Get started with the Shopify Connector

Article
02/05/2024

Connect your Shopify stores with Business Central and maximize your business productivity. Manage and view insights from your business and your Shopify store as one unit.

To use Shopify with Business Central, you must do a couple of things first. This article serves as a guide to integrate your Shopify store with Business Central.

Prerequisites for Shopify

You must have:

A Shopify account
A Shopify online store

To learn more about how to create Shopify trials and the recommended settings, go to Create and set up a Shopify account.

Prerequisites for Business Central

Make sure that the Shopify Connector app is installed.

The app is preinstalled for all new sign-ups and trials. Learn more about installing apps from AppSource at Installing and Uninstalling Extensions. Follow the steps below if you don't have Business Central.
Ensure that the user has the right permissions. Shopify Connector is covered by the Shopify – Admin (SHPFY – ADMIN) permission set. Learn more at Create Users According to Licenses and Assign Permissions to Users and Groups.

Install the Dynamics 365 Business Central app to your Shopify online store

For existing instances of Business Central, this step is optional and can be skipped.

Locate the Dynamics 365 Business Central app on the Shopify AppStore
Choose the Add App button. Sign in to your Shopify account if prompted. Select the online shop if you have more than one.
After reviewing privacy and permissions, choose the Install App button.

You can find and open the installed Dynamics 365 Business Central app in the Apps section on the sidebar of the Shopify admin page.
Choose Sign up now to start the Business Central trial, or Sign in if you already have Business Central. You'll be redirected to your Business Central page.
Do the next steps in Business Central.

Connect Business Central to the Shopify online store

Choose the icon, enter Shopify Shop, and choose the related link.
Choose the New action.
In the Code field, enter a code that will be easy to find in Business Central. For example, the name might reflect what a shop sells, such as "Furniture" or "Coffee," or the country or region it serves.
In the Shopify URL field, enter the URL of the online shop that you're connecting. Use the following format: https://{shop}.myshopify.com/.

Tip

You can copy the URL from Shopify Admin, like https://admin.shopify.com/store/{shop}, and the connector will convert it to the required format.
Turn on the Enabled toggle, and then review and accept the terms and conditions.
If prompted, sign in to your Shopify account. Review the privacy terms and permissions, and then choose the Install App button.

Repeat steps 2-6 for all online shops that you want to connect.

Known issues

The browser blocks the pop-up window. When you turn on the Enabled toggle, Business Central opens the Waiting for a response - do not close this page page while it waits for an access token from Shopify. If that page is closed or blocked, you can't connect to Shopify. Learn more at Request the access token.
It might be a good idea to have the Shopify admin open in the same browser as Business Central.
Error: Oauth error invalid_request: Could not find Shopify API application with api_key.
Error: Oauth error invalid_request: Your account does not have permission to grant the requested access for this app.
Can't connect from sandbox
Make sure you enter right URL in the Shopify URL field. You can build the URL by combining the store ID from the admin URL. For example, admin.shopify.com/store/{shop} and .myshopify.com to get https://{shop}.myshopify.com/.

Next steps

Now your online shop is connected to Business Central. In the next steps, you'll define how and what to synchronize.

Testing strategies

There are different approaches to testing an integration, and each approach has its pros and cons.

You can connect Business Central and Shopify accounts as often as you like. The Shopify Connector affects only the environment, or to be more precise, the company where it's enabled. You can connect to the same Shopify online store from multiple environments or companies. You can disable and re-enable the connector.

It's easy to rerun synchronization tests. The connector allows you to delete imported data, such as products, customers, and orders, and then import them again. Just reset sync.

Shopify sandbox and Business Central sandbox

This is probably the safest way to test integration. Instead of using a Shopify sandbox, you can also use a trial subscription or Development Store. In Business Central, you can also use a test company in a production environment.

To learn more about Business Central sandboxes, go to Create a new environment.

Shopify sandbox and Business Central production

This is not a recommended configuration for testing because the Shopify connector can create or modify items and customers. It can also create sales documents such as orders and invoices. These documents can be difficult to undo.

If you must use this configuration, we recommend that you review and probably disable the following settings:

Auto Create Unknown Item to not create items.
Shopify can update items to not update mapped items.
Auto Create Unknown Customer to not create customers and contacts.
Shopify can update customers to not update existing customers.
Auto Create Sales Order to not create sales orders and sales invoices.

For more information, see Restoring an Environment.

Shopify production and Business Central sandbox

It might be a good idea to back up your data. For example, export your products and customers. For more information, see Using CSV files to back up store information.

Turn off the Allow Data Sync to Shopify toggle so that Business Central doesn't write to Shopify. In this case, you'll be able to import products, images, customers, and orders from Shopify. But you won't be able to send item, prices, inventory levels, customers, and fulfillment information to Shopify.

If you keep the Allow Data Sync to Shopify toggle enabled, then additional protective measures are:

Select Draft in the Status for Create Product field to ensure that exported products aren't available to buyers. You can verify how products look in the online store, and synchronize prices, options, and stock levels. Just make sure to use filters on the Add Item to Shopify page to limit the number of exported items.
Turn off the Export Customer to Shopify toggle so that you don't send customers to Shopify.