Shopify Integration Information & Understanding Navigation
This article explains what data is exported from Retailer and what field it will appear as within Shopify.
To configure the Tower Web Connect (TWC) link please see: Setting up a new Webstore
Product Data
Products that have 'Webstore' ticked can be sent to Shopify with the following information:
- Description as Product Title
- Web Description (On the extra details tab) as Product Description
- Retail or Web Price as Price
- Stock Item Catalogue Price as Sale 'Compare at' Price (Recommended)
- Barcode as SKU
- Variants as Options (Recommended)
- Classifications as Metafields
- Product Images
- Product Tags
- Product Tags starting with "Brand_" as Shopify Vendor (Recommended)
- Product Weight
- Departments as Collections, Product Types or Metafields
- Categories as Collections, Product Types, Metafields or Tags
Additional info for Classifications
If you're looking to enhance product visibility by highlighting products specs or additional website filters, Classifications are a great way to sync Shopify Metafields. Alternately, you can manage Metafields direct in Shopify.
View advice sheet here - Stock Classification
View advice sheet here - Stock Classification
Additional info for Variants
Variants can be challenging but worth it for a better customer experience online.
Things to consider:
1) Shopify allows for 3 variant groups, with a total limit of 100 combinations per product.
2) Due to the nature of the connection, variant types will be ordered by the length of the variant name.
If you want to maintain the original order, you can change the variant names to be more descriptive (make some longer).
| Colour |
| Shirt Size |
| Fashion Style |
3) In Retailer, any variant ticked as Webstore cannot have a blank variant value.
If any item in a variant group is ticked for Web Store, all its variants will be.
4) To change an existing item from a normal stock item to a variant it needs to be deleted off the website and then re-created by the link.
5) When all items of a variant group have run out of stock - the unpublish option in TWC won't hide or unpublish the variants, as this causes issues with the variant sync.
View advice sheet here Variants (Colour, Size and Style)
Understanding navigation
Like categories, Shopify uses ‘Collections’ to group products. Collections are used to create main navigation links and showcase product ranges throughout your site.
The goal is to keep it easy to manage by using Stock structure where possible. Further groupings can be created online. If you choose to deviate from Retailer structure, then more planning & maintenance is required.
Collection Options
- Retailer & TWC Managed (Recommended): Sync Departments and/or Categories as Collections
- Shopify Managed: Ignore Retailer groupings & use product data to manage collections in Shopify.
Menu Recommendations
While products are sent through at one level, you can easily create up to 3 levels of navigation based on stock data.
An example of 2 level menu is one with dropdowns. Using 3 levels could be used for one catchall "Shop all" link. Or departments can be grouped for larger catalogues.
You can extend your offerings online with products across multiple departments/categories. https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/collections/automated-collections/auto-examples
This can be achieved by using product data
Product Groupings: Outdoors, Gifts Ideas, Gifts under $50, Clearance
Limited time offerings: Mother's Day, Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale, Christmas
Customer Data
Customer information isn't uploaded or synced from Retailer to Shopify.
Most customer information recorded on the sale in Shopify, will be added to Retailer when the sale imports into Retailer. This will generally be names, addresses and contact details.
The customer will be added as new, if the email address against the sale is not recorded in Retailer.
The loyalty program, discount voucher, gift voucher and discount profiles information, is not synced or tracked with Shopify.
Related Articles
Shopify - Navigation - Adding new Departments & Categories
Before you get started Understanding Shopify navigation After you add products and create collections, webpages, store policies, or blog posts, you need to organise them on your online store so that customers will be able to find them. You can view ...WooCommerce Integration Information
This article explains what data is exported from Retailer and what field it will appear as within Woo Commerce. To configure the link please see Setting up a new Webstore Products Products that have Webstore Product ticked will be sent to Woo ...Magento Integration Information
This article explains what data is exported from Retailer and what field it will appear as within Magento. To configure the link please see Setting up a new Webstore Products Products that have Webstore Product ticked will be sent to Magento with the ...Shopify - Navigation - Automatically Generate Menu Links (Theme Customisation)
Who is this article for? If you’ve had your Shopify site developed by Tower & your developer has advised this Theme Setting is available to you. This is not a standard Theme feature. Furthermore, if you change Themes, this feature will no longer be ...Setting up a new Webstore
This advice is for linking a new Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce or WooCommerce webstore to Retailer via Tower Web Connect (TWC). If you have an existing webstore connected to Retailer using the previous link and need to change to TWC, click HERE ...