SAP–Shopify sync rebuilt from legacy PHP to Symfony
Six storefronts depended on a fragile black-box sync with SAP. We took it over and replaced it step by step with a Symfony middleware — without stopping the business.
A multi-brand retail group sells through six Shopify storefronts — a mix of B2C and B2B — with SAP as the source of truth behind all of them. Between the two sat a custom PHP integration that nobody dared to touch.
The challenge
- The legacy sync failed silently, so inventory quietly drifted apart across the six stores.
- The middleware was unstructured code, which made every new feature or bug fix a risk.
- Standard Shopify B2B features were not enough: wholesale needed tiered pricing and net-term settlements that mirror SAP data exactly.
What we did
We took over the integration and replaced it gradually — a strangler-fig migration that kept the stores selling while the legacy code shrank:
- Rebuilt the synchronisation engine in Symfony with message queues, so high-volume SAP updates no longer time out.
- Engineered reliable two-way workflows: products, inventory and customer price lists flow down from SAP; orders and customer data flow back up.
- Implemented bespoke returns-and-exchanges logic so RMA statuses and stock adjustments stay synchronised in real time.
- Built a custom B2B module inside Shopify: customer-specific price tiers and a bulk-ordering flow for wholesale buyers purchasing hundreds of SKUs.
- Added detailed logging around every SAP handshake, so a failed order sync can be traced to its exact cause.
The outcome
Inventory and pricing are now consistent across all six storefronts, the new backend rides out peak B2B ordering seasons, and the system no longer depends on one person who understands the old code.
“Our B2B operations were held back by a system everyone was afraid to touch. Now we have a stable engine that syncs perfectly with SAP, and we can finally roll out new features for our wholesale partners.” — e-commerce director, retail group
More case studies
industry
E-commerce & wholesale
tech stack
Symfony, SAP, Shopify, message queues
service
Modernisation & Upgrades
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