Shopify
Purpose
Shopify becomes a sales channel, not a second system: the item master stays here, the shop gets a copy. That removes the most expensive source of error in e-commerce before it exists — two item masters, two stock figures, two price truths and a drifting connector in between. Shopify is the reference connector: the channel contract was shaped on it.
Scope
- Create and update items in ONE call (
productSet) instead of three steps — so there is only
one partial failure instead of three.
- Stock at the configured location; without it Shopify does not know where the goods are and
refuses.
- Prices on the variant — since 2024 Shopify keeps price and SKU there, not on the product.
- Orders are pulled and become sales orders.
- Fulfilment with tracking number reported back to the shop.
- Four settings per channel: shop domain, API version, location and whether new items appear as
ACTIVE or DRAFT.
Interplay
The channel is a sales channel in the sense of Channels — not a special path beside the document. Items, prices and stock come from the product catalogue and stock; incoming orders become regular sales orders and travel through warehouse, shipping and invoicing like any other order. Credentials live as an integration under Integrations in the encrypted store. Flows and mappings at the system boundary — which field goes where, when a sync runs — belong to OctiConnect; conditions and waiting times remain the business of automations.
Limits
- The external id carries three ids (product, variant, inventory item), separated by
:.
Shopify needs a different one per operation; looking them up by SKU on every run would mean an extra request per line and run.
- The real run is still outstanding. What is verified is that we ask correctly and read the
answer correctly — not that Shopify accepts the request. A real seller account is missing.