Connect Shopify and Odoo with Steersman’s Shopify Integration

Shopify is often on the customer-facing side of an ecommerce business, while Odoo handles the operations behind it: products, inventory, orders, purchasing, fulfillment, accounting, and customer service. Steersman’s Shopify integration for Odoo ERP connects both systems so information can move between Shopify and Odoo according to each business’s needs.

Rather than forcing every company into the same synchronization model, the integration can be configured around the client’s existing processes. One company may want Odoo to control inventory and product information. At the same time, another may prefer Shopify to remain responsible for certain ecommerce fields. Companies can also configure order handling, pricing, fulfillment, customer information, returns, and other workflows differently.

The goal is to make Shopify and Odoo work together without requiring users to maintain the same information manually in both places.

A Configurable Integration

There is no single Shopify workflow that fits every business.

Different Businesses may operate:

• One or several Shopify stores
• Different warehouses
• Various product catalogs
• Distinct pricing models
• Different inventory rules
• Separate order approval processes
• Different return and refund workflows

As a result, Steersman’s Shopify integration can be configured to define which system owns specific information and when that information moves between systems.

Product Synchronization

Product information can be shared between Odoo and Shopify based on a company’s desired catalog-management process.

Depending on the implementation, synchronized product information may include:

• Product names
• SKUs or Internal References
• Product variants
• Attributes such as size, color, or style
• Product availability
• Pricing
• Images
• Descriptions
• Other ecommerce or ERP product information

If you use Odoo as your primary product-management system, you may choose to keep most information there and send it to Shopify.

Or you may prefer to manage your ecommerce-specific content, such as marketing descriptions and website images, in Shopify while keeping the operational product record in Odoo.

The integration can be designed around whichever system makes the most sense as the source of truth.

Connecting Shopify Products to Odoo

To ensure orders and product information sync correctly, Shopify products must map to their corresponding Odoo products. Product matching can use identifiers such as SKUs and Odoo Internal References.

Once the relationship has been established, the integration can use that mapping when exchanging product, inventory, pricing, and Sales Order information.

This reduces the need to manually identify the correct Odoo product every time a Shopify transaction is received.

Inventory Synchronization

You can also configure inventory to meet your company’s requirements.

For some businesses, Odoo may act as the source of truth for inventory and send updated availability to Shopify. This is useful when the same inventory is sold through several channels because Odoo provides a centralized view of stock.

Other businesses may choose not to synchronize inventory quantities and instead maintain Shopify availability separately. One Steersman implementation, for example, kept inventory levels in Odoo and did not synchronize those quantities to Shopify. This reflects the client’s chosen workflow, not a restriction of the integration itself.

Bringing Shopify Orders into Odoo

Orders placed by customers through Shopify can be brought into Odoo for processing.

Instead of manually recreating online orders, internal teams can work with the resulting Odoo Sales Orders and continue through their normal processes for:

• Order review
• Inventory reservation
• Picking
• Packing
• Shipping
• Invoicing
• Accounting

This allows Shopify to remain the storefront customers interact with while Odoo handles much of the internal order lifecycle.

Customer Information

Customer and delivery information collected through Shopify can also be transferred into Odoo.

This can include information such as:

• Customer name
• Contact information
• Billing address
• Shipping address
• Order-related customer information

One of our clients specifically required Shopify customer details to synchronize into Odoo for both order processing and CRM history. How customer records are created, matched, or reused can vary by implementation.

Deciding Where Order Changes Should Be Made

Order-change rules can also be customized around a company’s business process.

Some businesses may allow certain fulfillment-related adjustments in Odoo while requiring financial or customer-facing changes to originate in Shopify.

For example, if a change didn’t alter the amount paid or the products originally ordered, you could handle it directly in Odoo, such as adding a free promotional item or upgrading shipping without charging the customer.

If the change affected the order value or changed the purchased products, the adjustments would be made in Shopify and synced back to Odoo.

This is one example of how Steersman can define synchronization rules that protect the consistency of customer-facing and ERP information.

Pricing and Taxes

Pricing does not necessarily have to be managed the same way for every Shopify implementation. Depending on the business, pricing may originate from Odoo, Shopify, or a combination of both systems, depending on the transaction type.

A similar approach can apply to taxes. For ecommerce businesses using Shopify-specific tax services or configurations, Shopify may remain responsible for calculating certain tax information. Other implementations may rely more heavily on Odoo’s pricing, pricelist, or tax logic. The appropriate source of truth can be determined during implementation.

Shipping Methods

Shopify shipping options do not have to be identical to the delivery methods configured in Odoo. Instead, Shopify shipping services can be mapped to the appropriate Odoo delivery methods.

For example, a customer-facing Shopify option such as “Standard Shipping” could correspond to a particular carrier or delivery configuration in Odoo. This allows each platform to use terminology appropriate to its audience while still connecting the workflows correctly.

Fulfillment Updates

After warehouse users process an order in Odoo, they can send fulfillment information back to Shopify.

Depending on the configuration, this can include information such as:

• Shipment status
• Fulfillment status
• Tracking information
• Carrier information

This lets warehouse employees do their normal work in Odoo while Shopify continues to provide customers with updated order information.

Returns and Refunds

Our Shopify integration can also support post-sale workflows.

Depending on your configuration, this may involve:

• Return authorizations
• Physical receipt of returned products
• Refunds
• Credit memos
• Restocking decisions
• Customer notifications

The systems can divide responsibility based on the workflow.

For example, Shopify can initiate customer return authorizations and credit memos. At the same time, Odoo can manage receiving returned merchandise and communicate it back to Shopify.

Invoices and Payment Information

Financial information can also be exchanged where appropriate.

Depending on the implementation, the integration can support information related to:

• Customer invoices
• Payment status
• Refund transactions
• Credit activity
• Shopify payouts

The exact direction of synchronization depends on which platform the business uses to manage each part of the financial workflow.

For instance, customer invoices and payment statuses can be brought from Shopify into Odoo while keeping actual customer payment methods exclusively in Shopify.

Multiple Shopify Stores

Businesses operating several Shopify storefronts can connect those stores to Odoo while maintaining store-specific configurations.

Individual stores may require different:

• Warehouses
• Product catalogs
• Pricelists
• Sales Teams
• Order workflows
• Synchronization schedules
• Product-management rules

This allows Odoo to serve as a central operational system even when customers purchase through several separate storefronts.

Clear Data Ownership

One of the most important decisions in any Shopify integration is deciding which system controls each piece of information. Not every field needs to move in both directions.

For example, one business might choose:

Odoo as the source of truth for:

• Product SKUs
• Product attributes
• Inventory
• Purchasing information
• Warehouse fulfillment

Shopify as the source of truth for:

• Website descriptions
• Ecommerce images
• Online pricing
• Website categories
• Customer payment information

Another business may choose a very different arrangement.

Defining those responsibilities during implementation helps prevent conflicting updates and makes it clearer where users should maintain information.

Built Around Your Business’s Workflow

Steersman’s Shopify integration is not limited to a single predefined workflow.

The integration provides a framework for connecting the ecommerce activity happening in Shopify with the operational processes managed in Odoo.

Each implementation can be configured around questions such as:

• Which products should synchronize?
• Where should inventory be controlled?
• Which system controls pricing?
• Should Shopify customer records create Odoo contacts?
• How should shipping services map?
• When should orders be imported?
• How should order changes be handled?
• Which system controls returns and refunds?
• Which fulfillment information should be sent back to Shopify?
• How should multiple storefronts interact with the same Odoo environment?

By answering these questions during implementation, we can build a Shopify connection that complements your existing business process rather than forcing you to change it around the connector.