Australia-based Shopify agency centralizes multi-supplier fulfillment with a custom bridge app

An Australia-based agency runs a Shopify store where different products are fulfilled by different third-party suppliers, some API-connected and some email-only. Every order split, purchase order, artwork approval, and supplier follow-up was still being handled manually.

• Orders spanning multiple suppliers had to be identified and split by hand, with no centralized system to manage the process
• Some suppliers offered APIs while others operated by email only, forcing two separate communication models instead of one workflow
• Manual PO creation risked discount calculation errors and inconsistent order tracking across suppliers
• Personalized artwork required customer approval with no systematic hold to prevent premature dispatch
• No real-time dashboard existed to monitor PO status, supplier performance, or fulfillment stage
• The existing approach implied a separate integration per supplier, capping how many suppliers the business could add

• Centralize supplier fulfillment into a single system instead of ad hoc, per-supplier processes
• Support API-connected and email-only suppliers within one workflow, without separate tooling for each
• Remove discount and tracking errors from purchase order creation
• Build an architecture that scales to additional suppliers through configuration, not custom development

• Built a single Laravel and MySQL application with Shopify OAuth to replace one integration per supplier
• Automated order splitting by supplier and discount-accurate PO generation, with a defined lifecycle from Draft through Completed
• Mapped each product to a supplier ID and production lead time through Shopify metafields
• Connected API-based suppliers directly and routed email-only suppliers through templated Mailchimp communications
• Added per-line-item artwork upload, customer approval, and dispatch holds tied to each supplier PO
• Synced supplier tracking, including partial shipments, back into Shopify fulfillment records
• Configured time-based automation, including a 48-hour progress-check email, with conditional logic per supplier
• Delivered a real-time dashboard for PO status and supplier visibility, plus role-based admin access and an audit trail

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• 360 hours of development delivered across 8 phases, from order engine integration through dashboards and QA
• 10 functional modules now run supplier management, PO automation, artwork approval, tracking, and communication from one system
• Unlimited suppliers can be onboarded through configuration rather than custom development, removing the old one-integration-per-supplier ceiling
• Every order is now split and routed by supplier automatically, removing the manual triage step
• Artwork approval is tied directly to the correct supplier PO, with dispatch holds until customer sign-off