It sounds like building a custom app would be the move. I remember a custom app we built a couple years ago for a client that needed to have their orders uploaded to a shared dropbox at the end of each day, and the supplier grabbed the orders from the dropbox.
To know what to build, you’d have to get the documentation from the supplier on how to connect to their database.
Then you would create a private app in your store (basically just gets you API keys to use for an app to communicate with your store). Then you’d build a custom app that connects to the supplier and your Shopify store and handles those syncing tasks.
If you don’t have the budget for a custom app from scratch, you could ask your supplier if they would accept other methods, like:
- Email with order details
- CSV with order details, either per order or daily
- Daily email or csv from them with inventory / pricing numbers, then have your store assistant update those
Just depends whether you want to spend time or money on a solution. If you’re budget is low, I would try and automate as much as you can, then create SOPs and utilize an assistant to handle the manual parts, then when you get further ahead or scale more, hire the fully automated solution.
Another thing you could do, if your supplier works with multiple Shopify stores, you could pitch them building the app to help increase sales for them all (because less time handling these tasks costs time and money)… and if they don’t want to, you could see if all their clients would be willing to split the cost to develop it (not sure if that’s logical with your setup, just brainstorming).
I’m not aware of an app that can universally connect like that, because if it’s a proprietary system, you’d have to integrate some custom coding.
If you decide to go the custom app route and want to work with an experienced agency, feel free to give a shout at https://orderautomator.com/contact.
If you are shopping around for developers, just make sure to ask for live examples of apps they’ve built, check the reviews.
