How do I add a customer to Shopify manually?

Open the Shopify admin, click Customers in the left sidebar, then click Add customer in the top right. Fill in the name, email, and any tags or notes you want to attach, then save. The customer is now linked to any future orders placed with that email. Use this flow for phone, in-person, or wholesale orders where the buyer never went through online checkout.

What’s the difference between a draft order and a regular order in Shopify?

A regular order is created automatically when a customer completes checkout on your storefront. A draft order is one you create manually inside the Shopify admin, typically for invoicing a wholesale buyer, taking a phone order, or sending a custom quote. Draft orders let you set custom pricing, apply manual discounts, choose payment terms, and send the buyer an invoice link to pay later. Once they pay, the draft becomes a regular order in your reports.

How do customer tags and segments work in Shopify?

Tags are short labels you attach to a customer record (like "wholesale," "VIP," or "abandoned-cart-recovered"). Segments are dynamic groups that filter customers by behavior or tags (like "customers tagged VIP who haven't bought in 90 days"). Tags are the raw data, segments are how you use that data to target email, set discount eligibility, and trigger automated flows in Shopify Flow or your email tool.

Can I refund an order partially in Shopify?

Yes. Open the order, click Refund, and adjust the quantity or amount you want to refund instead of refunding the full order. You can also choose whether to restock the items and whether to send the customer a refund notification. Partial refunds are tracked separately on the order, so the order history shows both the original total and the refunded amount.

Does Shopify keep order data if I delete a customer?

Yes. When you delete a customer, their personal record is removed from the Customers section, but the historical orders stay in your reports and order list, attached to the email address used at checkout. The order data remains intact for reporting and accounting, only the customer profile (name, tags, marketing consent, notes) is removed. This matters for GDPR deletion requests and for keeping your customer list clean without losing revenue history.

How do I see a customer’s full order history in Shopify?

Go to Customers in your Shopify admin and click on the customer's name. The profile shows their complete order history including order numbers, dates, totals, and fulfillment status. You can click into any individual order from there. Shopify keeps order history for guest checkouts when the same email address is used, so a customer who has checked out multiple times as a guest will have their orders consolidated under one email address in the customer list.

Shopify Store Set Up

Shopify Customers and Orders Set Up

Last modified: September 28, 2026

Updated September 28, 2026 Expert reviewed

Running a Shopify store gets easier once you treat customers and orders as one connected system, not 2 separate admin sections. Every person who buys from you leaves behind a record. Every order is a data point. The stores that grow fastest use that information to communicate better, recover more lost sales, and turn one-time buyers into regulars. This guide covers everything you need to build that system from the ground up - customer records, communication, order workflows, refunds, and the integrations that tie it all together.

Key Takeaways

Set up customer accounts from day one - guests who check out without an account are much harder to re-engage with email and offer far less data for segmentation.

Use Shopify’s built-in customer segments (under Customers > Segments) for dynamic lists that update automatically - reserve manual tags for status flags you actively manage yourself.

Draft orders are the correct tool for wholesale pricing, phone orders, and custom quotes - they create a real order record and feed correctly into your analytics.

Refunding without restocking is one of the most common Shopify inventory errors - the restock option is in the same refund dialog, one extra click.

Adding and Managing Customer Records

Getting customer data into Shopify accurately and keeping it current is the foundation everything else builds on. A clean customer list means better email deliverability, fewer failed deliveries, and support that does not start from scratch every time someone reaches out.

Adding Customers

Most customers get added to Shopify automatically when they place an order or create an account. But there are plenty of situations where you need to add someone manually: a phone order, an in-person sale, a wholesale relationship, or a contact you want in the system before they have purchased. How to add customers on Shopify walks through creating a customer profile from scratch inside the admin, including what fields matter and how Shopify links that record to future orders.

Editing Customer Information

Customer records change. People move, change their names, switch email addresses. Keeping that information accurate matters for deliveries, account access, and communication. How to edit a customer name or email on Shopify covers updating the core contact details on any customer profile. How to add or edit a customer’s address on Shopify goes into managing the shipping and billing addresses tied to their account, including adding multiple addresses for customers who ship to different locations.

Deleting Customers

Removing customer records comes up more than you would expect: GDPR deletion requests, duplicate records, test accounts created during setup. How to delete customers on Shopify explains when deletion is possible, what gets removed, and what stays behind in your order history once a customer record is gone.

Organizing Customers with Tags

Tags are how Shopify lets you label customers by purchase behavior, location, wholesale status, or anything else that matters for your store. They power customer segments, discount eligibility, and automated flows. But tags accumulate fast, and unused ones create noise in your admin. How to delete tags on Shopify covers removing tags from individual customers and products, and what to do when a tag will not go away because it is still applied somewhere.

Creating Customer Groups

Once your customer list grows past a few dozen people, managing everyone as one undifferentiated list stops working. Customer groups let you segment by purchase history, location, tags, or any attribute Shopify tracks so you can target communications, apply discounts, or restrict access to parts of your store. How to create customer groups on Shopify covers building segments using Shopify’s customer filter tools and explains how those groups feed into email campaigns and discount conditions.

Communicating with Customers

Good communication turns a one-time buyer into a repeat customer. Shopify gives you several ways to reach people: direct email, account invitations, newsletters, push notifications, live chat, and order updates. The right channel depends on what you are trying to say and where the customer is in their relationship with your store. Getting this right is less about volume and more about timing - the right message at the right moment does more work than a dozen generic blasts.

Emailing Customers Directly

For individual outreach or small-batch messages, you can send email directly from a customer’s profile or from a segment. How to email customers on Shopify walks through sending from the admin, what those emails look like on the receiving end, and what Shopify’s built-in email tool can and cannot do compared to a dedicated email platform.

Sending Account Invitations

Customers who place orders as guests do not automatically have an account. Inviting them to create one gives them order history, saved addresses, and faster checkout in the future, and gives you a more reliable contact on your list. How to send account invites on Shopify covers sending invitations individually and in bulk, and what the invitation email looks like from the customer’s side.

Setting Up a Newsletter Opt-In

Email subscribers are your most valuable marketing asset because they have actively asked to hear from you. How to add “Subscribe to Newsletter” on Shopify covers adding a signup to your store through your theme’s built-in section, a footer form, or a popup, and making sure subscribers are properly tagged and synced to your email platform.

Order Update Opt-Ins

Customers want to know where their orders are. Giving them a way to opt in to order updates at checkout reduces support requests and builds trust. 5 steps to add an opt-in for order updates on Shopify walks through enabling this at checkout and explains how those preferences tie into your notification settings.

Order Status Emails

Shopify’s transactional emails include an order status URL that lets customers track their order. If you have customized your email templates and that link has gone missing, how to manually add the order status URL to your email templates on Shopify explains how to put it back in the right place. It is a small fix that prevents a lot of confused support emails.

Blocking and Blacklisting Customers

Not every customer relationship is worth keeping. Repeat fraudsters, customers who abuse your return policy, or anyone who poses a risk to your store or team may need to be blocked from placing future orders. The guide on how to block and blacklist customers on Shopify covers the options available for preventing specific customers from checking out, including tagging-based rules, app-based blocking, and how to handle cases where someone tries to get around a block with a new account. For legitimate returns where you still want to recover handling costs, you can calculate a restocking fee and apply it through the refund screen.

Disabling a Customer’s Account

If a customer has an account on your store and you need to revoke their access without deleting their record, disabling the account is the right move. It removes their ability to log in while keeping their order history and contact information intact in your admin. The guide on how to disable a customer’s account on Shopify walks through how to do this from the customer record and what the customer experiences on their end when they try to access a disabled account.

Resetting Customer Passwords

Customers who cannot log in will often abandon their account rather than troubleshoot it themselves. Being able to trigger a password reset on their behalf keeps the relationship intact and gets them back into their account quickly. The guide on how to reset your customers’ passwords on Shopify covers how to send a password reset email from the customer record in your admin, when to use it, and what the reset flow looks like from the customer’s side.

Exporting Customers to a CSV File

Your customer list is one of the most valuable assets in your Shopify store. Exporting it gives you a clean dataset you can use for email marketing, CRM imports, analysis, or keeping an offline backup. The guide on how to export existing customers to a CSV file on Shopify walks through how to export your full customer list or a filtered segment, what fields are included in the export, and how to structure the data for use in other tools. If you run into errors when importing customer data back into Shopify, the guide to Shopify import problems covers the different rules for customer CSV imports versus product imports.

Adding a Survey or Questionnaire Before Checkout

Collecting information from customers before they check out opens up a range of possibilities: personalization, custom product matching, compliance questions, or simply understanding why someone is buying. The guide on how to add a survey or questionnaire before checkout on Shopify covers how to add pre-checkout questions using Shopify’s native tools and apps, how to store the responses, and how to make sure the extra step does not add enough friction to hurt your conversion rate.

Showing Content Based on Customer Location

A store that sells internationally often needs to show different content to different audiences: region-specific promotions, local currency messaging, shipping information relevant to a particular country, or content that simply makes more sense for one market than another. The guide on how to show content based on a customer’s location on Shopify covers how to use geolocation to serve different banners, messaging, or page sections depending on where a visitor is browsing from, using both theme-level tools and apps for more advanced targeting.

Showing Content Based on a Customer’s Order History

Customers who have already bought a specific product have different needs than first-time visitors. You might want to show them care instructions, related products, a loyalty offer, or content that only makes sense once they own something. The guide on how to show content based on a customer’s order history on Shopify walks through how to conditionally display content to customers based on whether they have purchased a particular product, using customer tags and theme logic to personalize the experience at the storefront level.

Enabling Phone Number at Checkout

Some stores need a phone number at checkout for delivery coordination, local pickup, or customer service follow-up. How to enable the option to enter a phone number at checkout on Shopify covers making that field appear, whether as optional or required, depending on your checkout settings.

Push Notifications

For stores that want to reach customers outside of email, push notifications show up directly on a customer’s device and tend to get higher open rates for time-sensitive messages. How to enable push notifications on Shopify covers what push notifications require, how customers opt in, and how to get them set up through Shopify.

Managing Blog Comments

If your store has a blog, comments are a channel for customer engagement, but they require moderation. An active comment section builds credibility and community, but only if it is managed well. How to allow or disable comments on your Shopify blog covers turning comments on or off at the blog level, managing moderation settings, and handling posts where you want different rules.

Handling Orders and Payments

For a complete walkthrough of the operational setup, see our guide to payments, shipping, and orders setup.

Orders are where customer relationships get tested. A smooth checkout, a clear confirmation, and a painless exchange process are what separate stores customers trust from stores they shop at once and forget.

Understanding the Order Lifecycle

Every Shopify order moves through a predictable sequence: placed, payment captured, fulfilled, and closed. But there are branch points that trip up new store owners regularly.

Payment pending vs. payment authorized: Some payment methods (like bank transfers or certain international cards) authorize without immediately capturing. Orders will sit in “payment pending” until the funds clear. Set Shopify to auto-capture on authorization unless you are doing pre-orders.
Unfulfilled vs. partially fulfilled: If you ship an order in 2 packages (common when one item is backordered), Shopify marks the order “partially fulfilled.” Customers get confused when they receive the first package and the tracking shows an open order. Add a note to the order or send a custom email explaining the split.
Archived vs. closed: Shopify archives orders automatically when they are fulfilled and paid. Archived orders still count in your analytics and are still accessible - they are just hidden from the default orders view. If you cannot find an older order, check the archived view.

Processing Refunds and Returns

Shopify’s refund system is one of its better-designed features. You can issue full or partial refunds from any order, refund to the original payment method or as store credit, and restock or write off the inventory in the same transaction. A few things worth knowing:

Shopify Payments refunds typically return to the customer’s card within 5-10 business days, but you will often be asked about it after 3. Set a canned response explaining this timeline so your support inbox does not fill up with refund status questions.
If you are using a third-party payment gateway (not Shopify Payments), the refund flow goes through that gateway’s API. Response times and refund windows vary, so check your gateway’s documentation before advertising a refund timeline to customers.
For exchanges, Shopify does not have a native exchange function. The standard workflow is refund the original item and create a new order. The new order resets the customer’s purchase history for that product, which matters if you are using purchase-based triggers in email automations.

Draft Orders for Custom and Wholesale Pricing

Draft orders let you create an order manually, apply custom pricing or discounts, and send the customer a payment link or invoice. This is how most Shopify stores handle wholesale accounts, custom quotes, and phone orders. Draft orders can also be converted to permanent orders once the customer pays, and they appear in your order analytics the same as regular orders.

Creating Test Orders

Before you start driving real traffic, you need to know your checkout actually works. How to create a test order on Shopify walks through using Shopify’s test payment gateway to place an order without charging a real card, so you can verify your confirmation emails, order processing, and fulfillment flow before launch. This is one of those steps that takes ten minutes and saves hours of troubleshooting later.

Managing the Customer Lifecycle

A customer lifecycle in Shopify terms is the sequence from first visit to repeat buyer. The data Shopify collects at each stage is only useful if you know what to do with it.

What Shopify Stores About Each Customer

When someone buys from your store, Shopify creates a customer record that includes their contact details, all past orders, notes you have added, tags you have applied, and their consent preferences for email marketing. What it does not store automatically: how they found you (attribution data), which marketing emails they opened, or their behavior on your site before checkout. That data lives in GA4, your email platform, and your ad dashboards, not in Shopify’s customer record. Knowing this distinction saves a lot of frustration when you are building segments.

3 Customer Segments Worth Tracking from Day One

You do not need a sophisticated CRM to work your customer list well. 3 basic segments give you 80% of the leverage:

First-time buyers (no repeat purchase in 60 days): Tag as “first-time” and set an email automation to nudge them toward a second purchase. The window between order 1 and order 2 is the highest-leverage moment in your store’s revenue. Stores that get a customer to buy twice have 3-5x higher lifetime value than stores that do not.
Repeat buyers: Tag as “repeat” after the second purchase. These are your most valuable customers. Give them early access to sales, ask for reviews, and make them feel recognized. A personal email from the founder thanking a customer for their third purchase is more effective than any discount code.
At-risk customers (no purchase in 120+ days): Tag as “lapsed” and run a win-back campaign. A 10-15% discount and a direct subject line (“We miss you, [first name]”) reliably recovers 5-10% of lapsed customers who would otherwise churn silently.

When to Use Tags vs. When to Use Shopify Segments

Tags are manual and persistent. Once applied, they stay until you remove them. Segments (under Customers > Segments) are dynamic: they query your customer data in real time and update automatically. Use tags for status flags you actively manage (wholesale, VIP, flagged). Use segments when you want a list that updates itself: “all customers who bought product X in the last 90 days” or “all customers in California who have not ordered since April.” Shopify’s built-in segment builder handles this without any third-party tools on all plans.

Integrations That Connect Your Customer and Order Data

The data in Shopify’s customer and order records becomes more actionable when it flows into the tools you already use. A few integrations are worth setting up early:

Email platform sync (Klaviyo, Omnisend, Mailchimp): Connect your email platform to Shopify so that customer segments and order events trigger automations automatically. Abandoned checkout flows, post-purchase sequences, and win-back campaigns all depend on this sync being current. Set it up before you start building flows, not after.
Google Analytics 4: Shopify’s native analytics shows you what happened in your store, but GA4 shows you what happened before checkout - which traffic sources converted, where people dropped off, and which product pages drove the most revenue. Connect GA4 through the Shopify app store or by adding the measurement ID to your theme’s preferences.
Shopify Flow (available on Shopify and above): Flow lets you build automations triggered by customer and order events without code. Common uses: tag a customer as “VIP” after they hit a spending threshold, send an internal Slack alert when a high-value order is placed, or automatically fulfill digital orders. If you are on a plan that includes Flow, it replaces several third-party automation apps.
Accounting software (QuickBooks, Xero): Order data flows into your accounting platform automatically when you use a sync app. This matters for reconciliation - manually exporting and importing order data is error-prone and takes time that compounds weekly. Get this connected before your first busy period, not during it.

Common Customer and Order Management Mistakes

Based on patterns across Shopify stores, a few mistakes show up repeatedly in customer and order management:

Skipping customer accounts: Many stores launch with accounts set to “optional” and then complain about poor repeat purchase rates. Accounts make repeat checkout faster, give customers order history, and make your marketing lists richer. Enable them and actively invite customers to create one after their first purchase.
Orphaned tags: Tags accumulate fast. A store 2 years old often has hundreds of tags that do not correspond to any active segment, discount, or automation. Run a quarterly tag audit: if a tag is not used in a segment, a discount condition, or an automation trigger, remove it from your customers.
Ignoring the customer note field: The note field on each customer profile is searchable and visible to anyone in your admin. Use it for anything that matters to future support interactions: “always ships to a different address than billing,” “prefers email over phone,” “wholesale account, negotiate pricing.” This is free institutional memory.
Refunding without restocking: When you issue a refund in Shopify, you get the option to restock the returned item. Many store owners skip this or forget, and then wonder why their inventory is off. If the item is resellable, restock it. If it is damaged, write it off. Both steps are in the same refund dialog.

FAQs

How do I add a customer to Shopify manually?

Open the Shopify admin, click Customers in the left sidebar, then click Add customer in the top right. Fill in the name, email, and any tags or notes you want to attach, then save. The customer is now linked to any future orders placed with that email. Use this flow for phone, in-person, or wholesale orders where the buyer never went through online checkout.
What’s the difference between a draft order and a regular order in Shopify?

A regular order is created automatically when a customer completes checkout on your storefront. A draft order is one you create manually inside the Shopify admin, typically for invoicing a wholesale buyer, taking a phone order, or sending a custom quote. Draft orders let you set custom pricing, apply manual discounts, choose payment terms, and send the buyer an invoice link to pay later. Once they pay, the draft becomes a regular order in your reports.
How do customer tags and segments work in Shopify?

Tags are short labels you attach to a customer record (like “wholesale,” “VIP,” or “abandoned-cart-recovered”). Segments are dynamic groups that filter customers by behavior or tags (like “customers tagged VIP who haven’t bought in 90 days”). Tags are the raw data, segments are how you use that data to target email, set discount eligibility, and trigger automated flows in Shopify Flow or your email tool.
Can I refund an order partially in Shopify?

Yes. Open the order, click Refund, and adjust the quantity or amount you want to refund instead of refunding the full order. You can also choose whether to restock the items and whether to send the customer a refund notification. Partial refunds are tracked separately on the order, so the order history shows both the original total and the refunded amount.
Does Shopify keep order data if I delete a customer?

Yes. When you delete a customer, their personal record is removed from the Customers section, but the historical orders stay in your reports and order list, attached to the email address used at checkout. The order data remains intact for reporting and accounting, only the customer profile (name, tags, marketing consent, notes) is removed. This matters for GDPR deletion requests and for keeping your customer list clean without losing revenue history.
How do I see a customer’s full order history in Shopify?

Go to Customers in your Shopify admin and click on the customer’s name. The profile shows their complete order history including order numbers, dates, totals, and fulfillment status. You can click into any individual order from there. Shopify keeps order history for guest checkouts when the same email address is used, so a customer who has checked out multiple times as a guest will have their orders consolidated under one email address in the customer list.

Set Up Right for Customers and Orders

The work you put into clean customer records, well-timed communication, and solid order workflows pays off compoundingly. A customer who gets a smooth first experience, a clear order confirmation, and a well-handled return is far more likely to buy again than one who did not. Clean data means better segmentation. Good segmentation means more relevant outreach. More relevant outreach means higher lifetime value per customer.

Start with the sections that apply to your current stage. If you are launching, set up customer accounts, configure your order notification emails, and run a test order before going live. If you are established and looking to grow repeat purchases, focus on the customer lifecycle section - the 3-segment framework there gives you the highest-leverage moves with the tools Shopify already has.

For the operational side of your store, our guide to Shopify payments, shipping, and orders setup covers the fulfillment and payment configuration that works alongside everything here.

Written by:

Lindsey Perry

I have 5+ years of experience with Shopify and 15+ years of experiences on other eCommerce platforms. My theme reviews are designed to help store owners find the right theme for them.