How to tag customer records, combine matching customer records, and update existing customer records with a CSV file.
Customer records in ShipStation can be tagged, combined, and updated via CSV upload. Customer records cannot be deleted or made inactive in ShipStation.
A tagged customer record will apply that tag to all orders that import for that customer. This is useful if you need to filter orders or apply automation rules with a tag as the trigger.
You might want to combine customer records if you have multiple entries for the same customer. Combining will allow you to tag a single customer record and view their order history in a single record.
The sections below discuss how to tag, combine, and update customer records.
Add a tag to a customer if you want every order from that customer to be tagged when it imports. Tag a customer to indicate special situations (loyalty reward member, fraud risk, etc.) for your shipping crew that help ensure no special instructions are overlooked.
Read the section in our Automation FAQ to learn how using tags to identify customers can improve your workflow.
To tag a customer, go to the Customers tab:
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Select the customer(s) you wish to tag.
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Click the Tag action menu and select the tag(s) you wish to apply.
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Alternatively, click the customer Name to open the Customer Details and select from the Customer Tags drop-down menu. Select the tag(s) you wish to apply.
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Click Save.
Hover over the tags now appearing by your customer's name to read the tag details.
To remove tags, repeat the above steps and uncheck the selected tags, then click Save.
Learn About Order Tags
Read our Order Tags article to learn more about using tags within ShipStation and how they are useful.
Combine duplicate customer records into one surviving customer when one person at the same mailing address has orders from multiple email addresses. Other customer records you select for merging will subsequently absorb into this surviving customer record.
To combine customer records, go to the Customers tab:
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Select the customer record you want to establish as the surviving customer.
This will highlight it in light blue.
Select Multiple Records
Hold the Shift key and toggle up or down with the arrow key to highlight adjacent customers you want to combine with the first customer selected.
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Click Combine.
A pop-up window will appear with the record(s) you selected.
Drag and drop any additional customers you want to combine into the pop-up window.
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Drag and drop customers to rearrange their order as necessary.
The first customer (labeled surviving customer and highlighted in green) will be the surviving customer.
Click Combine when ready.
Warning
Combining customers CANNOT be undone.
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Click Confirm to verify that you want to combine these customers.
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Click on the surviving customer to view any of the combined previous orders.
Click on any order number to see that that order still reflects the email address originally used at the time of ordering.
Download the CustomerImportSample.csv template from the Customer Import pop-up. You will need this template to update your customer records via CSV.
Enter all of the customer data you need into the appropriate fields and save your file. You can then import this file to update existing customer records, as well as create new customer records.
ShipStation requires that each customer has a unique identifier, either a username or email address, present in the file. Use the email for both if no username is available.
CSV imports only update customer records associated with the Manual ShipStation marketplace. Customer records created from other selling channel imports will not be updated using this method.
You can use the customer address information stored in this database to create manual orders for the customer or apply tags to orders. ShipStation will not use this address to override order data imported via a selling channel or Order CSV. New orders created via import will use the address as supplied during import.
If a subscription or return customer needs an address updated, you should update it at the order source so it imports correctly.
Important
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Be sure your CSV file contains all the information you need for your customer records. The CSV import process will replace the data in ShipStation with the data from the CSV. This means if you have a blank cell in the CSV for a field that currently contains data in ShipStation, the CSV import will overwrite that data with a null value and that data will no longer be available in ShipStation.
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For further help with CSV imports, read Troubleshoot Customer CSV Imports, or any of our other CSV troubleshooting articles: General CSV Troubleshooting Tips, Troubleshoot Inventory CSV Imports, Troubleshoot Product CSV Imports, and Order Imports via CSV.