POS order hoping it would sync but shopify won't allow the email address because it already exists with the other duplicate account. 

It makes a big difference...  between sorting our data by most orders per customer and sorting our data by highest amount spent by a customer.  For example, I have a customer that when I sort the data by amount spent she does not show in the top 5 because of a duplicate account, and it's a discrepancy of over $600 to put her in the top 5.  Same with the number of orders she has placed as well. 

[Rich_Hamilton]

Adding my voice to this topic - again...we've had a store with Shopify since 2012, and I have asked for this to be resolved numerous times. We sell digital content and it poses a major headache for both the customer and me when there are multiple accounts. The customer can not change their own password associated with an account (yet another problem that needs fixed) and have no access to the old account to reset a password, so they generate a new account. I can't even tell you how many duplicates we have, but I really, really would like this to be resolved. 

[SarahFFW]

Hi Rae,

Has any progress been made on this issue? It seems Shopify Merchants have been asking for this feature for years, some as far back as 2013. Our shop is a hybrid online/brick and mortar shop, and we're having to consider additional development of our own or leaving Shopify for a separate platform altogether to solve this problem since Shopify seems uninterested in doing so. Nearly every database company/system has a means to merge customers, even Quickbooks. Is there something I'm missing? Given the increase in fees over the years and continued requests for this one feature, one would think Shopify would place some kind of priority on this issue. 

[daniellavoie]

Our shop is also impacted by that issue. Pretty much all scenarios evoke on this threads are valid to us.

[erikaastrid]

Click to expand...

This is much needed! I have some customers using different email addresses and need to merge them into one. Crazy this is not available.

[RENDermatology]

Would love the ability to merge customers.  

[Jarrod_Sanders]

Same here.  Repeat customers forget their password and just checkout with a phone number.  Boom...two accounts and separate product sales data across everything including all marketing efforts.   

I have been using Shopify for years and still can't see why this basic feature is not available.  Fingers crossed for sooner than later.  

Thanks,

Jarrod

Sunglass Savings

[CDR2]

I would also love to be able to have this feature.  Customers get new emails, forget their passwords, can't log in and need to reset their password, lose their email, whatever.  There are a number of reasons we ALL would like to see this feature.  Please make it an option for us.  

Thanks

CDR

Owner of a large online quiltshop

[Excan-Nick]

Still looking for a way to do this If sqaure space has this down like some of the first comments set I'm just about ready to jump ship due to my frustration. 

[odedesoie]

We have the same problem and I can't believe this isn't a built in feature! Customers subscribe to our mailing list without purchasing, which later locks them out of adding their email at checkout. Also, if someone uses just a phone number on one sale and then an email on another, Shopify doesn't automatically ask to merge. Please fix ASAP!

[AliRae]

+1....

Seems very odd that one of the biggest ecommerce platforms wouldn't have this basic functionality like all of the others do.

Hope to see it implemented soon but maybe we shouldn't hold our breath LOL.

[Nekohama]

Has their been an update on this? We see this all the time and we only have an online store. For some reason we have multiple accounts for customers and we'd like to keep them all together.

[michellegoo]

I wrote a note to the CEO outlining in detail what the issues are and asked for a resolution.  An assistant responded that they are working on it.  That was 3 weeks ago.

[Jarrod_Sanders]

Can you post what you sent to Tobias? Would love to see it!