Tropica: one Shopify Plus setup, several Business Central companies

About Tropica

Tropica Aquarium Plants is a Danish producer of aquarium plants, selling to retailers and chains all over the world. The company runs several companies in Business Central spread across several environments – Denmark, North America and Germany – and sells through three Shopify Plus stores:

• Tropica B2B for retailers worldwide
• Tropica B2C with direct sales to end customers
• Dennerle Plants, the sister brand, B2B

Each store runs Shopify Markets, for example Denmark, Europe, the United Kingdom, the USA and Canada.

The challenge

Tropica replaced an older web solution built on Umbraco and a PIM with Shopify Plus. That meant Business Central and Shopify had to talk to each other across an unusual structure:

• One Shopify setup, several Business Central companies. The market in Shopify determines which company an order, a customer or a stock level belongs to. The same store therefore has to be fed from several companies and environments.
• Customer-specific prices and assortment. Each retailer has its own price lists in Business Central and may only see and buy a specific part of the assortment.
• Orders are never partially delivered. Tropica packs what can be delivered and closes the order. Quantities may change, lines may be removed, and replacement items may be added. Shopify has to reflect what was actually shipped before the order is fulfilled.

The solution

Connectify Integration Hub connects Business Central and Shopify Plus with Shopify Markets as the key between store and company:

• Each market in a store is mapped to one Business Central company. Products, stock, prices, customers and orders are synchronised from that company to that market – in the same store, but kept separate per market.
• B2B customers are created as companies with company locations in Shopify Plus. Each company location gets its own Shopify catalogue, which controls both prices and which products the customer can see and buy.
• Sales blocks in Business Central – per customer or per country – are reflected in what the customer can see in Shopify.
• B2C orders are mapped to country-specific customer accounts in Business Central.

What is synchronised

Products

Items are created in Shopify from Business Central with the item number as the SKU and the description as the title. Price, HS code and country of origin are kept continuously in sync on all variants, and barcodes are read from Business Central’s item references and set on the variant. The price group code from Business Central is stored as a metafield on the product, and the product structure is flat in both systems.

Stock

Tropica calculates the available stock itself in Business Central based on planting and packing locations as well as reservations, and exposes it ready-calculated. The integration reads the calculated stock and updates the available quantity per location in Shopify – only when the figure differs from what Shopify already has.

Customers

Customer accounts are created as companies in Shopify Plus with the customer account number from Business Central as the external key. Company name, address, phone, email, VAT number and payment terms are kept in sync on the company location. The VAT number is sent in Shopify’s format with the country code in front, and Business Central’s payment term codes are translated into Shopify’s payment terms. Each customer account gets one contact in Shopify based on the customer account’s email address, so the customer can log in and see their own prices.

Prices

Customer-specific prices are read from Business Central’s standard price lists. The Customer Price Group field on the customer account determines which price list the customer is on: customers with a special price list get that one, while the remaining items are priced from the standard list. Each price list becomes a Shopify catalogue, which is linked to the relevant company locations, and only active price lists and prices within their validity period are sent. The assortment per customer is controlled in the same catalogue, and B2C prices are sent to the relevant market.

Orders

Orders are sent from Shopify into Business Central via API to Tropica’s order import, where they are validated and approved before they become sales orders. The market on the order determines which company it lands in. Order status is retrieved continuously from Business Central and updated in Shopify, so the customer can follow their order.

Order editing

Once Tropica has processed the order in Business Central, the integration compares it with the order in Shopify. Removed lines are removed, changed quantities are corrected, and added items – replacement items, for example – are added. The order is then fulfilled in Shopify with what was actually shipped.

What makes this solution special

• Markets as the dividing line between companies. One store is fed from several companies, fully separated per market. That is what makes the solution different from a standard integration between Business Central and Shopify.
• A catalogue per company location. Customer-specific prices and assortment live directly in Shopify Plus B2B, driven by Business Central’s own price lists.
• Order editing before fulfilment. Shopify always shows what the customer actually receives.
• Standard web services rather than custom code, wherever possible. Tropica’s own stock endpoint is the exception, because the stock is best calculated in Business Central.