Somebody downstream needs your orders, and they need them without you remembering to send them. A warehouse that picks every morning. A 3PL that ships in the afternoon. An ERP that reconciles overnight. Exporting by hand works right up until the day it is forgotten.
“Automatic” turns out to mean two quite different jobs, and choosing the right one matters more than choosing a tool.
What does Shopify’s built-in export do?
It is an on-demand report. You filter the order list, click Export, and Shopify produces a CSV as a download or an emailed link. That makes it ideal for a one-off look at your orders, and it is the right design for a report someone runs when they want it. Running on its own, on a clock or in response to an order, is a different job, so that part happens outside the built-in export.
What does “export orders automatically” actually mean?
Almost every request is one of these two:
- On a schedule. One file covering a window of time, produced at a set hour: yesterday’s orders every morning at six, or last week’s every Monday. Suits anyone who processes in batches, which is most warehouses, most accounting, and most reporting.
- Per order. One file for each order, the moment it is created or fulfilled. Suits a partner who needs to act on each order as it arrives rather than once a day, such as a print-on-demand supplier or a dropship vendor.
The question to ask the receiving system is simple: does it want a file a day, or a file an order? Its answer decides everything else.
Can Shopify Flow export orders automatically?
Flow reacts to store events, including new orders, and it is excellent at the jobs it was built for: tagging orders, notifying your team, routing work. Producing a file in somebody else’s exact layout, and delivering it to their server on a schedule, is a different kind of job, and it is the one an export tool exists to do. Many stores use both, each for its own part.
How do scheduled exports work in Exportify?
In Exportify a scheduled export starts from a template: the columns, their order, the file format and the file name pattern, built once in the template builder. Then:
- Enter your server details on the template’s Delivery settings page and use Test connection to confirm the file will land.
- Tell support the schedule you need. We switch it on and confirm the first run with you.
- From then on it runs on its own. Each file covers its window of orders and uploads to your SFTP or FTP server.
Scheduled delivery is included on the Standard and Advanced plans. See scheduled order exports in the Exportify help centre, and how to export Shopify orders to an SFTP server for the wider options.
How do per-order exports work?
Instead of a window of orders, Exportify produces one file per order the moment it is created, or the moment it is fulfilled, and delivers it to your server straight away. There is no batch to wait for. It is configured by our support team on the Advanced plan, because each receiving system has its own idea of what should trigger a file. Details are in automatic per-order exports.
Which one do you need?
| If the receiving system… | Use |
|---|---|
| processes orders in a daily or weekly batch | A scheduled export |
| needs to act on each order as it arrives | A per-order export |
| wants a file only when you ask for one | The built-in export, or an Exportify template run on demand |
| needs its own column layout, headers or XML schema | Either, built on a template that matches that layout |
Getting started
Build the template first and run it by hand a few times: once the file is exactly what the other side expects, automating it is the easy part. Exportify is on the Shopify App Store with a free trial, and support switches on the schedule once your server details test clean.
