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.  

[PatchPat]

ETA: Pretty sure I messed up my comment in this forum tho. Haha. In case it's not appearing as a reply, what's working for me is what Paul_vd_Dool  suggested.

This is working for me! It would still be WAY better to be able to just select every duplicate account and have a single action that allows you to bulk merge them (or even one at a time would be a time saver) into an existing account of your choosing.

But in the meantime, especially because I am such small potatoes, doing it manually like this is definitely a workaround that will help me. Thank you!

[PapaOutang]

It worked perfectly, Thanks for taking the time to help : )

[edcorusa]

A few issues with this. First, I do not have three dots I have an "X", not that big a deal. But the main issue is that it does not transfer the Timeline posts. So, if you have any Timeline posts, like when an order was created and such for the customer, you lose it. This is a work around, but not a fix of the problem at hand. This does not truly merge customer accounts.

[PatchPat]

Agreed on all counts. It worked for me, but as a workaround. I was able to consolidate the customer's complete order history into one account by manually changing the customer associated with each order and archiving/disabling the duplicates once they had 0 orders associated.

Timeline comments and auto entries for invoice, shipping, etc were not transferred. I lost that as well as the earliest "customer since" info, which was associated with one of the duplicate accounts that the customer is no longer using. I definitely want a true merging functionality and think it should be a priority for Shopify to make this feature available and accessible.

[Paul_vd_Dool]

They're currently working on a "true" solution.

At the start of June I got asked to be a part of a beta program for a "Customer Profile Merge" feature. I'm still waiting to hear more about it. I believe they are still working out some kinks.

[NatalieCreamCo]

We see this happening when people check out on their phones and use a separate email from their core account. Would really like to see this feature prioritized.

[badnicolez]

We desperately need the ability to merge customer accounts or at least have two accounts have the same email address. Would it be easier and quicker for you to fix that functionality?

When a customer enters an email address with an error in it, it creates a new account and we have literally no way to fix this issue. It negatively affects the customer because of our rewards program being linked to the amount they spend with us. We also have customers create new accounts instead of updating their original account with the new email address. 

[CVT]

I like this suggestion a lot. Unlike most of the folks on this thread, I do not think adding this function will be easy. I think it's necessary but seems like a much better first step is reducing the creation of duplicate records. Thanks Badnicolez!

[osm123]

It actually is fairly simple but it would require having companies in shopify then multiple names orn emails can be associated with the same account. Thing is they only have this in the plus which costs $2,000 a month. Even me $50 a month crm has this functionaliy. 

[MichelPlante]

Abosolutelly. A simple CRM like Pipedrive has this function, you have the 2 accounts side by side, check the info you want to keep, then [ MERGE ] ...

[Paul_vd_Dool]

Hi Michelle,

I totally agree. It's a step in the right direction but not perfect.

But Shopify is working on a proper solution. They've recently (1,5 weeks ago) asked me to review some code documentation for a merge functionality. It seems you'll be able to merge two accounts. From the current state of the documentation it does not seem you'll be able to decide which information from which account you want to keep. But rather you choose a main account which the other account will be merged into. If the second account has information that the main account does not, like a phone number, that information will be transferred to the main account.

I have not idea when Shopify plans to release this though. It's still in a very early stage. I expect it will be months still.

[PaulNewton]

---

@Paul_vd_Dool wrote:

 From the current state of the documentation it does not seem you'll be able to decide which information from which account you want to keep...  If the second account has information that the main account does not, like a phone number, that information will be transferred to the main account

---

Oof hopefully that's implemented as matching content an not purely overwriting indexes so things like additional shipping addresses are appended and not impurely pure 1:1 overwrites.

So two accounts one has 2 unique shipping address another has 3 unique address the merge should end up with 5 addresses not 3.

[320hss]

HAHA what a JoKE they still have not implemented this....just gotta laugh. 

[evanhill]

Yikes. I think I'm going to Twitter with an @tobi tag for a Hail Mary. This has to be a big problem ... don't get me started on inbox 

[Paul_vd_Dool]

You can save yourself the trouble @evanhill. They're already working on it.
Last I heard they were in a draft phase, thinking about how to solve this correctly. Next up would be to start development on the first version of the solution.

[Dave-Joelles]

So, this showed up in my admin under a customer profile today (see attachment)... however look at the note: can't be merged because of a credit card? Then another account said "...has a gift card and can't be merged." 

Back to the drawing board...

[Paul_vd_Dool]

Oh wow, they're already rolling it out gradually it seems.
It's coming folks!

[bruce1976]

Hi @Paul_vd_Dool I just found your app, nice and easy- why wait for Shopify to be honest. Great job!, well done!

[Paul_vd_Dool]

Thanks for the compliment Bruce 🙂

I'm glad to hear that it's of use for those that don't yet have access to the native Shopify merge functionality. Shopify seems to be gradually rolling out this new feature.

I'm hoping to also add the same functionality to Doppelganger (plus more) but my contacts at Shopify seem to be ghosting me these last 2 weeks.

With "plus more" I'm referring to the fact the native functionality only allows you to merge two accounts at a time. With Doppelganger, I want to allow you to merge more than two accounts in one go. But most importantly, with the native Shopify feature, you still need to know which accounts are duplicates. I'm already hard at work to add discover features to Doppelganger that help you identify duplicate accounts. This will hopefully not make Doppelganger entirely obsolete once the native merge feature is fully rolled out.

Update

Over the weekend I must have also gotten access to the native feature on my dev stores. But it seems pretty limited to me.
You can't merge an account as soon as the customer has
1. a credit card
2. an account (a login etc.)
3. metafields (my app adds a metafield to the customer account but there are perhaps plenty of other apps that also add metafields to the customer account)

Perhaps there are more blockers in the native functionality but these are the ones I was able to find in my limited set of fake customers on my dev store.

[badnicolez]

Even better, what if they just made it possible to move orders to different accounts instead of having to merge them? Then we could just move the orders and delete the empty account. Seems like that might be a quicker and easier solution as well for the developers.

[Paul_vd_Dool]

Hi Nicole,

That's currently possible. Follow these steps.

1. Click on the 3 dots in the top right corner above the customer name

2. Click "Remove customer"

3. Confirm you want to remove the customer

4. Where the customer name was there is now an input field

5. Find the correct customer account

6. The order is now linked to the chosen customer account

7. Be sure to also update the email address and/or phone number on contact information section of the order

8. You can choose to remove the other customer account as soon as it has no orders associated to it anymore

There are some downsides to this though. First, it can be quite cumbersome as you'll need to do this for all orders that are made on duplicate accounts. Second, it doesn't combine the customer timeline. Some information will get lost.

[MichelPlante]

Paul, I'm sorry and I understand you have an app to push, but THIS is not the solution, the downsides you mention (especially the 2nd one) which is basicclay the most annoying effect of having same peole under different account, just make it an undesirable solution. What we need ia real Merge accounts like the one in Klavio (exemple) Sorry :my 2 cents'  ...

[Tough_Traveler]

Just to point out, the solution Paul took the time to explain actually makes his app less necessary, not more. So, helping people out by giving them the only current solution to the problem is not pushing his app (except by making the rest of us think of him as knowledgeable and helpful).

Yes, Shopify should be able to do a true merge. But for now, this is the best way to accomplish unifying orders in one account.

[ShiftSetGo]

FYI, I was just messing around and am now able to delete duplicate accounts. For the last few months we've been able to change the customer tied to an order. But, even if I removed all orders from a duplicate profile, there was still other data about the order that was associated with that profile so that it could not be deleted. Not sure when this changed but it has to be recent. You can now delete profiles with 0 orders, even if there was at one point order data tied to that profile. One step closer I guess.

[Dave-Joelles]

I just discovered the same thing. Makes it somewhat easier but doesn't solve wrong info being entered and another customer being created. Baby steps!

[Biordi]

You want to know HOW we have tons of profiles for 1 Customer? Shopify does not allow edits the Customer data after the sale is made. So SHOPIFY HAS CREATED THIS PROBLEM!

PROBLEM: If I try to update the Order with the Customer's email. Shopify's response is that email is already taken. 

SOLUTION: Have your programmers update the software to ask "would you like to update the customer to this one?"

[SpencerCran]

Agreed. We need this. 

Duplicates are created most commonly for us when:

1) Staff enter the wrong customer information

2) People purchase online with a phone number, then come into the store and purchase using an email address. Or purchase online with an email address one time and phone number another.

3) A significant other does not realize their household has a customer account already.

[AllieRae]

OR if they use multiple credit cards as well! 

[Lawson_Thalmann]

@SpencerCran Good point on the household issue. This should be talked about more in retail. If the husband shops and creates an account and then the wife later shops and creates another account, we think we just acquired a new customer when really this is the same household with joint buying decisions. 

[Lawson_Thalmann]

At this point, it's all been said, but to pile on, it's a massive thorn in our side daily. Many customers' experiences suffer daily because of this. We lose competitiveness with other businesses using software that can do this. Our customer metrics aren't trustable to make decisions off of due to this. It's not a sustainable way to run a customer-centric business. Especially with Shopify's perceived advantage over Amazon of owning the customer relationship, this puts a hug wedge in that in practice. 

[gospaorg]

This is very much needed.

[ScotBell]

HOW IT HAPPENS

Customers forget a password, or that they have an account, and create a new acct. 

But they then either make a typo (yafoo.com instead of yahoo.com is one from this morning) or they skip an email address as they cannot create an acct (because it already exists).

IMPACT:

Customer frustration, as they cannot easily get into their account, and make typos or skip an email address.

Bad impression of us, as they don't get an email confirmation from the order.

Bad impression of us as they don't save the time they thought they would with the digital item. 

Extra effort on a busy customer's time, as they need to contact us

Extra  time by us spent on backward efforts instead of forward productive efforts, as we have to investigate / fix. We typically edit the earlier record by adding the prefix old- to their email.

Our "Yafoo" customer had a nice $75 download order which we fulfilled last night (after hours) but then this morning saw the bounce. 

-Scot

[landerson]

We have been asking for the ability to merge duplicate customers (usually for email typos) for over 5 years. It does not make any sense that the software folks could not have accomplished this by now. 

[Tough_Traveler]

I wonder if this is a new feature that has only been rolled out for some Shopify users?  Our customers do not have a Merge button anyplace on their record.

[begreen]

Sounds like a misunderstanding. We do not have a merge button! But we really need one! 😊

[Vernon_Brown]

Agreed! This seems like a very logical and useful aspect for business management. For as long as Shopify has been around, as big as they are, and for how many years it has specifically been asked for, it amazes me this still does not even seem to be on the list of things being worked on. 

[ScoutsOut]

No merging still

[eatpye]

Did you see where someone mentioned that they had a merge option?

[michellegoo]

What was the solution?  I did not see that!

[Kevin_Hartman]

So far Shopify has not come up with a solution.    When I first asked this question 11 years ago, their stock was worth $25 per share, its currently at $1392 per share, so it's not like they can't afford to hire the right person to implement this basic request. 

[michellegoo]

I did not see the solution? Can you please repost or send me a link? Thanks!

[Kevin_Hartman]

There is no solution. 

[KristyCRA]

Yes, the ability to merge would be very helpful. We have customers that input themselves with and without company names or with variations or use old email addresses and can't find all their orders. We would love to be able to help them simplify things.

[jcwords]

Please create a way to merge customers. It is needed. 

How duplicates happen:

I have a large customer base of people who have placed online orders. I also do a number of conferences each year, and sales that are run though the POS app often end up under the name that is on the customer's credit card. For example, I have Jane L Doe who just bought books at a conference. All her conference purchases are listed under Jane Lee Doe. This makes it hard to locate all her transactions and keep her information uniformly updated.

[makers18]

We run into the same issue with our customers and tracking them.  The worst, is if they make an error in their email address, we are not able to change it, because it says the correct email address already exists and doesn't link them.  It seems like a basic function that Shopify is ignoring.  I don't understand why this would not be a priority.  😞 

[MudandHoneyCF]

Shopify can we PLEASE get this option!?!!!!

[bpglick07]

Please add this!! It's really a pain to have customers who have 4 emails or who accidentally misspell theirs and we now have two customers for them.

[cherishdesigns]

I have the same issues. 

Mine comes from someone I know paying outside of shopify (cash at work for eg) and I need to put it in the system and forget that they have ordered in shopify so I accidentally create them a new account. 

Merging these sales and accounts would be very helpful.

Thanks

[comfrey]

Seems like a no-brainer.  Why is this taking so long?  It is hard to be a customer-focused business when the tools do not allow for such BASIC functionality.

Come on Shopify? 

Get on it, please.  Thank you.

[ScotBell]

My take is having the customer "fix it" is not a good solution.

The burden should not be on the customer. Likely the customer will be angered were we to suggest this, as the problem isn't their fault.

And it's likely that the customer won't be able to log into the various accounts they have created to consolidate. Were they able to / bother to / remember... then they would likely not have created multiple accounts to begin with.

[Tough_Traveler]

Asking the customer to delete a duplicate account wouldn't solve the problem, as the issue isn't the customer's own account, but Shopify's recognition of the same customer as different people.

As an example: Lisa has never created an account, but she's placed two orders, one using her email address and one using her phone number.  Shopify considers her two different customers.  It's impossible to add her email address to the order with just a phone number, because that belongs to "Lisa #1."  Obviously, since Lisa doesn't have an "account" there's nothing for her to delete.  And even if she could, what would happen to the order associated with that Lisa? There really needs to be a way to merge Lisa #1 & Lisa #2.

[dragonsgarden]

It's a big problem for people that offer digital downloads. If a customer purchased something and downloaded with email1 and on next order made an order with email2 there is no way for them to go back and retrieve previously downloaded files to have all in one place, unless I make them re-purchase them with a 100% discount code so they can keep a library all in one place.
Had some customers making a new email address that had to re-purchase and download a whole library of 50+ items. :s having a merge function would be just a 1 click thing to get all in one place, while now we need endless workarounds and customer guidance to achieve something that appears to be so simple on other platforms.

[Rich_Hamilton]

@dragonsgarden - off topic, but can you share a link to your store? Curious about your setup...we also sell digital content...

[ScotBell]

Thanks for asking. Our site is www.woodenboatstore.com

Let me know if you have questions / comments. We have a variety of items
that are available as print or digital... magazines, plans, some books
(especially how-to that we publish, study plans, a few paper models. We've
been selling PDFs for about 12 years. First via ZenCart (as our Sitelink
site could not), then via CommerceV3, and now through Shopify.

I'd be interested in seeing your site as well.

scot@woodenboat.com
www.woodenboatstore.com

[dragonsgarden]

Yes, here it is. I sell Embroidery and Sewing Patterns alongside physical products. 😊

https://www.dragons-garden.eu

[Powski]

Come on!

Quickbooks lets you do this. This is a massive PITA. FIX IT, please.

[CM269901]

We need this too! I have only been using my Shopify store for a few months and already have encountered this issue. 

Instances I have seen:

*Someone wanted to update their email and instead of reaching out they made a new account.

*Someone paid with their pay pay account that had a different email attached.

*Spouse made an order for them

*Forgot password and made a new account

it would be useful to select all that you want to merge then select the one that you want to keep as the main one. 

[Matt37]

Yes Please let me Merge Customers!!!!!  

This customer has 5 entries with transactions on each. I can't delete them because I don't want to lose her history.  We often have customers who ask about previous orders.  

WE HAVE BEEN ASKING FOR THIS FOR 4 YEARS.    

[AmbayaGold]

Indeed this has happened to a number of our customers. They have a problem with their account and sign up with a new one. This is also a problem with order history and applying the same discount to the customer. 

[AlphaWade]

+1 on this. My customers signed up with email then on their next order, they sign up with phone. Now, there are duplicate names.  We need the merge feature ASAP.

[Flightmasterone]

Yes, this is very much needed!

[alexxduvall]

Also chiming in to ask for this feature. 

We have multiple duplicate accounts - and a lot of our customers ask us to pull up their purchase history, so this becomes really tedious. 

How duplicates normally happen for our store is that a customer will make a purchase in-store through our POS and give their name but decline to give their email - then they'll make a purchase on our website at a later date which associates their name with an email/phone number - but then we wind up with two customer profiles for them and two separate purchase histories, sometimes 3 for one customer: just name, name & email, name & phone #.

[AllieRae]

I definitely agree with this comment - would be great if it were a feature they were focused on building. So difficult to work around this!

[michellegoo]

I'd like to reply to Rae from Shopify if possible as our store has the same issues with needing to merge customer accounts.  

1. We have an online and POS presence.  When customers use a different email address online, they now have 2 different accounts.
2. If a customer checks out at POS and staff forgets to put in their customer name, if they use a different credit card at check out, it comes up as Visa Cardholder, thus creating a different customer account.  When we try to go back and edit the profile, it lets us put the customer name in, but when we put in the email, it says that email is already in use so we cannot add that purchase to the customers profile - thus creating two different customer accounts.
3. If a name is misspelled on the customer profile, when the customer comes in and staff is looking it up, they end up creating a new profile with the correct spelling, not knowing there is an account, it just needs to be edited.  When we go back to correct the old spelling, we are unable to merge the files due to the 'email already in use' issue.

This makes it difficult to accurately gauge spending thresholds of customers, loyalty rewards for customers (with more than one account), it makes it tedious when returning without receipts because we have to look up their receipts under all of their profiles, it gives an inaccurate count for number of customers when doing emails and it duplicates emails when a customer has 2 different emails on their  different accounts.  

If there could be a way to merge customer accounts without losing any of the purchasing history, that would be fabulous and would get rid of all the issues listed above. 

[makers18]

100% agree and have the same issues you have.  It makes it very hard to track our loyal customers and their true spending habits. 

[CheeseTherapy]

This is crazy that a solution hasn't been created for this. I just did an SMS campaign to people who haven't placed an order yet. Turns out there were a lot in this customer segment who actually had, just that they had more than 1 account created. Some customers were really pissed off that they were considered someone who hadn't bought before when they had bought many times and were some of my VIP customers. This lack of ability to merge clients is affecting my business' reputation when I do these types of marketing campaigns. Come on Shopify, I pay you a lot of money each month, help us!

Sam

Cheese Therapy

www.cheesetherapy.com.au

[Tough_Traveler]

Yes, we REALLY need this feature.  The problem is even worse than just not being able to keep track of our repeat customers or market to them.  It actually interferes with processing current orders, which is the essential function of Shopify. 

This is what happens: Bob, a long-time customer whose email address is bob*gmail.com places an order, but accidentally types bobb*gmail.com.   Obviously, Bob never gets email confirmation of his order. So, he gets in touch and asks what happened, and I let him know all is well and it's shipping later today.  Then I try to update the order with his real email, but I can't put in his real email address because it's already taken by "Other Bob."  Who is the same guy. 

Now Bob is not going to get his order confirmation (which serves as his receipt), or his tracking number, or any of the other communications the system sends automatically.  And if we need to communicate with him about his order, I and my staff won't be able to look on the order to find his email address - we'll have to remember to look at our notes to find it.

I really can't understand why Shopify is not able to make it possible to merge customers.  It doesn't seem that complicated at all. I wonder if someone could develop an app that did it?

[TexasPatina]

Yes we need this feature, its crazy i cant just select the two accounts and merge the data together, the work arounds are impossible.

[Will_Cervarich]

We also need this for all of the same reasons others have already.

[Naomi_Lignier]

Yes we really need this option too! Had a customer mispell their email address and make an order... but they already had a prior account so I can't correct the email address in the customer profile (only in the order). I was surprised to not find an easy merge option.

[jjansen]

Any progress being made on this?  It would be of great assistance to us as well.