Shopify is an e-commerce platform that enables businesses to set up an online store and sell their products online. You can connect your Shopify store and export your catalog data from PCC to the Shopify platform after the connection is established between PCC and Shopify.
The PCC Shopify connector enables you to connect PCC with your Shopify store and transfer data between these applications seamlessly.
Click the View Details
icon to view the details and features of the connector and the following is displayed.
Figure 211: Shopify connector description
Configuring the Connector
You need to configure the connector and add the API as well as the shared secret key for setting up the store. Once the store is configured, the product information present in the PCC catalog can be exported to the relevant store in the Shopify platform.
NOTE | You can add multiple stores for a Shopify connector if a customer has multiple stores configured for different vendors in the Shopify platform. |
The first step is to generate the API and secret key to configure a Shopify store using these details. A detailed description about the same is explained in the Appendix section Generating API and Shared Secret Key to Configure Shopify Store.
To add a new Shopify store configuration:
Go to the PCC Platform Connectors screen and click the Set Configurations
icon available for Shopify as shown below.
OR
Click Configure Shopify Connector as shown in Figure 211: Shopify connector description.
The following screen appears.
Figure 212: PCC Shopify Connector screen
By default, the Setup Credentials tab is selected.
Click Add New Store Configuration and the following dialog box appears to add the store details.
Type the Store Name, that is, the name of the Shopify store to which the product is to be mapped from PCC. For example, Test store.
Type the Store URL, that is, the URL of the Shopify store being configured.
Copy-paste the API Key, Password and Shared Secret required to access the store which is generated as explained in the Appendix section A.10 Generating API and Shared Secret Key to Configure Shopify Store.
The 
icon next to each field provides details on what data must be added.
NOTE | All fields are mandatory. |
Once all the values are entered, click the Check connection with entered values
icon next to the Store Name to check whether the API key entered as well as the store URL is valid.
If the details are not valid, an error is displayed as follows.
Make the necessary changes and ensure that the connection is valid. If the connection is valid, the following message is displayed.
Click Add Store and the store is added successfully and is visible in the list on the PCC Shopify Connector page as shown below.
The following table lists the various fields along with its description that are visible on the Setup Credentials screen.
Fields | Description |
|---|---|
Actions | Displays the icons of the various actions that can be performed:
|
Store Name | Displays the name of the store added while configuring a store |
Created By | Displays the name of the user who configured the store |
Created On | Displays the date when the store was configured |
Updated By | Displays the name of the user who made any changes to the store |
Updated On | Displays the date when any modifications / changes were made to the store |
- To edit the store configuration details
- To delete the store configuration detailsYou can sort / filter the data in the columns in ascending or descending order as needed. By default, the latest store created is displayed first based on the date when it was created in descending order.
NOTE | The Setup Attribute Mapping tab is disabled as the attribute mapping is not required here. |
Editing the Store Configuration
Sometimes, the connectors might have some updates (a new feature / version update) which might result in changes in the API / secret keys of the stores configured. You can edit the details configured in case of any such changes.
To edit the store configured:
In the Actions column, click the Edit Store Configuration
icon next to the store to be edited. The following screen appears.
Make the changes as needed and click Edit Store. The details are updated successfully.
Deleting the Store Configuration
You can also delete the store configured if the store is no longer required for exporting the product data.
To delete the store configured:
In the Actions column, click the Delete Store Configuration
icon next to the store to be deleted. The following screen appears.
Details about the store to be deleted are displayed.
Click Delete Store and the store is deleted successfully.
Syncing SKU Data from PCC to Shopify Store
The process to export any data and view it remains the same as explained in chapter 22 Export Catalog.
You can sync the product data, that is, SKUs along with their attribute values and linked assets from the catalog in PCC to the Shopify store by exporting the data using the Shopify sync option.
NOTE | In case of assets linked to SKUs, Shopify supports photo assets only. If a SKU has any other type of asset linked to it such as documents / videos, those will be ignored when the data is synced. Also, photo assets delinked from SKUs in PCC will be deleted from Shopify as well after the data is synced. |
Let us understand how to export the data using the Shopify sync option in the following section.
Exporting the Data Directly to Shopify using API
This option will directly export / sync the catalog data to Shopify. Depending on the option selected, that is, SKUs present in the selected categories / entire catalog will be synced to Shopify directly.
Following are some of the key points to be noted while exporting data to Shopify:
No collections (taxonomy nodes) will be created in Shopify when the data is exported from PCC to Shopify. By default, all products will be categorized under the Home page. Thus, it is important to create the collections in Shopify before exporting the data. Once the collections are created in Shopify, all SKUs being imported in future will be added to the relevant collection.
If a SKU being exported to Shopify has incorrect attribute data, no error messages will be displayed. However, such SKUs will not be imported in Shopify.
For example, in the case of attributes Price and Weight, only numeric values are acceptable. If a non-numeric value is sent for these attributes, those values will be ignored in the sync.
If SKU title is not present for any SKU in PCC, the export will fail as SKU title is a mandatory field for Shopify.
Related SKUs are not supported in Shopify. Hence, if a SKU has related SKUs associated with it, they will be ignored in the sync and not displayed in the Shopify platform.
By default, UoM has been set for the following attributes in the Shopify store:
Price – In the Store Currency section under Settings > General, the default currency is already set to Rupees. You can change the currency as per the requirement in this section. Hence, all SKUs associated with metatag SF_PRICE will have the unit as Rupees.
Weight – In the Standards and formats section under Settings > General, the default UoM is already set to Kilograms (Kg). You can change the measurement unit as per the requirement in this section. Hence, all SKUs associated with metatag SF_WEIGHT will have the unit as Kg.
The following metatags are relevant for Shopify and can be associated with respective SKU attributes in the PCC catalog. If any of these metatags are associated to a SKU attribute, the values will reflect for the respective fields in Shopify:
SF_BARCODE – The value of the attribute with this metatag will reflect in the Barcode (ISBN, UPC, GTIN, etc.) field as part of the Inventory section in the store.
SF_DESCRIPTION – The value of the attribute with this metatag will reflect in the Description field in the store.
SF_PRICE – The value of the attribute with this metatag will reflect in the Price field as part of the Pricing section in the store.
SF_OLD_PRICE – If this metatag is used with SF_PRICE, the value of the attribute with metatag old price is displayed in the Compare at price field and the value of the attribute with metatag price is displayed in the Price field as part of the Pricing section.
SF_SPECIAL_PRICE – If this metatag is used with SF_PRICE, the value of the attribute with metatag special price is displayed in the Price field and the value of the attribute with metatag price is displayed in the Compare at price field as part of the Pricing section.
SF_COST_PRICE – The value of the attribute with this metatag will reflect in the Cost per item field as part of the Pricing section in the store.
NOTE | The actual price at which the product is being sold will always be displayed in the Price field as part of the Pricing section in the store. Also, the metatags SF_OLD_PRICE and SF_SPECIAL_PRICE cannot be used together for a SKU. |
SF_WEIGHT – The value of the attribute with this metatag will reflect in the Weight field as part of the Weight section in the store.
SF_QUANTITY – The value of the attribute with this metatag will reflect in the Available field as part of the Quantity section in the store.
SF_META_TITLE – The value of the attribute with this metatag will reflect as the meta title as part of the Search engine listing preview section in the store.
SF_META_DESCRIPTION – The value of the attribute with this metatag will reflect as the meta description as part of the Search engine listing preview section in the store.
NOTE | Any SKU attribute associated with the above mentioned metatags should only have a single value. If there are multiple values, all the values will be ignored as Shopify accepts single values only in attributes associated with metatags. |
The custom attributes, that is, all those SKU attributes which are not associated with Shopify specific metatags will be added as custom fields in the Shopify store. If there are multiple values for these attributes, only the first value will be accepted by default while syncing to the Shopify store as multiple values are not supported. Also, the length of the characters in the attribute value should not be more than 250, else an error will be generated during the export process.
NOTE | The metatags SF_PRICE and SF_DESCRIPTION are mandatory and should be associated with the respective attributes in the PCC catalog for SKUs being synced to the store else the export will fail. Similarly, the SKU title for SKUs should not be blank else the export will fail too. |
To export the product data to Shopify:
Open the catalog in PCC from which the data is to be synced to Shopify as shown below.
Select the nodes which have the SKUs to be exported / you can export the entire catalog if all SKUs from all the nodes must be exported. Let us select a node Analog which contains SKUs to be synced to Shopify.
Right-click the node and then click Export Node to export SKUs from specific nodes as shown below.
The following screen appears.
Since the data is to be synced to the Shopify store, you need to select the respective options in Shopify.
Click the Export Catalog icon
on Shopify and the following screen appears.
Enter the Export Name for the file to be saved.
Move the Nodes(s) To Be Exported toggle to All if you need to export the data from the entire catalog. Here, we will export product data from the selected node.
Select the Store Name from the drop-down list to which the data is to be synced as shown below.
Click Export and the export process is initiated. Refer section Viewing the Export File for more information on how to view the status of the export. Once the export process is successfully completed, you can go to the Shopify platform and view details in the Home page as shown below.
As shown above, the SKU Ana4589 present in the Analog node selected to be synced to the Shopify site is displayed here. Details of all SKU attributes which are not associated with Shopify specific metatags are displayed here as custom attributes.
Thus, you can make changes to the SKUs, update values in the PCC catalog which will be reflected in the Shopify platform after the sync is done successfully.
However, if an error occurs during the export process, an error file will be generated with details of the errors. The Export page will display the following information in case of an error.
You can download the error file and make the necessary changes and export again after correcting the errors listed. Following is a sample error file.
An error ‘The value of parameter 'price' cannot be empty.’ and ‘The value of parameter 'description' cannot be empty.’ is displayed for 2 SKUs As the price and description values are mandatory in the Shopify store, any SKU which does not have the necessary metatags associated will throw an error. In this case, the SF_PRICE and SF_DESCRIPTION metatags are missing for SKU attributes with SKU ID Ana1458 and ABC_123 respectively. Once the metatags are associated with relevant attributes and the export is processed again, the sync will be done successfully.
NOTE | If some or all of the SKUs fail to sync, the process will be still shown as completed. However, since there is a failure, an error log will be generated. The sync process will be marked as ERROR only if an exception occurs before the actual loading is started, in which case an error file containing the cause of an error will be generated. |
The Product load summary will be shown for all records, and it will have the following fields:
Total products – displays the total count of SKUs being exported
Products processed – displays the total count of SKUs processed
Products successfully loaded – displays the count of SKUs loaded successfully from the processed SKUs
Failed to load – displays the total count of SKUs that have failed from the processed SKUs
Failed to load – displays the total count of SKUs that have failed from the processed SKUs