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Shopify

The Pinch Shopify app is the one-click way to get a Shopify store on Pinch. Install it from the Shopify App Store and Pinch starts ingesting your store's data, scoring it, and writing decisions back as order and customer tags.

For the install + onboarding flow, see Install on Shopify. This page covers what the connector itself does once it's running.

What the connector does​

DirectionAction
ReadPulls historical and live orders, customers, products, fulfillments, returns, and inventory from your store.
ReadSubscribes to Shopify webhooks for order created, order updated, customer created, customer updated, fulfillment created, fulfillment updated, return requested, return approved, and refund created — so Pinch sees events in near-real-time.
WriteWrites customer tags carrying the Pinch decision and segment label (e.g. pinch-allow, pinch-review, pinch-deny, pinch-vip, pinch-suspect, pinch-egregious, pinch-reseller-abuse, pinch-first-order). Your RMS reads these inside its policy engine, and your support team and other Shopify apps can see the Pinch decision inline on the customer profile.
WriteWrites customer notes when a Playbook is configured to do so.
Write (via Playbooks only)Order tags can be added or removed by a Playbook action if you've configured one — useful for downstream Shopify Flow integrations. The core Pinch decision lives on the customer, not the order.

Data Pinch requests access to​

When you install the app, Shopify shows you the data access consent screen. The Pinch app requests access to the data domains below. Each domain is requested because a specific Pinch feature needs it — there are no scopes requested "just in case."

Data domainWhy Pinch needs it
Orders (read & write)Scoring every order; writing decision tags back.
Customers (read & write)Building the Pinch Identity Number; writing customer tags + notes for Playbooks.
ProductsResolving line items to product category, brand, price tier — used by Variables.
FulfillmentsDetecting delivery state at the moment of a return (was it even shipped?).
ReturnsThe Returns workflow runs on every Shopify Return event.
Inventory & locationsMapping disposition data back to the warehouse that processed the return.
ShippingAddress comparison signals (shipping vs billing mismatch, address-reuse across accounts).
CheckoutsPre-order checkout signals — device, IP, cart composition — for reseller-abuse detection on the Orders workflow.

The exact scope strings shown on the Shopify install consent screen reflect this list (read_orders, write_orders, read_customers, write_customers, and so on).

How data flows​

Shopify Store
   |
   |  Webhooks (live events) + REST/GraphQL Admin API (historical backfill)
   v
Pinch Shopify Middleware  -->  Pinch Core (variables, workflows, Pinch Assessment)
   ^                                          |
   |                                          |  decision (ALLOW / DENY / REVIEW)
   |   Customer tags, Notes  <----'
   v
Shopify Store

The middleware sits between your store and Pinch core. It handles webhook signature verification, retries on transient failures, and the order/customer tagging writeback so Shopify always reflects the latest Pinch state.

Historical backfill​

On first install, Pinch backfills your store's order and customer history (typically the last 12–24 months, configurable per merchant). Backfill takes between 1 and 24 hours depending on volume. You'll get an email when it completes, and you can watch progress in Integrations → Shopify in the dashboard.

Uninstall​

Uninstalling the Pinch app from Shopify Admin → Apps revokes all access tokens immediately. Pinch stops receiving webhooks, stops writing tags, and retains your historical data for 30 days before purging it. If you want immediate purge, email support@pinch.ai.

See also​