Connecting a Shopify Store to a Fulfilment Agent: Collaborator Access, the Start Order and What Goes Wrong

Three steps, no password

Connecting a Shopify store to us takes three steps, and none of them involves your password. Install our order-management app from your Shopify admin without creating a separate account; the install is the whole job. Then generate a collaborator code under your store's settings. Finally, share that code and your myshopify domain with us on WhatsApp. We request access against the code, a notification appears in your store, and you approve it. That is the connection.

Once approved, new orders sync to our desk as they are placed. After dispatch, the tracking number uploads back to the order in your store and Shopify sends your customer the shipping notification in the normal way. You still own the store, you still see every order, and we only access order data and fulfilment settings. The access can be removed from your own admin at any time.

If anyone, including us, ever asks for your store login instead, stop and ask why. The collaborator route exists precisely so that your password never has to leave you.

Collaborator, not staff

Shopify offers two ways to let an outside party in: a staff account or collaborator access. We ask for collaborator access. A staff account uses one of your plan's staff slots and needs an email address to set up. Collaborator access uses no staff slot and needs no email, because the request is raised from our side against the code you generated. Asked which is better, we say collaborator every time; a staff seat is the fallback for a store that cannot use the collaborator route, not the default.

Agree the start order before the first sync

The moment the connection is approved, we can see your order history. That is not the same as owning it. Before the first sync, agree a start order number with us: every order from that number onward is ours to fulfil, and every order before it stays with you. Write the number in the group so both sides can find it weeks later.

This matters most for sellers switching from another agent or from fulfilling by hand. Orders already in someone else's queue should not be bought a second time, and orders you never handed over should not be chased as if we had missed them. The same rule covers a relaunch: when a dormant store goes live again, reconfirm the start order rather than assuming the old one still applies.

A sync moves order data. It does not decide which orders are in scope, when an order may be released, or what counts as shipped. Those are rules you and the agent agree, which is what a store integration does and does not solve.

The five things that go wrong, and the fix for each

• The app install page appears to demand an account. It does not. The install from your Shopify admin is complete on its own; if a registration screen appears, sometimes in a language you do not read, close it and carry on.
• The access request never shows up in your store. Check that you sent the myshopify domain rather than your custom domain, then regenerate the collaborator code and send the new one. Tell us when you have approved and we confirm the store is live.
• Orders quietly stop syncing. A store transfer, an app reinstall or a lapsed authorisation can break the connection without any error on your screen; orders simply stop arriving at our desk. Re-authorise, then place a test order and confirm it appears. Check the connection after any change of ownership, reinstall or relaunch before you assume the warehouse has gone quiet.
• You cannot tell whether an order is with us. Look at the order's fulfilment status in Shopify and compare its number with the agreed start order. Unfulfilled and after the start order means it is in our queue; before the start order means it was never ours. An order waiting for payment confirmation is a separate state, and we should tell you so.
• You are not on Shopify and were sent the Shopify steps. Say so straight away. Etsy, eBay and TikTok Shop sellers work with us through a CSV or Excel order file, not a collaborator code, and we should have asked your platform first.

A connection is not readiness

A store showing as connected proves that data can move. It does not prove that the right SKU maps to the right product, that the address fields arrive complete, that a paid add-on line reaches our system, that the tracking number uploads in a format Shopify recognises, or that the customer email fires at the moment you intend. Each of those has failed somewhere while the connection itself looked fine.

So place one controlled test order before you launch and walk it all the way through: visible on our side, invoiced, paid, released, dispatched, tracking returned, notification sent. The platform preflight checklist lists every step. Tell us it is a test before we buy stock for it, then cancel it in Shopify.

If you are not on Shopify

WooCommerce connects directly too, with the same automatic order and tracking flow. For Etsy, eBay, TikTok Shop and other marketplaces the default is a controlled file workflow: you export orders as CSV or Excel, we process them once payment is confirmed, and tracking comes back to you to upload against the order. Automatic fulfilment on those platforms would need your account login, which we do not encourage sharing, so direct access is used only where a supported setup exists for that account and you are comfortable with it.

The file workflow needs owners: who exports, who imports, when the transfer happens and who uploads tracking. Fulfilling orders across Shopify, Etsy and TikTok Shop sets out the contract for each channel. Check the marketplace's own dropshipping policy too; some expect in-country stock.

What to tell your customer-service team

Your support team will ask us where an order is far less often if they know four things. The start order number, so they can tell at a glance which orders are ours. That the fulfilment status in Shopify is the source of truth, and a tracking number appears there after dispatch rather than at purchase. That the shipping email is triggered by the fulfilment event, so no email usually means no dispatch yet rather than a lost message. And that when orders seem to stop moving, the first check is whether the connection is still live, not whether the warehouse has stopped.

Give them the difference between a label and a shipment as well, because a label created is not the same as shipped, and your customer is told the latter.

Prove the connection with one start order

Install the app, generate a collaborator code, share it with your myshopify domain, approve our request. Agree the start order in writing, run one test order to the end, and re-authorise and re-test after any transfer, reinstall or relaunch. You keep ownership, we never need your password, and when orders stop appearing the connection is the first place both of us should look.

Evidence boundary: this guide is a privacy-safe composite drawn from reviewed operations conversations in August 2026, with no single seller, store or order described. Platform screens, menu names and access types change; the steps here describe the route as it worked in that period, so check them against the current Shopify admin and ask us if a screen does not match.