Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Shopify Combined for Improved Efficiency

Connect your Shopify stores with Business Central and maximize business productivity

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central—named the best ERP system of 2024 by Forbes Advisor—allows small and medium sized organizations to work smarter, adapt faster, and perform better. It’s now even more powerful with an integration to Shopify— a complete commerce platform that lets you create and customize an online store.

Business Central and Shopify are completely cloud-based, which means you don’t have to worry about upgrading or maintaining software or web servers. This gives you the flexibility to access and run your business from almost anywhere, including your mobile device.

Integration between the two powerhouse solutions provides quicker response to customer inquiries, more timely processing of returns and refunds, and more accurate order processing. The integration ultimately keeps employees more focused on customer experiences by eliminating manual processes.

Understanding the integration

Integration between Business Central and Shopify supports multiple Shopify shops. Each shop has its own setup, including a collection of products, locations used to calculate inventory, and price lists.

Bi-directional synchronization of items or products

• Connector will sync images, item variants, barcodes, vendor item numbers, extended texts, and tags between systems.
• Easily export item attributes to Shopify.
• Use selected customer price groups and discounts to define how prices will be exported to Shopify.
• Decide whether items can be created automatically or only allow updates to existing products.

Synchronization of inventory levels

• Choose to use some or all of the available locations in Dynamics 365 Business Central.
• Update inventory levels on multiple locations in Shopify.

Bi-directional synchronization of customers

• Smart-map customers by phone and email.
• Use country-specific templates when creating customers, which helps ensure that tax settings are correct.

Import of orders from Shopify

• During import you can automatically create customers in Dynamics 365 Business Central or decide to manage the customers in Shopify.
• Include orders created in other channels, such as Shopify POS or Amazon.
• Shipping costs, gift cards, tips, shipping and payment methods, transactions, and risk of fraud.
• Receive payout information from Shopify Payments.

Easy tracking of fulfillment information

• Optionally choose to write item tracking information from Dynamics 365 Business Central into Shopify.
• Core functionalities of the integration
• Benefits of the integration (for e-commerce)
• Costs of the integration

Integration Methods

• How is the integration done?

Challenges and considerations

y connecting Shopify and Business Central you gain the flexibility, control, and tracking needed to drive growth. The Shopify connector is available for the online version of Dynamics 365 Business Central. It is not available for on-premises versions. Integration is available in all countries where Business Central is available. The extension will be pre-installed for new customers. Existing customers can download and install the extension from Microsoft AppSource or the Shopify app store.

Best practices for successful integration

Connecting Business Central to your Shopify online store affects only the company where it’s enabled. You can connect to the same Shopify online store from multiple environments or companies. You can disable and re-enable the connector. Here is a walkthrough on how to connect the two systems, or Velosio is here to help. There are some pitfalls to avoid when connecting the two systems, and it’s important to have a backup before attempting the integration.

Tips for Integration

• The browser blocks the pop-up window. When you turn on the Enabled toggle, Business Central opens the Waiting for a response – do not close this page while it waits for an access token from Shopify. If that page is closed or blocked, you can’t connect to Shopify. Learn more at Request the access token.
• It might be a good idea to have the Shopify admin open in the same browser as Business Central.
• Error: Oauth error invalid_request: Could not find Shopify API application with api_key..
• Error: Oauth error invalid_request: Your account does not have permission to grant the requested access for this app..
• Can’t connect from sandbox.
• The app couldn’t be loaded.

Conclusion

Many organizations with a Shopify online store will benefit from the integration with Business Central.

Kambukka, a premium Belgium brand that designs trendy drinking solutions such as coffee mugs, water bottles, kids’ bottles, and lunch-on-the-go containers, is benefitting immensely from the integration. In the past, the company created an invoice for each transaction and managed inventory manually. By implementing Shopify and Business Central, invoicing is now processed automatically, and sales and inventory data is up-to-date. The company now has richer data insights, can manage stock inventory to ensure products are in stock and understands its customers better. As a result, every month Kambukka’s sales grow because the company can focus on getting the right products to the right consumers. With the integration of Shopify and Business Central, Kambukka is prepared for the future.

Velosio, an award-winning Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central partner, can help with your Shopify and Business Central integration. We bring 30+ years of experience helping companies modernize applications, simplify operations, and leverage their data to make better decisions. Our clients trust our consulting, implementation, and support teams to reduce risk, empower innovation and create the foundation for reshaping the employee and client experience. Contact us [link] to get started today!