Connect your online shop to your business software and stock

The same order typed twice

An order comes in from the website and someone retypes it into the business software: customer, address, lines, prices. Meanwhile the shop sells the last shirt in that size, but the website still shows it in stock. In the evening a second order arrives for the same shirt, and someone has to write to the customer to apologise.

At ten orders a day it holds up. At fifty, with eBay or Amazon next to the website, mistakes turn up every week.

What moves between the programs

We decide it together, but usually:

• orders and customer details go into the business software on their own;
• every sale, on any channel, lowers the same stock figure;
• products, variants and prices start in the business software and reach the website;
• the shipping status goes back to the online shop, if the business software knows it.

An example: Dracartys

The CRM I built for Dracartys is connected to WooCommerce, eBay and Vinted. Every product has size and colour variants, each with a purchase price, a list price and a custom selling price that imports never overwrite. The supplier's price lists arrive as Excel files and show up in a preview before anything is updated.

Rules to settle first

The long part of the job is usually making the codes match: the same product has one name in the business software and another on the website, and the variants are written differently. It gets sorted once, with a table that says what matches what.

Then you decide who's in charge. Stock lives in the business software and the website reads it, or the other way round, never both. Same for prices. If you sell on several channels, you can hold back a small safety stock for the products that run out often.

Which platform

I've already connected WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Shopify, eBay and Vinted. In the Dracartys CRM, stock stays in line across WooCommerce, eBay and Vinted. For your case I first check what the platform exposes and what your business software accepts, and tell you in the first analysis, which is free. If the shop still needs building, see Online shops.

Frequently asked questions

My business software has no API: can it still be connected?

Often, yes. If it imports or exports files, the connection goes through those, at set times. If it can't do even that, we talk about it in the first analysis: sometimes it's better to rebuild that part.

How often does stock update?

It depends on what the programs allow. With APIs and webhooks an order comes through as soon as it's placed; with files it runs at intervals, every fifteen minutes for example.

What happens if the connection stops?

An email tells you, and the orders stay on the platform: when it restarts, the ones left behind get imported. Every transfer is logged, so you can see what came in and when.

Do you build online shops too?

Yes. If the shop doesn't exist yet, I set it up already connected to your business software: the details are on the Online shops page.

Read more

• The service: Integrations and automation
• Work of this kind: CRM Dracartys
• More pages like this: Connections, automation and AI