Loop + twist streamlines logistics with a custom app

In recent years, loop + twist has experienced rapid growth. This growth has led to some challenges, including the need to switch to a new logistics company. Their new logistics partner, Rhenus, did not have native integration with Shopify, loop + twist’s eCommerce platform. Rhenus, chose Journaese, a software company that provides an API layer for integrating with eCommerce stores. Journaese also does not have native integration with Shopify, so the only way to implement Rhenus using Journaese’s API layer was to develop a custom application to interact with it and transmit the necessary information.

The main goal of the project was to manage products, product data and properties, inventory levels, and orders. This included:

• Sending information about new orders to Rhenus via the Journaese API.
• Updating the quantity of items in stock on the Shopify side when changes are made to Rhenus’s inventory.
• Develop product tagging functionality.

To implement the product management features described above, our team developed a custom application for interaction with the Shopify REST API.

One of the project’s key objectives was to develop additional fields for Rhenus. This was necessary because loop+twist sells furniture, which has attributes such as length, number of units in a box, and height that do not have native fields in Shopify. To address this, we used metafield objects to create custom fields in Shopify. We then worked with the Journaese API developers to map these custom fields to the required fields on the Journaese API side.

Another challenge was processing additional fields that do not exist in Shopify but do exist as separate fields in the Journaese API, such as special order instructions. The Journaese API also had fields such as the size of the shipping container that should be used for delivery, etc. Shopify does not have these fields, so we managed all of the logic for transmitting this information at the backend level to ensure the proper functioning of the logistics service.

The project required effective and timely communication with both logistics service representatives and customers to ensure that all platform discrepancies were addressed during development and the application was successfully launched into production.

We developed an error-handling mechanism because the SKU field is used to match Shopify products to the logistics system and can be changed in both systems. This could lead to problems due to human error, such as accidentally entering an incorrect SKU. Our error-handling mechanism displays appropriate errors to notify the store administrator that the synchronization for a product is not working and that the product fields in both systems need to be checked.