Glossary
Family members
In MergeGuard, profiles you marked as not a duplicate because they belong to relatives, such as partners or a parent and child. They often share an address or phone, and they stay separate customers.
By MergeGuard team
Last updated
Two profiles with the same street address and surname may be a couple, a parent and a grown-up child, or flatmates. Merging them is permanent, and it puts one person’s orders and addresses in front of the other.
Treat a shared address as a reason to look closer. A matching email or phone is stronger evidence. When a group turns out to be different people, keep it separate. Help shows how to mark a group as not a duplicate in MergeGuard. See welcome discount reuse for why a shared address is not proof of misuse.
Related
- Welcome discount reuse: what to check before you call it abuseBefore you treat a reused welcome code as abuse, check which signals matter. Relatives, gift buyers and forgotten accounts can look the same as a repeat claim.
- Duplicate customer profileA duplicate customer profile is a second Shopify profile for the same person. Learn how to spot one, how to tell it from relatives, and what to do next.
- Find and review duplicatesMergeGuard scans your Shopify customers, groups duplicate profiles and shows which name, email, phone and address details match, so you decide what merges.
- Safe merge checklist for Shopify customer profilesShopify customer merges are permanent. Run these 8 checks first: the match, shared emails, kept details, subscriptions, blockers, limits and automation.