Skip to content
Log inStart free

Customer Accounts

Customer accounts turn a one-off buyer into someone who can sign in, see what they have ordered, start their own return, and spend a store credit balance. One settings page decides how much of that your store offers, and this explains what each part of it decides and which article covers it.

Updated
Reading time
4 min
On this page

Without an account, a shopper is a stranger every time they come back. They cannot look up what they ordered, they cannot start a return themselves, and any credit you owe them has to be handled by hand. Customer accounts change that: the shopper signs in, lands in their own account area, and can do a few things for themselves that would otherwise come to you as a message.

Everything that decides how much of this your store offers sits on one page, Customer accounts in your settings. It is short, but each part of it changes something different. Show sign-in links decides whether shoppers can find the account area. Account type decides which account system your store runs on, and one of the two options is what makes store credit work in full. Account features is where self-serve returns and store credit are switched on, where sign-in methods are added, and where the address customers use to reach their account is shown.

The order matters more than it looks. Choosing the account type first is what makes the features below it worth setting, and the customer account URL is worth copying before you leave, because nothing shows customers the way to their account until you put that link somewhere they will see it.

Before you begin

  • Your role includes Customer settings, which is what opens the page.
  • You have decided which account system suits your store, since Account type decides how shoppers sign in and whether store credit works in full.
  • You have somewhere to put the customer account URL, such as your return and refund policy or your storefront footer. The page asks you to do this, and self-serve returns are hard for customers to find without it.

What this page decides

The page holds three cards, and each one answers a different question.

Show sign-in links answers whether a shopper can find the account area. It is a single switch, and with it off the accounts still exist but nothing on your storefront points to them.

Account type answers which account system the store runs on. Customer accounts is marked Recommended on the page and is the one that enables store credit in full; Legacy is the classic system, for stores that still rely on it.

Account features answers how much a customer can do without you. It holds the sign-in methods, self-serve returns, store credit, a shortcut to the checkout and account branding, and the address customers use to reach their account.

Settle the account type before anything underneath it, because the features depend on which system the store is on. Turning on store credit while the store runs Legacy leaves you with a feature that cannot do everything the page describes.

Where each part is covered

Part Covered in
The page as a whole, control by control Customer Account Settings
Account type, and what changing it costs Switch Customer Account Type
Account features, including the two shortcuts that lead elsewhere in settings Account Features Configuration
Authentication, the panel that adds sign-in methods Customer Account Authentication
Show sign-in links, and where the links appear on your storefront Customer Sign-In Links

Store credit is the one feature with a life of its own once it is switched on, and Store Credit picks it up from there.

What the settings cannot answer

This page decides what accounts can do. What one customer has done sits on their own record, under Customers, where their orders, their credit balance and their details are. Go there when a customer writes to you, because a settings page cannot answer a question about one person. The record itself is mapped in Customer Detail Page.

If something goes wrong

  • Customers say they cannot find where to sign in. Check that Show sign-in links is on, and that the customer account URL is somewhere they will look.
  • Store credit does not behave as expected. Check Account type. The page states that full store credit comes with the current Customer accounts system.
  • A sign-in method cannot be switched on. Its switch is disabled and the panel underneath gives the reason.
  • The settings page will not open. Your role may not include Customer settings. Ask an owner or admin.

Next steps

Still stuck?

More in Customers

  • Customer Segments

    A segment is a saved question about your customers rather than a saved list, so its members change as they do. Tanqory gives you two ways to write that question, a query builder and a form of Field, Operator and Value filters, and this article covers both, plus the panel that starts closed, the AI Refine field and what to do when it answers with nothing, the forty-nine fields you can filter on, and everything the row menu lets you do to a segment afterwards.

  • Adding a Customer

    Creating a customer record by hand, from the Add Customer button to the saved record. Three fields are required and everything else can wait, the three marketing consents start unticked and are a record of what the customer agreed to rather than a way to opt them in, and the Save bar is on the form from the moment it opens.

  • Search the Customer List

    Finding one customer and finding a group are different jobs with different tools. The search box matches name, email and phone and nothing else, it searches inside the tab you are standing on rather than the whole store, and the thing people most often type into it, a tag, comes back as No customers found rather than as an error.

  • Customer Tags

    A tag gives a group of customers a name so it is already assembled when you need it. This article covers where tags are set, one record at a time or in bulk from the list, what a tag is actually good for once it exists, and the one thing it will not do, which is answer the search box.

All 49 articles in Customers

We use cookies

Necessary cookies keep the site working. With your permission we also use analytics and marketing cookies. Change your choice any time in Cookie settings.