Hike + Shopify + Xero
Online retailing has become a significant part of the retail industry in general, with businesses looking to expand their existing in-store offerings by bringing their products to a legion of new customers.
As such it becomes necessary for retailers to look to a platform that is able to not only provide a POS system buy also integrate with leading e-Commerce and accounting platforms, in order to get an ecosystem that works concurrently with each other.
That’s where Hike POS comes in, where our integrations with Shopify and Xero, a dream-team if you will, has given retailers worldwide the confidence to manage all avenues of their business at the click of a button.
Working functionally and quickly together, the three applications all speak so well with each from a point of sale perspective, an accounting perspective and from an e-Commerce perspective. Fill out information in one, to see the data fire to the others in real-time.
Indeed, our partnership with Xero’s online accounting software and Shopify’s e-Commerce platform, is essential in building an ecosystem that manages all aspects of business operations. Our cloud solution to retailing means that through integration, customers can do things like:
- Synchronise in-store and online sales.
- Perform simple bank reconciliation between all sales and purchase orders.
- Edit and view customer and inventory data on the fly.
- Track profitability to understand store performance and make smarter business decisions.
It’s all part of our approach to give retailers the most complete retail experience, making way for users to focus on other things.
Whilst the process in integrating this 3-way sync is easy to do, there are several things that users often need help with, during the installation period, which is why we’ve compiled these 10, tips and hints, that’ll help you get started.
Disable existing Xero & Shopify integration
If you’re an online retailer that has already integrated with Xero and will now be using Hike to sell in-store, you will first need to deactivate the Xero integration before you can start your 3-way sync.
With Hike as your primary inventory and sales point of truth, we recommend that you disable any existing integrations to avoid doubling up on your sales data.
This can be performed on either your Xero or Shopify applications:
Xero
Using your Xero menu, select Settings, and then General Settings.
Scroll down to Connect, and click on Connected Apps.
Underneath Xero Connected Apps, you will see a list of apps that your Xero account has integrated with. Hike will be labelled as HIKEPOS.
Select DISCONNECT, and click on YES on the pop-up box asking you to confirm the deletion, and your Xero account will be deactivated from your Hike account.
Shopify
To deactivate your integration from Shopify, select Apps from your dashboard which will then show a list of your Installed Apps.
Select the trash bin next to your Hike POS app and then click on Delete on the pop-up, which asks you to confirm the deletion.
You can also enter a reason as to why you are deleting, before clicking Delete.
Whatever application you choose to delete your Xero Shopify integration from, doing so on one will automatically do the same for the other.
Integrate Shopify with Hike, before integrating with Xero
When beginning your complete ecosystem integration, we recommend that you first activate your e-Commerce platform, in this case Shopify, before your accounting software in Xero.
This is because, by syncing Shopify first, you’ll be importing the latest and most accurate lists and information about the products that you already sell online into Hike. These include things like brands, tags and even the latest tax rates that you want applied for each item.
Find out how to integrate Shopify with Hike POS here
Ensure that you have mapped your Chart of Accounts to Xero correctly
When syncing Xero, you’ll need to map the relevant payment, liability and expense accounts into Hike.
This means, using your Chart of Accounts in Xero to create the full list of accounts that you will need to sync to Hike.
Find out how to integrate Xero with Hike POS here
Keep your in-store sales separate from your online sales
As your 3-way integration enables you to sell in-store with Hike POS and online with Shopify, we recommend that you set up a new, dedicated cash register that will be used exclusively for sales made online.
The reason for this is that if you are using only a single register for both sales channels, consider that after closing a register in-store for a day, any online sales that occur after-hours will re-open the same register. As such, a unique register for online sales only, will enable a clear distinction between your online sales and in-store sales where your financial reporting – and even your marketing/product performance – is concerned.
Creating a new register on Hike is easy as well, simply head to your Store Setup -> Integrations, and click on +Add Cash Register.
The end result? Separate and transparent reporting when it comes to your in-store and online sales with Shopify.
For a more detailed overview on how to add a new cash register, check out our support article here
Note: By adding a new register to your Hike subscription, you may encounter addition monthly costs.
Deleting a Product on Hike & Shopify
During your on-going use of the 3-way integration, there may be occasions where a certain product is out of circulation and you want to now remove it from your inventory entirely. This will need to be done on both Hike and Shopify.
To delete a product on Hike, simply select the Product from the Product List View, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Delete Product.
You can read more about deleting, editing and adding products here
This will then be deleted from Hike, but you will still need to do the same on Shopify.
On your Shopify dashboard, select Products, which then open the View Products screen.
Select the products
A confirmation pop-up will then appear, asking you whether you’re sure the product is to be removed permanently. Click OK.
Setting Visibility for Products: In-store and/or E-Commerce
When utilising both in-store and e-Commerce sales, it’s common for retailers to want a product to appear on one sales channel and not the other.
This is easily done on Hike, by simply selecting the sales channel/s you want to sell your product on.
Do this by selecting the product in question (Products -> Products via Hike menu), opening up the Product Edit screen.
In the Sales Channel section, you’ll notice two options:
- Point of Sale
- E-Commerce
Select Point of Sale if you want that product to appear on your Hike POS, in-store sales. Select E-Commerce if you want that product to appear on your Shopify online store.
Obviously, selecting one and not the other will only have that product available for purchase on the selected sales channel.
Note: By selecting Visibility, you can also select which outlets that product will appear in – assuming you have more than one outlet.
Using meta tags in Hike to help with online SEO
Meta tags are snippets of text, that are used to describe a web page’s content for users. These tags do not appear anywhere on the page itself however, but rather are seen on the page’s code which helps tell search engines what the page is about.
Optimising your meta tags are useful in bringing your web-pages are little higher on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), making it easier for potential to customers find your online store products.
If you are adding new products in Hike, make sure that you add meta tags so that when it syncs with an online store, the product page is immediately SEO friendly.
Action meta tags on all your products by selecting the (Products -> Products via Hike menu), opening the Product Edit screen.
Note: When completing your integration for the first time, any products in Shopify will have their meta tags synced into Hike as well.
Head to the Meta section, clicking on the arrow to drop-down the box, where you’ll be able to fill out the following details:
Meta Title – The meta title is the title text that will be shown of your product in search engine listings.
Meta Keywords – The meta keywords tag is where you will enter all keywords of your product. Put simply, a user should be able to know exactly what your page is about when they read these keywords.
Meta Description – The meta description tag is where you enter in a summary of your product, and therefore your web page. This is where you will describe the contents of your product and how they can help the consumer. However, note that your description should not be too long.
Meta Slug – The meta slug is the exact URL address of the website, and will most commonly be the
Note: If you don’t see the box for Meta, ensure that you have selected e-Commerce in the Sales Channel box.
Duplicate Products: Hike & Shopify & Xero
Retailers will generally opt to perform 2-way syncing. This will enable them to sync their data to and from Shopify & Hike, and again with Xero & Hike. Your product information will then be shared across the various platforms.
However, there are often instances where duplicate products can exist between Xero and Shopify, which will result in that product being replicated twice in Hike POS as well.
For example, if a product was created in Xeroby your accounting team, and that same product then later created in Shopify by your online team, that will obviously result in duplicate products. If the products are only differentiated by a slightly different ‘Product Name’ spelling, then when synced with Hike, you will see the same product appear twice in your Point of Sale.
To counter this, ensure that the latest copy of the product is in the software that you are considering as to be the point of truth – generally this will be Shopify– when you are syncing. Otherwise, Xero will overwrite.
Note: Any duplicate SKU or Product Names will however, create errors when synced to Hike. This will appear on your Sync Error Log.
Remember, if you have any questions surrounding how to setup your Xero & Shopify integration with Hike, just get in touch with us. Our chat support team is here 24/7, to answer all your questions and they’ll be more than happy to help!