How to Connect Shopify to Ensoras: Two Setup Paths

This guide walks through the two ways to connect Shopify to Ensoras. The App Store install is the fast default; the manual custom-app method is the alternative for teams that need full control over their own app credentials. Pick whichever fits your situation.

Before you start

You'll need:

• Admin access to your Shopify store (you need to be the store owner or have permission to install apps and create custom apps)
• An Ensoras account (you can create one during the App Store install if you don't have one yet)
• About 5 minutes for the App Store path, or 10 minutes for the manual path

Path A: Connect via the Shopify App Store (recommended)

This is the fast default. You'll click through an install prompt, link to or create your Ensoras account, and you're done.

Step 1: Install the Ensoras app from the Shopify App Store

In the Shopify App Store, search for "Ensoras" and click into the app listing. Click Add app. Shopify will redirect you into your store admin and show the standard install prompt with the permissions Ensoras is requesting (read access to customers, orders, products, inventory, plus the write scopes for refunds and order edits if you want refund automation).

Review the permissions and click Install app. The install takes a few seconds.

Step 2: Choose new account or existing account

After install, you land inside the Ensoras setup screen embedded in your Shopify Admin. You'll see two options:

• Create New Account, pick this if your team doesn't already use Ensoras. You'll enter your name and email, get a 6-digit verification code by email, paste the code in, and your account is created with this Shopify store already connected.
• Connect Existing Account, pick this if your team already has an Ensoras project. You'll enter your project slug (visible in your Ensoras dashboard URL) and an API key (generate one in Ensoras under Settings → API Keys). The store connects to that project.

Step 3: Wait for auto-provisioning

In the background, Ensoras creates the starter set of Shopify tools (order lookup, customer lookup, refund creation if you granted that scope, and others) plus four default workflows covering Order & Shipping, Returns & Refunds, Product Information, and Order Actions.

This takes a few seconds. You'll see a "Connected" status in the Ensoras dashboard once everything is in place.

Step 4: Verify with a test ticket

The fastest way to confirm everything is wired correctly: send yourself a test message through your chat widget or email asking something like:

"Hi, can you check on the status of my recent order?"

If the AI replies asking for your order number or email (and then looks up the order when you give it), the connection works. If it can't find your order data, double-check that the App Store install completed and the Connected status shows in your Ensoras dashboard.

Path B: Connect manually with a custom-app token

Use this path when you can't or don't want to use the App Store install. The flow is more steps but gives you full control over the app credentials and permission scopes.

Step 1: Create a custom app inside Shopify Admin

In Shopify Admin, go to Settings > Apps and sales channels > Develop apps. If this is your first custom app, you'll need to enable custom-app development; Shopify will walk you through that prompt the first time.

Click Create an app. Give it a name like "Ensoras Support AI" (this name is only visible to you in Shopify) and an emergency contact email.

Step 2: Configure the app's permission scopes

Inside your new custom app, go to Configuration > Admin API integration > Configure.

The minimum scopes for a typical Shopify support setup:

Read scopes (required):

• read_orders so the AI can answer "where's my order?" and look up order history
• read_customers so the AI can identify the customer and pull their account details
• read_products so the AI can answer product and variant questions
• read_fulfillments so the AI can pull tracking info and ETAs

Write scopes (optional, only enable for the operations you want to automate):

• write_orders needed if you want the AI to process refunds, cancel orders, or update order tags
• write_customers needed if you want the AI to update customer notes or tags

Useful supporting scopes:

• read_inventory for "is X back in stock?" questions
• read_locations needed alongside inventory if you have multiple warehouses
• read_returns for return-status questions

If you're not sure whether to grant a write scope, leave it off. You can always add it later by editing the same custom app.

Save the configuration.

Step 3: Generate the Access Token

Go to the API credentials tab in your custom app. Click Install app. Shopify will confirm the permissions you just configured and ask you to confirm the install.

Once installed, an Admin API access token appears. This token starts with shpat_ and is shown only once. Copy it somewhere safe immediately. (If you lose it, you can revoke and regenerate, but any active integration will break until you update it.)

Step 4: Connect inside Ensoras

In your Ensoras admin panel, go to Channels > Integrations. Find the Shopify card and click to add a new connected integration. You'll see a form with two fields:

• Shop Domain, your store's .myshopify.com address. For example, acme-supplements.myshopify.com. Don't include the https:// prefix.
• Access Token, paste the shpat_... token from Step 3.

Save. Ensoras validates the connection by making a test API call. If something's wrong with the token or scopes, you'll see the error here, not later.

Step 5: Review what got auto-provisioned

A successful connection (whether via App Store or manual) auto-creates the same starter tools and workflows. Visit Automation > Tools to see the Shopify tools that were created (order lookup by email, order lookup by order number, customer lookup, product search, fulfillment status check, refund creation if you granted write scopes, tag management, and others).

Visit Automation > Workflows to see the default workflows. The starter set covers WISMO (where is my order), order status, basic product questions, and the return / refund flows.

Each tool and workflow is fully editable. Tune them for your business as you go. The What to Automate First post covers which categories to start with if you want to be deliberate about your rollout sequence.

What changes for your customers

After this connection is in place, customers asking order-related questions get answers in seconds instead of waiting for a human reply. Most order-status questions resolve without a single human touch. The same connection is the foundation for refund automation, return label generation, and subscription edits if you have a subscription app installed.

The qualitative shift matters too: instant answers around the clock, in any language, on the same data your team would manually look up. Bank of America's Erica handles tens of millions of routine financial queries per month on the same architectural pattern: AI for the lookup-and-answer work, humans for everything that needs judgment.

Common issues

App Store install completes but the Ensoras setup screen doesn't appear. Check whether your browser blocked third-party cookies or popups; the embedded Shopify app needs to load Ensoras in a frame and aggressive blockers can break this. Try in an incognito tab with default settings.

"401 Unauthorized" or token errors (manual path). The Access Token was either copied incorrectly (watch for trailing whitespace) or was revoked from the Shopify side. Generate a new token and update the integration.

"Missing scope" errors when the AI tries to do something. A workflow is calling a tool that requires a permission you didn't grant. Either remove that tool from the workflow's Available Tools list, or go back into Shopify Admin and enable the missing scope, then reinstall.

Wrong store appearing. If you have multiple Shopify stores, make sure you used the .myshopify.com domain of the right one. Custom storefront URLs (yourstore.com) won't work.

The AI ignores Shopify even though it's connected. Check that the relevant Shopify tools are listed in the Available Tools section of the workflow that's matching the customer's message. A connected integration that isn't enabled inside any workflow won't get used.

What to do after this

If you're new to Ensoras and just connected your first store:

• Upload your knowledge base so the AI can answer policy questions (shipping, returns, sizing) alongside order data.
• Write your first workflow rule once you're ready to go beyond the starter set.
• Configure refund automation when you're comfortable letting the AI take action, not just answer.

If you're on WooCommerce or another platform, the WooCommerce setup guide covers the parallel flow.

If something in this guide didn't match what you saw, tell us. The product moves quickly and we update these guides as the UI evolves.

Sources

• Bank of America, A Decade of AI Innovation: Erica Surpasses 3 Billion Client Interactions, customer-side reference for what AI-handled order/account lookups look like at sustained scale.
• Shopify, Custom apps documentation, official documentation on creating custom apps and generating Access Tokens (relevant for the manual path).