Connect Shopify

Written By Max

Last updated About 2 months ago

Many of our customers use Shopify for their online stores and as a POS system. We understand the importance of seamless operation and item management, which is why we are a Shopify partner and offer direct integration with Circle-Hand.

Step 0: Create Shopify account

  1. Create an account for 5€ or 5$ per month (Shopify POS Lite is sufficient for most shops)

  2. Download Shopify POS for your smartphone or tablet (Apple / Android)

  3. (optional) You can use the Shopify card reader or a third party card reader like SumUp or Zettle. You can also use tap-to-pay via your smartphone to accept card payments

Here is a video tutorial on how to setup Shopify POS with Circle-Hand

Step 1: Connect Shopify

  1. Click here to download the Circle-Hand Shopify app.

  2. Make sure you use the same e-mail address for Circle-Hand and Shopify

  3. After you installed Circle-Hand you see the calendar in Shopify, you can go back to Circle-Hand: https://next.app.circle-hand.com/

Step 2: Activate Shopify specific attributes

In Settings → Store → Attributes

  • Publish Status: choose store or web store when creating new items

  • Compare At Price: many shops enter the new retail price of items

  • Custom Tags/Metafields send specific tags to create collections like archive sales etc.

Step 3: Synchronizing Product Data

Once the Circle-Hand App is installed in your Shopify store, you can transfer all data from Circle-Hand to Shopify. This covers the entire process of item setup and management:

  • Creating an item in Circle-Hand with the option "Sell on... Store + Shopify" or "Shopify only" will automatically upload and sync the item to your Shopify web shop.

  • Items sold in Shopify will automatically be marked as "Sold (Payout Pending)" in Circle-Hand.

  • Marking an item as sold in Circle-Hand will update its availability to 0 in Shopify to avoid duplicate sales.

  • Updates to existing items in Circle-Hand will also be reflected in Shopify. Updates in Shopify products will also sync back to Circle-Hand.

  • Status ‚Collected‘ ‚Discarded‘ ‚Returned‘ ‚Sold (Payout paid)‘ ‚Stolen‘ in Circle-Hand will set availability to 0 in Shopify

Data Field Mapping

The synchronization of product data follows this mapping:

  • Title: Used as the product title on Shopify.

  • Images: Used as the product images on Shopify.

  • Price: Synced with the price field in Shopify.

  • Brand: The brand name is stored in the 'Vendor' field in Shopify.

  • Category: Synced to the product type in Shopify.

  • Category (Shopify): Synced to Shopify category

  • Description: Synced to the product description in Shopify, retaining all rich text formatting.

  • Barcode: An item's barcode is synced with the barcode field in Shopify. You can activate to sync the barcode to Shopify SKU as well.

Using Tags

You can choose to activate or deactivate the option to send item attributes as tags by going to Settings → Shopify → “Send Attributes as Tags.” When activated, all filled-out fields during item creation will be sent as tags in this format: CH-attribute-entry. For example:

  • CH-color-green

  • CH-brand-[entered brand]

  • CH-size-[entered size]

  • CH-season

  • CH-material

  • CH-gender

  • CH-condition

Custom Tags

In addition to the default metafields described above, you can add your own.

After enabling "Custom Tags/Metafields" under "Settings → Store → Visible Item Attributes", you'll see a new input field when creating items, called “Custom Tags and Metafields”.

Metafields for Added Flexibility

For maximum flexibility, certain product properties are set as metafields in Shopify.

The easiest ways to define these in Shopify is to create a product with these properties set in Circle-Hand and sync it to Shopify. Afterwards, Shopify will automatically suggest these to you when defining metafields.

The following metafiels can be defined as Single line text:

  • circle-hand.color

  • circle-hand.size

  • circle-hand.material

  • circle-hand.condition

  • circle-hand.gender

  • circle-hand.brand

  • circle-hand.location

  • circle-hand.age_group

The following metafiels can be defined as Multi line text:

  • circle-hand.measurements

  • circle-hand.season

Since season can have multiple values, we also send it as a list of single line texts called circle-hand.seasons (note the plural). The definition for this metafield will be created automatically once you use it the first time!

Custom Metafields

In addition to the default metafields described above, you can add your own.

After enabling "Custom Tags/Metafields" under "Settings → Store → Visible Item Attributes", you'll see a new input field when creating items, called “Custom Tags and Metafields”.

To add custom metafields:

  • Format: field_name:value

  • Example: composition:100% cotton

For multiple values in one field:

  • Use forward slashes (/) as separators

  • Example: composition:98% Nylon/2% Cotton

The definition for all custom metafields will be created automatically! It will always be of type list.single_line_text.

How to use Metafields to your Shopify Items