Shopify Public App Developer Needed — POD Product Design, Mapping and Fulfillment Integration

PROJECT OVERVIEW We are an established Print on Demand company building a custom platform that connects merchants’ Shopify stores to our fulfillment operation. We are hiring an experienced Shopify app developer, or a small qualified team, to build the first module of a larger end-to-end Print on Demand platform. This first module will cover: Public Shopify app development Shopify store connection and onboarding Product catalog Mobile-friendly product design studio Creation and publishing of new Shopify products Mapping existing Shopify products and variants Shopify fulfillment-location configuration Shopify order intake Manual and sample orders Merchant dashboard Internal administration Future modules will include procurement and inventory, production management, shipping, invoicing, customer-service workflows, and reporting. The application’s architecture must support these future modules without requiring the first module to be rebuilt. MAIN USER WORKFLOW A merchant should be able to: Install our app from the Shopify App Store. Connect and synchronize their Shopify store. Select products from our Print on Demand catalog. Select available colors and sizes. Upload and position their artwork. Create product mockups. Set product descriptions, pricing, SKUs, and shipping settings. Publish the finished product and variants to Shopify. Map existing Shopify products and variants to our products. Route eligible Shopify orders to our fulfillment operation. Create manual orders for samples, influencers, promotions, replacements, or customers. View their products, mappings, orders, and synchronization issues from a dashboard. PUBLIC SHOPIFY APP The developer will build a production-ready embedded public Shopify app. Requirements include: Shopify OAuth installation Secure support for multiple merchants and stores Embedded Shopify Admin experience Merchant onboarding Shopify App Bridge and Polaris-compatible interface Shopify GraphQL Admin API integration Secure webhook processing Required Shopify compliance webhooks Protected customer-data compliance App uninstall and data-cleanup handling Responsive mobile experience Shopify App Store listing and submission assistance Resolution of technical issues raised during Shopify’s review We already have a Shopify Partner account and Shopify development stores. STORE AND FULFILLMENT CONNECTION When a merchant installs the app, the system should: Connect and synchronize the Shopify store Configure our company as a Shopify fulfillment service Create or identify the associated Shopify fulfillment location Route eligible fulfillment orders to our operation Import relevant store and shipping information Retrieve available Shopify delivery or shipping profiles Allow Shopify shipping options to be mapped to our supported shipping methods Display connection and synchronization status Handle failed connections and synchronization retries Avoid interfering with products fulfilled from the merchant’s other locations Existing Shopify products must not be reassigned to our fulfillment location without the merchant’s confirmation. PRINT-ON-DEMAND PRODUCT CATALOG Our staff must be able to create and manage a catalog containing: Product brand and style Product type Description Product images Available colors and sizes Product variants Base cost Print locations Printable-area dimensions SKU rules Pricing rules Product availability Production requirements Products and variants must be capable of being activated, deactivated, and updated. The catalog’s data structure should support future connections to our procurement and inventory module. MOBILE-FRIENDLY DESIGN STUDIO The application must include an initial custom product design studio. The merchant should be able to: Choose a product Select colors and sizes Upload artwork, initially as PNG files Select front, back, or left-chest placement Move, resize, and rotate artwork View the allowed printable area Enter or view physical print dimensions Receive image-resolution or DPI warnings Preview the design on the product Save the design as a draft Reopen and edit a saved design Generate or save product mockups The original artwork and exact production instructions must be preserved. Production files cannot be created only from low-resolution browser screenshots. The design studio must support touch controls and work properly on current mobile browsers. CREATE AND PUBLISH PRODUCTS The merchant should be able to create a new product using our catalog and publish it to Shopify. The system must: Create Shopify products and variants Assign a unique SKU to each variant Apply configurable SKU-generation rules Apply configurable pricing or markup rules Upload product descriptions and mockups Store Shopify product and variant IDs Connect every Shopify variant to the correct catalog variant Assign eligible variants to our fulfillment location Allow products to be saved as drafts Display publishing progress and errors Allow failed publishing operations to be retried safely MAP EXISTING SHOPIFY PRODUCTS The app must import a merchant’s existing Shopify products and categorize them as: Connected Not connected Ignored Draft Publishing failed The merchant should be able to: Search and filter products Select an existing Shopify product Match it to a product in our catalog Map individual Shopify variants Match colors and sizes Upload or select artwork Define artwork placement Confirm SKUs Confirm assignment to our fulfillment location Save and edit the mapping Ignore products that we will not fulfill Identify incomplete or conflicting mappings Mapping must be performed at the variant level. Every mapped variant must have a corresponding product, size, color, artwork file, and print placement. PRODUCT SYNCHRONIZATION The system should synchronize relevant product information between Shopify and our platform, including: Products and variants Product status Variant status SKUs Titles and descriptions where appropriate Images and mockups Pricing where applicable Fulfillment assignment Mapping status Archived or deleted products and variants The app must include synchronization logs, understandable failure messages, and safe retry functionality. SHOPIFY ORDER INTAKE When an eligible Shopify fulfillment order is assigned to our location, the application should: Receive and store the order Store the order’s line items Connect line items to their product and variant mappings Store artwork and production instructions Store customer shipping information Prevent duplicate order imports Identify unmapped or invalid order items Display orders in the merchant dashboard Prepare orders for later production, invoicing, and shipping modules The complete production workflow is not included in this module. This module must correctly receive and prepare orders for future processing. MANUAL AND SAMPLE ORDERS Merchants must be able to create orders directly from the dashboard. These orders may include: Product samples Influencer shipments Promotional shipments Internal orders Replacements Manual customer orders The merchant should be able to: Select mapped products and variants Enter quantities Enter the recipient’s shipping address Select an available shipping method Add internal notes Review and submit the order The merchant will not be charged when the order is created. The order will be marked as awaiting invoicing. A future invoicing module will charge the merchant when eligible orders are included in an invoice batch and before they are released to production. The system’s data model must be designed to support future invoice batches and production batches. MERCHANT DASHBOARD The merchant dashboard should include: Connected stores Products Connected and unconnected products Draft products Publishing failures Incoming Shopify orders Manual and sample orders Mapping issues Synchronization status Search and filtering Clear error and resolution messages The entire dashboard must be responsive and mobile-friendly. Desktop tables must adapt into usable mobile views without horizontal scrolling. INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION Our staff will need an administrative interface to manage: Merchant accounts Connected stores Product catalog Product variants Print placements and printable areas SKU rules Pricing rules Product mappings Artwork and mockups Imported Shopify orders Manual and sample orders Synchronization failures Webhook activity Application configuration The application must use role-based permissions to separate merchant access from internal administrative access. CURRENT TECHNOLOGY Our existing environment includes: Shopify Partner account Shopify development stores GitHub Supabase and PostgreSQL Railway Cloudflare We are open to architectural recommendations. Applicants should explain any recommended changes, including the reasons, expected costs, and long-term benefits. DELIVERABLES The selected developer must provide: Working production application Clean and documented source code Regular commits to a repository controlled by us Database design and migrations Secure configuration management Automated tests for critical workflows Background processing and safe retry handling Logging and error monitoring Development, staging, and production environments Deployment documentation Architecture and API documentation Administrator documentation Assistance with Shopify App Store submission and review Knowledge transfer Full transfer of the finished source code and intellectual property A 30-day post-launch period for correction of defects within the agreed scope REQUIRED EXPERIENCE Applicants should have experience with: Public Shopify app development Shopify App Store approval Shopify GraphQL Admin API Shopify fulfillment services and fulfillment orders Shopify locations and inventory assignment Shopify product and variant creation Shopify webhooks Shopify App Bridge and Polaris OAuth and multi-tenant applications React and TypeScript PostgreSQL Background jobs and synchronization Secure artwork and file storage Responsive mobile applications Canvas-based graphics or product-design applications Production deployment, monitoring, and security Experience with Print on Demand, apparel, fulfillment, product personalization, or product-mapping applications is strongly preferred.