Why customer records split
The split is ordinary, which is why it lasts for years.
Someone buys a candle at the counter. Square has their name because the cashier asked, or because they paid with a card that Square already knew. They never made a Shopify account. Next month they order the refill on the website as a guest, or with a different email. Shopify has a customer. Square has a customer. Nobody in the shop can see both.
The reverse happens too. A person shops the website for months. They walk in on a Saturday, and the register treats them as new. The person at the counter cannot see that this is the same buyer who already reordered three times online. Service gets clumsy. “We don’t have you in the system” is a bad sentence when you do, on the other screen.
Marketing feels the same gap. An email list built only from Shopify misses in-store regulars. A Square-only list misses the people who never tap a card in the shop. Staff export CSVs, dedupe by hand, and upload somewhere else. That works until the next weekend creates a fresh pile of one-sided profiles.
You do not need a slogan about “omnichannel customers” to recognize this. You need the two lists to be able to meet.
What bidirectional sync means
You choose the direction: Shopify toward Square, Square toward Shopify, or both. On Starter you start the sync. On Growth and Pro you can turn on automatic customer updates for the directions you want.
SquareFloww does this as part of the Shopify and Square connection you already set up for products and inventory. You are not installing a second app only for names and emails. Connect once, then include customers in the sync you run.
Customer sync carries name, email, and phone, so the register and the online store share the same way to recognize a buyer.
Turn on the direction that matches where your team adds customers. Setup for the connection is on How to connect Square to Shopify.
When merchants need this most
The regular who shops both ways. They know the staff by name and they also reorder online at 10 p.m. Without a sync, each channel has half the relationship. With a sync, the profile is not stuck in the channel where they happened to check out last.
The support inbox. A buyer writes “I bought this in your store last week” and the Shopify admin shows nothing. The person answering email should not need a second login and a memory for spelling variants just to confirm the person exists. Customer sync does not replace good service. It removes the “which database?” step.
The team that retypes emails. At 50 customers, retyping is annoying. At a few hundred, it is how duplicates are born: same human, two spellings, two receipts, no link. Starter includes 500 customers. If you are already near that, look at Growth before you design a cleanup project you will repeat.
A second location, same buyers. People do not stay inside one store’s customer list just because your inventory is split by location. Inventory pairs are a stock problem. Customers are often shared across the brand. Read stock separately in Sync Square inventory with Shopify, and do not assume a location map copies people by itself.
You are not a CRM company. If you need pipelines, tickets, and a marketing platform, keep that tool. SquareFloww’s customer job is the Shopify ↔ Square loop, not every system in the building. Many shops still export to email software after the two commerce lists agree. Agree first, then export once.
How it fits with products and inventory
One install. One Square connection. Three sync jobs.
| Sync | What it is for | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Products | Title, description, price, image | Sync Shopify and Square products |
| Inventory | Counts per location pair | Sync Square inventory with Shopify |
| Customers | Profiles, both ways | This page |
You can care about customers first and still need products linked, because the app is the same connection. The commercial overview of all three is Shopify Square integration.
A practical order: connect Square, choose whether customers copy from Shopify to Square, from Square to Shopify, or both, then sync a small set of customers you can recognize and confirm they show up on the other side. Then widen. Do not start with your entire history on a Saturday morning.
Plan limits for customers
| Plan | Price | Customers | Products | Location pairs | Sync mode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $19/mo | 500 | 1,000 | 1 | Manual |
| Growth | $39/mo | 2,000 | 2,000 | 3 | Automatic |
| Pro | $79/mo | 10,000 | 10,000 | Unlimited | Automatic |
Starter includes customers. The cap is 500, and you run the sync yourself. Growth raises the cap to 2,000 and adds automatic customer updates. Pro raises it to 10,000, with automatic customer updates included. The trial is seven days on each plan.
If you are under 500 and you have one location, Starter is a fair way to prove the loop. If the list is already larger, or you will not run sync by hand, start the trial with Growth in mind.
Privacy, in plain terms
Customer sync moves personal data between Shopify and Square. Treat that as a real transfer, not a convenience checkbox.
Tell your team who is allowed to connect the app. Use Shopify admin permissions the way you already do for other apps. Read SquareFloww’s privacy details on the Shopify App Store listing before you sync a live list. Also follow the privacy commitments you already made to buyers on your own store.
SquareFloww does not include a compliance certification. If you need a specific contractual term, use the current privacy policy and your own agreements.
Getting started
- Install SquareFloww and start the 7-day trial.
- Authorize the Square account that already holds in-store customers.
- Choose the customer direction: Shopify to Square, Square to Shopify, or both.
- Run customer sync and check a few people you know: one in-store regular, one online buyer, one person who has used both.
- If the profiles land where you expect, sync more. If they do not, stop and fix the setup before you blame the list.
Full connection order: How to connect Square to Shopify. If you are comparing this with other apps, use Best Shopify Square integration apps.