On 26th February 2026, Shopify deprecated legacy customer accounts. Any store created after 26th February 2026 or any merchant who is already using new customer accounts will not be able to use legacy customer accounts by default.
One of the features in this new customer account is the Buy Again button, which appears on the order history and order status pages. It lets customers reorder a previous order with a single click, adding all items directly to the cart.
It sounds like a conversion win, but in practice, it’s causing real problems for merchants.
Here are 11 reasons why Shopify merchants are hiding or replacing the default Buy Again button — and how Smiley Commerce solves each one.
1. Customers can’t edit quantities before reordering
The Buy Again button adds every item from the original order with the exact same quantities with no option to edit.
Example: A customer originally bought 3 protein bars and now they only want 1. Clicking Buy Again adds all 3 to the cart. The customer either notices at checkout or, worse, doesn’t notice, and ends up with an order they didn’t intend to place.
2. Out-of-stock products are still added to cart
The Buy Again button doesn’t check stock before adding items. If something from the original order is out of stock, it still gets added.
Example: A customer reorders a skincare bundle. One of the serums is now out of stock. All items are added to the cart, and the customer only finds out when they reach checkout: “Some items are no longer available and have been removed from your cart.”
This creates an inconsistent experience, especially for customers reordering for the first time. It reduces trust at exactly the wrong moment.
3. Line item properties can’t be added
Many Shopify stores sell personalised or custom products like engraved jewellery, custom print products, and made-to-order goods, where product customisation options are captured through line item properties.
The default Buy Again button does not add line item properties into the new cart.
Example: A customer reorders a custom mug with their original engraving detail (“Thank you, Sarah”). The mug is added to the cart, but without any personalisation data. The order processes as a blank mug. The customer is confused, the merchant has to invest time to solve this, and the reorder becomes a support issue.
When customers click Buy Again, stores lose important customisation data, forcing staff to manually fix orders and creating unnecessary support work. For merchants in the customised gifts, print-on-demand, bespoke product or any other similar business, this is a recurring operational cost.
4. Order notes can’t be added
Order notes let customers give merchants special instructions like delivery preferences, allergen notes, access requirements, assembly requests, etc.
The Buy Again button creates a fresh cart with no order notes attached and gives customers no prompt to add them.
Example: A customer at a restaurant supply store always adds the note “Keep the parcel at the front door.” Every time customers use Buy Again, that note is missing. Sometimes it gets caught before dispatch and sometimes it doesn’t, and that causes fulfilment friction that could have been avoided.
5. Subscription products can’t be reordered
If a customer wants to reorder a subscription product, change the subscription type (for example, from every month to every 2 weeks), or switch a one-time purchase to a recurring subscription, then the default Buy Again button can’t help.
Example: A customer who originally bought a one-time supplement pack now wants to set it up as a monthly subscription. Clicking Buy Again adds it as a one-time purchase. The upsell is missed, and the customer doesn’t get what they actually came for.
6. It replaces the existing cart entirely
If a customer already has items in their cart and clicks Buy Again, the entire cart is wiped out and replaced with the reorder items. There is no merge option and no warning.
Example: A customer spends 10 minutes browsing collections and adds 5 products to the cart from different collections. They then visit their order history and click Buy Again on an old order. Gone. No warning, no way to get it back.
7. No way to add specific products from a past order
The default Buy Again button is all or nothing, that means every item from the original order gets added to cart regardless of whether the customer wants all of them.
Example: A customer originally ordered 5 products, now they only need to reorder 2 of them. Clicking Buy Again adds all 5. They now have to go into the cart, find the 3 unwanted items, and remove them manually. This is extra friction that could have been avoided entirely.
8. No price visibility before adding to cart
Default Buy Again button adds all items to cart, without showing customers the price of products. If prices have changed since the original order, the customer only finds out at checkout, not before.
Example: A merchant runs a flash sale and then returns to normal pricing. A customer who bought during the sale clicks Buy Again weeks later, assuming the same price. They hit checkout, see a higher total, and abandon — confused and frustrated.
9. No reorder discount support
There is no way to offer a discount as part of the Buy Again flow. Merchants who want to increase repeat purchases through a reorder discount can’t do it with the default Buy Again button. The button just adds to cart without a discount.
Example: A supplements brand wants to offer 10% off on every reorder to encourage repeat purchases. With the default Buy Again button, there’s no option to apply the discount during the reorder process.
10. Merchants can’t control which products appear
The Buy Again button shows every product from every past order with no filtering. Merchants have no way to exclude specific products, or one-time purchases that shouldn’t be reordered.
Example: A merchant sold a product with a custom donation or a warranty package product. Customers who bought it still see it in their cart when they reorder with the default Buy Again option.
11. No analytics for tracking Buy Again / Reorder Revenue
Merchants have no idea if customers are even using the Buy Again button. There’s no data on how many placed a reorder, or how much revenue it actually drove.
Example: A merchant notices repeat purchase rates are lower than expected but has no way to know if Buy Again is being clicked, ignored, or causing errors. Without data, there’s no way to improve the reorder experience.
How to solve this
Buy Again & Reorder Reminders is built for Shopify’s new customer accounts and fixes each of these with a reorder flow that actually works for customers:
- New customer accounts — integrates natively with Shopify’s new customer accounts, replacing the default Buy Again button
- Quantity editing — customers can increase or decrease quantities before adding items to cart
- Real-time stock check — out-of-stock products are flagged before checkout, not after
- Line item properties — customers can add line item properties; customisations and personalisation details carry over into the reorder
- Order notes — customers can add and update order notes as part of the reorder flow
- Subscription reorder — subscription products can be reordered effortlessly
- Cart preservation — existing cart items are kept; nothing is overwritten
- Product selection — customers can add all or only specific products they want from the past order
- Updated prices visible — the reorder popup shows updated pricing so customers know exactly what they’ll pay before adding to cart
- Reorder discounts — merchants can offer a discount as part of the reorder flow to increase repeat purchases
- Exclude specific products — merchants can control which products appear in the reorder flow
- Reorder analytics — merchants can track Buy Again / reorder revenue, buy again orders count, top 5 reordered products, reorder rate
Want to hide the buy again button?
If you’re not ready to replace it and just want to hide the default Buy Again button, then here’s exactly how you can do it: How to hide the Buy Again button on Shopify
