Multiple times - every single week - I get emails from customers with duplicate accounts, that I currently have no way of helping with a lasting change due to the Shopify limitations. All I can do is manually hunt down orders and send them links, which costs me in labor and takes away from other work I need to be doing. Reflects very poorly on the Shopify platform.
Topic summary
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:
- If either profile has a registered account, subscription contract, is a B2B contact, has active gift cards, discounts (wholesale), metafields, a merge in progress, or a customer data/data‑redaction request.
- Credit card on file currently blocks merges; fix in progress. Disabling accounts doesn’t allow merging.
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.
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