Shopify

Information about this tab can be found here.

The payment methods used in the store orders are automatically imported to Xentral. If a payment method is not known, it will be created in the interface under Details > Payment methods and can then be linked to a stored payment method in Xentral.

For more information on payment method mapping, see the Online Shops article. The type name for Shopify Payments is shopify_payments.

You can find information about this tab 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 item.

"variant": when the free fields belong to a variant.

The mapping of the free fields determines the name of the metafield where the value is stored. You can find more information about this in the Meta fields section.

Subshop mapping in the interface is not currently available for Shopify, but must be done through two separate store importers and two private Shopify apps.

Information about this tab can be found here.

Group mapping is not currently available for Shopify.

You can learn more about using Smarty in this helpdesk article: Smarty in the store importer.

It causes errors when you import the following articles from Shopify to Xentral.

To learn how to import items from Shopify to Xentral, click here.

A special feature of Shopify is that if you export an item that has variants in Shopify that are not created or linked correctly in Xentral, those items will be deleted in Shopify.

For more information on how to export items from Xentral to Shopify, click here.

Learn how to synchronize stock numbers here.

Importing orders from online stores is described in this article.

Currently Shopify only imports orders with the status "paid", which do not have the status "shipped". Often orders are paid in the same process, for example with PayPal. To avoid double 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 payment method mapping.

The option "Apply options in Shopify to item description on import" allows you to apply property options, e.g. personalization on import, to the item description of the order.

Reporting cancellations

If you have enabled the "Report cancellations" option in the settings, then cancellations of orders from Shopify will be reported to Shopify. Cancellation reporting only sets order status to "Canceled" in Shopify, as credit payout can go through Xentral. The payment status remains at "Paid." Refund will not run automatically through Shopify.

The cancellation email from Shopify will not be triggered. Partial cancellations or subsequent discounts are not honored.

This is what the cancelled order will look like:

Postage costs are automatically imported with the order import to Xentral.

In Xentral, orders with postage costs are supplemented with a postage item and its price. You can define the item to be used as postage item from the item master in the interface in the settings tab. Postage free orders will also be imported with the postage item, but this item will then get a price of 0,00 EUR, so the order is postage free for the customer.

Xentral transfers the item category information to Shopify. There, the category is created as a product type (All Products > Edit Product).

This gives you the possibility to build and structure your categories in Shopify in a flexible way. The assignment to the category is then done via the correct assignment of the product type (Categories → Edit category).

To properly map the articles (products) coming from Shopify to the Xentral articles, you need to create the ProductID, VariantID and SKU as foreign number (Master data > Articles > Foreign numbers) in the article master of Xentral. The SKU from Shopify is always needed for variants as well as parent items and normal items. Additionally, this mapping is important for article export and import from Xentral to Shopify.

For articles without variants, the shopifyproductid must be maintained with the article. This will appear when you call the article and copy the highlighted area from the URL into the browser.

Additionally, you should also maintain the SKU (item number) of the item in the foreign number mapping in Xentral.

Shopify URL

View in Xentral

For articles with variants you have to distinguish between parent and child articles. For parent items you have to maintain the shopifyproductid (green box).

For child items you have to maintain the shopifyvariantid (blue box) and SKU (item number).

Shopify URL

View in Xentral

The "Location" named in Shopify is identical to the warehouse in Xentral. The location is important to report the stock correctly.

To do this, you must first correctly define or create the warehouse in Shopify. Then you have to select which warehouse stock the location should run on. By clicking on the "Check Connection" button, the connection will be read into Xentral and a comparison of the stock in Xentral with the stock in Shopify will take place.

Unfortunately, it is currently not possible to use the same credentials for two stores.

You can create items as gift cards in Shopify to represent amount reductions in orders through gift cards. These can be transferred to Xentral during order import.

If the coupon is not automatically picked on Shopify and imported to Xentral, the coupon must be sent manually. If it is automatically picked, it will no longer be imported to Xentral.

In Xentral, the item must not be a stock item. Non-stock items can be hidden on the delivery bill if desired.

Alternatively, you can also check the Pick up partially shipped orders box. This will pick up the orders, but without the voucher. This leads to the fact that the payment amount does not correspond to the order amount in Xentral. Therefore you should use this constellation only in exceptional cases.

For gift cards no article needs to be created in Xentral. The customer either orders via a specific link and gets the discount at checkout or enters the gift card/discount code at checkout. There are different approaches to what amount arrives in Xentral via Shopify Payments. The live import of the order creates the debtor in Xentral and the item (in this case: gift card) is also transferred. We automatically pull the Shopify Payments report so we have that in Xentral as well. Our partner nxtgen Digital has built a solution that recognizes gift cards within Xentral and also settles them correctly.

The meta fields in Shopify are similar to the properties of an article from Xentral.

However, with some exceptions, meta fields are not visible without additional tools. From a technical perspective, meta fields consist of a key, a value, a type, and a scope.

In Xentral in the article master, the meta title can be filled in the texts and descriptions area, for example.

When the article is exported to Shopify, the Meta Title looks like this. In Shopify, this interface can be displayed through additional apps.

Metafields do not need to be created additionally in Shopify. If a value is transferred to a meta field that does not yet exist, the importer takes care of everything.

Example: The meta field "Color" is to be created/transferred for an article and the value to be transferred is "Pink". Then it is sufficient to store the data in the article.

The prerequisite is that the Transfer properties option is activated in the store interface.

For variants, the transfer to metafields works the same way. For the respective variant, you create a property and enter a value. The only difference is that properties created for variants are given the scope variant. This means that each variant in the meta field has its own value.

Transfer meta fields via free fields

Alternatively, meta fields can also be transferred to Shopify via free fields. In this case you have to set the free field mapping in the importer.

Translating meta fields into other languages

To translate meta fields as well as the contained values into other languages, you can create a property in Xentral for this purpose also for another language (e.g. French).

During the article export two new meta fields are created in Shopify.

The upper meta field contains the translation of the property value. The scope indicates from which language to which was translated. The key is "Pink", the translation is the value of the metafield. The lower meta field contains the translation of the property name. The scope again indicates from which language to which was translated. It is preceded by a k.

With free fields the translation is realized differently. Here the scope is either global, if a simple article is transferred, or variant, if several variants are transferred. The key changes according to the set language.