Case Study: Custom Shopify Plugin Eliminates 15+ Hours of Manual Pricing Work

The Challenge: A Manual Pricing Nightmare

A fast-growing Shopify merchant managing a catalogue of 145,000+ SKUs sourced from 10+ distinct vendors faced a major operational bottleneck.

"Each vendor has different wholesale agreements requiring specific markup percentages. Manually updating prices when products are added or costs change was consuming 15+ hours per week and prone to human error."

Compounding this, the client had to manage varying tax rules: some vendor feeds included VAT (inclusive), while others were exclusive of VAT. Shopify's native tools couldn't handle this variation, leading to a risk of losing revenue or double-taxing customers.

Key Pain Points

Time Sink: 15+ hours per week spent on manual price calculation
Margin Loss: Errors resulting in missed profit margins or over/under-charging customers
Tax Complexity: No systematic way to account for vendor-specific VAT inclusive/exclusive pricing
Delayed Updates: Slow, post-import price reviews delayed time-to-market for new products

Our Solution: Vendor Pricing App

We custom-developed the Vendor Pricing App—a dedicated, automated Shopify application designed to handle complex, vendor-based pricing and tax logic instantly.

Core Features & Benefits

Feature	Strategic Benefit
Automatic Markup Rules	Set vendor-specific markup and VAT logic once; applies instantly and consistently forever
Real-time Webhooks	Prices update instantly on product create/update, ensuring accuracy from the moment of import
VAT Logic Integration	Systematically differentiates and calculates prices for VAT-inclusive and VAT-exclusive vendor feeds
Scalable Architecture	Designed to handle 10k+ products and high-volume operations without lag
Bulk Sync & Prevention	One-click to re-apply all rules, plus smart loop-prevention ensures stable pricing

Technical Implementation

Architecture Overview

Our solution utilises Shopify's event-driven architecture to ensure price updates are immediate and non-intrusive.

The app connects to the Shopify store via webhooks, processes pricing logic through our custom application, and updates variants via the GraphQL API.

Technology Stack

Framework: Remix (React + Node.js)
Database: Prisma ORM with PostgreSQL
API: Shopify GraphQL Admin API for high-performance variant price updates
UI: Shopify Polaris design system for a native, seamless merchant experience

The Pricing Calculation Flow

Webhook Triggered: Shopify sends a product event (products/create or products/update)
Vendor Lookup: App identifies the product's vendor and retrieves its rule set (Markup %, VAT treatment)
Price Calculation: The app performs the appropriate calculation including VAT logic
Update Applied: A GraphQL mutation updates the product's variant prices
Loop Detection: A product Metafield tracks the processed state to prevent infinite update loops

Results: Automated Accuracy

The Vendor Pricing App eliminated manual tasks and instantly improved financial accuracy across the entire catalogue.

Before vs. After

Metric	Before	After	Impact
Price Update Time	15+ hours/week	0 hours (Automated)	100% Reduction
Pricing Errors	~5% of products	0%	Eliminated Margin Loss
New Product Pricing	24-48 hour delay	Instant (Real-time)	Faster Time-to-Market
Tax Compliance Risk	High (VAT discrepancies)	Zero (Automated Logic)	Guaranteed Accuracy

Key Business Impact

100% reduction in manual pricing labour, freeing up the merchant team for growth activities
Eliminated revenue loss caused by pricing errors and tax calculation mistakes
Instant, scalable price synchronisation, regardless of catalogue size or import method

Client Testimonial

"The Vendor Pricing App has completely transformed how we manage supplier markups. What used to take half a workweek now happens automatically and without error. We've eliminated pricing mistakes, solved our VAT complexity, and can finally focus on growing the business."

Project Details

Project Duration: 1 week
App Status: Production-ready and running in client's store
Catalogue Size: 145,000+ SKUs across 10+ vendors

Ready for Custom Shopify Development?

If you're facing complex e-commerce challenges that Shopify's native tools can't solve, we can build custom solutions tailored to your specific needs.