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When you connect Shopify to bitChat or bitCRM, bitbybit can pull your existing customers in automatically, so your CRM is populated from day one instead of starting blank. This guide covers consenting to the sync, watching it run, and keeping your customer data up to date afterward.
Syncing is read-only. bitbybit only reads customer data from Shopify — it never writes back to your store.

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Step 1: Connect Shopify

Go to Integrations and click Connect on the Shopify card for bitChat or bitCRM. This opens a Connect your store to bitbybit panel, which lists exactly what bitbybit will access — product catalogs, order history, and store profile — and why, before you authorize anything. Connect your store to bitbybit panel, listing the data bitbybit will access with the Sync existing customers checkbox checked by default
  • The Shopify connection panel, with Sync existing customers checked by default
  • Leave Sync existing customers checked (default) to pull in your current customer base as part of connecting.
  • Uncheck it if you only want new customers going forward, without an initial backfill.
Click Connect to Shopify to hand off to Shopify and authorize the connection.
If another bitbybit app (for example bitChat) is already connected to the same store, the Sync existing customers checkbox won’t appear when you connect the second app (for example bitCRM) — both apps share one workspace-level customer list, so only the first connection needs to backfill it.

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Step 2: Watch the initial sync

On first connect, a Syncing customer data modal opens, showing each stage of the process — connecting to Shopify, syncing customers, and finalizing. Syncing customer data modal showing the connecting, syncing, and finalizing stages, with a Continue in background button
  • The Syncing customer data modal
  • Click Continue in background at any point to keep working elsewhere — the sync keeps running and collapses into a live progress card at the top of the Integrations and Customers pages, for example “Syncing 41 of 41 customers… 100%”. Click the status card to reopen the full progress view.
Customers page with a live progress card showing "Syncing 41 of 41 customers.. 100%"
  • The collapsed progress card at the top of the Customers page
  • Once the sync finishes, the progress card is replaced by a Customer sync complete banner: “All your Shopify customers are now in bitbybit.”
Customers page showing the "Customer sync complete" banner
  • The Customer sync complete banner
  • On a large store this can take a while — Shopify builds the export before bitbybit can start reading it. You’ll get an email once it’s done, so you don’t need to keep the tab open.
Completion email confirming the Shopify customer data has synced
  • The completion email
What each outcome looks like:

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Step 3: Check your customers arrived

Once the sync finishes, go to Customers to see the imported list. The toolbar shows a Last synced X ago line — hover it for the exact timestamp. Customers page toolbar showing the Last synced X ago line next to the Sync customer data button
  • The Last synced X ago line on the Customers toolbar

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Step 4: Re-sync manually

Use the Sync customer data button on the Customers toolbar any time you want to refresh the record — for example after making bulk changes in Shopify. Choose a scope in the Customer data sync dialog:
  • Update all customers (recommended) — overwrites existing customer records with the latest Shopify data and adds anything new.
  • Only add missing data — adds new customers and fills in empty fields, without changing details you already have.
Customer data sync dialog with the Update all customers and Only add missing data options
  • The Customer data sync dialog
The Sync customer data button is disabled while a sync is already running or paused, since a second sync would just duplicate work the running one is already doing.

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Ongoing sync

Beyond manual re-sync, bitbybit listens for Shopify’s customer and order webhooks, so new and updated customers generally arrive without you doing anything. Shopify doesn’t guarantee webhook delivery, so if you notice the record looks stale, running a manual sync (Step 4) is the reliable way to catch it up.