Our application can integrate to TechData to allow for the following features:
- Automatically create an order at TechData from an order place at Shopify.
- Update shipping information on a fulfilled Shopify order
- Transform TechData's product catalog for Shopify to consume
- Sync product inventory from TechData to Shopify
Automatically create an order in TechData from a Shopify order
Our application utilizes TechData's XML integration features. However, you as reseller must sign up separately with TechData for an XML login and password. This link provides the information necessary to setup that XML integration account at TechData.
https://tdcontent.techdata.com/reseller/secure/commerce/eleccomm/ec_tdXML.aspx
Once that account is setup with TechData, then in our application, you will use that user name and password to setup the integration.
Go to the Integration section under your profile:
Select the TechData Integration:
The setup page is where you can choose some options.
The user name and password is your XML user name and password, not your TechData reseller portal user name and password.
For the item numbers, we highly recommend using TechData's Matnr (Material Number) because we have seen duplicate item numbers using the manufacturing part number. Also, not all items have a GTIN listed in their catalog. The Matnr can be obtained through their Part Smart Catalog.
Here is a partial screenshot of the catalog and Matnr:
This is the field in Shopify that should have the Matnr to match to TechData
This is where you can download the Part Smart Catalog after logging into your TechData portal.
In our wizard, we have this choice for price listing on your Shopify store:
- Customer's base price = keeps the price in Shopify
- Manufacturer's suggested retail price = this is TechData's MSRP
- Custom Margin = This is the Reseller's cost plus the percent margin. Example: if Reseller's cost is $10, then the price listed in Shopify would be $14 ($10 + 10*.4).
Once all the options are selected, click Next and then Finish.
How to update shipping information on the Shopify order
Our application will update the Shopify order with the shipping information from TechData automatically once the order has shipped as long as the order is not marked as "fulfilled". Some webshops have their order set to automatically mark as fulfilled once payment is received. This will need to be changed in order to update the order with TechData's shipping information.
In Shopify, go to Settings and then select Checkout
Scroll down to Order Processing and make sure the second or third option is selected so our application can mark the order as fulfilled and add the shipping information.
Transform TechData's product catalog into Shopify to manually import into your product list
We have a transformation available to take TechData's Smart Part catalog and put it into the format that Shopify requires to import into your product listing.
First, you will need to download the Smart Part Catalog from TechData's portal. You can find the Smart Part Catalog by going here. It will be a zip file that contains 4 files. Email that zip file to contact@lmints.io and ask to have it transformed to the shopify format. I would highly recommend opening the Material.txt in the zip file and filtering it down to the products you want to sell. TechData includes a very large number of products on the catalog and you might not want to include all the products in your store. For example, one customer's catalog had over 600,000 products before filtering down the products. If you import the text file into excel, filter it and then save it. We can take that filtered excel document and create the shopify product import file. We use the other 3 files in that zip file to look up the price and the available quantity which is why we need the zip file.
After you receive the shopify product import file, you will need to log into your store and go to your product page. From there, select Import on the right side.
Then browse to that Shopify product file. I would recommend selecting overwrite as it will update any products that have the same SKU with the information from TechData's product catalog.
Click Upload and continue and it will start the product import. Please note that if you have a high number of products, the import could take several hours. The main email on the Shopify account will receive a confirmation email when the product import is complete.
Sync Inventory from TechData to Shopify
We have a process that will utilize the availability file that TechData produces each day to automatically update the quantities available in your store. The Smart Part Catalog zip file is produced every day by TechData. In that zip file, there is a file that has part availability. We will automatically download the zip file on your behalf when you select the option at the bottom of the setup wizard in our portal.
We compare the available quantity in Shopify to what TechData has listed in their availability file. If the quantities are different, our application will automatically update the available quantities in Shopify to match what is available in TechData.
