5 reasons to choose the Tinx Shopify Connector over the free native Microsoft Shopify connector
Choosing the right tools and integrations for your e-commerce platform can make the difference between success and failure. In a digital world where competition is fierce and customer expectations are high, it’s crucial to have a powerful, flexible, and efficient e-commerce infrastructure.
The standard Microsoft Shopify integration provides a basic level of functionality, but for businesses looking to optimize and expand their e-commerce operations, the Tinx Shopify Connector for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a game changer. In this article, we delve deeper into five reasons why the Tinx Shopify Connector is a better choice for your business.
1. Managing Product Information
A key aspect of e-commerce is presenting accurate and appealing product information. The Tinx Shopify Connector aids this with its comprehensive Product Information Management (PIM) tool. This tool allows businesses to effortlessly manage and optimize extensive product details, such as marketing texts, cross-sell and up-sell suggestions, and related links. Additionally, it’s easy to add images to your catalog, making your product offering visually more appealing and enhancing customer engagement and conversion.
The native Shopify connector does not include a comprehensive PIM tool, which means you must maintain data in two places. Another drawback of the native Shopify connector is that when attributes and category data are sent to Shopify, it only appears in the product description. With the Tinx connector, this is not the case, and it is neatly and well organized.
2. User-Friendliness and Flexibility
Another important point for e-commerce operations is the need for a flexible and intelligent user interface that makes it easy to synchronize and manage data between systems. The native Shopify connector is a standard solution that offers little flexibility. The data synchronization between Business Central and Shopify is one-way, and there is not much that can be customized. If you miss a certain functionality in the integration project, it is not possible to develop it.
The Tinx Shopify Connector offers a flexible user interface where the mapping between Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Shopify is defined. This can easily be adjusted with custom fields or other fields. This makes it easy to manage all essential integration points such as products, inventory, customers, and orders, thereby working more efficiently and reducing the risk of errors.
3. Advanced Order Processing and Fulfillment
A common pain point with the standard Shopify integration is the inability to efficiently manage orders, especially when it comes to routing orders to multiple Business Central entities. The Tinx Shopify Connector overcomes this limitation by offering advanced order processing and fulfillment capabilities. This ensures streamlined and automatic handling of orders, which not only improves your efficiency but also increases customer satisfaction through faster delivery times.
4. Complete Integration of Financial Data
Managing financial transactions and associated costs is crucial for any business. The Tinx Shopify Connector provides a solution for one of the biggest gaps of the native Shopify integration: transferring the selected payment methods and booking the correct shipping costs in Business Central. This complete financial integration ensures that businesses have a complete and accurate view of their finances, enabling better financial planning and decision-making.
5. Comprehensive Monitoring and Error Tracking
Effective e-commerce management requires transparency and the ability to quickly respond to problems. The Tinx Shopify Connector solves this issue with its extensive monitoring and logging capabilities. This system ensures that businesses have full visibility over their data exchanges and can quickly respond to any errors or discrepancies. This reduces downtime and ensures a smoother, more reliable e-commerce experience for both the business and its customers.
Conclusion
The Tinx Shopify Connector offers businesses a powerful, flexible, and user-friendly solution that goes beyond the capabilities of the standard Shopify integration offered by Microsoft. By providing advanced product management tools, improved order processing, complete financial integration, and comprehensive monitoring and error tracking, the Tinx Shopify Connector enables businesses to elevate their e-commerce business to a higher level. For businesses aiming for optimization, efficiency, and growth in their e-commerce activities, the Tinx Shopify Connector provides the tools and functionalities needed to succeed in the competitive online marketplace.
Check out our Shopify solution here.
Below is a table where you can easily see the differences between the Tinx connector and the Microsoft Connector, with additional notes.
| Features | Tinx Shopify Connector | Microsoft Business Central Shopify Connector | Notes about Microsoft’s solution |
| ERP product to webshop | |||
| Basic product (ERP data to webshop) | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Product inventory update | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Product category/collection | ✔ | ✘ | BC attributes and category data are only put in the description of the product when sent to Shopify |
| Product attribute/tags | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Product short/long description | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Product image | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Configurable product | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Custom price field mapping | ✔ | ✘ | Can only be used with standard BC price list or item unit price |
| Custom stock field mapping/formula | ✔ | ✘ | Can only be used with standard BC inventory field combined with location filtering |
| Bulk synchronisation items (ERP to webshop) | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Bulk synchronisation items (webshop to ERP) | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Multiple stores managed from one ERP company | |||
| Product name translation | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Short/long description translation | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Attribute translation | ✔ | ✘ | Only uses the default attribute language translations from BC item page |
| Category translation | ✔ | ✘ | Only uses the default category language translations from BC item page |
| Price per store | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Currency per store | ✔ | ✔ | |
| ERP product select per store | ✔ | ✔ | |
| ERP customer select per store | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Webshop order synchronisation, filter on store | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Multiple ERP databases or companies | |||
| Connect multiple ERP databases to one webshop | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Connect multiple ERP databases to multiple webshops | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Connect multiple ERP companies to one webshop | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Connect multiple ERP companies to multiple webshops | ✔ | ✔ | |
| ERP customer to webshop | |||
| Bulk synchronisation customers | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Customer (creation) | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Customer (update) | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Customer addresses | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Customer attributes (meta fields) | ✔ | ✘ | No meta fields support |
| ERP contact as webshop customer | ✔ | ✘ | Only supports the customer entity, no support for contact entity |
| Webshop customer to ERP | |||
| Bulk synchronisation customers | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Customer (creation) | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Customer (update) | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Customer addresses | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Customer attributes (meta fields) | ✔ | ✘ | No meta fields support |
| Webshop customer as ERP contact | ✔ | ✘ | Only supports the customer entity, no support for contact entity |
| Webshop order to ERP | |||
| Bulk synchronisation orders | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Order creation | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Quotation creation | ✔ | ✘ | No quotation support |
| Guest order creation | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Automate order posting | ✔ | ✘ | Not able to automatically process/post BC sales orders |
| ERP order updates to webshop | |||
| Update order status | ✔ | ✘ | Not able to send specific order updates. Can only finish an order |
| Complete/finish order | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Add single shipment to order | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Add multiple (partial) shipments to order | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Add tracking information to shipment | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Returns | |||
| Bulk synchronisation Returns | ✔ | ✘ | No support for returns |
| Return Order creation | ✔ | ✘ | No support for returns |
| Tailor made integration | |||
| Custom number series | ✔ | ✘ | Can only be used with predefined number series or Shopify number series |
| Custom fields | ✔ | ✘ | All field mappings are predefined |
| Custom tables | ✔ | ✘ | All table mappings are predefined |
| Custom filters | ✔ | ✘ | No support for filters |
| Custom dependencies | ✔ | ✘ | No support for dependencies |
| Custom stock calculation | ✔ | ✘ | No custom stock calculation possible |
| E-commerce optimized PIM management | ✔ | ✘ | Can only be used with BC product information which is not optimized for e-commerce |
| Multiple product images | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Support for ERP Add-ons | |||
| Pebblestone | ✔ | ✘ | Only supports default BC |
| LS Retail | ✔ | ✘ | Only supports default BC |
| It Suits Fashion | ✔ | ✘ | Only supports default BC |
| DX Steel | ✔ | ✘ | Only supports default BC |
| Aptean beverage | ✔ | ✘ | Only supports default BC |
| Aptean Food | ✔ | ✘ | Only supports default BC |
| Support for ERP versions | |||
| Dynamics NAV 2016 | ✔ | ✘ | Only supports BC cloud (SaaS) |
| Dynamics NAV 2017 | ✔ | ✘ | Only supports BC cloud (SaaS) |
| Dynamics NAV 2018 | ✔ | ✘ | Only supports BC cloud (SaaS) |
| Dynamics Business Central On Premise | ✔ | ✘ | Only supports BC cloud (SaaS) |
| Dynamics Business Central Cloud | ✔ | ✔ |
