Shopify Integration Overview
Sideboard’s Shopify integration keeps your online store and your in-store inventory in sync — automatically. When you sell a card on Shopify, Sideboard knows. When you update stock in Sideboard, Shopify reflects it. You run one inventory, not two.
What the integration does
Pushes your full catalog to Shopify
When you connect your Shopify store, Sideboard pushes every card in your enabled game catalogs as a Shopify product — not just what you have in stock. Each card appears with all its valid condition and finish variants (Near Mint, Lightly Played, Foil, Etched, etc.), priced at $0 and set to zero quantity until you add inventory.
This means your Shopify store is always catalog-complete. When you receive new stock and enter it into Sideboard, that variant automatically goes live with the correct price and quantity — no manual product creation needed on the Shopify side.
Real-time inventory sync in both directions
Sideboard to Shopify: When you update a card’s quantity or price in Sideboard — whether from a buylist purchase, a manual adjustment, or an automated price rule — Sideboard’s sync engine pushes that change to Shopify within seconds.
Shopify to Sideboard: When a customer buys a card on your Shopify storefront, Shopify sends a webhook to Sideboard. Your inventory item is decremented in Sideboard before the next page loads. This typically completes in under 6 seconds end-to-end.
Automatically pushes new catalog releases
When Sideboard adds new sets or cards to a game catalog — either from a scheduled release or a catalog update — those products are automatically pushed to your connected Shopify store. You don’t need to download a CSV and upload it. The new cards appear in Shopify with $0/zero-quantity placeholders, ready for you to add stock.
Keeps customers and store credit in sync
Customers created on Shopify are automatically matched to your Sideboard customer records by email address. Store credit balances you assign in Sideboard (from buylist payouts or manual credits) are pushed to Shopify so customers can redeem them at checkout. Sideboard is always the source of truth for credit balances; Shopify is kept in sync.
Runs a nightly safety net
Even with real-time sync, edge cases happen — a webhook might fail, a connection might time out. Every night at 3 AM, Sideboard reconciles your full inventory against Shopify and corrects any discrepancies. Sideboard quantities always win.
How variants work in Shopify
Every card in Sideboard can exist in multiple condition and finish combinations: Near Mint, Lightly Played, Moderately Played, Heavily Played, and Damaged — each in Normal, Foil, or Etched finish — and optionally in non-English languages. In Sideboard, each of these is a separate inventory item.
In Shopify, each card is one product. The condition × finish combinations become variants of that product. So “Sheoldred // The Apocalypse NM Foil” and “Sheoldred // The Apocalypse LP Normal” are two variants of the same Shopify product.
This matters for a few reasons:
- Customers can see all available conditions and finishes on one product page and choose from a dropdown.
- When you have stock for only some variants, the others remain listed at $0/zero quantity — they’re not hidden, they just show as unavailable.
- When you later add stock for an unavailable variant, Sideboard automatically activates it with the correct price and quantity — without you creating anything in Shopify.
What Sideboard never does to your Shopify products
- Never deletes a product. If a card goes out of stock or you remove it from your Sideboard inventory, Sideboard sets the Shopify quantity to 0. The product listing remains on Shopify so any SEO value and customer saves are preserved.
- Never deletes or overwrites your custom images. Sideboard does not upload or manage product photos — those are yours.
- Product descriptions are managed by Sideboard. The description is generated from card metadata (type line, set, rarity, etc.) and is re-written on every sync. If you want custom copy on a card’s Shopify listing, use Shopify metafields rather than editing the main description field.
- Never sells items without a price. If a variant has no price set in Sideboard, the Shopify quantity is held at 0 regardless of actual stock — preventing free purchases.
Who controls what
| Data | Managed by | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Quantity | Sideboard | Always. Shopify sales flow back to Sideboard, not the other way. |
| Price | Sideboard | Set by your manual prices or pricing rules. |
| Product title | Sideboard | Card name from the catalog. |
| Card metadata (type, set, rarity) | Sideboard | Written on product create and updated if card data changes. |
| Product tags | Both | Sideboard adds catalog tags; your custom tags are preserved. |
| Product description | Sideboard | Sideboard re-writes the description on every sync with card metadata. To add custom text, use Shopify metafields or edit after syncing — it will be overwritten on the next full push. |
| Product images | You | Sideboard does not upload or manage images. |
| Product status (Active/Draft/Archived) | You | Sideboard never changes this. |
| Store credit balances | Sideboard | Sideboard pushes changes to Shopify; Shopify is never the source of truth. |
| Customer records | Both | Matched by email; new customers on either side are synced to the other. |
How connection works
You connect via OAuth — the same secure authorization flow used by every Shopify app. You approve the connection once in Shopify, and Sideboard receives a permanent access token that it uses for all future sync operations. There are no keys to rotate or passwords to manage.
Supported games
The Shopify integration works for all card games Sideboard has in its catalog: Magic: The Gathering, Star Wars Unlimited, One Piece, Riftbound, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Gundam, and Disney Lorcana. When you connect, you choose which game inventories to sync. You can sync one game or all of them.
What’s next
- Set up the integration: Shopify Setup
- Day-to-day operation: Shopify Day-to-Day
- How inventory works in Sideboard: Managing Inventory
- Presale cards and the integrations: Presale
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