Connecting a Shopify store to QCS, and what to set first
Once a Shopify store is linked, orders arrive as parcels priced by the same engine as a portal booking. Here is what the connection needs, the three things to set first, and what it deliberately does not do.
Connecting a Shopify store to QCS removes the step where you export orders and retype them. Once it is linked, orders come across as parcels, pricing comes from the same engine that prices a portal booking, and a repeat upload of the same order is refused by a database constraint rather than by somebody noticing.
This is what the connection does, what it needs from you, and the three things worth setting before you push the first order.
What you need before you start
- An onboarded QCS merchant account. Signing up on the website creates a lead rather than an account, and credentials arrive after our team has onboarded you
- Your integrations area switched on. It is a per-merchant setting, and the Shopify platform has its own switch inside it
- Admin access to the Shopify store you are linking
If any of the three is missing the install will stop rather than half-complete, which is deliberate.
The connection itself
- 01Open the integrations section of your merchant portal
- 02Start the Shopify install and name the store you are connecting
- 03Authorise the app in your Shopify admin
- 04You land back in the connector workspace with the store linked
The workspace is the screen you will use day to day. It is the same booking surface whether it is opened inside the Shopify admin or inside the WooCommerce plugin, which means one set of behaviour to learn rather than two.
Three things to set before the first push
Your weight defaults
Shopify holds a weight per product variant and many stores leave it at zero. A parcel needs a weight, so fill them in, or set a default that is realistic for your range and correct it at the warehouse re-weigh.
Dimensions matter as much as weight and Shopify does not hold them natively. If the scale weight is 5 kg or less and dimensions are supplied, the charge is worked on the larger of the scale weight and length by width by height divided by 5000, so a bulky item priced on weight alone will cost more than the quote suggested. Chargeable weight versus actual weight covers it, and the pricing calculator will price a specific box.
Your address fields
Shopify's checkout is more constrained than WooCommerce's, so getting a block or phase and a landmark into it takes thought. Whatever route you take, get them in: a Lahore address without them is the most common cause of a hold. Writing a Lahore delivery address a rider can find sets out what a findable one contains.
Which orders should come across
Decide whether every paid order pushes automatically or whether you select them. Automatic is right once your weights and addresses are reliable. Before that, selecting is safer, because a bad order pushed is a parcel to unpick rather than a row to fix.
What the connection does not do
Worth being explicit, because an integration that is assumed to do more than it does creates work rather than removing it.
- It does not forward orders to the pickup request. A booked parcel is still not collectable until it is forwarded, by you or by your auto-pickup time
- It does not invent weights or dimensions. It sends what your store holds
- It does not change the tariff. Connected orders are priced exactly as portal orders are
After the first push
Check three things on the first batch, then stop checking.
- 01The quote on each parcel matches what you expected for that weight and zone
- 02The consignee details came across complete, especially the phone number
- 03The orders appear in your booked list and you can forward them
If the quotes are higher than expected, it is almost always missing dimensions on a bulky item rather than a pricing problem.
If you are on WooCommerce instead
The same workspace, reached through a plugin you download and install rather than an embedded app. One more step and one more thing to keep updated, and otherwise identical. Shopify or WooCommerce for a COD seller compares the two platforms properly.
If your orders live somewhere else
The REST API is the third path, with API keys, a reference, webhook subscriptions and request logs in the integration portal. It is the right answer when your orders live in your own system rather than in a storefront, and it is priced by the same engine as everything else.
If you have not onboarded yet, the merchant signup form is the entry point and the first fifty orders checklist covers the operation around the integration.
Booking in Lahore starts at PKR 180 for the first 0.5 kg. Work out your own figure before you commit.