How to receive an Order from Shopify into EdgeCTP for Stock Control & Fulfilments etc

Normally an orders for products are placed by customers (online shoppers) who:

• visit your Shopify online store
• find the product(s) they need
• add the product(s) to their shopping cart
• pay for their ‘order’ via the online checkout process

The order then appears on your Shopify Store Admin dashboard ready for you to fulfil.

Alternatively, the customer may call/phone in and place the order over the phone, which you can enter as a manual order directly into Shopify via the Store Admin dashboard.

Both methods are shown below, however, if you’re planning on following along with the example, then use the second, manual order capture directly into the Shopify method, because the payment step in the Shopify online store method may prove awkward as a test.

Having captured the order in Shopify, the order needs to be copied into EdgeCTP for ‘back-office’ business processing functions. If you have Shopify and EdgeCTP connected, then these orders will automatically flow into EdgeCTP, as Sales Orders, without you needing to do anything.

Method 1: Shopify Online Store Order Entry

Here we show you how the customer places an order for product(s) via the Shopify online store (web site).

1. Begin by going into the Shopify Online Store (something that an online customer/shopper would do normally).
   If you want to follow this example, then login to Shopify store admin dashboard and click View (Eye) icon next to the Sales Channels menu, which will open a new tab for your Shopify store (i.e. Customer view), then click Catalog to see your product range.

2. A customer visits your online store and selects the product to purchase

3. The customer chooses either Add to Cart or Buy it Now.
   If you’re following this example, then choose to Buy it Now, so that you go straight to the check-out.
4. The customer completes their Contact information and clicks Continue to shipping button.

5. Customer selects a Shipping method and clicks Continue to payment button.

6. Customer enters their Payment details and clicks the Pay now button. If the Customer carries on and makes the payment, then the order will be placed in Shopify, which can be viewed via your Shopify store admin dashboard.If you’re following this as an example, then it’s probable that you don’t have (or want to make) the payment using actual card details, in which case: ‘abandon’ this order here and jump down to the ‘Manual order entry using Shopify store admin’ method.

Method 2: Manual order entry using the Shopify store admin method

Use this method if you (as a Merchant/Trader) wish to add a customer’s order manually into Shopify, instead of the customer entering the order via your online store’s cart.

If you’re just testing out EdgeCTP with Shopify, then this is the best method to test orders.

1. Login to your Shopify store admin

2. Click Orders from the left menu, to show the Orders dashboard and then click the Create order button (on the top right)

3. On the Create Order screen, use the right panel to either ‘Create a customer’ (if a brand-new customer) or search and selecting an existing customer (if a returning customer)

4. For the Order details section, find and select the product(s) the customer wishes to buy; if required, add any Discount or Shipping charges or Taxes
5. If requested, click “Email invoice” to send the order’s invoice to the customer
6. Finally, for the Accept payment sub-section, click Mark as paid (if the customer has paid) or Mark as pending (if the customer is yet to pay)

7. In this example, we’ll go with Mark as paid to directly create the order, so when informed this will create an order, just click Create order.

8. The created Order will appear as Paid and ‘Unfulfilled’ (i.e., goods still need to be sent)

9. Click the left arrow (top left next to the Order number) to return to the Orders dashboard)

10. Notice on the Orders dashboard the order created is the first entry, which if you have EdgeCTP connected with Shopify, means the order will automatically flow into EdgeCTP as a Sales Order

Retrieving Shopify orders into EdgeCTP

Orders that have been created in Shopify will automatically flow into EdgeCTP as Sales Orders.

The steps below show you how to manually retrieve the Shopify orders and copy them into EdgeCTP for subsequent fulfilment. In normal operations, this manual method would NOT be necessary because ‘web hooks’ between EdgeCTP and Shopify would ensure that orders will automatically flow in the background into EdgeCTP.

1. Login to EdgeCTP and make sure that both EdgeCTP and your Shopify store are connected by checking the Settings > eCommerce > Shopify section of EdgeCTP
2. Click Fetch Data here and any Products, Customers, and Orders will be retrieved from Shopify and placed into EdgeCTP.
   Since data fetching could take some time, EdgeCTP asks if you’re good with this, click Yes – Go on and another tab will open in your browser, which takes you to the EdgeCTP Home dashboard. This lets you carry on working, whilst Shopify data (including the orders) are fetched in the background.
3. The newly retrieved Orders would appear in the Sales Orders section of EdgeCTP, so from the EdgeCTP Home dashboard click on the Buy, Sell + Ship (menu tab) > Sales > Sales Orders > eCommerce 
   Example: Notice the ‘Donald Webb’ (1040) order appears in the Sales Orders panel. This was the order that was created in the earlier “Method 2: Manual order entry using Shopify store admin method” section of this blog. The order also has a Source of ‘S’, meaning Shopify. Notice too there is a Fetch Data button here too for convenience (rather than having to go to settings).

4. To continue and process/fulfil the Order, you should click on the Edit (pencil) Action icon and open the Sales Order
   Using the action buttons in the Sales Order header, you can now create several related documents and perform necessary business, such as:
   1. +Create New Order > Purchase Order… lets you order in supplies or the materials you need from Suppliers to fulfil this Sales Order
   2. +Create Invoice(s)… lets you raise an invoice for the Sales Order and copy it to your Accounting Package (Xero, FreeAgent, QuickBooks etc.) with just one click and email to the customer
   3. Email PDF… lets you email the Sales Order out to anyone (without impacting the Sales Order’s status)
   4. Send… lets you also email + indicate it has been physically printed + sent out to the buyer (this changes the Sales Order’s status to Sent)
   5. Generate PDF… lets you produce PDF versions of the Sales Order in various layouts

See our frequently asked questions on using Shopify with EdgeCTP.