Connecting a Shopify store for the first sync

Overview

This guide walks you through connecting your Shopify store to Vendably for the first time. Once connected, your product data, prices, and stock levels will sync automatically. You will not need to manually import data again after this initial setup.

By the end of this walkthrough, your full Shopify catalogue will be inside Vendably, correctly mapped to the system fields, and kept in sync through real-time webhook updates.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have the following in place:

• Admin access to your Shopify store. You must be able to authorise third-party applications and view store settings.
• An active Vendably merchant account. Your account should be fully set up and ready to use.

If you do not have admin access to your Shopify store, ask your store owner or another administrator to complete this setup. If your Vendably account is not yet active, contact your account manager.

Step 1: Initiate the Shopify OAuth connection

Before: You have no Shopify data inside Vendably.

After: You will have authorised Vendably to connect to your Shopify store.

1. Log in to your Vendably account and go to DataHub.
2. Select Sources from the left navigation menu.
3. Click the button to add a new source.
4. Choose Shopify from the list of available platforms.
5. You will see a screen asking you to select your Shopify store. Enter your Shopify store URL (for example, mystore.myshopify.com) and click Connect.
6. You will be redirected to your Shopify admin login page. Log in with your Shopify admin credentials.

Step 2: Authorise the required scopes

Before: Vendably has requested access but is not yet authorised.

After: You will have granted Vendably the permissions it needs to read and sync your product data.

1. After logging in to Shopify, you will see a permission screen titled 'Install app'.
2. Review the requested scopes. Vendably requests access to read your products, inventory, and pricing information. These scopes allow the system to pull your catalogue data and keep it up to date.
3. Click the Authorise button to grant these permissions.
4. You will be redirected back to Vendably. The connection is now active.

Step 3: Confirm the source is created and the initial sync begins

Before: The Shopify OAuth flow is complete but no data has been imported yet.

After: Your Shopify source is created in DataHub and the initial full sync has started.

1. Return to the Sources page in DataHub.
2. You will see your new Shopify source listed. Click on it to open the source detail page.
3. Check the Status field. It should show 'Active'.
4. Look for the import progress indicator. The system will begin pulling all products, variants, prices, and stock levels from your Shopify store. This process may take several minutes or longer, depending on the size of your catalogue.
5. You can leave this page and return later to check progress, or stay to monitor it in real time.

Step 4: Review the automatic field mapping

Before: Your Shopify data has been imported but may not be mapped correctly to Vendably fields.

After: You will have reviewed the automatic mappings and corrected any fields that need adjustment.

1. Once the initial import has completed, go to the Field Mapping section on the source detail page.
2. Vendably automatically maps 21 fields from Shopify to the corresponding Vendably fields. These include title, description, price, stock quantity, brand, and others.
3. Review each mapped field to ensure the data looks correct.
4. If a field is mapped incorrectly, click on it and select a different Vendably field from the dropdown menu. For example, if your Shopify 'Handle' is being mapped to the wrong field, you can change it to the correct destination.
5. Some Shopify custom fields may not have an automatic match. You can either map these manually or leave them unmapped.
6. Click Save once you have finished adjusting the mappings.

Step 5: Wait for the initial import to complete and check quality scores

Before: The import is in progress and field mappings have been reviewed.

After: The full catalogue is imported and you can see the overall data quality.

1. Return to the source detail page and wait for the import status to show 'Completed'.
2. Once complete, navigate to the Quality Scores section. This shows how well your product data has been mapped and imported.
3. Review the overall quality score for your Shopify source. A higher score indicates cleaner, more complete product data.
4. If the score is lower than expected, check the Field Mapping section again. Common issues include missing descriptions, incomplete pricing data, or variant information that was not mapped correctly.
5. If you make changes to the field mappings, you can run a manual re-import to update the data. However, this is not necessary for ongoing syncs; webhooks will keep your data current automatically.

What changes going forward

Once your Shopify store is connected, you do not need to perform manual imports again. Real-time webhook updates automatically keep your product information, prices, and stock levels in sync between Shopify and Vendably. Any changes you make in Shopify (new products, price updates, stock adjustments) will flow into Vendably within seconds, without any action required from you.

This means your product data is always current and ready for use in content generation, listings, and other Vendably features.

Checkpoint: What you should see

Once the setup is complete, your source detail page should show the following:

• Status: Active. The connection is live and working.
• Initial import: Marked as Completed. All products, variants, and metadata from your Shopify store have been pulled into Vendably.
• Field mappings: 21 fields are mapped and any custom adjustments you made are saved.
• Quality scores: A score is displayed for your Shopify source, indicating the overall health of your imported data.
• Webhook activity log: Recent entries showing product updates, price changes, or stock movements flowing in from Shopify in real time. This confirms that automatic syncing is working.

If you see all of these elements, your Shopify store connection is set up correctly and your data is syncing automatically. You are now ready to use your product catalogue in Vendably for content generation, listing management, and other workflows.

If the webhook activity log is empty or the status is not Active, check your internet connection and Shopify admin access, then contact support if the issue persists.