Mondial Relay & Shopify: Unpacking the Missing Phone Number Hurdle for Pickup Point Orders

Hey everyone! As your friendly Shopify migration expert and community analyst, I spend a lot of time sifting through discussions to bring you actionable insights. Recently, a critical issue popped up that's been causing headaches for store owners using Mondial Relay pickup points, especially in places like France where it's a hugely popular shipping method. It's all about a missing phone number, and it's stopping labels dead in their tracks.

The Sticking Point: Mondial Relay Labels Blocked

Picture this: a customer places an order, selects a Mondial Relay pickup point, and everything seems fine. But then, when you go to generate the shipping label, you hit a wall. Shopify throws up an error: “A recipient phone number is required for pickup point labels.” Frustrating, right? Even worse, if you try to manually add the phone number, Shopify tells you: “Orders sent to pickup points cannot be modified.”

This leaves merchants with an order that can't be shipped and can't be corrected. A real dead end, as @nsgsc, the original poster in our community thread, laid out so clearly. They noted this issue seems pretty recent, popping up only in the last few weeks, suggesting a change on Mondial Relay's API side that Shopify's checkout hasn't quite caught up with.

Why This is Happening: A Gap in the Checkout Flow

So, what's really going on? The community quickly pinpointed the core problem:

• Shipping vs. Pickup Point: Shopify's native setting to "require phone number" usually applies to the *shipping address* form. But when a customer chooses a pickup point, they bypass this standard shipping address form entirely. As @lumine explained, "the require-phone toggle only applies to the shipping address form, and a pickup point selection skips that form entirely, so there’s nothing for it to enforce on."
• Optional Billing Phone: While customers might enter a phone number for their billing address, it's often optional. If they skip it, it's not collected.
• Mondial Relay's New Requirement: The general consensus, echoed by @nsgsc and others, is that Mondial Relay's API likely made the phone number mandatory for pickup point labels a few weeks ago, catching Shopify's integration off guard.

Essentially, Shopify isn't enforcing a phone number collection for Mondial Relay pickup points, even though Mondial Relay now requires it. It's a genuine gap, not something you're missing in your settings, as @cuongnm_trooix confirmed.

Community-Driven Workarounds (What You Can Do NOW)

While Shopify investigates a long-term fix, our community has brainstormed some excellent immediate workarounds:

1. Add a Cart Page Reminder

This is a simple, low-tech solution suggested by @rshrivastava63. Add a clear note on your cart page, or even during the shipping selection step, reminding customers that a phone number is required for Mondial Relay pickup point deliveries. It won't catch every case, but it can significantly reduce the number of stuck orders.

2. Leverage Shopify Flow for Pre-Fulfillment Catching

This is a more robust solution proposed by @lumine. If you're on a Shopify plan that includes Shopify Flow, you can set up an automation:

1. Trigger: When an order is created.
2. Condition: If the shipping method is 'Mondial Relay Pickup Point' AND the customer's phone number field is empty.
3. Action: Flag the order, send an internal email notification to your team, or even tag the order.

This allows you to proactively reach out to the customer for their phone number *before* attempting to generate the label, saving you the headache of a stuck order. It's not ideal, but it gives you a chance to intervene.

3. The 'Require Phone Number' Setting (with a Caveat)

@lumine initially suggested setting "Settings > Checkout > Customer contact method to require a phone number instead of email." The idea here is to force phone collection at an earlier stage. However, as @nsgsc pointed out, the actual setting often presents as "Phone number or email," meaning customers can still choose email and bypass the phone requirement.

Here's what that setting looks like:

So, while the *intent* is good, the current implementation of this setting doesn't quite solve the problem by forcing a phone number only.

What Shopify Needs to Address (Long-Term Fixes)

Many in the thread, including @nsgsc, @rshrivastava63, and @Steve_TopNewYork, agree that this is a platform-level issue that Shopify needs to investigate. Here are the proposed solutions for Shopify:

• Dynamic Phone Number Requirement: Create an option for merchants to make the phone number mandatory specifically for certain shipping methods, like Mondial Relay pickup points. This would allow Shopify to validate that all required information for a selected delivery method is collected before the order is completed.
• Allow Order Edits for Pickup Points: Enable merchants to manually edit orders sent to pickup points to add missing information like a phone number. This would provide a critical safety net when data isn't collected at checkout.
• Synchronize with API Changes: Ensure Shopify's integration with shipping carriers like Mondial Relay is quickly updated when their API requirements change.

Your Next Steps

If you're experiencing this issue, here's what you should do:

1. Report to Shopify Support: As multiple experts in the thread suggested, reporting this directly to Shopify Support is crucial. The more merchants who report the same behavior, the more likely it is to be treated as a product bug and prioritized for a fix.
2. Implement Workarounds: Put the cart page reminder and/or Shopify Flow automation into practice immediately to minimize new stuck orders.
3. Stay Engaged: Keep an eye on the Shopify community forums for updates, and share your experiences. Collective feedback is powerful!

It's always tough when a critical workflow like shipping hits a snag, but the strength of the Shopify community shines through in these moments. By sharing experiences and solutions, we can all help push for a smoother, more reliable platform for everyone. Let's hope Shopify takes this feedback to heart and rolls out a proper fix soon, especially given how vital Mondial Relay is for so many merchants!