Shopify connector

The Shopify connector reads your store's orders, refunds and customers and adds them to each customer profile. Sales also show in the attribution report, and live sales can go to Meta.

It is on paid plans: Solo, Studio, Agency and Custom. Free does not include it.

Connect with Shopify (when shipped). A one-click login: type your shop address, click Connect with Shopify, approve Datacenter in the new tab, and you are done, with no app to make. Until it is switched on, use the steps below.

Datacenter only reads. The app you make has read access only, so it cannot change your store.

Make a custom app#

Shopify connects through a custom app that you make for your own store. These steps follow Shopify's help pages as of October 2026. Shopify changes its screens often, so a button may have a slightly different name.

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Settings, then Apps. Click Develop apps, then Build apps in Dev Dashboard. 2. In the Dev Dashboard, click Create app and name it Datacenter. 3. Make a version of the app. Keep the app address Shopify suggests. Under access scopes, add: - read_orders - read_customers - read_all_orders, to import the full 90 days. Without it, Shopify shows apps only the last 60 days of orders. 4. Release the version. 5. Install the app on your store. 6. In the app's settings, find the Client ID and Client secret.

You need to be the store owner, or have the App development permission. Shopify's guide: custom apps.

This works when the app and the store belong to the same Shopify organization, which is the case when you make the app from your own store's admin. An agency connecting a client's store should make the app from that store.

Connect#

1. In Datacenter, open your site, then Settings, then Integrations. Next to Shopify, click Connect.
2. Type your shop address, such as my-shop.myshopify.com. Find it under Settings, then Domains.
3. Paste the Client ID and Client secret, and click Connect Shopify.

Datacenter gets an access token from Shopify with the client ID and secret. It checks the app has read_orders and read_customers, and says which one is missing if not. Shopify's tokens last 24 hours, so Datacenter gets a new one when it runs out.

The client secret is stored encrypted. It is never shown again, and it never appears in logs.

An app made in the Shopify admin before 2026

Older custom apps show an Admin API access token (it starts with shpat_) and an API secret key. Leave Client ID empty, paste the API secret key in Client secret, and paste the token under Made your app in the Shopify admin before 2026?

What happens next#

• The first import reads orders from the last 90 days. A busy store can take a few hours, since each run reads a small batch. Integrations shows Importing and a count.
• Webhooks. Datacenter adds five webhooks to the app for you: orders/paid, orders/updated, refunds/create, customers/create and app/uninstalled. They go to https://datacenter.so/hooks/shopify/.... New orders then show up in seconds. The connector's page says whether they were added.
• Every 15 minutes, Datacenter also reads orders that changed since its last check, in case a webhook was missed.
• Sync now starts a check at once.

Each webhook is checked with the X-Shopify-Hmac-Sha256 header and your client secret, and must come from your shop. Anything else is refused. Datacenter then reads the order again from Shopify, so it never trusts the webhook body alone.

What shows up on a customer#

Orders that are not paid yet, such as cash on delivery, show up once they are paid.

Orders and revenue add up into the customer's lifetime value. Revenue adds up in the customer's first currency.

Who the customer is#

Datacenter finds the customer by:

• the Shopify customer id,
• the email and phone on the order (hashed with SHA-256, the way Meta asks),
• the visitor's first-party id in the cart attribute _dc_id.

Where the sale came from#

Shopify keeps the first and last visit before an order, with their landing pages and UTM tags. Datacenter reads them, along with click ids such as fbclid and gclid on the landing page. They move the customer's first and last touch, and the order shows its utm_source and utm_campaign.

For a full journey across visits, pass the first-party id to the order. Your site needs 90-day tracking and the 90-day tag on your theme. Then add this before </body> in your theme's theme.liquid (Online Store, Themes, Edit code):

<script>
  (function () {
    var m = document.cookie.match(/(?:^|; )_dc_id=([a-f0-9]{32})/);
    if (!m) return;
    fetch('/cart/update.js', {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
      body: JSON.stringify({ attributes: { _dc_id: m[1] } })
    });
  })();
</script>

It saves the id on the cart, and Shopify copies cart attributes to the order. The underscore keeps it out of sight at checkout. With Wait for consent on, the cookie only exists after the visitor agreed, so nothing is passed before that.

UTM tags saved as cart attributes named utm_source, utm_campaign, utm_content and utm_term are read too, when Shopify has no journey for the order.

Goals and Meta#

Synced orders count as the Purchase event. They reach any goal on the event Purchase.

When that goal is set to send to Meta (see Meta Conversions API), a new order goes to Meta once:

• Only live orders: ones placed in the last 24 hours. The 90-day import never sends old orders.
• The hashed email and phone go along, and the buyer's IP address and browser when Shopify kept them.

Meta has no documented way to change a sale once it is sent, so a refund is not sent to Meta. Google Ads and Microsoft Ads do take refunds: see Refunds.

The event_id rule

The connector uses shopify- and the order id as the event_id, such as shopify-5523018432. That is the same id the Events API Shopify example uses.

If you also send orders from the browser or the Events API, use that event_id, or send the order number as order_id. Then:

• Datacenter counts the order once on the customer.
• An order already sent to Meta from the browser or the Events API is not sent again by the connector, and the other way round.

The order id, the order name (#1042) and the order number (1042) all match the same order.

The attribution report#

Synced orders appear in the attribution report on their real date, under All goals and under a goal on Purchase. An order that your site also sent as an event, with the same event_id or order_id, is counted once.

Synced orders do not change your visitor stats and do not count toward your plan's events.

If something goes wrong#

Integrations shows Needs attention with the reason:

• Shopify did not accept the client ID and secret. Check them, and that the app is installed on this store. Paste them again under Paste new app details.
• The app is missing read_orders. Add the scope in a new version of the app, release it, then paste the details again.
• Shopify is busy right now. Nothing to do. Datacenter tries again every 15 minutes. This shows only after 6 hours with nothing read; a shorter outage is in the sync log alone.
• Paused. Connectors are on paid plans. The plan changed to Free. Sync starts again after an upgrade.

The connector's page lists the last 50 runs and webhooks. Keys and personal data are never shown there.

Disconnect#

Click Disconnect on the connector's page. Datacenter removes the webhooks it added, then deletes the client secret and token at once. Orders already imported stay on your customers. To remove one person's data, use Delete this customer on their profile. You can also uninstall the app in Shopify.

If you uninstall a custom app you made, the connector shows Needs attention. Your data stays. Make the app again and paste its details.

Privacy requests from Shopify#

These apply when you connect with Connect with Shopify (when shipped), which uses Datacenter's own Shopify app.

• A customer asks for their data. Shopify tells Datacenter. Datacenter emails you what it holds about that customer for each site linked to the store: contact details it keeps, what they are known by, totals, and their orders and visits. Send it to the customer with what your store holds.
• A customer asks to be deleted. Datacenter deletes their profile, its ids and the orders Shopify names, on each linked site. Their ids are never linked again on that site.
• You uninstall the app. Syncing stops at once and the login is deleted. 48 hours later, Datacenter deletes the store's orders, the profiles that only came from Shopify, and the connection. Profiles your site knows in other ways stay, with the Shopify sales taken off. Install the app again within 48 hours to keep the data.

The connector's log lists each request. It never shows the customer's details.