Glossary
Guest checkout
Buying from an online store without signing in to a customer account. The shopper types their contact details at checkout, and the store has only those details to recognize them by.
By MergeGuard team
Last updated
Shopify’s pages we read do not define the term, so this definition is ours: it is the opposite of the “Require customers to sign in to their account before checkout” setting.
Guest checkout keeps the purchase short, because the shopper skips signing in or creating a password. The order still needs a customer, and Shopify’s Help Center lists “Placing an order” among the actions that create a customer profile (Managing customers).
The catch comes when a returning shopper types something different the next time: a new email, a phone number, or an email that Apple Pay or PayPal fills in. Merchants report that the order then lands on a second profile. The guest checkout guide covers how to find and clean those up.
Related
- Guest checkout and duplicate customers in ShopifyWhy guest checkout splits one shopper across several Shopify profiles, how to find those duplicates safely, and what Shopify’s merge rules mean.
- 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.