HubSpot Native Shopify Integration 101: How data syncs from Shopify to HubSpot

[jackcoldrick]

Hello all,

Welcome to the second in a series of videos focusing on the native integration Hubspot provides with Shopify. In the last post I spoke about "How to setup the shopify integration". In this post I'm going to concentrate on how data syncs between the systems once the integration is in place. Check out the video below for more information:

I've also included some useful FAQ that should help you to better understand how the data syncs and what to expect from the integration. 

1) Is the integration bi-directional?

No, the integration is unidirectional/one way. In otherwords data is only ever going to sync from Shopify to HubSpot and not the other way around. This is intentional. If you think about it, the data stored within Shopify is transactional data that should never be updated from any other source. You are certainlly free to modify the data in HubSpot once it syncs but it won't be reflected in Shopify.

2) What data syncs from Shopify to HubSpot?

The table below represents the data that syncs from Shopify to HubSpot:

Shopify	HubSpot	HubSpot Properties
Products	Products	Title, Body_HTML, Created at, Handle, Images, Product type, Published at, Published scope, Tags, Vendor, Price
Customers	Contacts	Accepts marketing, Created at, First name, Last name, Email, Phone, Note, Orders count, Tags, Tax exempt (checkbox), Verified email (checkbox), Street address, City, Country, State/Province, Zip code
Orders	Deals	Abandoned checkout URL, Buyer accepts marketing, Customer ID, Cancel reason, Cart token, Cancelled at, Created at, Currency, Financial status, Fulfillment status, Landing site, Name, Note, Order number, Processing method, Referring site, Source name, Subtotal price, Taxes included, Token, Total discounts, Total line items price, Total price, Total tax, Total weight

3) Does the integration support custom properties/metafields?

No, the integration only supports the properties listed in the table above. Custom properties in Shopify are known as metafields. You can use Shopify metafields to add custom fields to objects such as products, customers, and orders. Metafields are useful for storing specialized information, such as part numbers, customer titles, or blog post summaries. Creating and working with metafields requires you to use a third part Shopify app or their API. More information on that can be found here.

4) Can I control what data syncs into HubSpot from Shopify?

No, the integration will sync over data as it is created in Shopify. For example an Order will be created as a Deal. A customer will be created as a Contact. 

5) Why do the deals in my abandoned cart stage have no associated contacts?

This can happen if a visitor goes to the checkout page and does not enter any details. Additionally if they enter the details but do not click to "Continue to Shipping" no association will occur.  This is how Shopify works - An order and a customer are only created on the back end when the "Continue to Shipping" button is pressed.

5) How do deals move between the stages in the eCommerce pipeline?

The deal stage in HubSpot is influenced by the status of the order in Shopify. There are 6 pre-defined stages. Namely "Checkout Abandoned", "Checkout Pending", "Checkout Complete", "Processed", "Shipped" and "Cancelled".

• When someone reaches the checkout page of Shopify a deal is created in hte "Checkout Pending" stage.
• If a deal has been in the "Checkout Pending" stage for 24 hours it will move into the "Checkout Abandoned" stage. 
• If an order is completed and payment is captured a deal will move to the "Processed" stage.
• When an order is fulfilled a deal will move to the "Shipped" stage.
• If an order is cancelled a deal will move to the "Cancelled" stage.

I hope that this video has helped you to better understand what data syncs from Shopify to HubSpot and what needs to happen in order to trigger that sync. More information on how to use the integration can be found here.

If you've any questions please do not hestiate to comment below. I'm more than happy to help however I can! 

Happy HubSpotting!

[SGrepling1]

Hi Jack! 

I have a client that would like to sync their SKU's in Shopify to their Hubspot Products. Is there a work around for this sync? Maybe a product spreadsheet upload with SKU's?

[CUrsu1]

@BLaRosa  look into Integromat - I was able to bring in additional info with this. 

[BLaRosa]

Thanks for the idea. I've tried long and hard but cannot work this one out.

It appears that Shopify does not add the cost price of items to an order so when I retrieve an order the data is not there.  In HubSpot, I have fields into deals and product to handle cost and margin, but I need to find the raw data to bring this in. 

Any ideas appreciated.

[BLaRosa]

We have created custom fields in HubSpot Deals so we can track buy price and from there we can track margin as opposed to just Amount.  We'd love to bring the buy price of products into Deals from Shopify.  Is there any way we can do this?

[CvonArenstorf]

Hi! Thanks for the 101.

About number 1) is there any way to sync contacts from Hubspot to Shopify? 

Thanks!

[CUrsu1]

Hi @jackcoldrick ,

integrated Shopify with Hubspot for a client, the contacts and deals are coming in correctly. As we are migrating from Woocommerce, we already have a lot of customers in Hubspot that I need to get into Shopify. The sync does not pick them up, any way to force it? Does it supposed to sync this way, it is not cleaar in the knowledge base.

Thanks. 

[kelseyingram392]

@jackcoldrick the links in point 3) in the original post aren't directing to a page that exists anymore. We're looking for a solution of how to sync custom product fields from Shopify to HubSpot so any help would be appreciated! 

[anhthi]

Hello - We're considering integrating Shopify with our Hubspot so that our customer service team who is responding to customer inquiries in our Shared Inbox can see the customer's current order, and order history.

Am I making the right assumption that the Shopify / Hubspot integration would provide this view?

If someone could share a screenshot of what this would look like in the Share Inbox, that would be super helpful!  Thank you!

[jackcoldrick]

Hi @anhthi,

That's correct. All of the previous orders will be visible from the right hand side bar of the conversations inbox. I've included a screenshot of my own portal showing this:

If more information relating to the order is required the agent can then simply click in to view more details. 

I hope this helps!

Jack

[anhthi]

Hi Jack - This is very helpful, thank you!

I know that Shopify and Hubspot sync customers by email, so it makes sense that this will easily sync.

But if someone messages us via Messenger (which we have linked with our Shared Inbox), will the order info from Shopify sync for this customer?

Thank you,

Anh-Thi

[jackcoldrick]

Hi @anhthi,

No problem glad it helped. With regards FB Messenger you would need to ask for their email address as part of the chatflow otherwise we have no way to associate the conversation to the contact record in the CRM and pull in the relevant information.

Jack

[anhthi]

Hi Jack,

Got it - thanks for the info.

I just integrated Shopify, and I followed the steps to sync data so that data goes "one-way" from Shopify to Hubspot. But when I go to the Shared Inbox, I'm not seeing anything in the Deal section on the right panel for customers who I know made a purchase.

Is there another step that I'm missing to have the Shopify order history appear in the Inbox?

Many thanks in advance!

Anh-Thi

[Anonymous]

Thank you for this super helpful post!

[jackcoldrick]

Hey everyone, I've released the 3rd video discussing how you can segment contacts, deals and products from within HubSpot using this data. More information here.

[jackcoldrick · Accepted solution]

To anyone reading this the integration now has BETA support for bidirectional/two way sync for Customers (Shopify) and Contacts (HubSpot). More info here: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/integrations/use-two-way-contact-sync-with-shopify-beta

[ehulstein]

Hi Jack,

We're seeing an issue where contacts created via the API are having their email addresses updated (by updated I mean that an additional email address is added) on the Contact Record via a Form Submission. The problem is, the email address added to the Contact Record is actually an email address for another employee at the company (not yet created as a contact in HubSpot). I am assuming this is happening because the contact is cookies and tracked when they are synced over from Shopify, so I'm wondering if this bi-directional sync would fix that? Any thoughts you have on what could be causing, and thus could fix, this would be really helpful. 

Also, can you tell me if the bi-directional sync requires a specific HubSpot subscription level to be supported?

[jackcoldrick]

Hi @ehulstein,

If they're going through the standard checkout flow on the Shopify side then any new email address should result in a net new contact being created in HubSpot (Even if they're being tracked). The reason for this is the integration is built on our ecommerce bridge APIs which use the external Object Id to manage updates rather than the cookie. As long as they're created as a new customer in Shopify they should have a corresponding Hubspot contact record.

One exception is if you were to make any changes to the customer after they've been created in Shopify - we would then update the email in HubSpot accordingly.

No specific plan is required to leverage bi-directional sync. It's accessible by all tiers. With it enabled any update made to the email in Hubspot (or Shopify) will be reflected on the appropriate record in the corresponding system. 

Does this help at all? 

Regards,

Jack

[jjayaraman4]

@jackcoldrick - I have a few questions. 

When can I expect my deal to go to checkout completed stage ?   

Also,  I am unable to understand how I can send out emails to a customer who has added to cart but has not entered his email id yet (is he still not a visitor ? ). Why is a deal created for that instance & how can I leverage the same in my workflow?

Also when a deal moves , the name changes .  This is a little confusing for me. Can I avoid this.

I am looking at setting up this integration for a friend who owns an online clothing store.

[CUrsu1]

Hi @jjayaraman4 ,

checkout completed is just a intermediary step -Processed is the corresponding to Paid orders in Shopify.

Unfortunately you can't send emails to customers that added to cart but did not get to enter their details (email), the deals created like that are just noise - I think that the recommandation is to delete periodically.

You can reach these people with retargeted advertising - build an audience of visitors that added to the cart but did not purchase. 

For more integration options you can have a look at Unific, https://www.unific.com?afmc=38&utm_campaign=38&utm_source=leaddyno&utm_medium=affiliate

[shrumdidly]

I still don't understand what Checkout Completed is for. "just an intermediary step" what is the business use case for this stage, and are there any special considerations given to it similar to the Checkout Pending > Checkout Abandoned automatic movement...