How to Create Shopify NetSuite Integration

Shopify is a leading e-commerce site that many online business owners use to promote product listings and develop digital marketing material. By connecting all your e-commerce materials on a single platform, Shopify allows you to customize and connect your store to different websites and channels.

NetSuite is a software company that has developed a similar cloud-based business management platform for its users. NetSuite and Shopify both have a variety of applications available to online business owners and unite multiple forms of content for management on a singular platform.

Shopify NetSuite integration can make your bookkeeping more efficient, saving you time and money and allowing you to deliver a more streamlined customer experience.

Shopify NetSuite integration guide

Here is a step-by-step guide to integrating your Shopify and NetSuite accounts.

1. Create Shopify and NetSuite accounts.

2. Evaluate your business processes.

3. Identify data.

4. Choose an integration approach to apply.

5. Navigate between Shopify and NetSuite accounts.

1. Create Shopify and NetSuite accounts

Before integrating your accounts, ensure you have active Shopify and NetSuite accounts. Both platforms have customizable features to curate and promote your brand image to audiences. When you make a new Shopify account, you will first build and personalize your online storefront, add themes, and finally add features from different apps. As a NetSuite user, you will have to assign roles to the different users accessing the account, as many employees within a company will be using NetSuite.

2. Evaluate your business processes

Evaluate the manual processes of your business and decide if they should be automatized during the integration of your business accounts on Shopify and NetSuite. If repetitive errors are occurring, the integration of your accounts can include automated features to eliminate those errors. Assess what features of your business need customization, the resources available to you, and your budget for integration tools.

3. Identify data

Identify what data you want to be integrated between the two platforms. The most important data to your company should be on both your Shopify and NetSuite accounts for simplified integration. Data such as your product orders, finances, customer loyalty, and supplier network are integral to your company’s performance.

4. Choose an integration approach to apply

The three approaches merging Shopify and NetSuite are point-to-point, custom-built, and SaaS-based integration.

Point-to-point: Point-to-point integration is an affordable method of integration that essentially “points” your Shopify and NetSuite systems at each other to synchronize the data between both platforms. However, this method is less flexible, as you will have to select one of the two platforms to manage the other. 

Custom-built: In some cases, you may want your Shopify and NetSuite accounts to have customized code built by an outside software developer or someone within your agency using application programming interfaces (APIs). Custom-built integration will create unique solutions for your business processes, but it is costly and requires special maintenance.

SaaS-based: Software as a Service (SaaS) integration is a type of third-party software that allows you to connect your different platforms to a main hub. You can configure multiple software to feed into the central hub, making this a more flexible approach. Similar to custom-built integration, it can be costly but less so, as you must account for the capabilities that allow you to customize your management style between platforms.

5. Navigate between Shopify and NetSuite accounts

Now that you have merged your Shopify and NetSuite accounts with one of the integration approaches, you can navigate between the two platforms to manage your online store or business. Your inventory and customer data will be available in one synchronized system, which can improve your productivity and, ultimately, your business’ success.

Next steps

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