Integrations and custom apps
Shopify integration services that name which system owns each record
Who this is for, and who it is not for
This fits a Shopify or Shopify Plus merchant with at least one of these conditions: orders are re-keyed into an ERP by hand, inventory in Shopify and in the warehouse drifts apart, Shopify Flow has been outgrown by the rules around it, or one person holds the map of what talks to what.
It does not fit a store with one app and no second system. There the native connector is the right answer and nobody needs an agency. It also does not fit a team that wants a connector installed with no owner for the failure path, because an integration nobody watches is a running system with no operator.
An integration is a workflow, not a line item
Product, inventory, order, customer and fulfilment data move through different systems at different times. We identify the system of record, expected state, owner and consequence when those states diverge.
Choose the intervention the workflow actually needs.
Use existing capability
When it is stable and fits the workflow.Configure an app
When it reduces delivery time without creating opaque dependencies.Build a resilient integration
When systems need dependable data exchange, reconciliation and recovery.Build an internal tool
When operators need a controlled way to manage exceptions or a workflow no application owns well.
Native app, iPaaS or custom integration: which one fits
Table: the three ways to connect Shopify to ERP, 3PL, accounting and CRM systems, by what each is for and where each breaks. The decision rule is the number of systems and the complexity of the rules. It is our delivery judgement, not vendor pricing.
Native app
For one system and standard records, such as orders, inventory or tracking between Shopify and one ERP, 3PL or accounting tool through a connector the vendor maintains.
iPaaS
For three or more systems that share the same orders and inventory, where a hosted workflow tool can route, retry and log without custom code.
Custom integration
For rules specific to the business, or when several systems must agree before an order is valid. We build the queue, retry policy, reconciliation job and exception view.
Shopify integrations we build: NetSuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, HubSpot, ShipStation
The systems change, the method does not. We connect Shopify to NetSuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics and other ERPs for products, inventory, orders and financial postings; to Salesforce and HubSpot for customer, order and lifecycle state; to OMS, WMS and 3PL platforms including ShipStation for fulfilment and tracking; and to PIM, tax, subscription and marketplace systems where the catalogue or the compliance rule lives elsewhere.
Each connection starts the same way: name the system of record for every shared field, agree the sync direction and latency, then decide what happens when an update is duplicated, delayed or never arrives. Vendor connectors are assessed against that map rather than adopted on the strength of a feature list.
Guides to the systems we connect most often
Each guide names what breaks between Shopify and one system, compares the native app, iPaaS and custom options, and says what we check first and what we run after go-live.
- Shopify QuickBooks integration for orders, payouts, refunds and sales tax.
- Shopify Salesforce integration for customers, accounts, price books and cases.
- Shopify HubSpot integration for contacts, deals and consent.
- Shopify PIM integration for product data ownership.
- Shopify custom app development for rules no public app expresses.
Shopify API integration for orders, inventory and customers
A Shopify API integration reads and writes through the Admin GraphQL API and listens for changes through webhooks. Three behaviours decide whether it holds up. Webhooks can arrive more than once and out of order, so every handler has to be safe to run twice. API limits are cost-based, so large catalogue syncs belong in bulk operations rather than record-by-record calls. And a webhook that never arrives needs a reconciliation job to find it.
We build to those three behaviours first and the field mapping second. The method is written up in the guide to Shopify inventory sync problems.
Shopify Plus integration: Flow, B2B and checkout rules
Shopify Plus changes an integration in four places: company accounts and price lists for B2B, Shopify Flow for automation inside the store, Shopify Functions for checkout rules, and higher API throughput. Flow is the right tool while a rule starts and ends in Shopify. It is outgrown when a rule needs a second system to agree, a retry when that system is down, or a record of what failed.
That is where a Plus integration is built rather than configured. See the Shopify Plus agency page for the wider Plus scope, and the Shopify NetSuite integration guide for the most common Plus ERP pairing.
Custom Shopify middleware and private apps
Some workflows have no supportable off-the-shelf route. When the rules are specific to the business, or when several systems have to agree before an order is valid, we build a custom Shopify app or a middleware layer that owns the exchange.
That layer holds the queue, the retry policy, the reconciliation job and the exception view an operator actually uses. It also gives the integration a place to keep an audit trail, so a disputed record can be traced to the update that changed it. We keep the surface small and documented, because middleware nobody can read becomes the next dependency to remove.
Design for the unhappy path
Validation, queues, retries, alerting, reconciliation, audit trail and recovery matter as much as the happy-path demo. We design those boundaries before launch.
What we can own
Discovery, system and data mapping, API, webhook and middleware work, test environments, launch controls, documentation and ongoing integration governance.
Who you contract with
Autonomous Technologies is a Canadian company. You contract with the Canadian entity, under a Canadian-law agreement, invoiced in Canadian or US dollars. Rizwan Qaiser is the named principal and works Pacific time.
What a Shopify integration costs and how long it takes
Most single-system integrations run four to ten weeks from system map to monitored handoff. The variables are the number of shared fields, whether the destination system has a usable API or needs a file exchange, how many exception paths the business already runs by hand, and how much test data the other system can provide.
Cost follows the same list rather than a per-endpoint rate. We scope from the system map, so the estimate reflects the reconciliation and failure handling the integration needs, not only the happy path. Ongoing ownership is agreed separately and in advance, because an integration is a running system rather than a delivered file.
Shopify integration partners for Canadian and US merchants
Autonomous Technologies is a Vancouver, BC agency, and most of the integration work we run is for merchants operating in Canada, the United States or both. Cross-border operations put more weight on the parts of an integration that are easiest to skip: tax treatment by province and state, duty and customs fields on the fulfilment record, dual-currency order values reaching the ERP in the right units, and carrier rules that differ on each side of the border.
Delivery is remote and scheduled against your working hours across Pacific, Mountain, Central and Eastern time, with go-live windows agreed against your quietest trading period.
From system map to monitored handoff
- 01
System map
Map systems of record, states, owners and consequences when data diverges. - 02
Architecture decision
Choose app configuration, a custom app, direct integration or middleware. - 03
Implementation
Build the agreed exchange, validation and operator controls. - 04
Failure-path QA
Test retries, replay, alerting, reconciliation and recovery. - 05
Monitoring and handoff
Document the checks, escalation path and owner after launch.
Run: we keep it working
Agencies sell the build. Platforms sell monitoring. Run is the part nobody sells: a named commitment that the flows you depend on keep moving, with a price you can read before you call us.
Named data flows
We list the flows we are responsible for by name, field by field. Orders to the ERP. Inventory back to Shopify. Price lists to the B2B catalogue. Fulfilments to the 3PL. Anything not on the list is not covered, and the list is in the agreement.
Detection to resolution, with a clock on it
Each named flow has an agreed detection window and an agreed resolution target, written before the month starts. We tell you when a flow breaks rather than waiting for a customer to. The targets differ by flow, because a failed order export and a delayed catalogue refresh do not carry the same cost.
A monthly exception report
Once a month, in writing: what failed, what it affected, how long until it was resolved, and what we changed so it happens less often. The report is yours to circulate. It is also how you decide whether Run is still worth paying for.
What it costs
A fixed monthly fee, scoped on the pricing page. It moves with the number of flows and the systems behind them, not with your revenue. We will tell you where you sit on the first call. See the full engagement ladder.
How we keep integrations trustworthy
We show the system-of-record decisions, the reconciliation checks and the recovery path in documentation you keep, so an integration stays understandable after launch. The Shopify ERP integration test worksheet (CSV) sets out the go-live tests an integration has to pass, with each acceptance condition left for your systems to confirm. The field-level ownership map behind them is explained in the Shopify ERP integration guide. The client results we can name are in the section below.
Integration work with named clients
Container One sells shipping containers on Shopify Plus, where the delivered price depends on which depot a container leaves from. We matched the old pricing system on 41 of 41 products before any storefront traffic moved, and seeded 40 depots into the new pricing hub. The migration is still in progress, one endpoint at a time. Read the Container One case study.
SENE Studio is a made-to-measure clothing brand whose Shopify operations platform sends each order to an outside garment factory. In eight weeks, 37 changes reached the branch behind real orders and none merged without a named person accepting it. One 13-row admin page dropped from 113 database queries to 17. Hours saved were not measured, because no baseline was taken. Read the SENE Studio case study.
How to assess any Shopify integration partner, including us
Five questions that separate a designed integration from a demo. Ask every vendor on your shortlist the same five.
Field-level ownership written down first
Ask which system owns each field before anything is built. Does Shopify or the ERP own inventory quantity, price, the customer record, the order after export? Without that in writing, conflicts get settled by whichever update arrives last.
The unhappy path is in the plan
Ask what the design does with duplicate deliveries, delayed updates and missing updates. A demo shows the happy path. The design has to say what happens on the other ones.
Failures have an owner and an alert
Ask who sees a failed sync, how they see it and how quickly. An exception view naming the affected record, the reason and a responsible team beats a log file nobody opens.
Complete journeys tested before go-live
Ask whether whole order journeys are tested across every connected system, from order placed to fulfilment confirmed. Partial shipments, order edits after export and destination outages each need an agreed expected result.
Documentation you keep
Ask what is handed over: the ownership decisions, the reconciliation checks and the recovery path. If that knowledge stays with the vendor, you have bought a dependency.
The integration method, published
Read how we decide field ownership and failure handling before you choose a vendor.
- Shopify NetSuite integration covers the connector options and the field map for the most common Plus ERP pairing.
- Shopify inventory sync problems explains why stock counts drift between Shopify and the system behind it, and how to stop it.
- Shopify 3PL integration covers order export, tracking return and what to ask a warehouse before you connect.
- Shopify ERP integration: who owns each field and what happens when a sync fails sets out the field-level ownership map, the quantity definitions behind an inventory sync and the go-live test list, with the integration test worksheet (CSV).
- Importing old invoices into a Shopify B2B account applies when the integration touches B2B invoicing, where historic records need different treatment from ongoing order sync.
Common questions
How long does a Shopify ERP integration take?
Most single-system integrations take four to ten weeks from system map to monitored handoff. The variables are the number of shared fields, whether the other system has a usable API, how many exception paths the business runs by hand, and how much test data the other system can provide.
What is the difference between a Shopify app and a custom integration?
An app installs a vendor's field mapping, and a custom integration is built to your rules. Use an app for one system with standard fields. Build custom when a business rule, a volume limit or a failure path is something no connector supports.
Do I need an iPaaS to connect Shopify to my ERP?
Not for one system. A maintained native connector is enough for one ERP with standard fields. An iPaaS earns its place from three systems sharing the same orders, and custom middleware from rules or volumes the tool cannot express.
What happens when a Shopify integration sync fails?
The affected record stays traceable, with a reason and an accountable owner. Temporary failures are retried under a controlled policy and invalid data is corrected before another attempt. After a repair we verify the business result, not only the job status, so a retry never creates a second record.
Can Shopify Flow replace an integration?
Only inside Shopify. Flow reacts to store events and can send a request to another system, but it has no reconciliation job or exception view for records that fail between systems. Keep Flow for rules that stay in the store, and build an integration where systems must agree.
Migration & Replatforming
Orders re-keyed by hand and stock that drifts cost more than the fix
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