This guide walks through creating a Zapier integration that syncs products from HirePOS to Shopify, including SKU and price updates and publishing to a Shopify sales channel (Online Store).

Note: This flow has been updated to suit Shopify's API changes that occurred in the first half of 2025 that make a traditional product only update no longer possible. Products must now be updated via their default variant. Also, Prems cannot be published to a publication by the old API, and must be published via a GraphQL API. This guide contains steps on how to do that until a simpler method becomes available via Zapier

The Zap dynamically handles:

• Creating or updating products in Shopify

• Setting variant details

• Publishing to the correct sales channel using a GraphQL call

This assumes:

• You are familiar with Zapier, Shopify, and HirePOS

• You are using a Shopify custom/private app for token-based access

• You know how to manage API tokens and Zapier apps

Skip this setup if you already have HirePOS and Zapier connected

1. Go to Setup > Preferences > Accounting and other APIs > API Keys (Use for Zapier)

2. Copy your API key and connect your HirePOS account to Zapier

3. Create a new Zap and select HirePOS as the trigger app

If you already have Shopify connected to Zapier, you may still need to work though this step to create the Shopify 'Custom App' which will allow the GraphQL steps in this document to work.

1. In Zapier:

   • When creating a step that uses Shopify (e.g., “Find Product”), you’ll be prompted to connect an account.

   • Click “Connect” and log in with your Shopify store credentials.

2. In Shopify:

   • Shopify will prompt you to approve Zapier as a third-party app.

   • Click “Install App” to grant Zapier permissions (read/write products, variants, etc.).

3. Return to Zapier:

   • Your Shopify store will now appear in the account selector for any Shopify-based steps.

   • You can use all standard Shopify actions such as Create Product, Update Variant, Find Product by Title, etc.

Note: This connection works for most basic needs but does not support advanced custom publishing or GraphQL-based logic.

This is required for custom GraphQL steps like publishing products to the Online Store using Webhooks by Zapier.

1. Open Shopify Admin:

   • Go to Apps > App and sales channel settings

   • Click “Develop apps” in the top-right

2. Create App:

   • Click “Create an app”

   • Enter a name like Zapier Integration

   • Choose yourself or an admin user as the app developer

3. Configure Admin API Access:

   • Under “Configuration”, click “Configure Admin API scopes”

   • Enable the following scopes at minimum:

     • read_products

     • write_products

     • read_publications

     • write_publications

   • Click Save

4. Install the App:

   • Go to the “Install App” tab

   • Click “Install” (you may need to confirm again)

5. Get the Access Token:

   • After installation, the Admin API Access Token is shown once.

   • Copy and store it securely — this is your Shopify token used in Zapier Webhook headers.

   • Example:

X-Shopify-Access-Token: shpat_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

1. Use in Zapier Webhooks:

   • When creating a Webhook by Zapier step (e.g., to fetch publications or publish a product), use:

     • URL: https://your-store-name.myshopify.com/admin/api/2025-04/graphql.json

     • Headers:

       • Content-Type: application/json

       • X-Shopify-Access-Token: <your token>

Why Use a Custom App?

• Required for GraphQL queries/mutations to Shopify’s Admin API

• Allows precise control over products, variants, publications, and more

• Bypasses limitations of Zapier’s new standard Shopify integration

• App: HirePOS

• Trigger: New or Updated Item

• This will return the HirePOS item data to sync with Shopify (e.g., Description, SKU, Price)

• App: Shopify (Zapier's public app)

• Action: Find Product by Title or Handle

• Match using a linking field—e.g., Description from HirePOS = Title in Shopify

• Enable: Create product if it doesn’t exist

• This returns:

  • Product ID

  • Variant ID (for existing products)

  • Variant Nodes ID (for newly created products)

• App: Webhooks by Zapier

• Method: POST

• URL: https://yourstore.myshopify.com/admin/api/2025-04/graphql.json

• Headers:

  • Content-Type: application/json

  • X-Shopify-Access-Token: shpat_... (your private app token)

• Body:

{
   "query": "query { publications(first: 10) { edges { node { id name } } } }"
}

• Return Raw: TRUE

This returns a list of Shopify publications (sales channels), including "Online Store".

• App: Code by Zapier (JavaScript)

• Input: payload from Step 3

• Code:

let data;
try {

  if (typeof inputData.payload === 'string') {
    data = JSON.parse(inputData.payload);
  } else {
    data = inputData.payload;
  }
} catch (e) {
  throw new Error('Could not parse payload JSON: ' + e.message);
}

const edges = data?.data?.publications?.edges || [];
const match = edges.find(edge => edge?.node?.name === 'Online Store');

return {
  publicationId: match ? match.node.id : null   // null if not found
};

• Output: publicationId

• If Variants ID from Step 2 exists → Path B (existing product)

• If it does not exist → Path A (newly created product)

• This step will run the path if "Variants ID does not exist"

• App: Shopify

• Action: Update Variant

• Inputs:

  • Variant ID: from Step 6

  • SKU: from Step 1

  • Price: from Step 1

Note: You may need to actually use test data that creates a new product in Shopify to be able to see and select this field in the Zapier editor.

• Webhooks by Zapier

• Method: POST

• URL: https://yourstore.myshopify.com/admin/api/2025-04/graphql.json

• Headers: Same as Step 3

• Body:

{
  "query": "mutation publishProduct($id: ID!, $input: [PublicationInput!]!) { publishablePublish(id: $id, input: $input) { userErrors { field message } } }",
  "variables": {
    "id": "{{PRODUCT_ID}}",
    "input": [
      {
        "publicationId": "{{PUBLICATION_ID}}"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Notes

• id is the product’s global ID.

• input is an array of PublicationInput objects; supplying one object publishes to one channel, but you can add more objects to publish to multiple channels in the same call.

• The mutation returns an empty userErrors array on success.

• Get Variants ID directly from Step 2 (for found products)

• App: Shopify

• Action: Update Variant

• Inputs:

  • Variant ID: from Step 9

  • SKU: from Step 1

  • Price: from Step 1

Note: You may need to actually use test data that updates an existing product in Shopify to be able to see and select this field in the Zapier editor.

• Identical to Step 8

• Use the same mutation to publish to the Online Store

With this setup complete, your HirePOS item updates will now seamlessly sync to Shopify—automating SKU, price, and publication updates with full support for Shopify’s latest API changes.