Reference
What works
with Shopify Plus
How ERP, warehouse and stock systems connect to Shopify Plus, what each kind of connection costs you later, and where they break.
The connection matters as much as the system. Choose them together and the integration is designed rather than inherited.
Four ways a system connects, and what each costs you later
Vendors describe integration as supported or not. Behind that word are four different arrangements, and which one you end up with matters more than the vendor's feature list.
Native connector, vendor-built
The system's own Shopify app, maintained by the vendor. It's the cheapest to stand up and the least flexible. Ask which direction each field syncs, and what happens when both sides change the same record.
Third-party middleware
An integration platform sitting between the two. It's flexible and quick, and it brings a third vendor, a third bill and a third place for the sync to fail. Fine as a choice, bad as an accident.
Bespoke integration
Built for your operation against both APIs. It does exactly what's needed, and it has to be owned, monitored and updated whenever either side changes. Most of the cost arrives in the second year.
File drop
A scheduled CSV exchange. It's still common and it still works, but it runs in batches, so the stock figure is only as fresh as the last run. Fine for a slow-moving catalogue, dangerous on a fast one.
Where integrations break
Four failures, none of which announces itself. Ask about each one before the architecture is chosen, not during cutover. The architecture is easier to choose once it's clear which system holds stock truth and which makes the order promise.
Rate limits
Shopify's APIs are throttled. An integration that works against a test catalogue can fall behind on a real one, and the symptom isn't an error. It's a queue that never quite catches up, which reads as "the stock is a bit out" rather than as a fault.
Sync lag versus sync failure
These need different alarms. A failed sync is loud and gets fixed. A sync running twenty minutes behind at the wrong moment oversells a product, and nobody notices until a customer does. Settle the acceptable lag before choosing the architecture.
Field-mapping ownership
When the ERP and the store disagree about a product's weight, its tax class or its price, which one wins? Write it down for every field. A project that skips this finds out during cutover.
Nobody owning the join
The platform vendor supports their side, the systems vendor supports theirs, and the space between them belongs to whoever's standing closest. Under a prime contract, that's us.
Which system fits your operation
Which ERP or warehouse system is right depends less on the product than on the operation it has to run: how many channels, how deep the catalogue, how many places hold stock, and who in the business will own the data.
We work that out first, then choose the system and the connection together.
The systems review is where that starts: a structured read on what your operation needs, and which systems fit it.
Start the systems reviewTell us what you need
What the systems are doing now, and what you need them to do. We'll tell you whether it's a platform problem or something cheaper.