Relay - enterprise integration by Novicell
Enterprise Shopify integration. B2C, B2B - and the edge cases in between
Relay connects your ERP, PIM, OMS, WMS and more to Shopify - with the depth enterprise demands and the B2B fluency few partners have. Hosted in your Azure, extended to fit how your business actually works.
- 30+ live integrations
- B2C + B2B + omnichannel in production
- Separation of concerns, no breaking changes
- You own the IP · endlessly extensible
TRUSTED BY LEADING BRANDS
The problem
Custom integrations cost more than you think
Most Shopify integration projects start the same way - a scoping doc, a six-figure quote, and a promise to be live in Q2. By the time the ERP team is available, it's Q4. And the cheap alternative, an off-the-shelf sync app, assumes a standard business you don't have.
6–12 months to go live
Every custom build starts from zero. Requirements, architecture, testing, deployment - repeated for every client, every time.
Single points of failure
One developer who knows the codebase. When they leave, the institutional knowledge leaves with them.
Breaks with every Shopify API update
Shopify releases new API versions in January, April, July and October. Custom code rarely keeps up.
Off-the-shelf apps hit a wall
Plug-and-play sync apps work - until your first customer-specific price list, your first sales-agent workflow, your first B2B catalog. Then you're back to square one.
What Relay solves
Four ways Relay moves your Shopify business forward
Not a list of features, a map of the business problems Relay solves, from launching new markets to keeping every order accurate.
— 01
Markets & Product Expansion
Launch new markets without a rebuild
Connect any ERP, PIM or commerce system today or down the line. Business Central, SAP or Struct are common starting points, but the adapter layer flexes to your landscape. Expansion is configuration, not a new project.
— 02
Customer, Loyalty & B2B
Open wholesale without a second platform
Sync customers, companies, loyalty data and B2B pricing between your ERP and Shopify, so retail, DTC and wholesale customers are served from one source of truth, not three disconnected systems.
— 03
Order & Supply Chain Accuracy
Every order, right, everywhere
Orders, fulfilment, returns and payments flow automatically between Shopify and your ERP or 3PL, eliminating manual reconciliation, stockouts and the spreadsheet gymnastics that come with disconnected systems.
— 04
Platform Stability & Governance
An integration that doesn't break
Built once, maintained continuously. Relay is updated with every Shopify API release, tested against 100+ scenarios, and works across whichever ERP you run today or migrate to tomorrow.
The product
Enterprise connectors. Every integration use case covered
Each connector implements the business-driven use cases our enterprise clients share - not just data pipes. You bring the business process and data; Relay integrates it with Shopify.
PRODUCT CONNECTOR
Product data management, multi-location inventory, markets
- Product master data
- Bundles
- Media - images, video, links
- Location management
- Inventory across multiple locations
- Product and variant metafields (24 types supported)
- Markets & market-specific pricing
- Translations of products, variants and metafields
- Catalogs, pricing & quantity rules
ORDER CONNECTOR
Orders, supply-chain, transactions and fulfilment
- Export of sales orders
- Export of delivery orders
- Invoice note & payment registration
- Credit note & payment refund
- Returns & exchanges
- Delivery status with tracking
- Complaint/manual refund export
- Order metafields (24 types supported)
- Import of external and historical orders
- Payment & refund confirmation
CUSTOMER CONNECTOR
Customers, loyalty data and B2B
- Customers
- Companies
- Company locations
- Customer, company, company location metafields (24 types supported)
- Company contacts
- Contact roles
- PII cleared after synchronization
Shopify B2B
Shopify B2B is different. We've already shipped it
Synchronization of Companies, company or region specific catalogs, customer-specific prices, RRPs, sales-agent enabled workflows and more. B2B on Shopify is a different discipline, and few partners have run it in production. We have, for wholesale brands across the Nordics, where B2C, B2B and omnichannel run on one stack.
Companies & locations
Company accounts, multiple locations, location-level configuration and custom fields - synced from your ERP or another system.
Catalogs & customer-specific prices
Catalogs, catalog prices and customer-specific price lists flowing from ERP to the storefront, per company.
Volume & quantity rules
Catalog volume rules and quantity-based pricing handled natively - no workaround apps.
Sales-agent ordering
Reps place orders on behalf of their accounts with full attribution - built for field sales teams.
Price override in cart
Agents strike deals on the spot - overriding prices in cart while visiting customers.
Contacts, roles & permissions
Company contacts and contact roles synced and enforced - buyers see what they should, nothing more.
Shopify B2B
From Dynamicweb to Shopify B2B - wholesale buying made simple for a major Nordic distributor.
- Perfion PIM keeps product catalogs up to date
- NetSuite & Boomi: item availability, customer-specific pricing, automated order handling
- The connector's adaptive layer absorbs changes in surrounding systems
Shopify B2B + D2C
From a custom B2B solution to Shopify B2B - cutting maintenance cost and opening D2C & retail channels.
- Business Central: orders, products, inventory, catalogs, customers and their prices
- Kontainer DAM delivers high-quality media to end users
- Sales agents override prices in the cart and log in as customers to suggest offers
Enterprise & customization
A framework, not a straitjacket
Off-the-shelf sync apps assume your business is standard. Relay assumes the opposite: a shared, continuously maintained core - with a customization layer where your processes, however unusual, are the whole point.
- An adapter layer built for your systems The connector core is shared and battle-tested; the adapter layer is written for your landscape. Unusual ERP? Legacy WMS? File-based exchange? That's what it's for.
- Custom use cases as first-class citizens Domain-Driven Design and bounded contexts mean your specific business logic - loyalty sync, claim flows, offline orders - extends the framework instead of fighting it.
- Multi-store, multi-market by design One deployment serves multiple Shopify instances, markets, currencies and languages. Expansion is configuration, not a new project.
- Or part of your wider integration layer Relay can stand alone or slot into your existing middleware - Service Bus, data lake, BI feeds. It plays well with an enterprise estate.
Scale spotlight
The Danish children's brand expands internationally - orders, payments, refunds, inventory and multi-currency prices automated across every market it enters.
Cases
Results across B2C, B2B and omnichannel
Real brands, real metrics - from 20,000 daily offline orders to full B2B wholesale operations. These companies run their commerce stack on Relay.
Product + Order
“The project, completed in just 3.5 months, has been a great success - Novicell has been a competent and dedicated partner throughout.”
– Majbrit Hansen, Purchasing and Marketing Director, Maxizoo
All three connectors
“B2C, B2B and omnichannel on one stack - Dynamics 365 integration automating orders, fulfilment, payments and inventory since 2019.”
– Hjalde Markvad, Head of Ecommerce, Pilgrim
The honest comparison
Why not just build it yourself?
A fair question - and the answer depends on what you're optimising for. Here's how the three realistic options compare.
| Custom build | Sync app / iPaaS | Relay | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to first integration live | 6-12 months | Weeks (pipelines only) | ~8 weeks |
| Maintained against Shopify API releases | - | Varies | ✓ |
| Business-logic-aware use cases | ✓ | - | ✓ |
| Shopify B2B - companies, catalogs, price lists | Build it all | - | ✓ |
| Custom business logic via adapter layer | ✓ | - | ✓ |
| Built on Shopify GraphQL API | Depends on team | Often REST-only | ✓ |
| Hosted in your own cloud | ✓ | - | ✓ |
| No vendor lock-in - you own the code | ✓ | - | ✓ |
| Validated by 100+ integration tests | - | - | ✓ |
| Scales to multi-market & multi-store | Rebuild required | Limited | ✓ |
How we work
Live in 8 weeks
Weeks 1–2
Discovery
We map your system landscape - ERP, PIM, OMS, WMS - and agree the integration specifications before a line of code is written.
Weeks 2–5
Configure
We deploy Relay to your Azure environment and build the adapter layer that translates your systems' data into Shopify-ready formats.
Weeks 6–7
Launch
Data flows go live with monitoring and alerting via Azure Monitor configured out of the box. UAT, cutover, done.
Ongoing
Grow
Connector updates land with every Shopify API release. New markets, new stores and new systems plug into the same framework.
For your IT team
Built on .NET. Hosted in your Azure. Owned by you.
Relay isn't a black box SaaS. It's a .NET solution deployed to your own Azure tenant - with the source code and Novicell's underlying libraries handed over if you ever choose to leave.
Your Azure tenant
Deployed to your subscription, your resource groups, staging and production environments. We help set it all up.
Client-owned codebase
If you ever leave Novicell, you take the source code and a copy of the underlying libraries with you. No lock-in, ever.
100+ integration tests
Core components are validated on every build. Errors are caught centrally - before they reach your store.
Shopify GraphQL API
Built on Shopify's latest GraphQL API, not legacy REST - so new platform features are available to you, not blocked.
Architecture principles: layered architecture · Domain-Driven Design · bounded contexts · Web API as anti-corruption layer · domain events · change tracking on entities
Pricing - choose your model
Buy it, rent it, or go enterprise
A side-by-side breakdown of what each model actually covers - so you can see exactly where the money goes and what's bundled in.
Buy - Own the code
A perpetual license. You own the connector code and host it in your own infrastructure.
- Permanent connector license
- Scoped implementation
- Deployed in your Azure tenant
Rent - we own, we operate
Connector access and annual upgrades bundled into a monthly fee. No licence cost, no surprise invoices.
- Connector license included
- Annual updates included
- No upfront license fee
Enterprise - custom solution
Multi-instance, multi-market, B2B or Relay inside your wider integration estate. Everything scoped to fit.
- Custom licensing and pricing
- Implementation tailored to your system landscape
- Code ownership by agreement
- Dedicated integration team
The detail
What's included in each model
A side-by-side breakdown of what each model actually covers - so you can see exactly where the money goes and what's bundled in.
| Buy | Rent | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | 0 €/m | From 1.000 €/m | Custom |
| One-time License fee | From 16.750 € | Included | Custom |
| Implementation | Scoped | Scoped | Scoped |
| Hosting & SLA | Per agreement | Per agreement | Per agreement |
| Annual upgrades | From 2700 € | Included | Per agreement |
| Code ownership | Yes | No | Per agreement |
| Post Launch Support | By the hour | By the hour | By the hour |
All prices in EUR, excluding VAT, Shopify subscription and Azure consumption excluded. Final scope is confirmed in discovery.
FAQ
Questions about Shopify integrations
The things we're asked most when companies connect ERP, PIM, OMS and WMS to Shopify.
Still have questions? Talk to us →Which systems can you integrate with Shopify?
Any system with an HTTP or file-based data exchange. We've implemented 30+ integrations including Microsoft Dynamics 365, Business Central, NetSuite, Struct PIM, Perfion, Plytex, Bleckmann and custom ERP systems. If it can send data, we can connect it.
How long does a typical implementation take?
From 8 weeks including kick-off to go-live for a simple 1-2 connector setup. Scoping, including system mapping and integration specifications may take 1–2 weeks. Configuration and testing take 4–5 weeks. The rest is UAT and launch.
Which data is synced between systems?
It depends on the connectors you use. The Product Connector handles master data, media, inventory, prices, metafields, translations and catalogs. The Order Connector handles sales orders, invoices, payments, refunds, fulfilment and claims. The Customer Connector handles customers, companies, locations and contacts.
How often does the sync run?
It depends on your requirements. Product data typically syncs every 15 minutes. Orders use webhooks for near-real-time processing. Inventory can run near-real-time or scheduled batch - Maxi Zoo, for example, processes 20,000 offline orders daily. The frequency depends on your system landscape capabilities to provide and consume data as well.
What happens if a sync fails?
Relay has built-in retry logic and queue-based processing, with reconciliation jobs that regularly check for missing data and re-sync it. Azure Monitor alerting can configured, so failures surface automatically - not when a customer complains.
Is the solution GDPR compliant?
Yes. The solution runs entirely within your Azure tenant in your chosen region. Customer PII is scrubbed from the connector after synchronization. You own the data and control the infrastructure - Relay introduces no third-party data processors.
Does Relay support Shopify B2B?
Yes - deeply. The Customer Connector syncs companies, company locations, contacts and contact roles; the Product Connector handles catalogs, catalog prices and volume rules. We run Shopify B2B in production for Schou, Linie Design and Pilgrim, including sales-agent ordering and customer-specific pricing.
What if our processes don't fit the standard connectors?
That's the expected case, not the exception. The connector core covers the shared use cases; your specifics live in a dedicated adapter layer built for your system landscape. Maxi Zoo's loyalty sync, Linie Design's in-cart price overrides and Shaping New Tomorrow's six-system orchestration were all built this way.
Ready to stop rebuilding integrations from scratch?
Book a 30-minute discovery call. We'll map your system landscape - ERP, PIM, B2B requirements and all - and give you a realistic timeline and scope. No obligation.
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