How to set up the Gladly Shopify integration, a complete guide

Your Shopify store holds everything you need to serve a customer well: order history, fulfillment status, lifetime value, buying preferences. The problem is that most of that data stays trapped in Shopify while your support team works out of a completely separate system.

Agents end up toggling between tabs, copying order numbers, and asking customers to repeat information they've already shared. It slows down resolutions. It frustrates the people who just want a straight answer about their package. And it quietly erodes the kind of experience that earns repeat purchases.

Here's how to set it up, what your agents will be able to do once it's live, and how AI-powered automation extends the integration even further.

What the integration actually does

At its core, the Gladly Shopify integration connects your Shopify store (or stores) to Gladly's agent workspace through a Lookup Adaptor. Once connected, Gladly automatically syncs customer profiles and order data, giving agents a full picture of who they're talking to without switching platforms.

What agents see inside Gladly:

Customer details pulled from Shopify include lifetime value, buying preferences, contact information, and real-time order history. Each order displays line items, fulfillment status, tracking information, shipping and billing addresses, transaction history, and any applied discounts or tags. Product images appear when hovering over order details, giving agents the same visual context as the customer.

What agents can do from Gladly:

With Shopify Actions activated, agents handle common post-purchase requests without opening Shopify at all. That includes processing full or partial refunds, canceling orders, creating one-time discount codes, editing order tags, and updating order notes. Each action gets logged to the conversation timeline automatically, so there's a clear record of what happened and when.

Prerequisites

Before you start, confirm these three things:

You need administrator access in both Gladly and Shopify. Gladly's integration connects through the Shopify App Store, and the authorization step requires admin-level permissions on both sides.

The integration works with any Shopify plan, including Shopify Plus. There are no plan-level restrictions.

Step-by-step setup

The initial connection takes about 30 minutes. Here's the process.

1. Start from the Gladly Apps page. Navigate to Settings, then Apps, and click Add App. Select Shopify from the list.

2. Authorize the connection. A pop-up directs you to the Shopify App Store. Click Continue to Shopify, then Add App. Below "Already a Customer," enter your Gladly URL and click Login.

3. Confirm the connection. Once authorized, you'll be redirected back to Gladly with Shopify appearing on your Apps page. At this point, Gladly begins syncing order data from matching customers automatically.

That's the basic connection. From here, you can fine-tune how data flows and what agents are allowed to do.

Configuring data sync and permissions

After the initial connection, open the Shopify configuration page in Gladly to adjust these settings.

Search query attributes determine how agents can look up customers manually. By default, you can search by email, phone number, and order number. If the order number attribute is missing, add it manually to allow basic lookup searches. One note: archived Shopify orders won't appear in basic lookup searches.

Auto-linking is one of the most useful settings to activate. When enabled, Gladly automatically matches incoming customer profiles with their Shopify records using email addresses or phone numbers. If a customer contacts you and their profile isn't already linked, Gladly finds the match and pulls in their full order history without any agent intervention. Configure this under the Auto-Linking Fields section of the Shopify app settings.

Actions control what agents can do from within Gladly. Toggle these on individually based on your team's permissions and policies. Options include refunding orders, canceling orders, creating discount codes, editing order tags, and updating order notes. You can keep some actions restricted (for example, only allowing supervisors to process refunds above a certain threshold) while opening up lower-risk actions to your full team.

Display options include a toggle for showing order details in the customer's shop currency rather than your store's default currency. This is worth enabling, especially for brands with international customers. It means your agent sees the same numbers the customer sees, which eliminates confusion during refund conversations.

How data syncs after setup

The initial sync pulls historical customer and order data from Shopify into Gladly. For stores with large catalogs and long order histories, this can take several hours to complete.

After that, syncing happens in two ways. When a customer contacts you, Gladly automatically retrieves their latest information from Shopify in real time. And for ongoing changes, order updates made in Shopify (new purchases, fulfillment status changes, tracking updates) appear in Gladly within minutes.

If the connection between Shopify and Gladly ever breaks, you'll receive an alert inside Gladly. Reconnect through Settings, then Integrations. If the issue persists, contact Gladly Support with your Shopify store URL and a description of what you're seeing.

Extending the integration with AI automation

The Shopify connection powers more than just agent workflows. Gladly uses the same Shopify data to resolve routine customer requests end-to-end, without human involvement.

Here's how that works in practice. A customer messages in with an order number saying they want to cancel. The AI looks up the order, evaluates cancellation eligibility based on when it was placed and your brand's policies, asks the customer to verify part of their address for security, confirms the cancellation, processes the refund, and tells the customer when to expect their money back. The full interaction happens in seconds.

The AI-powered Shopify integration supports four core actions: looking up orders by order number, looking up orders by email address, updating shipping addresses, and canceling orders with optional refund and inventory restock.

To add the AI-powered Shopify capabilities to your Gladly instance, contact Gladly Support. You'll need a developer resource to complete the installation.

Common questions

Do I need API access or a developer to set up the basic integration? No. The out-of-the-box integration handles authentication through the Shopify App Store. No API keys or custom development required for the standard agent workspace setup.

What if I'm on Shopify Plus? The integration works the same way across all Shopify plans, including Plus.

Can I connect multiple Shopify stores? Yes. Each store needs its own integration instance, configured separately in Gladly. You can set up each instance to display its own order card so agents see a complete, multi-store view of each customer.

What happens if a customer profile doesn't auto-link? Agents can manually search for and link customer profiles through the customer card in Gladly. Search by email, phone number, or order number to find the matching Shopify record.

Can I control which Shopify fields agents see? Yes. If there are fields from the default list that you want hidden, contact your Gladly Customer Success Manager or Gladly Support to adjust the display configuration.

Making the most of the integration

Getting Shopify connected to Gladly is the foundation. The real payoff comes from what your team does with unified customer data across every conversation channel.

When an agent picks up a chat, an email, or a phone call, they already know who the customer is, what they've purchased, and where their orders stand. They're not asking the customer to repeat an order number or spell out their email address. They're resolving the issue and, when the moment is right, making a recommendation or offering a solution that reflects what they know about that person.

That's what separates a support interaction from a relationship-building conversation. And it's exactly what the Gladly Shopify integration is designed to make possible for every customer, across every channel, at scale.

Ready to connect Shopify to Gladly? Start with the full setup guide or reach out to Gladly Support if you need help along the way.