Main topic: merging duplicate customer accounts in Shopify, impacts on order history, rewards, and reporting.
Early state: No native merge; Shopify suggested workarounds (edit dormant account info, add tags). Merchants cited causes: email typos, multiple emails/phones, POS vs online, Apple Pay using alternate emails, staff errors, “optional account” flow creating inactive accounts.
Interim solutions: Reassign orders to the correct customer to consolidate history; then delete duplicate profiles with 0 orders (now possible). Limitations: timeline entries and “customer since” don’t transfer; detection of duplicates requires CSV exports or apps.
Third‑party app: Doppelganger links (not merges) accounts and surfaces duplicates; some merchants use it, others raise data‑privacy concerns.
Recent update: Shopify introduced a “Merge Customer” feature with hard blockers:
Outcomes: Limited merging works in some cases; no auto‑detection/auto‑merge; merchants request parent/child (company) linking and household consolidation. Status: Ongoing; feature in early stages with no firm timeline.
We’ve also been dealing with this issue for our app Engagely. That’s why we started on building a prototype to try and fix this issue. The biggest issue with our solution is how to transfer loyalty points or other app related data.
We’ll update this thread once we have an mvp that merchants can try out.