Shopify Webhooks – what is it and what is it for?

What will you learn from the article?

• What are Shopify Webhooks and how do they work in the context of an online store?
• What types of events can be monitored with Shopify Webhooks?
• What are the basic steps to setting up Webhooks on Shopify?
• What are the benefits of using Shopify Webhooks in your online store?
• What are the differences between Webhooks and the traditional API in Shopify?
• What practical examples of using Shopify Webhooks can improve your store's performance?

Shopify Webhook – what is it?

Shopify Webhooks are a kind of approach, a mechanism that allows you to notify an external application about events occurring in your online store. When an event, such as a new order, is triggered in your Shopify store, the webhook sends an automatic notification to a defined URL. This allows you to automatically respond to various store events, for example, by updating inventory, sending email notifications, or generating reports.

Types of Shopify Webhooks

Shopify offers many different types of Shopify webhooks that allow you to monitor various events on your Shopify store. Here are some of the most common Shopify webhooks:

1. Orders :
   • orders/create – Sent when a new order is created.
   • orders/paid – Shipped after the order has been paid.
   • orders/updated – Sent after order information is updated.
2. Products :
   • products/create – Sent when a new product is created.
   • products/update – Sent after a product update.
3. Customers :
   • customers/create – Sent when a new customer is created.
   • customers/update – Sent after customer data is updated.
4. Carts :
   • carts/create – Sent when a new cart is created.
   • carts/update – Sent after a cart update.
5. Payments :
   • checkouts/create – Sent when a new payment process is created.
   • checkouts/update – Sent after the payment process is updated.
6. Inventory :
   • inventory_levels/update – Sent after a product's inventory is updated.

How do Shopify Webhooks work?

How Shopify webhooks work can be discussed in four steps:

1. Registering a webhook : First, you need to register a webhook in your Shopify admin, specifying the type of event you want to respond to and the URL where you want the notification to be sent.
2. Event triggering : When the event the webhook is listening for occurs on your store (for example, a new order), Shopify sends an HTTP POST request to the registered URL with information about the event.
3. Processing the event : The server on the URL will receive the webhook request and process the received data. You can implement business logic that responds to the event, such as updating inventory, sending an order confirmation email, generating reports, and so on.
4. Response : After processing the event data, your server can return an HTTP response to Shopify acknowledging receipt of the event. Shopify repeats sending the webhook if it doesn't receive a response or receives an error.

Advanced Shopify Webhook Features

In addition to basic functionality, Shopify also provides advanced Shopify webhook features that allow for more flexible and complex integrations, including Shopify webhook automation, filtering, retry on failure, webhook limit, and retry protection.

Practical examples of using Shopify Webhooks

There's a lot of theoretical information about Shopify webhooks, but these practical examples of using Shopify webhooks show how to use them in the 'everyday life' of a Shopify store:

1. Stock update :
   • Using the inventory_levels/update webhook, you can automatically update inventory in an external system or other integrations, such as a warehouse management system.
2. Sending email notifications after placing an order :
   • Using the orders/create webhook, you can automatically send order confirmations to customers after they place an order.
3. Updating customer data in the CRM system :
   • Using the customers/update webhook, you can automatically update customer data in an external CRM system.
4. Updating products in an external system :
   • Using the products/create and products/update webhooks, you can automatically update product information in an external system, such as a product management system.
5. Generating sales reports :
   • You can use order-related webhooks such as orders/create, orders/paid, or orders/updated to automatically generate sales reports or to update data in your sales analysis system.

These examples demonstrate how Shopify Webhooks can be used to automate business processes in an online store and integrate with external applications or systems. The applications for Shopify Webhooks are broad.

Differences between Webhooks and traditional APIs

When it comes to the differences between Webhooks and traditional APIs, the first thing to remember is that they are two different methods of integration between systems.

The table below shows the main differences between webhooks and traditional APIs:

Depending on the project's needs, one or the other solution may be more appropriate and advantageous. Webhooks are particularly useful when you want to respond to events in real time and avoid unnecessary server polling. Traditional APIs are more suitable when you need to regularly retrieve or send data without waiting for events.

What are the benefits of Shopify Webhooks?

The benefits of Shopify Weebooks and their use can largely be attributed to increasing store efficiency and automating business processes. The main benefits include:

• Process automation : Webhooks allow you to automatically respond to various events in your online store, eliminating the need for manual monitoring
• Real-time response : Webhooks allow you to respond to events in real time.
• Integration of external applications : Webhooks enable the integration of external applications or systems, allowing data synchronization across different platforms
• Save time and resources : Automating processes with webhooks saves time and resources that can be used for other tasks
• Retry on error : Shopify automatically tries to retry sending a webhook in case of an error, ensuring the reliability and continuity of your integration

How to set up a webhook on Shopify?

To set up a Webhook on Shopify, you need to follow a few steps:

Step 1 -> Log in to your Shopify dashboard

Step 2 -> Settings

Step 3 -> Notifications

Step 4 -> Webhooks (at the bottom of the page)

Step 5 -> 'Create webhook'

Step 6 -> Webhook Configuration

Step 7 -> 'Save webhook'

Integrating Shopify with other tools using webhooks

Integrating Shopify with other tools using webhooks allows you to automatically transfer data between your Shopify store and external apps or systems. Here are the steps to set up an integration using webhooks:

Step 1 -> Register a webhook in your Shopify admin:

1. Log in to your Shopify admin panel.
2. Go to “Settings” -> “Notifications”.
3. Click the “Create webhook” button.
4. Enter the URL where you want to receive notifications.
5. Select the event you want to listen for from the list (e.g. orders/create, products/update, etc.).
6. Click the “Save webhook” button to complete the setup.

Step 2 -> Process the received data on the server:

1. Configure your server or application to receive webhook requests from Shopify to the specified URL.
2. Process the received data according to your needs. You can perform different actions depending on the event you're listening for.

Integration examples:

Integration with CRM system:

• Once a new order is created (orders/create), add the customer to the CRM database.
• Once the order status is updated (orders/updated or orders/paid), update the customer information in CRM.

Integration with a warehouse management system:

• When a new order is placed (orders/create), update the product inventory.
• Once the order status is updated (orders/updated or orders/paid), update the stock status in the system.

Integration with a data analysis system:

• When a new order is placed (orders/create), generate a sales report.
• Once the order status is updated (orders/updated or orders/paid), update the data in the sales report.

Without a doubt, Shopify Webhooks can help you optimize your online store, increase work efficiency, and improve customer experience.

Summary

1. Shopify Webhooks is a mechanism for sending notifications about events in your Shopify store (e.g., a new order) to external applications using HTTP POST requests.
2. Monitored events: Webhooks handle things like orders, products, customers, shopping carts, payments, and inventory.
3. Advantages of using: Process automation, real-time response, integration of external systems, saving time and resources.
4. Configuration: Webhooks are configured in the Shopify dashboard section Notifications , specifying the event type and recipient URL.
5. Examples of applications: Automatic inventory updates, sending email notifications, synchronizing with CRM, generating sales reports.
6. Differences with traditional API: Webhooks work reactively (event-driven), and the API requires active data querying.
7. Advanced features: Automatic retry on errors, event filtering, replay protection.