The majority of integration solutions on the market today connect the unique ID in 1 system to the unique ID in the other. The unique ID is an identifier that cannot be changed or duplicated.
With Lightspeed the unique ID is the SYSTEM ID. This number is generated automatically by Lightspeed and it can never be changed or duplicated.
With Shopify the unique ID is the INTERNAL ID. The Internal ID can only be seen by logging into the Shopify admin, clicking on a product and looking at the URL in your browser. It is the long string of numbers you see at the end of the URL. Shopify assigns each product its own unique ID.
When you start activating your Shopify integration with Hyperspace, the first thing to plan out is how you are going to connect your products together.
New Lightspeed users
If you have an existing Shopify account and your Lightspeed is empty and has no products, you can easily use Shopify Reverse Sync. This is a free solution that will automatically copy all of the product data and images from your Shopify site and create new products in Lightspeed. All products that exist in Shopify will be automatically created in your new Lightspeed account. This process automatically connects the SYSTEM ID in Lightspeed to the INTERNAL ID in Shopify.
New Shopify Users
If you are opening a new Shopify site and your Shopify site is empty and has no products this is also very easy to setup. Simply create all of the products in Lightspeed first. Here is a great video that details how to create your products in Lightspeed. Lightspeed and Hyperspace also have data import tools so you can create products in Lightspeed from an excel sheet import in bulk.
Here is an excellent article on Lightspeed's website about importing products in bulk.
All of the products in Lightspeed that you want to sync to Shopify will create new products in Shopify. This process automatically connects the SYSTEM ID in Lightspeed to the INTERNAL ID in Shopify.
Users that have Lightspeed and Shopify with products in both
This discussion involves two parts; Simple products and Variant products
Simple Products:
If you have numerous simple products in Lightspeed and want to connect those to your simple products in Shopify, Hyperspace offers connector tools.
The first thing you will want to do is make sure that one of the following are true:
A. All simple products in Lightspeed have a CUSTOM SKU that matches the SKU In Shopify. Be sure that you do not have duplicates in either system. Every product in Lightspeed should have its own unique CUSTOM SKU and every product in Shopify should have its own unique SKU that matches.
B. All simple products in Lightspeed have a SYSTEM ID that matches the SKU in Shopify. Be sure that you do not have duplicates in either system. Every product in Lightspeed should have its own unique SYSTEM ID and every product in Shopify should have its own unique SKU that matches.
Hyperspace offers connector tools that can automatically link the products in Lightspeed to the products in Shopify. The connector tools automatically connect the SYSTEM ID in Lightspeed to the INTERNAL ID in Shopify. Please contact your Hyperspace Project Manager to learn more about connecting products together by Custom SKU or System ID.
Variants Products:
Variant are products in Shopify or Item-Matrix products in Lightspeed cannot be connected. A variant product is a product that has numerous attributes. For example, a dress that comes in many different sizes is a variant product. Here is an example;
Hyperspace cannot connect pre-existing Item-Matrix products in Lightspeed to pre-existing variant products in Shopify. A variant product contains attributes, attribute sets and this all needs to be perfectly aligned with your product in Shopify. The only option is to delete the variant products from Shopify and re-sync them from Lightspeed to create a new variant product in Shopify. This action will create a new product in Shopify with all of the drop-down options that look like the example below.
