Contact syncing is the one-way automatic syncing of contact information from Shopify to MessageMedia. Once you've set up the Sinch MessageMedia SMS integration, the MessageMedia Hub can then retrieve the names and phone numbers of your Shopify contacts and they'll be saved in your Hub contacts list with a "Shopify" label.
Enabling contact sync is super easy, all you have to do is check the box for Sync my contacts from Shopify to MessageMedia when you set up the integration.
Once you've installed the integration, there're two ways that the Hub will sync your contacts;
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Bulk Sync - this is the initial sync of all your Shopify contacts when you install the integration.
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Live Sync - this is automatic ongoing sync of any new Shopify contacts across to the MessageMedia Hub.
And just in case you were wondering, we're also going to touch on:
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How contact sync works with your segments and tags
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How contact sync works when a customer uses the checkout as a guest
Bulk (Initial) Sync
What's important to call out is that when you first connect the two platforms, the MessageMedia Hub will automatically sync all existing Shopify customers. It's how those contacts are managed in the Hub that will differ based on which option you configure for SMS opt-in consent when installing the integration:
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Explicit Consent - when this consent option is selected, the Hub will sync all of your customers that have opted into SMS Marketing across as subscribed by default. The Hub will also sync unsubscribed contacts as ‘unsubscribed’ for visibility.
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Inferred (or Implied) Consent - this means that when a customer provides you with their phone number, your store has provided them with the reasonable expectation that they'll receive SMS Marketing. without the need to expressly opt in. The Hub will recognise these contacts as subscribed and update their subscription status as such.
ℹ️ For more information on consent and opt ins, read Shopify | SMS Opt-in Consent
Live (Ongoing) Sync
Whenever a new customer is created via the Shopify checkout, the Hub will automatically sync that customer and their subscription status to your MessageMedia contacts. What this means is the live sync will recognise whether a contact has opted-in or out of SMS Marketing at checkout, and will sync that contact and their subscription status to the Hub accordingly.
If you want to learn more about managing a contact's subscription status in the Hub, check out this article.
Contact Syncing Customer Groups
To keep things simple and consistent, all your existing Shopify customer Segments and Tags will automatically sync as Contact Groups in the MessageMedia Hub. You can learn more about managing contact groups in the Hub here.
How contact sync works for "Guest" customers
Sometimes a customer might proceed through your store checkout as a guest, and won’t exist as a customer in your Shopify store. Ordinarily this would mean that you're unable to message or contact them since the information doesn’t get added to the customer section in Shopify.
The handy thing about the MessageMedia integration is, that while guest details don't save as a customer on the Shopify end, the Hub will sync the guest details and save them into a specific contact group called Shopify - Guests.