Articles on: Synchronization

🔄 How syncing works: real-time updates, creations & bulk operations

SyncBase keeps Shopify and Airtable in sync bi-directionally, in near real-time. It also handles much bigger volumes of data in one go when you need it. Here's how each Sync mode works, and when to use which.

Real-time sync, both ways

For everyday changes, there's nothing to trigger — simply make your update on either side, Shopify or Airtable, and the sync happens instantly.

Some Shopify changes don't trigger a webhook, that's why we built the Super Sync. 👉 Learn more about Shopify webhooks

One-time bulk sync: Shopify → Airtable

Do you want to make bulk changes directly in Shopify — a mass import, a big catalog update, a migration, etc. ? Use the Refresh feature in the app to pull the latest Shopify data into Airtable in one go without hitting Shopify API limits.

👉 Refresh your data on demand

One-time bulk operations: Airtable → Shopify

Need to push a large batch of changes from Airtable to Shopify at once? Two resources for this:

The Bulk operations guide — the full safe workflow for large catalogs: batching, timing, and avoiding API limits.
The Bulk update from Airtable feature — available on Elite and Enterprise plans.

Using the correct workflow matters: If you push mass updates without using the right workflow you will risk hitting API limits and your sync will slow down - live updates won't sync instantly anymore and the task queue will be maxed out.

Creating and updating records from Airtable

You can sync your data both ways instantly between Shopify and Airtable. For the Airtable → Shopify direction specifically, there are two things you can do:

Update existing records — changes made in Airtable push to Shopify.
Create new records directly from Airtable — some data types support this, others don't.

All your Shopify information syncs into the matching Airtable tables and columns. But each operation — updating a field, creating a record — needs to follow Shopify's and Airtable's own rules to work correctly. We've written a guide for each action.

👉 Find your data type below, check which operations it supports, and follow the matching guide to make sure your workflow is set up correctly.

If you use the wrong workflow, the sync will either not happen at all, or come back as an error in your base's Errors sync tab.

Always test on a single record first

Before rolling out a new workflow across many records, test it on one:

Did Shopify come back with a valid ID?
Did the record's Last successful update field update?
Is there no error for that record in the Errors sync tab?

Only deploy the workflow more broadly once all three check out.

What you can do, by data type

Data type	Sync updates from Airtable	Create from Airtable
Products	How it works	Create a Product
Variants	How it works	Create a Variant
Collections	How it works	Create a Collection
Customers	How it works	Create a Customer
Companies	How it works	Create a Company
Metaobjects	How it works	Create a Metaobject entry
Blogs	How it works	Create a Blog
Blog posts (articles)	How it works	Create a Blog post
Metafields	How it works	Metafield records are created automatically in the Metafields tables
Orders (and Line Items)	How it works	Creating orders from Airtable is on our Roadmap!
Refunds	How it works	Contact us if you would like to create Refunds in Airtable
Returns	How it works	Contact us if you would like to create Returns in Airtable
Images	How it works	Add images
Inventory / Stock	How it works	Add inventory
Translations	How it works	Create Translations

Customizing your Airtable base structure

Beyond syncing data, you can also safely customize how your base itself is organized.

👉 See what you can change or add to your synced base

For more on what's safe to do with your synced base, see our Do's and Don'ts.

Updated on: 03/08/2026

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