Tower Systems offers fixed price web development services for our POS software customers. To find out more about our fixed price website development, please email: sales@towersystems.com.au
Shopify is one of the easiest ways to setup and run an ecommerce store. We think it provides you with the ideal place to create you first website and gain experience in the world of ecommerce. You have complete control over the look and feel of your online store and can instant access fantastic look themes to reflect the personality of your business. For more information visit www.shopify.com.au.
The Retailer to Shopify Link uses the Tower Advantage Link platform to allow Retailer to connect directly to your Shopify store. The Tower Advantage Link platform is a subscription-based service that acts as an intermediary between Retailer and the Shopify API.
How Does The Link Work?
The link works by using the TALink platform platform to connect to the shopify API and synchronise your data.
Stock
Retailer is your master stock database. You flag what stock items you want to appear on your shopify store. Descriptions and extended descriptions are added as your titles and descriptions in Shopify. Newly flagged products are automatically added and if you edit items in Retailer you have field level control over how these are handled in Shopify.
Department And Categories
Option One: Treat departments as collections and Categories as Product Tags
This will use your Retailer Department as the collection and the category will be created as a product tag. This is our recommended approach as it allows for menu sorting and for categories to appear over multiple collections. Tags are searchable keywords associated with your product and can help customers find your product through your online store search. Tags can also use them to create automated collections. Please see Shopify knowledge base for more information.
Option Two: Treat Categories as Collections, ignore departments
This option is what we use on https://ittybittysinaustralia.com as this site is for a specific small range of products that we sell online. The collection names you see here are Retailer Categories. This is best used in smaller web stores selling a defined range of product.
Option Three: Self-Managed Collections
This is the least popular but may be necessary if there is an existing store and you do not want to change your current structure. If this option is selected then products will be added without a collection you will then need to allocate them once they have been added to the site via the link.
Classifications
Additional product information can be sent via Classifications. e.g. Carat Clarity. This information will be available as Shopify Metafields allowing you to feature as a product filter or as additional information within the product itself.
Prices And Quantity On Hand
You have control over your webstore pricing from within the Retailer Stock Screen. Bulk updates of the webstore prices can be performed in Stock Manager. Once new prices are set, your web store is updated automatically.
Quantity on hand is also managed automatically, when your sell or arrive an item into stock these adjustments are sent directly to Shopify. If the quantity on hand of an items drops to 0, the item is marked as out of stock in Shopify.
Images
The images you set against stock items in Retailer are automatically uploaded to your website. If images change, then old one is removed and the new one is added. You can upload as many images as you like per stock item.
Customers
Customers that purchase off your webstore are added as customers in your Retailer database, allowing you to track what they buy and market to them if you desire. Existing customers with an email address will also be added to your web store to facilitate easy sales if you choose.
Sales
Sales are downloaded on a periodic basis and imported into Retailer. They are imported into our Customer Invoice Maintenance facility allowing you to place orders and print invoices if needed. Once sales are imported it reduces your quantity on hand so you maintain accurate stock control. Sales can be allocated to a specific location or merged to you main sales data, giving you excellent control over how you report on your webstore sales.
I Don’t Have A Website But Want One. Can Tower Help?
Yes! We can build and customize a basic Shopify website for you if you like. Please talk to your local sales representative for more information.
What Are The Costs?
The Tower Advantage Link is a subscription-based software as a service platform. The Shopify link data feed is free for our customers covered by software support.
Do I Own The Webstore Module?
To check to see if you own the Retailer Webstore module from the Main Screen of Retailer click on Help then Register. If the Retailer Webstore is ticked, then you own the module. If it is not ticked, you can purchase it during signup process. If you believe this is an error please contact the Tower Systems accounts team (accounts@towersystems.com.au) and they will check your records.
Questions?
Please email talink@towersystems.com.au or give us a call with your questions and one of our staff will get back to you.
