Shopify: channel guide

About this article

This is a ChannelEngine guide on Shopify as a channel. Here you can find information on how to create an account on Shopify, how to configure this channel on ChannelEngine, what the specific requirements are, and more.

Table of contents

How to request an account

Associated costs

Channel features

Channel-specific requirements and exceptions

Settings and configuration

Setup

Mappings

Listed products

Additional information

How to request an account

To start selling via Shopify you need to create an account on their website. ChannelEngine supports connections with the Basic, Shopify, Advanced, and Plus plans.

Associated costs

The costs related to using Shopify can be found on the pricing section of their website.

Channel features

Supported	Not supported
Product offers (merchant product number matching)	Multiple fulfillment locations
Product content	Repricing
Product variations (size/color)	Draft orders
Product images	Partial cancelations
Orders
Shipments
Cancelations
Returns/refunds (merchant and channel)
Discount codes
Publishing of products on all sales channels
Metafields

Channel-specific requirements and exceptions

Settings and configuration

Setting up each channel on ChannelEngine follows the same flow, once you add the channel:

1. Go through the Setup
2. Create a Product selection
3. Complete the Categorization
4. Set up the Mappings (content, offers, and carriers)
5. Configure the Pricing (rules and currency conversion)
6. Finish the Activation
7. Check the Listed products overview

Setup

On Shopify

To connect your Shopify store with ChannelEngine you must add ChannelEngine as a private app in the back-end of your Shopify account.

To add ChannelEngine to Shopify:

1. On your Shopify admin, click Settings.
2. In the left panel, click Apps and sales channels, click Develop app, and click Create an app.
3. In the Create an app dialogue box, in the App name field, enter the app's name. The recommended name is 'ChannelEngine'.
4. In the App developer field, enter an email address. We recommend you to enter [e-mail]. 
5. Update the permissions of the private app, so ChannelEngine has the required access:
   • Customers - read and write
   • Discounts - read and write
   • Fulfillment services - read and write
   • Inventory - read and write
   • Order editing - read and write
   • Orders - read and write
   • Products - read and write
   • Product listings - read and write
   • Shipping- read and write
   • Store content - read and write
6. Click Create the app.
7. Click the API credentials tab. The API credentials should be generated and visible in the API key and secret field.

On ChannelEngine

Once your Shopify account is active, you can set up Shopify on ChannelEngine.

To setup Shopify to ChannelEngine:

1. Add Shopify as a channel in your account.
2. Under the Setup tab of your Shopify account, enter the following information:
   

   Section	Field	Description
   Settings	API key password	The password you copied from your Shopify back-end.
   	API shop URL	Your Shopify store URL. E.g.: myshop.myshopify.com.
   	Shop URL	The public URL for your store. E.g.: www.myshop.com
   	Location identity on Shopify	On Shopify, go to Settings, Locations. Open the default location. You can find a number after /locations/ in the URL. This is your location identity. Add this number so ChannelEngine can update your stock and orders.
   	Currency	Enter the currency you want to use for prices and shipping costs, using the ISO standard currency code.  N.B.: make sure to align the currency setting with the Shopify settings. If these settings do not match, ChannelEngine cannot export the prices – causing the product offers export to fail.
   	Name for option [number]	Enter a name to replace the default.
   	Extra metafields to product export	Lets you specify extra product data. These meta fields can contain up to 30 characters.
   Advanced settings	Set orders to closed after import	When enabled, ChannelEngine sets order statuses to Closed and orders are not handled. Instead, orders are handled on Shopify.
   	Shopify prices are excluding VAT	If enabled, all product prices are exported to Shopify without the VAT. If the All prices include tax option is switched off on Shopify (go to Settings, Taxes, Tax calculations), the Shopify prices are excluding VAT option must be enabled on ChannelEngine. On B2B orders, VAT is commonly excluded.
   	List products on all sales channels	If enabled, ChannelEngine publishes all your products to all sales channels.
   	Notify customer on shipment/cancelation	If enabled, ChannelEngine sends shipping confirmation and order canceled notifications.
   	Include shipping costs for cancelation refunds	If enabled, the grand total of the order lines is refunded. I.e.: including the shipping costs.
   	Notify customer on return/refund	If enabled, ChannelEngine sends an order refund notification.
   	Restock items in case of refunds	If enabled, ChannelEngine automatically restocks products in the Shopify warehouse.
   	Delay orders with gifted order lines	If enabled, ChannelEngine delays importing orders to allow gift card transactions. This setting is added because gift card orders take longer to process on Shopify.
   	Send emails	If enabled, invoices are sent automatically per channel.
   	Remove channel	Removes the channel. Note that deleting a channel removes the channel and its tasks, but it does not automatically remove products from the channel itself.

Mappings

On Shopify, there are only mappings under the Content mappings tab. Make sure to map the attributes required across all product categories:

• Price - the product's sale price.
• SKU - the product's Merchant product number. To link to existing products, this attribute should be the same as the SKU field on Shopify.
• Title - the product's name.

There are also optional attributes that ChannelEngine advises you to map:

• Barcode - the product's EAN.
• Body HTML - the product's description.
• Compare at price - sets the from-to pricing and works as the product's catalog price.
• Fulfillment service - the ID of the fulfillment service associated with the variant.
• Handle - this value is automatically created from the product title.
• Inventory policy - indicates whether customers are allowed to place an order for the product variant when it is out of stock. I.e.: backorder.
• Option 1 - used to create a single variation (parent-child). The only way to create product variations on Shopify is to set up a correct grandparent-parent-child structure on ChannelEngine. Once this is set up, you must fill out the fields Option 1 and Option 2. E.g.: if you have a t-shirt in various colors and sizes, Option 1 must be connected to the field Color and Option 2 to the field Size. 
• Option 2 - used if Option 1 is filled out. This option generates a double variation (grandparent-parent-child).
• Product ID - specifies the product on which to create the variant.
• Product type - the product's category.
• Requires shipping - indicates whether the variant requires shipping.
• Tags - enter a comma-separated list of tags that have been added to the product.
• Vendor - the product's brand.
• Weight - the variant's weight.
• Weight unit - the weight unit used to measure the variant. E.g.: kg.

Listed products

Shopify does not state if a product is published or not. The only visible aspects are the tasks and if their statuses on ChannelEngine. At first the status of a product is set to Created. After it is created on Shopify, it changes to Updated.

Note that when the creation of the product does not go well, Shopify only provides you with minor feedback. This feedback is shown under Reason, below the Last import from channel selection.

Additional information

Add new products

To create new products in your Shopify back-end, ChannelEngine needs to perform three tasks: export the product content to Shopify; export the offers; and export product images. When all three tasks are completed, the products are shown correctly in your Shopify account. Check with your Customer Success Manager or Onboarding Specialist when these tasks are scheduled for the Shopify channel, so you know how long it takes to see your new products online.

Link to existing products

To link to existing products in your Shopify back-end, set up the correct SKU of each Shopify product in the mapping field SKU. Make sure to inform your Customer Success Manager or Onboarding Specialist before you do that – and do not activate the channel until you get the go-ahead. ChannelEngine must update an export product setting in the back-end for you.

Work with product variations on Shopify or ChannelEngine

The only way to create product variations on Shopify is to set up a correct grandparent-parent-child structure on ChannelEngine. Once this is set up, you must fill out fields Option 1 and Option 2 under Mappings. E.g.: if you have a t-shirt in various colors and sizes, Option 1 must be connected to the field Color and Option 2 to the field Size. If you have a grandparent-parent-child structure set up on ChannelEngine, it is not possible to set up the products on Shopify as standalones.

Return and refund handling

When using the Shopify integration, you have two options to set up return and refund handling:

• Shopify is leading - on Shopify you have the option to create a refund of an order. This refund becomes a return on ChannelEngine, which could be handled like a normal channel return on ChannelEngine.
• ChannelEngine is leading - when creating a return on ChannelEngine, it becomes a refund on Shopify and a 'paid out' is triggered.

How often does each task run on Shopify?

Task type	Default schedule
Import product data	Runs every 30 minutes (parameter: 'full')
Import shipments	Runs every 15 minutes
Export orders	Runs every 15 minutes
Import categories and attributes	Must be manually run
Export product data	Runs every 60 minutes
Export product offers	Runs every 10 minutes
Export product images	Runs every 60 minutes
Import orders	Runs every 10 minutes
Export shipments	Runs every 20 minutes
Export returns	Runs every 20 minutes
Import returns	Must be manually run or scheduled