Shopify Integration with Dynamics 365 Business Central

Dynamics 365 Business Central offers a seamless integration with Shopify. The Business Central Shopify connector is free and readily available through the Shopify app store to help merchants reduce their data integration efforts and streamline their business processes.

Shopify is an online e-commerce and marketing platform considered a leading e-commerce (B2C/B2B) platform. Many Shopify users have found integrating Shopify with an ERP system to be a pain point no matter whether they are online retailers, distributors, or even large corporations.

This article will highlight some benefits of using Business Central as the back end of the Shopify store with the Shopify connector.

Table of Contents

• Install and Connect the Business Central Shopify Connector
• Dual-Direction Item/Product Synchronization
• Synchronization of Item Prices and Inventory
• Dual-Direction Customer Synchronization
• Sync Orders From Shopify/Sync Shipment to Shopify

Setup

Prerequisites:

The Shopify connector is available only for Dynamics 365 Business Central SaaS. It is not available for on-premises Business Central solutions.

You must have:

• A Shopify account with Store Owner permission
• A Shopify online store

Your Business Central account must have the SHPFY – ADMIN permission set.

Once you have set the proper permissions and installed the Shopify connector, it will be ready in Business Central extensions.

Install the Business Central App on Shopify

To install the Business Central app through the Shopify App Store, go to Settings > Apps and sales channels > Shopify App Store.

Search and install the free Dynamics 365 Business Central app.

After installation, click “Sign in” to Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Connect Business Central to Shopify Shop

To connect Business Central to your Shopify Shop, click the Shopify menu > Shops (or search Shopify Shop) in Business Central.

Choose the “New” action. In the Shopify URL field, enter the URL for the online shop you want to connect to. The URL format is https://{shopname}.myshopify.com/. Activate the Enabled toggle, and review and accept the terms and conditions.

After creating the Shopify Shop, click Action > Access > Request Access to test the connection between Business Central and Shopify.

You can repeat these steps when you have multiple shops (stores) on Shopify.

Dual-Direction Item/Product Synchronization

Item and product synchronization is dual-way. We can sync items from Business Central to Shopify, let Shopify update items, or auto-create unknown items in Business Central.

If you enable the “Auto Create Unknown Items” function, you will need to specify the Item Template.

I will show you how to sync items/product information from Business Central to Shopify in the Shopify Shop Card.

In Business Central, navigate to the Shopify menu > Products.

On the Shopify shop product list page, click on Home > Add Items.

After adding items from Business Central to Shopify, the product list can be seen on the Business Central Shopify Product page.

The upper section of the Business Central Shopify Product page displays the items that have been added to Shopify. The lower section displays the Shopify Variants if we have variants of the item in Business Central.

After syncing, you can view the products that have been added to the Shopify Store by clicking Products on the store admin page in Shopify.

Synchronization of Product Images

We can also sync the product images. Click on Shopify > Product > Synchronization > Product Images in Business Central. The system will transfer the image of the item to the Shopify Store.

We can also click on “Preview URL” to go directly to the product page on Shopify.

Synchronization of Item Prices and Inventory

Microsoft released the Price Sync feature on the Business Central Shopify connector on April 1, 2023. The improvements relate to synchronizing product prices from Business Central to Shopify.

If you have not determined the Customer Price Group on the Shopify Shop Card, the Business Central system can sync the Unit Price data on the Item Card to Shopify.

Unit Price on Item Card:

Unit Price data synched to Shopify products:

Customer Price Groups

In Business Central, we can create a specific Customer Price Group and set up the Sales Price list for the item within this Group.

In the images below, the Customer Price Group is set to ECOM:

This Customer Price Group (ECOM) can also be set on the Shopify Shop Card.

After running the Price Synchronization, the item’s specific Customer Price Group data will be synced to Shopify.

Dual-Direction Customer Synchronization

Customer data is a key element of sales transactions. For the Business Central Shopify connector, customer synchronization is dual-way. Three scenarios exist for managing and synchronizing customer data between Business Central and Shopify.

1. Create the customer on Business Central and transfer it to Shopify.
2. Import the actual customer information from Shopify. This option is also available when selecting All Customers to import from Shopify in bulk. Alternatively, let Shopify create a new customer at Business Central when the order is imported.
3. Always use a single default customer for all Shopify orders at Business Central.

Scenario a. If we set the Customer Import from Shopify as None, and toggle on Export Customer to Shopify.

After running Sync Customers, Business Central’s customer data will be synced with Shopify.

Note: In Business Central Shopify Shop Card, if the Customer Mapping Type is set as “By Email/Phone,” and the customer data does not have an email address or phone number in Business Central, the data will NOT be synced to Shopify.

Scenario b. Import the customer information from Shopify to Business Central.

Using this setting, we must have a Customer Template to create customers.

With this setting on the Shopify Shop Card, any new customers created on the Shopify Store will be synched to Business Central and added as customers.

After synching the customer data from Shopify to Business Central, we can go to Shopify > Customers and see that new customers (C00040 and C00050) were created.

Scenario c. Always use a single default customer for all Shopify orders at Business Central. I will explain how to set a default customer in the next section.

Sync Orders From Shopify to Business Central

To sync orders from Shopify to Business Central, we will use the scenario of:

“When a new customer places an order on Shopify, the order is transferred from Shopify to Business Central. Then, the Sales Order always uses a single default Business Central customer”.

Therefore, we need a default customer, EC00000, in Business Central and set it on the Shopify Shop card.

Once an order has been completed with payment on your store, the status will be Paid and Unfulfilled. In this example, the order was placed by a customer who does not exist in your Business Central environment.

There are two ways we can sync orders from Shopify to Business Central:

1. Click on Shopify > Orders > Home > Sync Orders From Shopify on the Shopify order page.

2. Or, open the Shopify Shop Card, and click on Synchronization > Sync Orders.

After running the order sync, we can see the order has been transferred to Business Central. The Sales Order was created under the default customer EC00000.

When we open the Sales Order, the customer name will be populated with the Shopify order data. We can also see the Shopify Order No. on the Sales Order line.

Please contact us to learn more about how the Business Central Shopify connector can benefit your business.