Effective customer management is key to boosting sales in your Shopify store. Proper customer management can improve customer satisfaction, increase repeat purchase rates, and expand sales.
This article covers everything from the basics to advanced techniques for customer management on Shopify, including specific methods and practical tips. We'll cover how to use customer segments and customer tags, as well as recommended Shopify apps that strengthen your customer management, so be sure to read through to the end.
What Is Customer Management?
Customer management refers to handling and managing information about the customers of your store.
Customer management helps improve the quality of your products and services, enables effective approaches tailored to customer needs, and allows for efficient advertising operations. Through these efforts, it contributes to higher customer satisfaction, increased sales, and improved marketing efficiency.
With Shopify, you can centrally manage customer data on the platform, from basic information such as names, contact details, and addresses, to purchase history.
You can also segment customers based on information such as customer tags, gender, and purchase data. The customer segment feature is explained later in the "What Are Customer Segments?" section.
How to Manage Customer Data Manually
Adding Customer Data from the Customer Management Screen
(1) Click "Customers" from the Shopify admin
(2) Click "Add customer"
(3) Enter the customer's first and last name and other details
(4) Click "Save"
Editing Customer Data from the Customer Management Screen
(1) Click "Customers" from the Shopify admin
(2) Click the customer data you want to edit
(3) Click the "…" (ellipsis) in the Customer section
(4) Select the information you want to edit ※ In this example, we select contact information
(5) Change the data you want to edit
(6) Click "Save"
Deleting Customer Data from the Customer Management Screen
(1) Click "Customers" from the Shopify admin
(2) Click the customer data you want to delete
(3) Click "More actions"
(4) Click "Delete customer data"
(5) Click "Delete customer"
How to Manage Customer Data in Bulk
Bulk Editing from the Customer Management Screen
(1) Click "Customers" from the Shopify admin
(2) Check the customer data you want to bulk edit
(3) Click "Bulk edit"
(4) Click "Columns" in the upper right of the bulk edit screen
(5) Check the data fields you want to edit
(6) Edit the data, then click "Save"
Bulk Editing from a CSV File
(1) Click "Customers" from the Shopify admin
(2) Click "Import"
(3) Click "Download sample CSV"
(4) Open the downloaded CSV
※ Open the file using whichever tool you normally use to work with CSVs, such as Google Sheets, Numbers, or Excel.
(6) Enter your customer data, using the sample data as a reference
(7) Once you've finished entering the data, export the CSV again
(8) Add the CSV you exported in step (7) via "Add file"
(9) Click "Import customers"
※ If you're updating existing customer data, be sure to check "Overwrite any customer that has the same email or phone number as an imported customer."
Cases Where Customer Data Is Created Automatically
Customer data is automatically created when you use the following Shopify features or Shopify apps.
Shopify's Account Feature
When a customer creates an account through your Shopify store's registration form, their customer data is automatically added to Shopify.
In this case, the Customer section of the customer data will display "Has an account."
Purchases at Your Shopify Store
When a customer makes a purchase on your Shopify store as a guest, their customer data is automatically added to Shopify.
In this case, the Customer section of the customer data will be left blank.
Shopify Forms
By using Shopify Forms to create things like a newsletter sign-up form, you can automatically add customer data to Shopify whenever a customer submits an entry through the form.
The blog article below explains Shopify Forms in detail. Please take a look.
What Are Customer Segments?
Customer segments are a feature that groups customers based on specific conditions. You can combine various conditions such as purchase history, region, and age group to run targeted marketing initiatives.
The blog article below explains customer segments in detail. Please take a look.
How to Create a Customer Segment
(1) Navigate to "Customers > Segments" in the Shopify admin
(2) Click "Create segment"
(3) Enter your filter conditions and click Apply
(4) Once the filtering matches your intent, click "Save segment"
(5) Enter a segment name
(6) Click "Save"
How to Use Customer Segments
Sending Campaign Emails
By using Shopify Email, you can send campaign emails targeting the customer segments you've created.
The blog article below introduces recommended newsletter apps in addition to Shopify Email. Please take a look.
Applying Customer Tags in Bulk
You can bulk add (or remove) any customer tag for customer data extracted under specific conditions. For example, you could add a VIP tag to customers who have made 10 or more purchases within a year.
Using Segments for Marketing Automation
By creating a customer segment that automatically identifies customers whose birthday is today, and linking it with Shopify Flow, you can automatically distribute a birthday coupon whenever a customer is added to that segment.
What Are Customer Tags?
Customer tags are labels you can attach to individual customers. They can be used for a variety of purposes, such as identifying VIP customers, blacklisted customers, or customers with specific interests.
How to Manually Add (or Remove) a Customer Tag
(1) Click "Customers" from the Shopify admin
(2) Click the customer data you want to add (or remove) a customer tag for
(3) Add (or remove) tags in the Tags section
(4) Click Save
How to Add (or Remove) Customer Tags in Bulk
(1) Click "Customers" from the Shopify admin
(2) Check the customer data you want to add (or remove) a customer tag for
(3) Click "…" (ellipsis)
(4) Click "Add tags" (or "Remove tags")
(5) Enter and select the customer tags you want to add (or remove)
(6) Click "Save"
How to Automatically Add (or Remove) Customer Tags
There are four ways to automatically add (or remove) customer tags, as described below.
Using Shopify Flow
By using Shopify Flow's "Add customer tags" or "Remove customer tags" actions, you can automatically add or remove customer tags under specific conditions.
Using Shopify Forms
By using Shopify Forms, you can automatically apply a given customer tag whenever a customer submits an entry through a form created with Shopify Forms.
Customizing Your Source Code
By customizing the registration form section from Shopify's code editor, you can automatically apply a given customer tag whenever a new account is registered.
The blog article below introduces a method for automatically applying a customer tag when a new account is registered. Please take a look.
Using a Shopify App
By using tagging apps such as Easy Tagging or membership rank apps such as VIP, you can automatically apply a given customer tag under specific conditions.
The blog article below introduces recommended membership rank apps for Shopify. Please take a look.
How to Use Customer Tags
Running VIP-Only Sales
If you rank your customers using customer tags, you can offer benefits such as exclusive products or early access only to customers with a "VIP" tag.
The blog article below introduces how to run VIP-only sales and VIP-exclusive sales events. Please take a look.
Controlling Purchases from Blacklisted Members
Customer tags are also useful when you want to block purchases from specific customers, for reasons such as repeated cancellations or reselling.
The blog article below introduces how to restrict purchases from blacklisted members on Shopify. Please take a look.
Limiting Purchases to One Item Per Customer
Customer tags are also useful when you want to set a "one item per customer" purchase limit when selling a limited or popular product.
The blog article below introduces how to set up a one-item-per-customer purchase limit on Shopify. Please take a look.
Shopify Apps That Make Customer Management Even More Convenient
Ranky – For Membership Ranking Based on Purchase Data
Ranky is an app that lets you start running a membership rank system "easily" on your Shopify store. You can assign ranks based on cumulative purchase amount or count over a specified period, such as the past month or year, or by specific customer tags. Because ranks are saved to a customer metafield, they can also be used in your storefront or with integrations to external apps.
The blog article below introduces Ranky's features, pricing plans, and setup method in detail. Please take a look.
Shopify Flow – For Utilizing Customer Segments
Shopify Flow is Shopify's own app that automates all kinds of tasks and processes involved in running a Shopify store. By using Shopify Flow, you can send a campaign email triggered by a customer being added to a customer segment you created, or automatically add or remove customer tags under specific conditions.
The blog article below explains Shopify Flow. Please take a look.
Easy Tagging by DevCloud – For Automatically Applying Customer Tags
Easy Tagging is a Shopify app that automatically adds and removes customer tags. It can also automatically tag not only customers but also products and orders.
It's useful when you want to apply tags based on advanced conditions that Shopify Flow can't handle.
RuffRuff 予約販売 – For Exclusive Sales Using Customer Tags
"RuffRuff 予約販売" is a Shopify app that lets you easily run pre-orders on your Shopify store. It also enables a variety of sales targeting customers with specific tags, such as "VIP-only sale events" or "VIP-only sales."
It has also earned the "Built for Shopify" badge, the mark of the highest-quality Shopify-official apps that meet standards for speed, ease of use, and reliability.
The product below is an actual demo product showing a VIP-only sale run using RuffRuff 予約販売. Be sure to give it a try.
RuffRuff Order Limits – For Purchase Restrictions Using Customer Tags and Metafields
"RuffRuff Order Limits" is a Shopify app that lets you implement quantity limits, spending limits, bundling restrictions, and membership restrictions all with a single app.
It's Japan's first Shopify app to use the Cart and Checkout Validation API, achieving order restriction processing on the server side that previously could only be handled on the front end. This makes it possible to implement much more robust purchase restrictions that are harder to bypass than with existing order restriction apps.
With RuffRuff 予約販売, you can only run member-only sales using customer tags, not customer metafields. RuffRuff Order Limits, on the other hand, lets you run member-only sales using not only customer tags but also customer metafields.
In Conclusion
Effectively using Shopify's customer management features can greatly contribute to business growth and improved customer satisfaction. We recommend gradually introducing what this article covers, starting with the basic management of customer data, moving to advanced customer classification using segments and tags, and finally automation using various apps.
Lastly, the blog article below introduces a variety of sales methods and purchase restrictions that make use of customer tags. Please take a look.
