What is Shopify – in brief?

Shopify is a platform that gives you:

• an administrative backend for products, orders and customers
• a checkout and payment setup (typically via Shopify Payments + apps)
• a theme (design) and an app ecosystem for extra features

You can get started quickly, and that is one of the reasons why Shopify has become so popular.

Shopify is a hosted e-commerce platform where you can build and run a webshop without having to handle operations and servers yourself. That makes Shopify strong for fast time-to-market. But when you hit B2B, many variants, stock complexity or ERP requirements, one thing decides whether it becomes a success: how Shopify works together with your other systems.

Who is Shopify a good fit for?

Shopify typically suits companies that want to:

• launch quickly and iterate continuously
• have a stable platform with many standard features
• make use of apps for marketing, CRO and payment solutions

Shopify quickly becomes more demanding when you have:

• customer-specific prices and assortments (B2B)
• multiple warehouses, 3PL/WMS or complex picking flows
• an advanced product structure (variants, rules, technical products)
• requirements for EAN, invoice, credit, delivery terms (classic B2B)

Shopify in B2B: what you need to have under control

B2B in practice is often about:

• login and customer roles
• customer-specific prices/discounts
• several delivery addresses per customer
• payment terms and possibly credit
• order history and documents (invoice, packing slip, credit note)

Here Shopify is strong in the front end, but you will often fetch the “truth” from the ERP — and that is perfectly fine, if the integration is built correctly.

Shopify + ERP: What should be integrated?

If Shopify is your sales channel, the ERP is typically your engine. The most valuable integrations are almost always:

1) Orders (Shopify → ERP)

• order, lines, VAT, delivery, discounts
• customer reference, delivery address, delivery method

2) Stock and availability (ERP/WMS → Shopify)

• actual stock
• reserved stock
• expected stock (if relevant)

3) Products and variants (PIM/ERP → Shopify)

• SKU/item number, variants, attributes
• images and descriptions (typically PIM)

4) Prices (ERP → Shopify)

• customer-specific price
• discount agreements and campaigns
• currency and pricing rules

5) Status back (ERP/WMS → Shopify)

• order status, tracking number, delivery status
• so the customer can follow their order without calling

5 classic mistakes in Shopify integrations (and how to avoid them)

1) Stock sync without reservation
→ Stock looks fine, but you oversell.
Solution: Work with “available to sell” and reservation.

2) Prices live in two places
→ Support hell and inconsistency.
Solution: Choose one source of truth (typically the ERP) and sync it out.

3) Status never comes back
→ The customer spams support.
Solution: Send tracking and status back automatically.

4) Product changes without control
→ Items change structure and break flows.
Solution: Versioning/validation + clear master data rules.

5) No monitoring
→ Errors are discovered first by the customer.
Solution: Logging, alerts and retries in the integration layer.

Shopify checklist (quick)

• Where does the master data for products and prices live?
• Should stock be real time or batch?
• How do you handle back orders?
• Should customers be able to see order history and documents?
• Who “owns” error handling and monitoring?

Advantages and disadvantages of Shopify

Simplicity

Advantages: As mentioned, it is easy to create a webshop with Shopify. You create a user and then you are off with the design process, creating items and all the associated work. Creating a Shopify webshop is a fun and inspiring process, and you can make your design look great in no time. It does not take many clicks before your design really works, and you are ready to let customers into your webshop.

Disadvantages: Since Shopify is so simple and easy to use, it inevitably means that the code behind the various design options is relatively standardised. That means that the undeniably nice designs can be limited in their features, in what you can do with them, or simply may not really fit your particular need. If you want complete freedom over the underlying code, you should rather look at solutions such as Magento or WordPress.

Support

Advantages: You do not always get through building a webshop or website without a bit of hassle, or the need to ask a couple of questions. Here Shopify is fantastic. They have 24/7 support ready to answer all enquiries, from creating different pages to invoicing. It is a service well beyond the ordinary.

Disadvantages: Shopify are people too, and if you have a question that goes far beyond the usual, Shopify cannot always answer it. Perhaps you have a question about a theme that another developer has made. In that case you may be asked to contact the theme’s developer to get an answer.

Shopify Apps

Advantages: One of the really great advantages of using Shopify is the possibility of creating an incredibly smart webshop with the features from various Shopify Apps. Shopify Apps can for example help you handle shipping, newsletters and discount codes, so your webshop runs completely smoothly.

Disadvantages: The disadvantage of the otherwise smart Shopify Apps is that they cost money. They can often be expensive, since it is not Shopify themselves who produce them.

Shopify is easy for beginners

Advantages: It is simple and easy to get started with Shopify. You create a user, and then you are off. It even costs only a little over DKK 200 a month, so if your company is young and without much capital, Shopify is a good place to start. The webshop builder is easy to navigate, and anyone with a bit of a sense for design can quickly create a strong foundation for a strong webshop. You do not need to be a graphic designer or a developer to get started. The code is ready for you in the solutions you drop onto the page.

Disadvantages: If you are highly specialised in building webshops and websites, you can quickly end up feeling limited by Shopify. The code in the different blocks you can integrate on your webshop is standardised, and it is not possible to tinker much with it. You will therefore quickly feel limited by the boxes Shopify wants your webshop to fit into.

Shopify POS

Advantages: Shopify POS (Point of Sale) is for those of you who have a physical shop but also want a webshop. If you use Shopify, you have the option of using equipment that synchronises with your webshop. All sales, as well as stock status, are updated in your webshop when you make a physical sale. You get a solution where digital and physical sales merge easily. You can also use Shopify POS to create email and social media marketing campaigns and generate reports about your customers, both online and those who visit your physical shop

Disadvantages: A Shopify POS system is a good fit for some businesses, but less so for restaurants or other food businesses, for example. For some companies the solution may seem a little expensive.

Shopify Experts

Advantages: Shopify Experts is a fantastic solution for those of you running a business on your own. Shopify Experts gives you the opportunity to talk to experts within marketing, sales, design and a wide range of other fields. That way you can optimise your business with help from experts who know a lot about exactly what you need to know more about.

Disadvantages: Shopify Experts can become expensive. If you need just a small amount of code changed, you can end up paying dearly for it. A good tip is always to ask around in the Shopify forum. It is a good knowledge base with a lot of experience behind it that you can draw on.

Get control of your Shopify data with Connectify

In Shopify you create countless items. If you have ever come across an ERP system, you know that you also have to create the items there, as well as keep track of your data from the two platforms manually. There is an incredible amount of work in that, and you will miss out on efficiency.

Connectify integrates your Shopify webshop with your ERP system so you can automate time-consuming manual tasks, centralise your data and ensure better communication across your company.

That way you can scale your company, since the manual tasks become fully or partly automated. All your data and work with Shopify will be gathered under a single roof – your ERP system – so data does not get lost in the volume, so you reduce the chance of errors and so you can save on manpower in your company.

When you enter into a partnership with Connectify, the first thing you will get is a framework for your need. Which data should a bridge be built for, and how much should go back and forth between the different systems. There is no point in creating all sorts of fancy things if it is not a need, or if it obscures the real purpose of the integration. Connectify asks you a series of questions, so that you can become completely clear about your own need, and so that the right integration can be built for you.

Connectify is one of the most secure solutions when it comes to your data. Many integrations require you to build a module in your e-commerce solution or to have access to a server, but not Connectify. Connectify builds a middleware solution – a cloud-based solution – that secures your data and protects your e-commerce from being tampered with. Everything sits securely in the cloud.

But hey, should something go wrong, you can always get hold of Connectify. Even at 3 o’clock in the morning.

We have been building bridges since 2014 and are constantly developing. We do that because we cannot help ourselves, and in order to give you the product you only dare dream of.

Are you interested in hearing more about what Connectify can do for you?

Click here and learn more.

FAQ about Shopify

Is Shopify easy?

Yes, it is very easy to get started with Shopify. You simply create a user and start designing your webshop. A webshop does not take long to get up and running. You do not need to be a graphic designer or a developer to make a webshop. Anyone can do it.

What does Shopify cost?

Shopify does not cost much. It costs a little over DKK 200 a month to host a webshop with Shopify. You do not have to sell many products before your webshop has paid for itself, which is really great for start-ups and side hustles.

What are Shopify Apps?

Shopify Apps are extensions you can buy for your Shopify webshop. For example, you can buy apps to make a scrolling banner with a discount code or to automate shipping, marketing, newsletter campaigns or something else entirely. There are several thousand Shopify Apps that you can simply pick from.

What is Shopify Experts?

Shopify Experts is a service that Shopify offers. Through this service you can talk to experts within a wide range of fields, such as sales, marketing and development. If you lack knowledge in an area yourself, Shopify Experts can be really helpful. Be aware, though, that it can cost quite a lot. Ask in the Shopify forum whether anyone has experience using Shopify Experts for your problem.

Can I use Shopify?

The very short answer is: yes. Most people with a bit of understanding of working on a computer will be able to get started with Shopify straight away. It requires neither training nor deep knowledge. Only an idea of where you want to go with your webshop and what you want to sell.

If you have a product, take the leap and start with Shopify.

Is Shopify good for B2B?

Yes — but B2B typically requires a good ERP setup and clear rules for prices, customers and status flow.

Can Shopify be integrated with Business Central/NAV

Yes. The important thing is to define the data flow and master data, and to build the integration robustly (retries, logging).

Should I choose Shopify or WooCommerce?

Shopify is often faster to operate and scale in platform terms. WooCommerce can give more freedom, but typically requires more technical maintenance.