Why connect Shopify
Lesson 1 of 18 5 min read
What the Shopify integration does, which data moves in which direction, and how quickly it moves.
If your team re-keys Shopify orders into your back-office system every morning, or updates stock in Shopify by hand after a delivery arrives, this course is for you. By the end of this lesson you'll know what the Shopify integration can move for you, in which direction, and how quickly, so you can decide which parts you need.
What the integration does
The Shopify integration connects your Shopify store to Supply Lens. Supply Lens then passes the data on to the rest of your systems (for example Unleashed, an ERP or a warehouse) through Mappings. Once it's set up, you no longer need manual CSV uploads, and data stays in step in real time or close to it.
Each kind of data is a document type, and you switch each one on separately with its own Configuration:
| Data | Direction | How quickly |
|---|---|---|
| Products | Shopify ↔ Supply Lens | Real time (using webhooks) |
| Inventory | Supply Lens → Shopify (the default) | Real time (using webhooks) |
| Orders | Shopify → Supply Lens | Real time (using webhooks) |
| Fulfilments and tracking | Supply Lens ↔ Shopify | Near real time |
| Credits (refunds) | Shopify → Supply Lens | Real time (using webhooks) |
A webhook is a message Shopify sends the moment something changes, such as a new order. Without webhooks, Supply Lens only finds out about changes when the Integration's schedule next runs.
How the pieces fit together
The most common pattern is Shopify as the shop window and a back-office system, such as Unleashed, as the place that holds stock and processes orders.
Read it as three loops:
- Orders in. A paid order in Shopify becomes an order Document in Supply Lens, which a Mapping sends on to your back-office system.
- Stock out. When stock changes in the back-office system, Supply Lens updates the quantity in Shopify so you don't oversell.
- Fulfilment back. When the order is despatched, Supply Lens creates the fulfilment in Shopify with tracking, so the customer can see their parcel is on its way.
Products can travel either way: you can import your Shopify catalogue into a back-office system, or let Supply Lens update products in Shopify.
Hilltop Coffee
Hilltop Coffee roasts and sells beans on Shopify and runs its stock in Unleashed. Today Priya, the operations lead, copies each order into Unleashed by hand and updates Shopify stock every Friday. They want three things: orders into Unleashed automatically, stock in Shopify that's never more than a few minutes out, and tracking emails to customers when Unleashed despatches. That's the Orders, Inventory and Shipments document types. We'll follow Hilltop Coffee through the rest of the course.
Where this course sits
This course assumes you've done Connecting your systems, so you're comfortable with Integrations, Configurations and Mappings in general. Here we focus on what's particular to Shopify: how to connect a store, what each Shopify setting does, and when to choose each option.
Recap
- The Shopify integration syncs products, inventory, orders, fulfilments and credits.
- Orders and credits flow in from Shopify; inventory flows out to Shopify by default; products and fulfilments can go either way.
- Webhooks make Shopify changes arrive straight away instead of on the next schedule.
- Each document type is switched on with its own Configuration, and Mappings send the Documents on to your other systems.
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