How to Integrate Shopify with Front (Order Data in the Sidebar)

What the Front–Shopify integration actually does

Before you install anything, it helps to know what you're getting. Per Front's Shopify integration page, the connector lets your team "access customer information, order details, and more — right from your Front inbox." In practice, the sidebar surfaces four kinds of Shopify data tied to the person you're talking to: customer information, order details, refund information, and customer addresses.

Front matches that data to the conversation automatically. Per Front's guide to enabling the Shopify integration, the match happens on the contact's email or phone number — so when a customer emails support, Front looks them up in Shopify and pulls their record without anyone typing an order number. That's the whole point for a shared-inbox team: the context arrives with the conversation, not after a hunt.

One thing to set expectations on up front: this is a one-way, read sync. Shopify is the source of truth, and Front reads from it. You're viewing Shopify data inside Front, not editing your store from the inbox. We'll come back to what that means in practice.

Before you start: what you'll need

The setup is a two-part handshake between Shopify and Front, so gather these first:

• Admin access to your Shopify store — you'll be creating a custom app in the Shopify admin.
• Admin access in Front — the integration is enabled under Company settings, so you need the right permission level.
• Your store subdomain — the part of your admin URL before .myshopify.com (just the subdomain, without https:// or the .myshopify.com suffix).

Availability is not a blocker here. Per Front's help center, the Shopify integration "is available on all plans" — Starter, Professional, and Enterprise — which is unusually generous for a native ecommerce connector.

Step 1 — Create a custom app in Shopify

Front connects through a Shopify custom app that you create and authorize. In the Shopify admin:

1. Go to Settings → Apps and sales channels → Develop apps (in some accounts this is Develop apps under admin settings).
2. Click Create an app, give it a clear name like Front Integration so it's easy to find later, and create it.
3. Open the Configuration tab and add the API scopes Front requires. Per Front's documentation, the integration needs read/write access across customers, orders, fulfillments, and draft orders — the full scope set is: read_customers, read_orders, write_orders, write_draft_orders, read_fulfillments, write_fulfillments, read_assigned_fulfillment_orders, write_assigned_fulfillment_orders, read_merchant_managed_fulfillment_orders, write_merchant_managed_fulfillment_orders, read_third_party_fulfillment_orders, and write_third_party_fulfillment_orders.
4. Install the app on your store.
5. From the app's Configuration (API credentials) tab, copy the Client ID and Client Secret — you'll paste both into Front in the next step.

Keep that credentials tab open. Those two values plus your subdomain are all Front needs.

Step 2 — Enable and configure Shopify in Front

Now cross over to Front. Per Front's enablement guide, the integration lives in the App Store:

1. Go to Settings → Company settings → App store.
2. Find Shopify and click Enable app. This is the Overview/connect page — the same one shown below.
3. Click Configure app and fill in the three fields:

• Store subdomain — the part before .myshopify.com.
• Client ID — from the Shopify custom app.
• Client Secret — from the Shopify custom app.

1. Click Save.

The screen above is Front's App Store connect page for Shopify, not a populated live sync — the Overview tab, the sidebar preview, and the Enable button. The actual store data only starts flowing once you complete the Shopify-side custom app and paste those credentials in; the deeper field mapping and record matching all happen against your Shopify account after you enable, not on this page.

Managing more than one storefront? Front supports it — use Add new store to connect as many Shopify stores as you need, which is common for brands running regional or wholesale stores side by side.

Step 3 — See order data in the sidebar

With the connection saved, the payoff shows up inside conversations. Per Front's help center, you "select Shopify from the app switcher in your inbox" and Front displays the customer and order information tied to the current message. For a support agent handling a WISMO ("where is my order") email, that means the customer's recent orders, fulfillment status, refunds, and shipping address are one click away — no tab-switching, no asking the customer for an order number they don't have handy.

This is where the shared-inbox model pays off. Because the Shopify context renders in the sidebar of the conversation itself, anyone on the team who picks up the thread sees the same order data — support, sales, or ops. If your inbox routing and channels are still a work in progress, Front channels explained covers how conversations land in the right place first, which is what makes the sidebar context land on the right agent.

What syncs, and in which direction

Here's the honest shape of the integration in one table, so there are no surprises after you install:

The load-bearing row is direction. You are reading Shopify inside Front; you are not running your store from the inbox. That's the right default for support context — but it shapes what the integration can and can't do on its own.

The honest limits — and where an AI layer picks up

Front's native Shopify integration does one job well: it puts the customer's Shopify record beside their conversation. For an ecommerce team, that alone removes a lot of tab-switching. But it's worth being clear about where it stops.

It's a viewer, not an agent. The sidebar surfaces the order; a human still reads the question, decides what the customer is actually asking, and types the reply. On a busy Black Friday queue, "the agent can see the order faster" is a real gain but not the same as "the order status question got answered without an agent."

Matching depends on clean contact data. Because Front ties the Shopify record to the conversation by email or phone, a customer who emails from a different address than the one on their order can show as "No record in Shopify." Per Front's troubleshooting notes, that "No record" state usually means either the credentials are off or the email/phone don't line up — a common gap for guest checkouts and shared household emails.

It's read-only. Refunds, order edits, and fulfillment actions still happen in Shopify. The write scopes exist for the connection's plumbing, but the day-to-day agent experience is look-don't-touch from inside Front.

Deep links help, but the customer still asks. Even with order data one click away and a jump into the Shopify admin available, the WISMO question itself — "where's my order?" — still lands as a fresh conversation every time, and someone has to answer it.

That last seam is exactly where an AI agent layer fits — not replacing Front or its Shopify integration, but doing the reasoning and the reply the native connector structurally can't. The broader category of AI agents for customer service exists for this work. Macha is one such layer: it runs on top of the Front you already use through the live Macha–Front connector — it does not replace Front, your shared inboxes, or your Shopify integration. You keep Front's sidebar showing the order at a glance. Then Macha's agent reads the incoming WISMO email, understands that the customer wants a tracking status, and pulls the live fulfillment state through a custom tool that turns your Shopify (or 3PL) API into something the agent can call — then drafts or sends the tracking update itself. A native integration shows the order; the agent answers about it. If you want the mechanics, connecting Front to Macha to route conversations to AI walks through it, and Macha's credits are consumed per AI action, never per resolution. For how Shopify fits alongside your other connectors, the best Front integrations rounds up the ecosystem, and Front shared inbox explained covers the collaborative model the whole thing rides on.

FAQ

How do I connect Shopify to Front? Create a custom app in your Shopify admin (Develop apps → create an app → add the required scopes → install → copy Client ID and Secret). Then in Front go to Settings → Company settings → App store → Shopify → Enable app → Configure app, and enter your store subdomain, Client ID, and Client Secret, then Save.

What Shopify data shows up in Front? Customer information, order details, refund information, and customer addresses — matched to the conversation by the contact's email or phone number and shown by selecting Shopify from the app switcher in your inbox.

Is the Front Shopify sync two-way? No. It's a one-way, read sync: Shopify is the source of truth and Front reads from it. You view Shopify data inside Front rather than editing your store from the inbox.

Which Front plan do I need for the Shopify integration? All of them. Per Front's help center, the Shopify integration is available on Starter, Professional, and Enterprise.

Why does Front show "No record in Shopify" for a customer? Usually because the Shopify credentials were entered incorrectly, or the customer's email/phone in Front doesn't match the email/phone on their Shopify record — common with guest checkouts and alternate addresses.

Can I answer WISMO questions automatically with Front and Shopify? Not with the native integration alone — it surfaces the order for an agent to read. An AI agent layer like Macha connects on top of Front, reads the WISMO email, pulls live fulfillment status through a custom tool, and drafts or sends the tracking reply itself.

Ready to turn "the agent can see the order" into "the order question answered itself"? Start a free trial of Macha and connect it to your Front in minutes.