Shopify Integration Instructions

Shopify integration with Zendesk, Freshdesk, Re:amaze, Help Scout, Zoho Desk, or Kustomer only takes seven minutes. All you need is ChannelReply! Follow these instructions and soon you'll have Shopify messages and order data in your helpdesk.

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1. Prepare for Setup

If You Already Have a ChannelReply Account

Sign in. Then choose Shopify on the dashboard. (Note that you may have to scroll down to find it in the list of marketplaces.)

Click “ADD NEW SHOPIFY ACCOUNT,” then go to step 2.

If You Don’t Have a ChannelReply Account

Start your free 14-day trial here. Follow the instructions for connecting Zendesk, Freshdesk, Re:amaze, Help Scout, Zoho Desk, or Kustomer. When you reach a screen like the one shown below, choose Shopify.

2. Create a ChannelReply App in Shopify

You'll arrive on a page like the one shown below.

Either follow along with the video and then skip to step 3, or keep reading this article below.

Log in to your Shopify admin account and choose “Apps” in the left-hand menu. Then click "App and sales channel settings."

Next, click “Develop apps” in the upper right. (Don’t worry, you won’t actually have to do any development!)

If you've never set up a custom app in Shopify before, you'll arrive on the page shown below. Hit "Allow custom app development."

You'll be asked to confirm your decision. Simply hit "Allow custom app development" again.

Finally, click “Create an app.”

Enter ChannelReply in the “App name” field. Then select any member of your staff as the App Developer. Note that this person will receive emails from Shopify about changes on their side that may affect the app.

Once done, click “Create app.”

On the next screen, click “Configure Admin API scopes.”

Scroll down to “Customers” and check both boxes: “write_customers” and “read_customers.” (Note: If you click the “write” box first, simply mousing over the “read” box will check it. Clicking a second time will actually uncheck both boxes.)

Find “Order Editing” and check “write_order_edits” and “read_order_edits.” You’ll see “Orders” right below that—check the “write_orders” and “read_orders” boxes there as well.

Scroll down to “Products.” Check only “read_products.”

The last section you need to find is “Shipping.” Check “write_shipping” and “read_shipping.”

Confirm that a total of 9 settings are selected. Then click “Save” in the upper right.

Hit “Install app.”

A popup will appear—click “Install” to confirm your installation.

The app is done! Now we need to link it to ChannelReply. Click “Next” on your ChannelReply setup screen. 

3. Link Your Shopify App to ChannelReply

You'll arrive on a page like the one shown below.

Either follow along with the video and then skip to step 4, or keep reading these instructions below.

Return to your Shopify account and copy the URL from your browser’s address bar.

Paste the URL into the “Shopify Admin Domain” field in ChannelReply. Everything except the unique part of your domain will be automatically removed.

Your ChannelReply app should already be open in Shopify. If not, go to Apps > App and sales channel settings > Develop apps > ChannelReply and select the “API credentials” tab.

Under “Admin API access token,” click “Reveal token once.”

Copy your token.

Note that you may never be able to view this token again in the future, so it’s wise to save it to a secure file while you can. When ready, paste it into the “Access Token” field in ChannelReply.

Under the “API key and secret key” section, copy the API key from Shopify and paste it into the “API Key” field in ChannelReply. Then copy the API secret key from Shopify and paste it into the “Secret Key” field in ChannelReply.

If you use Re:amaze, you will also need to select a channel/brand. Choose the best channel for this Shopify account. If the channel you need is missing from the dropdown, read our guide to assigning Re:amaze brands.

Once all fields are filled in, click “TEST CONNECTION.”

If you see any errors, double-check the information and try again. Contact us for help if you have trouble connecting.

If the connection is successful, green checkmarks will appear next to each field. Click “Next.” 

4. Email Configuration

You will arrive at a screen that says "Success! Now, let's check your email configuration.” Either follow along with the video below and then skip to Advanced Setup, or keep following these instructions below the video.

If You Already Get Shopify Messages in Your Helpdesk

If you already get Shopify messages in your Zendesk, Freshdesk, Re:amaze, Help Scout, Zoho Desk or Kustomer account, you’re done with setup! Data will begin appearing on all messages from this Shopify store in your helpdesk. Click “Next” to finish up.

Then, go ahead and jump to Advanced Setup.

If You Don’t Get Shopify Messages in Your Helpdesk Yet

Switch to your Shopify account. If you're still on the "API credentials" screen, click "Store details" in the upper left. If you're on the dashboard, clicking “Settings” in the lower left will take you to the same place.

Above: Clicking "Store details" from the "API credentials" screen. Below: Clicking "Settings" on the Shopify dashboard to reach the "Store details" screen. 

Once you've reached "Store details," click “Edit” next to “Profile.”

Change the “Sender email” to any email address that forwards to your helpdesk. Just be aware that customers will see the email address you enter here, so it's best to use an address ending in your unique website domain. 

Another reason to use an email from your own unique domain is that you will have to verify your email address anytime you change it to anything from a domain you haven't authenticated. It asks you to verify even if you've verified the address before. If you've authenticated the domain, though, then all email addresses on that domain are considered verified automatically.

You do not have to authenticate. Messages will still be delivered if your address is not authenticated.

However, if you do not authenticate your email, it will change what your customers see. "via shopifyemail.com" may appear after your email address, and in some cases, your emails may even appear to be from "no-reply@shopify.com." You may also have an increased risk of your messages going to spam if your sender email is not authenticated.

We don't recommend using email addresses that end in things like @yourcompany.yourhelpdesk.com. These do work for messaging, but they are part of your helpdesk's domain and not yours, so you can't authenticate them. Shopify will also only allow one store to authenticate each domain, so you can't ask your helpdesk to authenticate the address on your behalf.

Once you have entered an email address in the "Sender email" field, click "Save."

Congratulations—you’re done! You can click “Next” in ChannelReply to exit Shopify setup, then skip to Advanced Setup.

What if I Don’t Know What Email Address to Enter?

Don’t worry. We’ve already generated an email address for you. Just return to ChannelReply and hit “NEXT.”

Exit setup completely by clicking “GO TO MY ACCOUNT.”

Click “Shopify” on the dashboard.

Next, hit “EDIT” under your newly connected Shopify store.

You’ll find a ChannelReply Email field here. Copy this email address.

Enter it as the sender email in Shopify, then hit “Save.”

You’re all set! Just keep in mind that customers will see the @channelreply domain in your sender email. You also will not be able to authenticate unless you switch to an email address from a domain that you own.

As mentioned above, you can use any email address you want, as long as it forwards messages to your helpdesk. Using the ChannelReply Email is not required or recommended. It is only a backup option.

You can now skip to Advanced Setup.

Advanced Email Options: “Process External Messages” and Custom SMTP

After finishing your Shopify integration, you can view your settings by clicking Shopify on the dashboard…

…then “EDIT” under your newly connected store.

Down near the bottom of the screen, you’ll find a setting labeled “Process external messages.”

We recommend that most users just leave “Process external messages” turned on. It gets the best results for the least amount of work.

As long as this is enabled, ChannelReply will check every ticket in your helpdesk. If the email address matches a customer from your Shopify store, we will display that customer’s order info in the ChannelReply app.

This is recommended because it allows ChannelReply to show data on virtually every ticket from your Shopify store. It works even on messages delivered by other apps or through your preferred customer service email.

If you want to disable this, you have two options: 

1. Use your ChannelReply Email as described under “What if I Don’t Know What Email Address to Enter?” above. Warning: Customers will see your ChannelReply Email rather than your preferred address.
2. Follow our instructions for email forwarding with custom SMTP so you can use your own email address instead. Warning: This is much more complicated!

Once you’ve completed either of the options above, you can disable “Process external messages.” ChannelReply will then only process Shopify messages that we have actually delivered to your helpdesk.

Advanced Setup (Optional)

Interested in setting up advanced ChannelReply features for Shopify? Here are some of the best options available:

Tags

Account Tags

Create a tag for your Shopify account to help with ticket organization and using more advanced features. We recommend that all multichannel sellers set up account tags.

Contact Form Tags

If you have multiple contact forms in your store, you can use our Shopify contact form tags to identify which form the customer used to contact you. This is useful for advanced options like sending different auto-replies based on which contact form the customer used.

Custom Fields

Learn how to use custom fields to speed up support with auto-personalization and powerful, custom-built rules. Custom fields can also make it easier to build advanced reports and search for tickets based on things like what the customer ordered. Exact features depend on your helpdesk, but they can always make your life easier!

Order Name > Order ID

By default, we put Shopify's Order ID into the Order ID custom field, and place the Order Name in the Alternative Order ID custom field. However, many Shopify sellers only use the Order Name and consider that the primary Order ID. 

Enabling the Order Name > Order ID option switches where each ID goes. When enabled, the Shopify Order ID gets sent to the Alternative Order ID custom field, and the Order Name goes to the Order ID custom field.

To enable this setting, click Shopify on your ChannelReply dashboard and then "EDIT" under your connected store. 

Finally, click the slider for Order Name > Order ID. The change will save automatically.

Autoresponders

ChannelReply lets you turn your helpdesk into a Shopify autoresponder. You can use any of our ecommerce autoresponder systems for Zendesk, Freshdesk, Re:amaze, Help Scout, Zoho Desk or Kustomer with Shopify. Standard Zendesk trigger and Kustomer business rule autoresponders are also compatible with Shopify.

New Order Notifications

Our free New Order notifications don't count toward your monthly message limit. And unlike default Shopify order notifications, they come complete with data, tags, and custom fields. You can even reply to them directly or set up an autoresponder just for your new orders!

To turn these on, click Shopify on your ChannelReply dashboard and then "EDIT" under your connected store. 

Make sure the Secret Key field is filled in. (If it is empty, see our detailed instructions for setting up Shopify New Order notifications.)

Finally, scroll down to Notification Preferences and enable the "New Order" slider.

Zoho Desk Departments / Help Scout Mailbox / Re:amaze Channel

If you use Zoho Desk, Help Scout, or Re:amaze, you'll have an extra setting that lets you to choose where to send messages from this Shopify account. In any of these cases, you can simply click the dropdown menu and choose one of the options that appears. The Zoho Desk version is pictured below.

Choosing a mailbox is important for Help Scout users, as you must have one selected in order to unlock features like Help Scout Custom Fields.

Re:amaze users may not see the channel they're looking for right away. If that happens to you, see our guide to managing Re:amaze brands and domains.

Stuck? Have questions? We’re here to help! Contact us and our team will get back to you shortly.