Merging customer accounts

[Rich_Hamilton]

I've been asking for this feature to be added for years and the need keeps growing... any chance we can see this in 2018? I have numerous customers who change their email address and then come back to shop and end up creating a new account...the software does not give them the option to update their own email address and they almost always contact me after the fact and my hands are tied. Reflects poorly on my company when its really a limitation of the shopping cart software...

[L__Rivera]

Agreed! I did a chat today with Shopify, sending in a link to this forum and making another request to the developers, and I plan to continue bringing this issue to their attention but everyone that reads this forum needs to jump on the train and help make them aware of what a big issue this is for our stores/sites. 

[Valentina_Forgh]

+1 please!

[JohnC]

and this thread on the same request is over 4 years old! 

https://ecommerce.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussion/t/merge-two-customer-accounts-into-one-276831

[Rich_Hamilton]

I just spoke with Support, and really the only way this is going to get traction is if a lot of vendors call in and open requests tickets for it.

Posting on this forum isn't making a difference as it isn't monitored by the development team apparently.

[JohnC]

Totally agree. I chatted with support yesterday and added links to this thread and the other one above in the chats. He did seem to understand and I was assured it would be raised to the devs. 

[nisha_s]

I was wondering how it would be possible to identify that 2 customers with different email addressses are indeed the same user. 

Are the use cases mainly that 2 customers have a different email address but other details like home address or phone number is the same? 

[JohnC]

Yes it is usually details such as name, address and phone are the same. I also have old accounts without email address.

Some form of automatic warnings would be useful, but I'm not sure if I would want automatic merging. The main thing is just to have the ability to merge when I know they are duplicates.

John

[nisha_s]

Thanks John! It looks like automatic merging happens if there are 2 customers with the same phone number. For what its worth it is possible to tag and add a note if a customer is a duplicate. Tagging would then allow the admin to view unique customers. It is also possible to update a given order with the "original" customer email. Do you think tagging, noting and updating orders would fit the use-case? 

[Rich_Hamilton]

The system doe not allow duplicate email addresses, so the admin does not have the ability to change that - in the Shoppify software. Also, I have numerous customers with two accounts having the same phone numbers, so do not believe any "auto merging" takes place.

The biggest problem with customers having two (or more) accounts is they can not login to the software and see all of their order history, so then they write me at the Support account and I have to go dig things out.It creates work for me, and technology is supposed to reduce work, not make new.

[nisha_s]

Yup makes sense, I guess I'm asking if marking the customers as duplicates through tags and moving the order history to the original customer would help since that is possible through the API. It wouldn't remove the duplicate customer from the global list of customers but it would help resolve issues by highlighting and porting customer info when this happens.

[Rich_Hamilton]

While not attaractive, as some of my customers can have dozens of orders I would then have to move, but how is this possible? I've never seen an option to do this in the web interface.

[nisha_s]

Hi Rich

I'm evaluating possibilites by doing it through their api (so through an app) since they have APIs to track order history and tag customers. So as long as we can identify duplicate customers we can automatically port orders to the "original" customer. Let me know if this is something you'd like to work on, I'd be happy to build something to that would help this use-case.

Thanks!

[Marcus24]

+1 for this essential feature, been asking for years.

[Bruce_Hamilton]

I don't understand why Shopify cannot give us the merge customer account capability.  Quickbooks has it.  Look to Quickbooks to see how to make it work.  Surely if a little company like QB can do it, Shopify should be able to with all its resources.  Don't let Quickbooks best you.  

[Zeno]

I'm floored that this functionality has been under request for this many years and Shopify has yet to act. If you don't wish to allow us to "merge" accounts fully, then at least give us the ability to "group" accounts so that they can be considered the same account for all order history and sales reporting purposes. That's all that 99% of us need. Just allow us to "group" accounts and from that group select one account from among them that will operate as the front-facing account. Then stack sales data from the other accounts into the front-facing account.

That took me all of two minutes to think of. Problem solved. What the heck is going on Shopify? Had I known this functionality wasn't available when I signed up I would have gone with one of your competittors.

[Amanda25]

I'd definitely like this functionality added. I am at a point where I need to merge two websites and want to cause my existing customers as little inconvenience as possible. Being able to bring across their order history from one website to the other website and merge their two accounts/histories would be really helpful for them and me. Running a store is time consuming and high pressure at times so efficiency is vital. Really hope this is implemented soon!

[Rich_Hamilton]

Hi all, I posted this about a month ago:

"I just spoke with Support, and really the only way this is going to get traction is if a lot of vendors call in and open requests tickets for it.

Posting on this forum isn't making a difference as it isn't monitored by the development team apparently."

So please take the time to call in and open a ticket...if enough vendors do it we should get some response - the squeaky wheel gets the grease...

[Janet_Walker]

Any updates on this? We cannot serve our customers effectively without this feature. The amount of time we spend tracking down issues because our customers have two (or more) records is costing us money. I consider this a Pri 1 feature.

[Richard52]

+1

[Tyler_Fisk]

+1 for us two.  We've got multiple Shopify stores and have run into needing this feature on several different orders.