Whats the difference between Direct and Third Party Integrations?

Your ShineOn account is super flexible, allowing you to connect to various different platforms and services. In fact it's so flexible, our sellers regularly surprise us with new ways they have figured out how to sell ShineOn products that we didn't even know ourselves!

To make things a little easier to understand we separate the ways sellers connect their ShineOn account (known as integrations) into two categories.

Direct Integrations

Direct integrations are ways to connect ShineOn directly to your store front. Allowing automated and direct transmission (or "Syncing") of orders, products, and other information from your Store to us - typically using methods we have developed ourselves. 

• The Shopify App is a direct integration, as orders come straight through from your Shopify store to us, where they are fulfilled and sent to the customer automatically. 

The benefit of using direct integrations is that they are developed by us, and have full support by us. We're able to assist you with the set-up, and troubleshoot any technical issues you may experience while using our direct integrations.

 

Third Party Integrations

Third party integrations (or "TPI's") are ways to connect ShineOn to your store through an application or service provided by someone else which automates order processing. Often they act as a "middleman" between ShineOn and a store front.

Sometimes TPI's will have multiple links in a chain, and orders/information will be passed through multiple services, often utilizing the ShineOn API, or the ShineOn Shopify App as the final link.

Some examples include:

• AnywherePOD is a third party integration. You connect it to your Etsy first, and then connect the ShineOn API. Allowing you to sell ShineOn products on Etsy. This creates a chain where orders are passed from Etsy > AnywherePOD > ShineOn.
• CedCommerce is a third party integration. You connect it to your Shopify, connect the ShineOn App to your Shopify, and then connect CedCommerce to another platform such as Ebay. This creates a chain where orders are passed from Ebay > Cedcommerce > Shopify > ShineOn.

There are lots of TPIs, and they can often be connected in creative ways allowing sellers to sell in some unique places. TPI's are great for sellers that want to reach more places and have more options. 

These services each work a little differently, and they are not developed or supported by ShineOn. We don't mind you using these services, but you do so at your own risk and technical support will need to be provided by the app or service provider. 

Methods which fall outside definition.

Some methods of placing orders fall outside of these definitions:

• ShineOn API - The API on it's own does not integrate or connect with anything. It's a tool which allows ShineOn to receive orders from other places. If a service uses the API to pass us orders, that service is a Third Party Integration. 
• Manual orders, and CSV Ordering - These are not automated and therefore is not considered an integration of any kind. 
• Amazon FBA orders - You must manually place orders to the Amazon warehouse using the FBA portal, similar to the above there is no automation and therefore is not considered an integration of any kind.