Overview
Modern Retail's integration with Counterpoint allows your Shopify, Bigcommerce, WooCommerce or Magento website to synchronize data with Counterpoint. This article gives you an overview of how this integration works, as well as the interaction between Counterpoint and your e-commerce website.
Process Flow
The following is how data flows back and forth between Counterpoint and your website that's been built using Shopify, Bigcommerce, WooCommerce or Magento, which we will call your "e-commerce platform."
- Modern Retail's Counterpoint Integrator gets installed on your host computer. This Integrator connects Counterpoint to Modern Retail's integration services.
- In Counterpoint, you can decide which products you'd like to sell online.
- Counterpoint sends all products that have been marked to sell online to Modern Retail using the Integrator that was installed on your computer. Counterpoint also sends inventory and pricing updates whenever they occur through this same Integrator.
- You merchandise your products in the e-commerce platform by modifying the product name, updating the description, uploading images, etc. When you are satisfied with a product, you make it visible on the website to be sold online.
- Order information is sent from the e-commerce platform back to Counterpoint when you ship or capture your online orders in the e-commerce platform or using a 3rd party solution like ShipStation. Normally orders are authorized when placed and captured when shipped. This is required Credit Card company PCI policy, that you do not capture funds until you have shipped the items. Once the order is captured it is sent to Counterpoint.
- Modern Retail's Integrator sends the order and customer information to Counterpoint where they are added to Counterpoint. Sending the orders to Counterpoint also decrements the inventory, which automatically triggers a product update as explained in #2 above. Similarly, online returns are also sent to Counterpoint so your inventory can be adjusted.
- Showing all in-store and online orders in Counterpoint gives you a complete view of your customers' buying habits.
- The Counterpoint Integrator runs quietly in the background passing data back and forth 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- How frequently this integration runs is up to you, but most retailers find that a 30 or 60 minute interval works well. Shorter intervals are possible depending on your selected e-commerce platform.
If you have any questions on how this Counterpoint integration works, please send us a Support Request and we'd be happy to help.