Merging Duplicate Customer Records

Technical Q&A

Topic summary

Main issue: A store has ~50k customer records but only ~22k unique due to a Cash on Delivery workflow creating new records for repeat customers. The owner wants an automated way to merge duplicates using phone numbers as the key.

Attempts: Manual merging was tried but is too slow. No off‑the‑shelf app was identified in the thread.

Proposed approach: Hire a developer to build a private app (a custom, store-specific app) to merge customer data by phone number. The suggestion includes backing up all 50k records before running merges.

Follow-up: The store owner asked the commenter to implement the solution. The commenter declined, noting they specialize in theme development rather than app development.

Status/outcome: No solution implemented; discussion remains open. Next step implied is to engage an app developer to create the private app for automated merging and safe data backup.

Summarized with AI on December 17. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hey Shopify community! I’m stuck with a tricky situation and could use some expert advice.

Problem: I’ve got 50k customer records, but only 22k are unique. This is due to my Cash on Delivery system creating new records for repeat customers.

Goal: Merge these duplicates to have only the 22k unique customers.

What I’ve tried: Manual merging (way too slow!)

What I need: An automated way to merge records based on phone numbers.

Has anyone dealt with this before? Any tips or tools you’d recommend? I’m even willing to hire an expert if needed.

Thanks in advance for any help!

2

Not sure if there’s an app for this but your best route would be to hire a developer who can create changes on your store’s data via creating a private app. That way you can merge customer data based on phone numbers and as a plus, have a backup on all 50k customer data before the merging begins.

1 Like
3

Hi,
Thank you for your feedback.

I saw that you’re a shopify partner, are you able to create this solution ?

Thank you

4

Hi Makss,

Unfortunately, no, sorry man. I specialize in Theme development and not app development - I’m still learning it.

5

Do you know that the phone numbers are really unique identifiers, or is there some fuzzy matching to be done?