Distributor Orders, Stock, and Catalog Updates for a Swiss Game Retailer

We built four Make workflows around that order and product lifecycle. They submit eligible Shopify orders to the distributor, update stock from distributor availability, prepare new draft listings, and monitor product details and selected vendor catalogs.

Shared article references connect the workflows. Make Data Stores link distributor article numbers with Shopify product and inventory records, retain product details for comparison, and record orders that have passed through the submission flow. Purchasing, stock updates, and catalog review each have their own rules rather than treating every distributor response as a change to publish.

Connect Shopify orders to distributor purchasing

Distributor purchasing applies to orders that meet the retailer's eligibility rules. Before proceeding, the workflow checks the Shopify order number against stored processing records. It matches the included products back to the order lines and uses their SKUs as distributor article references.

The distributor's API uses an older text protocol and Windows-1252 character encoding. We added a JavaScript transformation layer to prepare Shopify order data in that format, preserving supported umlauts and accented characters in customer names and addresses.

The workflow opens a session, registers shipping and billing customer records, creates the wholesale order, adds its lines, and releases it. The customer's requested delivery date is taken from the Shopify order, while the selected shipping service maps to the distributor's Priority or standard service.

The workflow writes distributor submission results back to Shopify orders, making the outcome available for staff to review without checking the automation logs. The success path also stores the order number for subsequent checks.

Translate distributor availability into Shopify inventory

The distributor does not always return a simple stock number. An availability response might confirm that the requested quantity can be supplied immediately, state a smaller quantity, or indicate a delay. Those messages need interpretation before Shopify can use them as inventory values.

We translate the responses into quantities using explicit rules:

The availability check requests 99 copies, so a response confirming that quantity maps to 99 in Shopify. Other responses provide a specific quantity or indicate that stock is unavailable for immediate delivery.

The workflow matches distributor articles with stored Shopify inventory-item references and submits the resulting quantities in batches through Shopify GraphQL. Articles without a usable inventory mapping are recorded as errors rather than matched by product name. Stock synchronization therefore depends on a known link between the distributor article and the correct Shopify inventory item.

Keep catalog changes controlled and visible

Newly tracked articles become draft Shopify products, with titles, descriptions, prices, inventory tracking, and supported product metafields prepared from distributor data. Initial inventory is zero; the separate stock workflow handles availability. Staff retain control over publishing the listings.

For tracked products, the workflow compares incoming details with stored values. Changes to fields such as title, price, description, weight, and edition information generate emails containing the relevant old and new values and a product link. Staff can review the change without the workflow automatically rewriting the live product information.

A separate check compares active Shopify products for selected vendors with their distributor article lists. When a product with a SKU is missing from a nonempty returned list, the workflow sends a notification and moves the product to draft. Temporary stock unavailability follows the inventory rules instead; it is not the same as removal from a vendor's catalog. Products are not permanently deleted.

Eligible Shopify orders now reach the distributor without separate manual re-entry, while submission results are recorded against the orders. Stock levels are updated from distributor availability using defined rules and known article mappings, reducing the need for separate manual stock checks.

Catalog maintenance is focused on changes that need attention. New articles are prepared as drafts, changes to tracked details reach staff for review, and products missing from selected vendor catalogs move out of the active storefront. Routine preparation is automated while publishing and changes to live product details remain under staff control.

Make

Coordinates purchasing, inventory, and catalog workflows.

Shopify

Holds orders, products, inventory, and submission-result metafields.

Distributor API

Supplies article data and availability, and receives wholesale orders.

Make Data Stores

Keep article mappings, tracked values, and order-processing records.

Shopify GraphQL API

Looks up product references and updates inventory quantities.

Email notifications

Bring product and catalog changes to staff attention.