Contacts and duplicates
Learn how checkout identifies customers in customer contacts.
Merging duplicate customers
Merge combines two profiles for the same person in the same store. The profile you keep receives eligible orders, contacts, and history; the duplicate is deleted. It is not a way to transfer rewards between different people.
Choose the profile to keep
Open the customer you want to keep, then choose the duplicate to remove in the merge dialog. The current profile is the keeper. If you need the other profile to survive, close the dialog and start from that profile instead.
The preview compares both profiles with the proposed result. Existing keeper values generally win; missing name, birthday, and default-address information can be filled from the duplicate. The keeper retains its account status. Where the dialog offers a primary email or phone choice, the selected contact must be verified and belong to the resulting customer.
What blocks a merge
A zero balance does not prove that an account is safe to remove. Some financial records must remain attached to the customer who earned or spent them.
| Block | Which profile is checked? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Anonymized identity | Either profile | Do not merge a profile whose identity has been erased |
| Company membership, access, or B2B order history | Either profile | Keep the company identity and its purchase history separate |
| Credit used on an order, reserved for checkout, or linked to a loyalty credit redemption | The duplicate being removed | Inspect the credit history; spending the balance down does not remove historical ownership |
| Credit descended from a promotional source | The duplicate being removed | Keep that owner; the block also applies after the promotion is exhausted, expired, or invalidated |
| Personal reward gift-card ownership | The duplicate being removed | Keep the original reward owner; reassigning or deleting that ownership through a merge is not supported |
| Invalid primary contact choice | The proposed result | Choose an eligible verified contact or keep the existing primary contact |
The keeper’s credit stays where it is. Its existing promotional history alone is not the same blocker as deleting the duplicate’s pinned history. Ordinary purchased or manually issued gift-card assignments also differ from immutable personal reward-card ownership.
Three examples
- ₹300 ordinary manual credit: a duplicate has unspent, non-expiring manual adjustment credit, with no reservations, spend allocations, promotional ancestry, or other blockers. Its eligible ₹300 can transfer to the keeper.
- ₹0 expired referral credit: the duplicate once received ₹200 promotional credit and its balance is now zero. Promotional ancestry still blocks deleting that owner. This is not a temporary “wait for expiry” condition.
- Clean duplicate, keeper with rewards: the keeper has promotional credit; the duplicate has only contact details and ordinary orders. The keeper’s promotional credit does not move, so that fact alone does not block the merge. The remaining checks still apply to both profiles as shown above.
What moves when the preview allows it
The merge combines eligible records and writes an audit activity on the keeper. Review the result instead of assuming every balance is transferable.
| Record | Result |
|---|---|
| Orders and addresses | Attached to the keeper, with original order attribution retained |
| Contacts | Combined and deduplicated; primary contacts follow the accepted preview |
| Marketing consent | Remains attached to the contact value; consent for two different email addresses is not blended |
| Loyalty account and reward history | Combined through the loyalty merge flow, subject to its rules and the financial blockers above |
| Ordinary store credit | Eligible spendable credit is transferred as new keeper grants with the original amount, reason, and expiry; pinned credit cannot take this path |
| Ordinary gift cards | Customer references move; the code and balance do not change |
| Tags, notes, and custom fields | Combined; notes are appended and the keeper wins conflicting custom fields |
| Discount usage | Combined so merging does not reset a per-customer usage allowance |
| Direct review reward customer limits | Combined across both profiles; an issued reward takes precedence over a conflicting pending claim, so a merge does not reset the rule’s cap |
| Segments | Recomputed from the resulting profile |
The keeper’s merge activity records the duplicate’s identity snapshot and the counts moved. This is an audit record, not an account restore feature.
Run a merge
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Open the customer profile that should survive and choose Merge. A possible-duplicate prompt can help you find the other record.
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Search for and select the duplicate to remove.
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Review both profiles, the resulting profile, and the counts to move. Confirm the name, account status, primary contact choices, and credit result.
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If blocked, read the reason and affected profile. Correct an invalid contact choice where appropriate; keep financially pinned or B2B identities separate.
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Confirm once. After completion, check the keeper’s contact details and audit activity. If the request times out, refresh and check whether the merge completed before trying again.
For a blocked or ambiguous financial case, retain both records while support investigates. Avoid moving rewards manually just to make the merge pass. The settings and recovery guide explains financial restrictions. An allowed merge also combines both profiles’ review-reward claim history, so merging accounts cannot reset a once-per-customer limit. If both profiles claimed the same rule, that remains one consumed entitlement; different rules keep their separate histories.
Credit ownership
Follow expiry, refunds, and promotional recovery in store credit.
Gift-card ownership
Compare ordinary bearer cards with personal reward cards in gift cards.
Deleting and anonymizing
Understand other customer actions in customers and segments.