We have this exact same problem right now.
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This is truly a much needed feature. Repeat customers pay with different cards at the POS which creates multiple histories for the same customer. Yes the staff member should ask their name first before processing the transaction but it is not always feasible and is often overlooked during busy periods in the store. The customer database is messy as a result and it makes searching a customerâs purchase history quite difficult.
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Itâs been a while since my shameless plug, itâs back a few pages, and I keep seeing messages of people with this issue. So if you all donât mind, I want to repeat myself and say that anybody with this issue might want to try out my app Doppelganger.
https://apps.shopify.com/doppelganger-app
It doesnât really merge accounts together as that is not possible but rather links them. Within the app, you can then see the full purchase history of a customer. I like to say itâs not the perfect solution but itâs the best next thing.
Iâve launched the app in October and am still working on adding new features that will hopefully alleviate the issues that come with duplicate customer accounts. Input (ideas) on new features is very much appreciated.
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I donât want to give a third party my customersâ personal data. Your companyâs solution shouldnât be necessary @Paul_vd_Dool
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Thatâs fair. Granted, there are a ton of apps out there that require access to data like orders and customers so Doppelganger isnât an outlier in that aspect. But itâs very good that you have such a point of view on handling your customer data.
If itâs any consolation, Doppelganger only processes customer data within the app on your shop. It doesnât store anything in its own database other than some data of the shop itself.
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While I understand your sentiment @VVBKBH , the fact is we, the Store owners, have been asking for this functionality for a DECADE now⌠and Shopify (apparently) refuses to fix the issue. So Paulâs efforts are very much appreciated, as it least he is moving towards some semblance of a solution, which Shopify apparently has no intention of doing.
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A big sentiment that makes alot of merchants shy away from apps unfortunately not just customer account related ones. The way data privacy is shaping at some point their may need to be an affordance for these types of situations to obscure/restrict specific information served to apps.
So maybe, in any future api feedback about merging through apps , hashing(vaulting?) should be brought up as a first class feature.
Since in itâs crudest forms such apps would either be doing manual merge where nothing is even parsed because the merchant|staff is doing the confirmation, or trying to automatically merge by string matching some fields; so in the automatic case it wouldnât matter if the info is hashed between dupe accounts if itâs the same string it will create the same hash. Fuzzy matching or inferencing would be a different issue.
I actually canât believe this is still an issue, Iâve been following and requesting this for about 6 years.
For us, it most often happens when:
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customer places some orders using only a phone number and some using an email address; or
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customer submits an order online with a typo in their email address. we canât then update their email because it already belongs to another customer.
If only we could DELETE a customer from an order, then we could add the correct customer from an order. Once weâve been through that we could delete the customer profile with no orders attached. Surely this is not that hard to do from a developer perspective? And it would make shopify a MUCH better platform. Please, please consider this!
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Keep hitting up their chat and email support for this issue.
It is shocking how many basic features are missing from POS.
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store credits
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properly run and reconcile inventory at your brick and mortar
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multiple exchanges on the same transaction
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merging customers.
The have 3 billion in revenue but canât hire the proper team to implement basic features/functionsâŚ
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Thanks Paul. But as you have said it best, it isnât a fix. I donât want to go into a separate app to see history. When there are a bunch of people in the shop, and one customer is asking what size jean they bought but has multiple accounts under their name, this isnât an easy solution.
It is shocking how many basic features are missing from POS. Shopify has 3 billion in revenue but canât hire the proper team to implement basic features/functionsâŚ
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Let me put my sales hat on for a second @AllieRae and tell you that in the Shopify Admin you can easily go from a (native) customer page to the customer inside my app.
*takes hat off
But I get how even that can be cumbersome in a store with customers.
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Just bumping this up in the Shopify world! Iâd LOVE to see this feature!
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AGREED!!! We have said this since the beginning Iâm so happy youâve made a list because that is the same issues weâve written down as well!
Why canât they fix this??
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AGREED!!! We have said this since the beginning Iâm so happy youâve made a list because that is the same issues weâve written down as well!
Why canât they fix this??
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Customers frequently use a different email on subsequent orders. We need to be able to merge them to properly track their total number of orders and spend. Sellers have been asking for this update for years, please escalate it Shopify!
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@Helen I saw youâd been replying to a different thread regarding this issue. Was hoping youâd look through this YEARS long thread, as well.
This is a constant problem.
It is crazy to me that other, far less robust platforms are able to make this feature happen but Shopify cannot. It is such a turn off, especially considering the amount of money I send to you monthly as the âindustry standardâ POS/commerce platform.
I read that you said youâll be adding it as a Feature Request. Is there somewhere that customers can add, or âthumbs upâ feature requests? I want to involve my network of boutique owners in FLOODING you with requests for this feature to see if thereâs any way to actually force you to get to work on it.
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Duplicates happen in different ways. When this happens we have no way to accurately look at a customers lifetime history because we canât merge accounts.
- duplicates can happen when doing a mass import via a csv file
-duplicates can happen when a customer uses a different credit card
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duplicates happen if the customer has multiple email addresses
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duplicates happen sometime when customers place orders online
This is a basic function of most any other software we use in my other businesses.
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Merging customers would be very useful. I donât understand why such a basic thing would be so difficult to do. All of the reasons have been listed multiple times on this thread.
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Maybe we are thinking about this wrong.
Maybe we should start listing why a company like Shopify would NOT want this feature added.
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Merging would mean on 1 âlistedâ customer instead of 2.
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Merging would mean there is only data record to sell vs 2 or more.
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Merging users is not profitable so therefore they care less what we think.
Whatâs some other?
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