Integration
Shopify to stock.live: the shop's stock, ready for local shoppers
A Jersey retailer sells online through Shopify and lists its in-store stock on stock.live, which shows local shoppers what's available nearby. An integration I built sends stock.live a fresh file of products, prices and stock from Shopify on its own, and keeps out anything with a barcode that can't be trusted.
- Client
- A Jersey retailer
- Systems
- Shopify and stock.live
- Status
- In daily use
The problem it solves
Without an integration, someone exports the products from Shopify, tidies the spreadsheet and uploads it. The stock on stock.live is out of date as soon as something sells, untracked products look out of stock, and a wrong or duplicated barcode can show a shopper the wrong product.
How it works
- 01
Picks the products on sale
Every active product on the online store goes in, sale and clearance items included, with one row for each variant. Drafts and hidden products are left out, so nobody keeps a separate list of what to send.
- 02
Works out what's in stock
Tracked products use the stock at the shop, never less than zero. Products that aren't tracked are on the shop floor, so they show as available. If the stock for a product can't be worked out, the export stops and says which one, rather than sending a guess.
- 03
Checks every barcode
stock.live matches products by barcode, so each one must be a real GTIN with the right length and check digit. Blank, invalid and duplicated barcodes are left out and listed. Nothing is guessed from a SKU, and the rest of the file still goes.
- 04
Delivers the file and checks it
A fresh file of every product, with its price, sale price, stock and image, is uploaded under a temporary name, checked, and then swapped in for the last one and checked again.
What's included
Products straight from Shopify
Shopify decides what's included. Publish a product and it goes to stock.live; unpublish it and it comes off.
Stock rules
Agreed rules for tracked stock, untracked products and items on backorder, so stock.live shows what's physically in the shop.
Barcode checks
Every barcode is checked before anything is sent, and products with a missing, invalid or duplicated barcode are kept out of the feed.
Checked delivery
The file is checked after upload and again once it's in place. A delivery that fails stops and is reported instead of being retried blindly.
A report for every run
Each run is recorded in the shop's integrations app in Shopify Admin, with what was sent, what was left out and why, and links to the products that need fixing.
Alerts
An email when barcodes need fixing or a delivery fails, so problems don't wait to be noticed.
The benefits
- Shoppers see what's in the shop. Local shoppers searching online can see that the shop has a product in stock before they visit.
- No spreadsheets. Nobody exports products from Shopify or uploads a file by hand.
- One place to manage products. Staff work in Shopify as usual, and stock.live follows.
- Barcode problems come to light. The report lists every product with a wrong or duplicated barcode, ready to fix in Shopify.
- Problems don't go unnoticed. Anything left out and any failed delivery is reported, with what's needed to put it right.