How to connect your Shopify store to CheckoutFlare

CheckoutFlare needs permission to read your products and carts, and to create paid orders in your Shopify store. Shopify asks every store owner to give that permission by creating a small private app in their own store. The app stays yours, and only you can see its keys.

You do this once. The dashboard estimates about 5 minutes.

What you need before you start

• Access to your Shopify admin as the store owner, or as a staff member with the App developer role (the owner can give it in Settings, Users).
• Your store address, which ends in .myshopify.com.
• Two browser tabs: one for CheckoutFlare and one for Shopify.

Keep the CheckoutFlare tab open the whole time. The wizard has copy buttons that save you from typing mistakes.

Steps

Go to Settings, then Shopify. The wizard has four steps.

Step 1: Store address

1. Type your store name in Store address. If your admin address is admin.shopify.com/store/lumen-co, type lumen-co.
2. Do not use your public website, like lumenandco.com. It must be the .myshopify.com name.
3. Click Next.

Step 2: Create an app called “CheckoutFlare”

1. Click Open my Dev Dashboard. It opens in a new tab.
2. Click Build apps in Dev Dashboard. In the Shopify admin this is under Settings, Apps, Develop apps.
3. Click Create app. Name it exactly CheckoutFlare, and continue.
4. Go back to CheckoutFlare, tick I created the app, and click Next.

Step 3: Create a version and release it

In your new app in Shopify, open Versions and create a new version. Then copy these values from CheckoutFlare, using the copy buttons.

1. Paste the App URL into the App URL box. It ends in /shopify.
2. Leave “Embed app in Shopify admin” ticked. CheckoutFlare then shows its own page inside Shopify, with your checkout’s status, an Add to theme button and a link to the full dashboard.
3. Paste the Scopes. A scope is a permission. Our wizard lists all the permissions we need, and a short note explains why. One of them, write_themes, lets CheckoutFlare add its storefront script to your live theme.
4. Paste the Redirect URL. It must match exactly: https, no www, and nothing added at the end.
5. Click Release. A version only works after you release it.

Back in CheckoutFlare, tick I clicked Release, then click Next.

Step 4: Paste your keys and install

1. In your Dev Dashboard, open the CheckoutFlare app, then Settings, then Credentials.
2. Copy the Client ID and paste it into the Client ID box.
3. Copy the Client secret and paste it into the Client secret box. It starts with shpss_. Treat it like a password. Use the Show button to check it.
4. Click Save keys. We store them encrypted and never show the secret again.
5. Click Install CheckoutFlare on your store. Shopify shows the permissions. Click Install on that page.

You come back to CheckoutFlare and see a green Connected badge.

Logged in to Shopify in a different browser? Under the Install button there’s an install link with a Copy button. Open it in the browser where you’re logged in to Shopify, or send it to the store owner. The CheckoutFlare page updates by itself when it’s done.

Did you press Install app in your Dev Dashboard first? That works too. Shopify sends you to CheckoutFlare, which opens this step. Paste your keys, press Save keys, then Install. Shopify may skip its approval page because the app is already installed.

After you connect

The page now shows four checks: Permissions, Storefront script, Cart access and Order updates (webhooks). A webhook is a message Shopify sends us when something happens, like a refund. If any row has a warning, click Finish setup. Use Check connection at any time to test again.

The storefront script is what sends shoppers from your cart to CheckoutFlare. We add it to your live theme for you: one file, checkoutflare.js, that Shopify serves from your store, and one line in your theme’s layout. If you publish a different theme later, it moves with you. Disconnecting Shopify in CheckoutFlare removes both.

You can also open CheckoutFlare from your Shopify admin, under Apps. Inside Shopify it shows your checkout’s status, with an Open full dashboard button.

If something goes wrong

The wizard shows a red message when the install fails. These are the common ones.

• “The install was cancelled”. You clicked Cancel on Shopify’s page. Nothing was changed. Click Install CheckoutFlare on your store again.
• “That install link has expired”. Install links work once. Click Install again for a fresh link. Do not use the browser’s back button during install.
• “That took too long”. The install must finish within 10 minutes. Click Install again and approve straight away.
• “You installed on a different store”. Shopify installs on the store you are logged in to. Switch to the right store, and check the address in step 1.
• “Shopify’s answer did not match your Client secret” or “did not accept your Client ID or secret”. The secret was copied wrongly, or it was reset in Shopify. Copy both again with the copy buttons and paste them in step 4.
• “We could not finish connecting”. We could not reach Shopify. Wait a minute and try again.
• Shopify says the app cannot be found, or will not let you install. You probably did not click Release. Open Versions, release the version, and install again.
• Shopify shows a CheckoutFlare page instead of the dashboard. That’s CheckoutFlare inside Shopify. Click Open full dashboard. If you’d rather go straight to the dashboard, create a new version with “Embed app in Shopify admin” unticked and release it.
• The storefront script is not on your theme. Your app needs the write_themes permission. Add it to your version’s scopes, release, click Reconnect in CheckoutFlare, then Finish setup (or Add to theme on the CheckoutFlare page inside Shopify).
• You uninstalled the app in Shopify without disconnecting first. Shopify leaves the line we added in your theme. It does nothing anymore, and you can delete {% render 'checkoutflare' %} from layout/theme.liquid.
• “redirect_uri is not whitelisted”. The Redirect URL does not match ours exactly. Common mistakes are http instead of https, adding www, or a slash at the end. Paste ours again, release a new version, and retry.
• “This Shopify store is already connected to a CheckoutFlare account”. Each store can connect to one account. Sign in to the account that connected it first.
• Orders stopped syncing. If the app was uninstalled in Shopify, we lose access. Your keys are still saved, so go to step 4 and click Install. If the Shopify app was deleted, start again from step 2.

The page also has a Something not working? section with these fixes.

Next step

Now set up how you get paid: Connect payments.