E-commerce Systems Integration
Connected disparate e-commerce systems—Shopify, warehouse management, and accounting—into a unified data flow that eliminated manual reconciliation.
Client
Willow & Sage Homeware
Role
Systems Integrator
Duration
6 weeks
Tools
Shopify, Make (Integromat), Airtable, QuickBooks
Overview
Willow & Sage had grown quickly online but their systems hadn't grown with them. Orders came through Shopify, inventory was tracked in a separate system, and accounting was done manually in QuickBooks. The owner was spending hours each day on reconciliation that should have been automatic.
Constraints
Time
Six weeks to implement before peak Christmas trading
Budget
Small business budget with existing tool subscriptions to work within
Team
Owner-operator with one part-time assistant
Platform
Shopify non-negotiable, QuickBooks required for accountant compatibility
Approach
Mapped every data flow between systems—where orders originated, how inventory was tracked, what needed to go to accounting, and where the manual work was.
Built Make (Integromat) scenarios to sync orders from Shopify to Airtable (for operational tracking) and QuickBooks (for accounting) automatically.
Created inventory sync workflows that updated stock levels across Shopify and the warehouse system in real-time.
Added automated alerts for low stock, unusual order patterns, and sync failures.
Outcome
- Daily reconciliation time reduced from 3 hours to 15 minutes
- Order processing errors eliminated
- Inventory accuracy improved from 85% to 99%
- Owner freed to focus on product sourcing and marketing
The integration gave the owner their evenings back. Systems that talk to each other automatically mean fewer mistakes and less time spent on admin.
Reflection
What worked
- Starting with a complete map of existing flows prevented us from missing edge cases
- Make's visual interface meant the owner could understand and modify scenarios themselves
- Building in failure alerts caught issues before they became problems
What didn't
- Some Shopify webhooks were less reliable than expected, requiring retry logic
- Initial inventory sync had timing issues that caused brief discrepancies
What I would do differently
Would test the integration under load before Christmas rather than assuming it would scale. We had to make adjustments during the busy period.