Customers and addresses
Every order requires a billing address, and most orders need a shipping address. You can enter addresses manually, look up existing customers, or pull saved addresses from a linked customer profile.
Overview
The address section appears at the top of the create order screen with billing on the left and shipping on the right. Both forms share the same set of address fields, with a few extras on each side.
Linking a customer profile to the order unlocks additional features: address book access, pricing tiers, store credit, and stored credit cards.
Billing address
The billing address form includes these fields:
First name, last name, company, title
Address line 1 and 2, city, state/province, postal code, country
Day phone, evening phone, cell phone (with SMS opt-in toggle)
Email (with marketing opt-in toggle), CC email, gift email
Tax county (shown when applicable for your tax configuration)
The billing address toolbar provides three actions:
Copy to Shipping — copies the billing address to the shipping form, preserving the residential flag
Customer Search — opens the customer search modal
Addresses — opens the billing address book (only visible when a customer profile is linked)
Auto city and state lookup
When you enter a 5-digit US zip code, UltraCart automatically looks up and fills in the city and state fields. You can still override these values manually.
Country selection
When you change the country, the state/province field updates to show the appropriate options for that country. For countries without a standard state list, a free-text input is shown instead.
Shipping address
The shipping address form has the same core fields as billing, plus:
Residential toggle — indicates whether the shipping address is a residential location. Some shipping carriers charge different rates for residential vs commercial addresses.
SMS opt-in toggle for the shipping phone number
The shipping address toolbar provides:
Copy to Billing — copies the shipping address back to the billing form
Addresses — opens the shipping address book (only visible when a customer profile is linked)
Address standardization
The shipping address includes a Standardize button that sends the address through USPS address standardization. UltraCart displays a side-by-side comparison showing the original address and the standardized version. You can accept the standardized address or keep the original.
This helps ensure addresses are formatted correctly, which reduces shipping errors and improves rate accuracy.
In-store pickup
You can switch the order from shipping to in-store pickup. When enabled, the shipping address fields are replaced with:
Pickup location — select from your configured pickup locations
Pickup date — select an available date
Pickup time — select an available time slot (if applicable)
See Shipping and delivery for more details on the pickup workflow.
Searching for customers
Select Customer Search in the billing address toolbar to search for existing customers. You can search by name, email, or company. Results appear in a list showing matching customer profiles.
Selecting a customer from the results populates the billing address with their information and links the customer profile to the order.
Automatic profile lookup
When you type an email address in the billing email field and move to the next field, UltraCart automatically searches for a matching customer profile. If one is found, a prompt appears offering to link the profile to the order. You can accept or dismiss this prompt.
Linking a customer profile
Linking a customer profile to the order unlocks several features:
Address book — access to the customer's saved billing and shipping addresses
Pricing tiers — ability to apply customer-specific pricing tiers
Store credit — use the customer's internal gift certificate balance toward the order
Stored credit cards — pay with a credit card the customer has previously saved
You can link a profile through customer search, the automatic email lookup, or by selecting Link Profile when a matching profile is detected.
To unlink a profile, select the unlink icon next to the linked customer's email. The profile is also automatically unlinked if you change the billing email address.
Address book
When a customer profile is linked, the Addresses button becomes available in both the billing and shipping address toolbars. The address book shows all saved addresses for the linked customer.
Select an address from the book to populate the corresponding address form. This is especially useful for repeat customers with multiple shipping locations.
Pricing tiers
When your account has non-default pricing tiers configured and a customer profile is linked, a pricing tiers section appears below the shipping address. Toggle on any applicable pricing tiers for this order. When you change a pricing tier, UltraCart recalculates all item prices on the server.