Anyone successfully pulling customer data out at POS to use elsewhere?

Site URL: https://www.chrisjfreeman.com/books

Hi and thanks everyone for taking the time to read this.

I have two customers that I am trying to fix the same issue for. (One URL included).

What they are both trying to do is be able to pull the customer data (at Point of Sale) and use elsewhere. Let me give an example:

Someone jumps onto the website and buys the Book. We'd like to take that customers data, put it into our CRM, tag them and because they bought the book start them off in an automation which is setup for book sales. However if someone purchased an eBook then we want to do the same but for the eBook automation. And while I don't have one setup at the moment, if they purchased a ticket to an online event (say a webinar), then the same applies: they end up in the CRM, tagged correctly and start an automation dedicated to that webinar.

The SQSP commerce is setup. The CRM and automations are setup. Where I am getting stuck is getting the customer data and line item(s) out of SQSP, at the point of sale (or in a very close time to sale), so that I can do something with it automatically. SQSP doesn't seem to, and have advised me they don't currently have a Zapier link to pull this data without adding a form to the sale and I think it would look weird to add a form someone has to fill in with all the same data that is already in the sales process.

Integromat (who are now Make) have commented on a few SQSP commerce posts does seem to be able to pull the data from SQSP at POS but there is a huge setup that is required if there are multiple lines or different products offered (book, eBook, Webinar) etc. And then with Make, if you want to check 'regularly' (say every 15mins) then you will chew through their free plans 'operations' in a week just by 'checking' if a sale is make, even if there are no sales.

In my ideal world, something like this would be possible:

1 - Customer makes a purchase

2 - Customers details and line item history are passed through to our CRM (I can't see how this is possible)
OR
      Customers details and line items are passed through to a google doc (I still can't see how this is possible at the moment)

3 - Zapier (or something) runs on new google doc line items and inserts into CRM

4 - CRM automation triggers and customer is treated nicely based on purchase

If anyone has any advice, suggestions, further questions to clarify my thinking or things I have already tried, please let me know as I would really like a solution that doesn't involve needing to move items away from SQSP an into another platform, like Shopify.

Thanks again

8 hours ago, beren said:

I am getting stuck...getting the customer data and line item(s) out of SQSP, at the point of sale. With Make, if you want to check 'regularly' (say every 15mins) then you will chew through their free plans 'operations' in a week just by 'checking' if a sale is make, even if there are no sales.

Instead of making regular API calls to check if an order has been created you can use the Webhook Subscriptions API to subscribe to Order create events. By doing this you will only receive notifications from Squarespace when an order is created. To receive notifications you'll need create a webhook subscription using the Webhook Subscriptions API and use OAuth access permissions to authenticate.

However, I do want to set your expectations of what is possible if you do not have regular access to a software developer. I say this because APIs are technically complex and require a non-Squarespace platform to interface to back to Squarespace. As you mentioned, this other platform could be a third-party RPA tool such as Make (formally Integromat) which would allow a non-coder to add the necessary workflow automation, but they require a good working understanding of APIs, JSON and other technologies if they are to monitor, troubleshoot and update the workflow when it becomes necessary - which it will. No cloud software platform remains static - including Squarespace and Make.

I hope this helps.

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Thanks @paul2009 

In theory, I understand what you are saying, but yes, I am without a software developer and we are looking for a simple and cost effective, not a custom (and probably expensive) solution.

It would be, I think, really useful to be able to have some functionality, within SQSP that allowed data to be exported after a sale into something else, even just a google doc, like we can do if someone fills in a form. That would open the world up to possibilities. 

Thanks again for your help.

I would love this kind of feature as well. I am a software developer and can create a custom solution, but it would really make sense for SQSP to make this a feature

I too would love this feature. I am not sure why there is not a greater range of triggers that you can use in Zapier? SQSP only allows Zapier to be used with form submissions, but if the full Commerce API was available through Zapier, it would transform the usefulness of SQSP. Any plans for that, does anyone know?