Integrations & Connections with Shopify

Hi everyone. We’re recording another chapter of the BOA story and topics that we want to talk about. 

And today, we’re going to talk about integrations. Essentially - what are integrations? And why do you need them? And who needs them, perhaps? Not everyone today uses integrations. It’s very very dependent on the size of the business and its makeup. I think it’s possible to say, in a general sense, that really most businesses that need this topic of integration connection are mid-size businesses, large, or those that have physical stores, that behind the physical store, there is a cashier system that maybe needs to create sales, customers club, things like that. 

And then you need to integrate your e-commerce, your online store, to the physical store. This can also apply to inventory, this can also apply to finances, this can also apply to customer management. But again, the bottom line, the topic of today is integrations, relevant specifically to those who information management systems.

Yes. First of all, you laid it out very correctly. Not everyone needs integrations. Despite the need rising, even among smaller clients. Because e-commerce is gaining so much momentum, and even smaller clients are dealing with more orders, more issues with inventory, of course, like you said, those who have physical branches. 

And essentially, it’s less comfortable for e-commerce to be stand-alone. Even if it’s Shopify, which is a very advanced system - you know we really love it. In the end, if it doesn’t connect with other things I do for my business in general, it will be less comfortable.

One of the benefits of Shopify is that, first of all, part of the connections to the systems that are the most popular, even here in Israel, already exist with the configuration of a plug-in or Shopify application that you can just install, set and use. 

And from the other side, there are things that are not yet defined and don’t exist, and there is quite a bit here in Israel because we’re a small country and Shopify doesn’t focus much attention on us. The development ability that Shopify enables for us is very very advanced and powerful and we can develop from them an integration for almost any system. Usually, the bottleneck is not on the Shopify side but on the side of the other systems. 

So that’s an introduction to connect with what you said. And to your question - so really we do all types of integrations. Ones that we’ve done in the last few years, it could have been for all different types of ERP systems, which are very heavy and large systems to manage your business in general. 

So in the ERP world, really the connections, how they give to the day-to-day functioning of the business, is, first of all, the inventory connection. The ERP, or even the cashiers, manage the inventory, know how much inventory there is of each product, and Shopify also needs to know that. Before I enter new goods once here and once there, or when a customer buys from me in-store and I go into Shopify and reduce the inventory. Oftentimes they do it at the end of the day if it’s an Excel file. This business can work automatically. 

And from the other side, when someone orders online, I automatically mark for myself that the inventory is reduced so that the branch will know that the inventory is designated for the customer and not to sell it so that you don’t have to deal with refunds. So that’s the first thing.

The second thing - order management. An order came in now to the business from Shopify. And I want to gather it, to package it, to send it. In general, with ERP systems, they manage this process also. Even on top of that, also the connection to shipping companies, etc. So I’ll do it in the ERP. The order enters from Shopify automatically. I do the collection from the ERP. The update goes back to Shopify with the tracking number, and the email that gets sent to the customer happens from Shopify. And the systems will be synchronized and then I’ll have all of the reports and all of the information and all of the analytics in one centralized place, which is the ERP. 

But I will say that, in continuation of what you’re saying, that it’s important to remember that Shopify really is not just a platform for building websites, and it sees itself and gives the tools of a small ERP. Inventory management, order management, customer management. And a lot of tools that are already connected to it in a very simple way that allows you to expand these capabilities. Acquisition management, employee management, etc. And we very strongly encourage, even cashiers in physical branches, POS. Which is Shopify POS, there are already two Youtube videos you can watch, including a demonstration. 

Specifically in this field of ERP and cashiers, oftentimes when a client comes to us and want an integration, first we check if it’s worthwhile to work just on Shopify, even in the physical world. But there are of course businesses that it’s not relevant for. They’re very big businesses, they also manage raw materials, and production floors, they really need the ERP. Or if they have a lot of branches, it’s not relevant to switch all of the cashiers and all of the branches. So then it’s preferable to do the integration. 

But when we’re talking about integrations, ERP is really the crown of this world. But it’s just one. We can do integrations between Shopify and mailing systems, so that everyone who is listed in Shopify, including if you want to call it, a customer club, will automatically receive emails, SMSs, sales, coupons, etc. 

We know how to connect Shopify to shipping systems. For many of there, there is already an application we developed in Shopify for something like 24 companies. And the number gets bigger with every video that we do. But also if a client comes to us with a company that we haven't worked with yet, we can connect. 

Warehouses, correct. Warehouse management systems. There are companies like E-Gold and others that take the inventory from the business owner and stores it by them. And they deal with gathering and packaging. We also connect to them. 

Again, for a number of places, we already did an existing addition for Shopify that you can simply install. And for the others, we can develop specifically if needed. 

Other examples - systems for customer service. So if someone calls and I surface his details in the customer service system, for example, Zendesk. For example, Wix answers. I can see within Zendesk all of the details of the order of that customer, to be able to do a refund from there. So that my customer service representative doesn’t also need to go to Shopify to enter and manage it from another system. 

That’s really just the tip of the iceberg. There are even sometimes all different types of systems, even weird ones, that they need to connect to. 

And everything else, from the other side, from the side of the system, there is something called an API, which is the way information is passed between systems. We can develop this, including exactly catered to the needs of the client. 

So that’s it - that’s exactly the point of what I wanted us to talk about. A lot of clients come and say, “Okay, so I need you to connect me to system X. How much does it cost?” Or, “I need you to connect me to system X, let’s go.” A lot of clients come and say, “But you already did a connection with a system like this, so why don’t I benefit from this connection? So why can’t you install it and copy-paste?”

So here let’s talk about it for a minute. What is so hard for clients to understand at the end of the day, that we’re not talking about “copy-paste” here? 

And this really connects to the work process that we’re talking about when it comes to integrations. Essentially, first of all, they need to understand what needs the integration is supposed to serve. If there’s someone, for example, we spoke about an ERP that needs to be connected. It’s possible that he will decide that it’s more comfortable for him to do the gathering of the orders from Shopify. For those who don’t know, it’s a very comfortable system, it connects to shipping companies, prints shipping labels, inventory management, all of these things. But it’s important to him that the ERP will be updated. So the integration is different. Now we have to update the ERP every time there is a delivery and not the opposite. 

Or there are those who say, “Listen, I have a huge warehouse, everyone works here on the ERP or on the WMS, warehouse management system. I don’t want to teach them how to work on Shopify.” So the integration is different. So, first of all, it’s just an example, that every integration can be different from others. And even if we’ve done ten integrations for one system or another, it doesn’t mean that the eleventh integration will be the same thing. It does mean that we already have experience in all of the different types so we can also recommend and advise on what’s correct and not just to do it. And then, of course, after that, to do it. 

But we first of all have to understand the goal of the integration, how it’s supposed to serve the client, how the client wants it to work. We have clients that beyond the integration, also want a screen - that we develop for them a dashboard, for example. So they can get up in the morning and see all types of data on the screen of their phone as if it’s an app. That’s something that is a part of the integration but is specific for that client. 

This connects me to the work process - where we first do the characterization and gathering requirements stage, where we don’t just gather requirements, we also advise and recommend, give ideas from past projects that we’ve done and saw were successful. And after that, we can plan the work and give a price quote. 

Right. It changes and the shipping policy differs. And people come to do self-pickup, etc. And most ERPs or the cashiers don’t know what that is at all, because they weren’t built for it. They were built for a branch that you come and take.

I’ll give you another example. Customer identification. On the internet, as everyone knows, customer identification is email. It won’t help at all - not phone number, not personal ID number, nothing. In these systems, it’s not email. In these systems, you’ll find that you can have ten customers with the same email. And again, it’s two small examples and there are of course examples that are much more complicated, but just so that it’s easy to understand that we need to essentially find a way to overcome it and that we are overcoming but there are also consequences. So now, maybe the client needs to create orders in their customer circles so that they can decide for each email who the customer is. So that they can benefit from a customer club, and sales, and things like that. So this was also important for me to explain.

Drag and drop. Exactly. And everything speaks to everything and everything works with everything. It’s an approach that really really saves money at the end of the day. Because you can choose value for money, what is the most appropriate for you, from all of the small solutions without worrying if it does talk with this or doesn’t talk with that. And without choosing a huge system, like Priority, like Oracle, like SAP. And work only with what it has. 

So yes, I think that in the end, these capabilities are worthwhile in the invoice at the end.

I can tell you that for all of the integrations -  there are a few ways to execute it. And one of the benefits is that we can use a mix of the approaches and I’ll give an example. Like I said before, there are connections that already have an application. So I can install the application and it will work. 

There are connections that I can do what is called the file approach. That means that from Shopify we export a document once every X amount of time, for that matter, with all of the orders. And the second side will gather the file. So this integration is very simple, there are also disadvantages but from the perspective of development, the integration is much more simple. Because I don’t need to be worried about what the other side is doing. And I don’t need to know how the other side works. I just give it an Excel file. 

And there’s the approach of the API where I go to the other side in its language and how it expects to get information. This, of course, is more complicated. Because you need to know exactly how the other side works and there can be surprises that can complicate things. But then, I really know that the message went through exactly how I intended it to. So from the perspective of the value of the solution, this is the best solution. 

So what’s left? If someone has questions, we’re here.

Thank you to everyone and if you liked it, give us feedback.