Synchronised Technology had three different websites running off a single Magento 1.x installation. The dropping of support for Magento 1.x meant a decision had to be made: upgrade to a new version of Magento or move to an alternate platform.

FIRST worked with Synchronised Technology to evaluate their current and future needs. The recommendation was made to move to Shopify.

The recommendation was based on:

• Shopify’s integration with Dear Systems (https://dearsystems.com/), the inventory management system used by Synchronised Technology.
• The strength of the Shopify ecosystem with a wide array of quality Themes and Apps, including a connector for Google Merchant Center written by Shopify.
• Shopify’s competitive SaaS pricing that could grow with the client’s needs.
• Competitive merchant fees from the Shopify payment gateway, but with the option if needed to move to a third-party payment provider.
• Google Analytics integration with GA Enhanced Ecommerce support out of the box.
• Broad market support for the Shopify platform.
• A reduction in operational costs attributable to maintaining Magento.
• The desire for an administration interface that was easier to use than Magento.

What FIRST did

FIRST launched three Shopify sites for Synchronised Technology in quick succession:

• Beyerdynamic Australia
• Fostex Australia
• Rycote Australia

The products hosted on all three sites are managed via the connector with Dear Systems inventory management system. Product information – including pricing, inventory, images and product categorisation – comes into Shopify from Dear Systems. Sales are passed back to Dear Systems to allow fulfilment and inventory adjustment.

Off-the-shelf themes were customised as required including PDF attachment functionality. The themes also expose structured schema.org microdata to Search Engines. Breadcrumb  (https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/breadcrumb) and Product (https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/product) structured data is available in JSON format.

Shopify built-in sitemaps (sitemap.xml) have been added to Google’s Search Console for each site, ensuring rapid take-up of the new URLs and allowing ongoing management of site performance.

Each site has also been connected to a Google Merchant Center multi-client account listing using the Shopify-built Google API-based connector. Inventory, pricing and product changes flow through from Dear Systems, to Shopify and into Merchant Center. Products are exposed via Merchant Center for free listings on Google Surfaces as well as available for Google Shopping campaigns.

Google Analytics provides insight on performance for each site and is set up with Enhanced eCommerce (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6014841?hl=en) enabled.

Now that the sites are launched, the ease of management provided by Shopify is allowing Synchronised Technology to focus on the next phases of marketing engagement that will include improved SEO, performance advertising, remarketing, marketing automation and more.