Shopify

CatalogRelay exports products to Shopify using the Shopify Admin API.

Prerequisites

• A Shopify store (any plan)
• Admin API access

Creating a Shopify custom app

1. In Shopify Admin, go to Apps → Develop apps
2. Click Create an app, name it “CatalogRelay”
3. Go to the app’s Configuration tab → Admin API integration
4. Set the following scopes:
   • write_products, read_products
   • write_inventory, read_inventory
   • read_locations
5. Click Save → Install app
6. Copy the Admin API access token

Connecting in CatalogRelay

1. Go to Export Destinations → Add destination
2. Select Shopify
3. Enter:
   • Store domain: yourstore.myshopify.com (without https://)
   • Access token: from the custom app
   • Location ID: the inventory location to update stock at (leave blank to use default)

What gets synced

Products and variants

CatalogRelay maps supplier feed data to Shopify’s product/variant structure:

CatalogRelay	Shopify field
Name	title
Description	body_html
Brand	vendor
SKU	variants[].sku
GTIN	variants[].barcode
Price (after rules)	variants[].price
Stock	inventory_levels[].available
Image URL	images[].src

Metafields

Map canonical attributes to Shopify metafields via Field Mappings:

canonical: delivery_days → metafields.custom.delivery_days
canonical: weight_kg → metafields.custom.weight

The metafield namespace and key must match definitions in your Shopify store.

Collections (categories)

Use a category set with Shopify collection handles as destination codes. CatalogRelay adds products to collections via the collect API.

Product type

The canonical product_type attribute (if mapped) is sent as Shopify’s product_type field, enabling filtering in Shopify Admin.

Inventory tracking

CatalogRelay updates inventory levels at the specified location. If continue selling when out of stock is configured on a variant in Shopify, CatalogRelay does not override that — it only updates the quantity.

Multi-variant products

If a supplier feed contains multiple SKUs that map to variants of the same product (e.g. different sizes of the same shirt), configure variant grouping in the export profile to group them under a single Shopify product.

By default, each SKU becomes a separate Shopify product. Contact support to configure variant grouping.

Rate limits

The Shopify Admin API has rate limits. CatalogRelay respects these limits with automatic backoff and retry. Large catalogues (100,000+ products) may take several hours for the first full sync.

Troubleshooting

Product not found error: The product was deleted in Shopify but CatalogRelay still has a reference to it. CatalogRelay will attempt to re-create the product on the next run.

Metafield not updating: Ensure the metafield definition exists in Shopify and the type matches the value (e.g. a number_integer metafield cannot receive a string value).

Inventory not updating: Verify the Location ID in the destination configuration is correct. Use the Shopify API or Admin to confirm the location ID.