Automate Shopify with Webhooks

Published on 6/5/2024

As a Shopify merchant, you are constantly looking for ways to streamline your operations and enhance your store's functionality. One powerful tool at your disposal is webhooks. Webhooks allow your Shopify store to communicate with external services in real-time, triggering actions when certain events occur. Whether it's updating your inventory, notifying customers, or integrating with third-party apps, webhooks can significantly reduce manual tasks and improve your workflow.

In this article, we'll walk you through the process of setting up Shopify webhooks, standing up a backend to handle them, and providing a practical example to illustrate their power. By the end, you'll have the knowledge to start automating your Shopify store using webhooks.

Setting Up Shopify Webhooks Through Admin

To get started with webhooks, you'll first need to set them up in your Shopify admin panel. Here's a step-by-step guide:

Log into your Shopify admin panel.

Navigate to Settings: Scroll down to the bottom of the left sidebar and click on "Settings."

Select Notifications: In the Settings menu, click on "Notifications" (screenshot)

Scroll to the Webhooks section: Here, you'll see an option to create a webhook

Create a Webhook: Click on the "Create webhook" button. You'll need to provide:

Event: Choose the event that will trigger the webhook (e.g., Order Creation, Product Update).
Format: Select the format (Use JSON).
URL: Enter the URL where your webhook payloads will be sent (you will obtain this URL in the following section - Standing Up a Backend.)

Save Webhook: Once you've entered the necessary information, click "Save webhook."

Standing Up a Backend

To receive webhook events, you'll need an endpoint URL, which requires setting up a backend. Here are two approaches you can consider:

Traditional Server Setup:

What it involves: Renting a virtual machine from a cloud provider, installing an operating server, and configuring necessary software. This setup requires you to manage the hardware and software, including security configurations and updates.
Benefits: Offers full control over the environment and can be optimized based on specific needs.
Drawbacks: More complex and time-consuming to manage, with ongoing maintenance responsibilities.

Serverless Solution:

What it involves: Using a platform like CodeUpify that manages the server infrastructure for you. You simply write your code, and the platform takes care of deployment and scaling.
Benefits: Simplifies deployment, reduces the need for ongoing maintenance, and you only pay for the resources you use when your code is running.
Drawbacks: Less control over the underlying infrastructure and potential for vendor lock-in.

For those new to backend technologies or looking for a more straightforward solution, a serverless approach with a platform like CodeUpify can be ideal. It allows you to focus on your code without worrying about server management.

Setting Up Your Backend on CodeUpify

Here's how you can set up your backend using CodeUpify:

Create a new function

Choose the language that you want to write the code in
Choose async for code that will run in the background
And set your environment variables and packages

Add your code (screenshot)

Once you click save you will have a URL for your function that you can use.

Test Delivery

Once your backend is set up, it's important to test that it's receiving data correctly from Shopify:

Send a Test Notification: Go back to your Shopify admin panel. Navigate to Settings → Notifications → Webhooks. Select your newly created webhook and click on Send test notification. (screenshot)

Verify the Test: Check in CodeUpify to confirm that the webhook was triggered and the data was received as expected. Look at the logs to ensure there were no errors in processing the test data (screenshot).

Conclusion

We hope this guide gave you a rough idea on how to automate your Shopify store using webhooks. We will be putting out more articles that will explore more specific things that you can do and how to integrate with other platforms. If you have any questions or need assistance with implementing your own webhook automations, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.

Happy automating!