With this Xentral interface, you can connect Shopify directly, allowing you to seamlessly import sales orders from your store into Xentral and manage the products sold there. This integration is done via an API interface (shop importer), which automates the entire sales process: from the creation and sending of shipping documents and invoices to returns management. Updated sales order status, tracking numbers and inventory numbers are automatically reported back to Shopify via Xentral via process starter.
Shopify is ideal for start-ups and can be activated directly online. Shopify includes all the basic features for online sales, but does not offer an integrated shipping process. This is where Xentral comes in: Xentral's auto-shipping and shipping center allows you to process your customer sales orders efficiently, with Xentral handling automatic stock booking, package stamp creation, and sending the updated stock and shipment numbers back to Shopify. This combination creates an optimal solution for e-commerce companies.
Functionalities included
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Fetch sales orders: Automatically import customer sales orders from Shopify into Xentral including adoption of product order quantities, customer number, shipping method and payment method.
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Switch sales order status on shipment: Update sales order status to "Completed" and return tracking number to Shopify.
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Synchronization of current stock numbers: Automatically update stock when inventory changes and report linked products to Shopify.
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Feedback on cancellations: Sending cancellations back to Shopify.
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Product import and export between Xentral and Shopify: Products and their variants are synchronized between systems, including variant and matrix products.
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Export of product properties and free fields: Submit specific product properties from Xentral to Shopify.
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Initial transfer of product list: The first time you connect Xentral and Shopify, the product list can be transferred to Xentral.
The following functionalities are not supported or are supported only with limitations:
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No representation of split sales orders: Sales orders that have been split in Xentral (partial deliveries) are not displayed as split sales orders in Shopify.
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No export of categories or product tree: Exporting categories or the product tree is not supported in the interface between Xentral and Shopify.
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No transmission of dimensions: Length, height, and width are not transferred when transferring Xentral to Shopify.
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Only one export of product data: Product data is exported but not synchronized. Disabling product synchronization will not remove products from the shop.
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Image export only: Images can be exported from Xentral, but not imported.
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No support for multiple warehouse locations: All inventory figures and sales order information synchronized between Xentral and Shopify always refer to a central storage location. Inventories and sales orders cannot be split or targeted by different warehouse locations in Shopify.
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No connection of ShopifyPOS as a separate project: Sales through ShopifyPOS can not be handled differently than online sales orders in Xentral.
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ShopifyPOS not connected as checkout system: ShopifyPOS is not available as a checkout system in Xentral.
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No automatic refund process: Cancellations will be reported back to Shopify, but will not trigger an automatic refund.
Note
You cannot submit product tags when exporting products from Xentral to Shopify, you must maintain your tags directly in Shopify.
There is currently no way to transfer sub-orders with the respective tracking number to Shopify each time they are executed. Only one entire sales order can be marked as completed and the tracking number reported back to Shopify at a time. However, you can also send your shipping confirmations via Xentral so that a separate email is sent for each sub-order.
For information about how to connect Shopify to Xentral and configure your store interface, see the following articles:
Important
In the settings of the Shopify interface, a postage product must always be stored! This is necessary for successful shipping.
Information about this tab can be found here.
The payment methods used in the shop sales orders are automatically imported into Xentral. If a payment method is not known, it is created in the interface under Details > Payment Methods and can then be linked to a stored payment method in Xentral.
For more information about payment method mapping, see the article Online Shops. The type designation for Shopify Payments is shopify_payments.
Information about this tab can be found here.
Free fields for Shopify are processed and end up in the meta fields in different namespaces:
"global": If the free fields belong to a normal product
"variant": If the free fields belong to a variant
The mapping of the free fields determines the name of the meta field in which the value is stored, see the Metafelder section in Shopify for more information.
The sub-shop mapping in the interface is currently not available for Shopify, but must be done via two separate shop importers and two private Shopify apps.
Information about this tab can be found here.
Learn more about using Smarty in this helpdesk article: Smarty at Shopimporter.
Learn how to import Shopify products into Xentral here.
Errors occur when you import the following products from Shopify to Xentral.
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Products in draft mode
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Products without SKU
Products created with a reduced tax rate in Shopify are incorrectly imported into Xentral at the regular tax rate due to limitations of the Shopify API.
We recommend that you create your products in Xentral and export them to Shopify.
Alternatively, you can use the following workaround:
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Export the affected products from Shopify to a CSV file.
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Open the CSV file and adjust the respective tax rates.
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Import the customized CSV file into Xentral.
A special feature of Shopify is that if you export an product that has variants in Shopify that are not created or incorrectly linked in Xentral, those products will be deleted in Shopify.
Shopify limits the number of variants per product to 100, and if you try to export an product with more than 100 variants to Shopify, you will receive an error message.
For more information on how to export products from Xentral to Shopify, click here.
You can find out how to synchronize the stock numbers here.
Importing sales orders from online stores is described in this article.
Currently, Shopify only imports sales orders with the status paid that have not sent the status by default. Often the sales orders are paid for in the same way, for example with PayPal. To avoid duplicate billing, you should define uniformly per payment method whether the payment processing is already done in Shopify or in Xentral. The settings are to be made in the mapping method.
You can allow the import of sales orders that have not yet been paid and have a specific status. The necessary settings can be found in Tab: Details > Tab: Interface in the Settings for Shop or Marketplace area of your Shopify interface. Orders with the following statuses can be imported in addition:
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Pending Payment: This status is used when the payment provider has started processing the payment but the process is not yet complete, and is also used when the payment is due later, such as when the customer pays upon receipt of the invoice (due upon receipt) or when all products have been shipped (due upon fulfillment).
You can activate the import of sales orders with status pending payment by ticking the box for collect pending payment.
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Authorized: This status is used for credit card payments and some other payment methods if the payment provider has confirmed your customer's payment information but you have not yet entered the payment, and the status is only displayed if you enter your payments manually.
You can activate the import of sales orders with status Authorized by checking the box for collect Authorized Payment.
The apply options to product description when importing in Shopify allows you to apply property options, e.g. personalization when importing, to the product description of the sales order.
In some cases, not all sales orders from Shopify can be imported into Xentral. This problem can occur, for example, with network problems. To ensure that all sales orders have been imported, it is possible to compare the sales orders present in Shopify with those in Xentral. For comparison, sales orders from the last 7 days are used.
To start the comparison, follow these steps:
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Open the Shopify API Advanced module .
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In the Promotion column on the right, click Compare Store Sales Orders .
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In the dialog box, click Compare .
After the comparison is complete, you will be notified of how many sales orders have been checked. If not all sales orders could be imported, the Shopify sales order IDs of the missing sales orders will still be listed. These must then be imported manually.
If you want to check a large amount of jobs (>250), the process can take a while. Clicking on the Update button can view the current progress. Since the process is running in the background, the dialog box can also be closed and Xentral can continue to be used during this process. If the dialog box is then opened again, the current progress is displayed.
If you have enabled the option "Report Cancellation" in the settings, then cancellations of sales orders from the shop will be reported to Shopify. The cancellation notification only sets sales order status "Canceled" in Shopify, as the withdrawal of the credit can be made via Xentral. The payment status remains at "Paid". The refund does not automatically go through Shopify.
Shopify's cancellation email will not be triggered. Partial cancellations or subsequent discounts will not be considered.
This is how the cancelled sales order looks like:
In Xentral, shipping costs are implemented via a postage product with a certain price. This postage product is then imported when the sales order is imported. In order for the import to proceed correctly, you should configure some settings in your Shopify interface.
To configure the import of shipping costs, follow these steps:
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Navigate to Settings > Sell > Shops / Marketplaces and open your Shopify interface.
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Optional: If you offer free shipping, select the option Add free shipping as invoice line, which can be found at the bottom of the tab: Details > Tab: Interface.
If you use the free shipping option in Shopify, no postage product will be imported to Xentral by default. This can cause problems with auto-shipping, as the sales order light's postage check will only turn green if a postage product exists and is paid for. This option allows Xentral to recognize free shipping from Shopify and import it as a postage product with a value of 0.
Note
Alternatively, you can disable postage check for a specific project under Projects > Open your project > Tab: Settings > Tab: Logistics / Shipping by unchecking a possible checkmark on postage check on the right side of the Options pane.
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Open the Preferences tab.
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Choose a product for postage and postage discounted. These products will appear on your customer's invoice and should be marked as product is postage. You can mark a product under Sell > product > Open your product > Tab: Details > Tab: Products in the Product Options section.
Xentral transfers the information of the product categories to Shopify, where the category is created as a product type (All Products > Edit Product).
This gives you the option to flexibly build and organize your categories in Shopify, which is then assigned to the category by correctly assigning the product type (Categories → Edit Category).
Note
If you export products from Xentral to Shopify, the products are automatically linked and the necessary third-party numbers are created. Manual linking is only necessary if the product is already created in Shopify.
Linking the products between Xentral and Shopify is important to enable the interface to synchronize product data and stock numbers.
In order to properly link the products coming from Shopify to the products in Xentral, you need to create the ProductID, the VariantID and SKU as a external number (Master Data > Products > External Numbers) in the product master files of Xentral. The SKU from Shopify is always required, for variants as well as parent products and normal products. In addition, this link is important for the product export and import from Xentral to Shopify.
For products without variant, the shopifyproductid must be maintained for the product, which appears when you access the product and copy the highlighted area from the URL into the browser.
In addition, you should also maintain the SKU (product number) of the product in the external number mapping in Xentral.
Shopify URL
View in Xentral
For products with variants you have to distinguish between parent and child products, for parent products you have to maintain the shopifyproductid (green box).
For child products, you must maintain the shopifyvariantid (blue box) and SKU (product number).
Shopify URL
View in Xentral
The "location" mentioned in Shopify is identical to the warehouse in Xentral, and the location is important to report the stock correctly.
To do this, you need to define or create the warehouse correctly in Shopify beforehand, and then you need to select which stock you want the location to run on. By clicking the "Check Connection" button, the connection is read in after Xentral and a comparison of the stock in Xentral with the stock in Shopify takes place.
Unfortunately, it is currently not possible to use the same login data for two shops.
Note
You absolutely have to fill in the warehouse location, it is a required field or a basic requirement for reconciling the stock numbers.If you do not provide any information, the reconciling of the stock in Xentral with the one in Shopify will not work.
You can create products in Shopify as gift cards to represent reductions in amounts in sales orders through vouchers, which can be adopted into Xentral when the sales order is imported.
If Shopify does not automatically pick the voucher and import it into Xentral, the voucher must be sent manually; if it is picked automatically, it will no longer be imported into Xentral.
In Xentral, the product may not be a stock product. Non-stock products can be hidden on the delivery note if desired.
Alternatively, you can check the Collect Partially Shipped Sales Orders checkbox. This will pick up the sales orders, but without the voucher. This will cause the payment amount to not match the order amount in Xentral. Therefore, you should only use this constellation in exceptional cases.
For gift cards, there is no need to create a product in Xentral. The customer either orders via a specific link and receives the discount at the checkout, or enters the gift card/discount code at the checkout. There are various ways in which the amount arrives in Xentral via Shopify Payments. By live importing the sales order, the debtor is created in Xentral and the product (in this case: the gift certificate) is also transferred. Xentral automatically pulls the Shopify payment report so that it is also in Xentral. Xentral then also finds the Shopify debit to the sales order, as it is linked via the Internet number. Our partner nxtgen Digital has developed a solution that recognizes gift cards in Xentral and also bills them correctly.
The meta fields in Shopify are similar to the properties of a product from Xentral.
However, with some exceptions, the meta fields are not visible without additional tools. From a technical point of view, meta fields consist of a key, a value, a type and a scope.
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Key: The key specifies the name of the meta field, in the example the blue metatitle_en
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Value: The value is the content of the meta field. In this example, "Meta DE"
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Type: The type indicates whether the meta field content is text (string) or integer. By default, Xentral creates all meta fields as text
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Scope: The scope indicates how far the information of the meta field extends. For products with multiple variants, a meta field with the scope global means that the value is the same for all variants of the product. A scope of the variant setting means that the meta field has its own value for all variants. In this example, the gray global
In Xentral in the product master files, the texts and descriptions area can be used to populate the meta title, for example.
If the product is exported to Shopify, the meta title looks like this, and in Shopify, this interface can be viewed through additional apps.
Meta fields do not need to be created in Shopify, if a value is transferred to a meta field that does not yet exist, the importer takes care of everything.
Example: For a product the meta field "Color" should be created/transferred and the value to be transferred is "Pink". Then it is sufficient to store the data in the product like this.
The prerequisite is that the option Transfer properties is activated in the shop interface.
For variants, the transfer to meta fields works the same way. For each variant, you create a property and enter a value. The only difference is that properties created for variants receive the scope variant, which then gives each variant its own value in the meta field.
Some meta fields have Xentral predefined. These fields transfer master data from Xentral fields to meta fields in Shopify.
Field in Xentral |
Key / field name |
Scope |
Customs tariff number |
harmonized_system_code |
global |
Meta title DE |
metatitle_de |
global |
Meta description EN |
metadescription_de |
global |
Meta Keywords DE |
metakeywords_de |
global |
Product designation EN |
title |
ml_en |
Product description EN |
description |
ml_en |
Meta title EN |
meta_title |
ml_en |
Meta description EN |
meta_description |
ml_en |
Meta Keywords EN |
metakeywords |
ml_en |
The ml_en scope is created directly by Xentral. Shopify offers you the possibility to create any scope you want. Xentral quickly sets up its own scope so that the data for the English translation is collected centrally.
Alternatively, you can transfer meta fields to Shopify via free fields, then you have to set the free field mapping in the importer in the interface.
To translate meta fields and their values into other languages, you can also create a property for this purpose in Xentral for another language (e.g. French).
Two new meta fields are then created in Shopify when exporting products.
The upper meta field contains the translation of the property value. The scope indicates which language was translated to which. The key is "Pink", the translation is the value of the meta field. The lower meta field contains the translation of the property label. The scope again indicates which language was translated to which.
For free fields, the translation is realized differently. Here, the scope is either global if a simple product is transmitted or variant if multiple variants are transmitted. The key changes based on the language set.
Generally, we recommend that you do the native product maintenance in Xentral, as the image transfer from Xentral to Shopify works fine. However, it is also possible to transfer product images from Shopify to Xentral. It may happen that the transfer does not work for individual product images. If this happens, you can delete the images, import them again into Xentral and export them once to Shopify from there.
Note
The Shopify Importer always imports both the shipping and billing addresses, even if they are the same, and Xentral does not check if it is a different shipping address than the billing address.