# Manage your store's customers

> Look up the people who bought from your store, see their orders and addresses, and keep a note, tags and tax details on each one.

Source: https://docs.coritan.com/organizations/commerce/customers/

In the dashboard:

- /dashboard/organizations/…/commerce/customers: https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/organizations

**Customers** lists everyone who checked out on your storefront or made an account on it, newest first. A shopper who checks out without an account still gets a customer record, marked **Guest**, and each later order with the same email joins it. Open a customer to see their orders and saved addresses, and to keep your team's notes on them.

## Before you begin

- You need the Tier 1 support role or higher to open **Customers**. To write the note and tags, change the VAT ID or tax status, or turn off marketing email, you need Tier 3 support or higher.
- A customer appears after their first checkout, or when they make an account on the storefront.
- The store's customers are your organization's customers. To suspend or close a customer's account, use the organization's [Customers](/organizations/customers/#edit-a-customer) tab.

## Find a customer

1. In the [dashboard](https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/organizations), open the organization, then **Commerce**, then **Customers**.
2. Search by part of an email, a first name or a last name.
3. When the store has customer groups, choose one in the list that starts at **Every group**. Groups are made through the API.
4. Select a customer to open their page.

The list shows 50 customers a page, with the **Customer**, the number of **Orders**, what they **Spent**, their **Groups** and **Tags**, and the date they became a customer under **Since**. **Spent** is what they paid less what was refunded, in each currency, and spending on test orders is marked as test. On a narrow screen the groups, tags and date are hidden. When nothing matches, **Clear filters** clears the search and the group.

## Read a customer's page

The header shows the customer's name and email, how many orders they placed, what they spent and their customer number, such as `#4211`. A customer whose account is suspended or closed shows that status by their name.

**Orders**
: Their 20 most recent orders, with the **Placed** date, the order's **Status**, the **Payment** status and the **Total**. Select an order to open it in [Orders](/organizations/commerce/orders/#read-an-order).

**Addresses**
: The addresses they saved at checkout or in their storefront account. **Default for** says which one is their default for **Shipping** and for **Billing**.

**Profile**
: Their **Email** and **Phone**, the **Account** they have (**Storefront account** or **Guest checkout only**), **Marketing**, **Tax**, **VAT ID**, **Groups** and **Customer since**. **Copy email** copies the address.

**Note and tags**
: What your team wrote about them. The customer never sees it.

**Marketing** records whether the customer agreed to marketing email from your store. Check it before you send them any.

| Marketing | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| **Subscribed** | They agreed on the storefront, on the date shown. |
| **Unsubscribed** | They agreed, then withdrew on the storefront. |
| **Turned off by the store** | Your team turned it off. |
| **Not subscribed** | They never agreed. |

## Keep a note and tags

1. On the customer's page, under **Note and tags**, write the **Note**. It holds up to 5,000 characters.
2. Enter **Tags**, separated by commas, such as `wholesale, net-30`. A customer has up to 20 tags of up to 64 characters each, and a repeated tag is kept once.
3. Select **Save changes**. **Discard** puts back what was saved.

The footer counts the changes waiting to be saved. Tags show in the customer list, so your team can spot a customer's tags without opening them.

## Record a VAT ID or a tax exemption

Both are under **Note and tags**, and **Save changes** saves them with the note.

**VAT ID**
: The business's VAT number, such as `FR12345678901`. Spaces, dots and hyphens are removed, and it holds up to 32 letters and digits. It appears on the invoices and credit notes issued after you add it. A new or changed ID shows **Not checked yet** under **Profile** until you mark it checked through the API, as [With the API](#with-the-api) shows.

**Tax exempt**
: Records that the customer holds a tax exemption, and **Tax** under **Profile** changes to **Exempt**. Checkout does not read this box, so their orders are still charged tax. Keep the certificate that allows the exemption.

## Turn off marketing email

1. On the customer's page, under **Profile**, select **Turn off marketing…**. It shows only while they are subscribed.
2. Select **Turn off marketing** to confirm.

**Marketing** changes to **Turned off by the store**, with the date. You cannot turn it back on: only the customer can subscribe again, on the storefront.

## Result

- A saved note, tag, VAT ID or tax status shows on the customer's page at once, and the list shows the new tags.
- Each change reaches your [organization webhooks](/organizations/webhooks/) as `commerce.customer.updated`, which names the fields that changed.

## Troubleshooting

**Customers** says the customer list is for Tier 1 support and above
: Your role is **Read only**. Ask an owner or admin for a support role.

The note, tags and tax fields are read-only
: Changing a customer needs Tier 3 support or higher. Below that, **Note and tags** shows the note and tags without a form.

**Turn off marketing…** is missing
: The customer is not subscribed, or your role is below Tier 3 support.

The page says **No such customer**
: The link points to a customer the store does not have. Select **All customers** to go back to the list.

Their orders are still taxed after you ticked **Tax exempt**
: Checkout does not read the box. The tax is charged as it would be for any customer.

A customer shows **Guest** but has an account
: The badge marks a customer who first checked out without an account. **Account** under **Profile** says whether they have one now.

## Related

- [Fulfil, refund and cancel store orders](/organizations/commerce/orders/)
- [Create promotions and issue gift cards](/organizations/commerce/discounts/)
- [Manage customers](/organizations/customers/)

## With the API

`GET https://api.coritan.com/api/v1/orgs/{org_slug}/commerce/customers` searches with `q` and filters with `group_id`. `PATCH` on `/commerce/customers/{customer_id}` changes the `note`, `tags`, `tax_exempt` and `vat_id`, marks the VAT ID checked with `vat_id_valid`, and takes `accepts_marketing` only as `false`. Changing `vat_id` clears its check. Customer groups, which the dashboard only reads, are made and filled through the API. [Manage customers in the Commerce API](/organizations/storefront/commerce-api/#manage-customers) has the details.

```bash
curl -X PATCH "https://api.coritan.com/api/v1/orgs/acme/commerce/customers/4211" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CORITAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"vat_id": "FR12345678901", "vat_id_valid": true}'
```