Move beyond Commerce Vision without losing the workflows your business depends on.
Considering Shopify Plus? Pipelabs can help you assess what should move, what should stay in your ERP, and how to support the pricing, customer accounts and ordering processes your buyers rely on.
Tell us what’s working, what isn’t, and what you need to keep. We’ll have a practical conversation about your options for moving to Shopify. No pitch, no pressure, and no ongoing follow-up unless you want to continue.
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Modernise the customer experience while keeping the appropriate operational systems connected.
Soundbay moved from Commerce Vision to Shopify Plus
Pipelabs helped Soundbay build a flexible, multi-brand commerce platform while keeping Pronto Xi connected to the operations behind Store DJ and Manny’s.
Still exploring your options?
Read the free Commerce Vision to Shopify migration guide. It covers the key decisions around ERP integration, pricing, customer accounts and ordering.
Tell us what needs to keep working.
Let us know what’s working, what isn’t, and what you need to keep. We’ll have a practical, pressure-free conversation about your options.
Understand what changes, and what may remain in place
Moving away from Commerce Vision does not mean every system, process or historical record must be replaced. Discovery determines what should move to Shopify, what should remain in the ERP and where Pocketknife may be required to connect the experience.
| Commerce layer | Potential migration approach |
|---|---|
| Customer-facing storefront | Moves to Shopify Plus |
| Product discovery and content | Rebuilt using the appropriate Shopify storefront approach |
| Customer accounts | Mapped into Shopify and Pocketknife based on the required account structure |
| Contract pricing | Can continue to come from the ERP through an agreed integration model |
| Products and inventory | Ownership and synchronisation are defined during discovery |
| Quotes and approvals | Recreated using Shopify-native functionality, Pocketknife or custom workflows as required |
| Orders and backorders | Connected to the ERP based on the agreed operational process |
| Invoices and account balances | Can be made available through the customer portal where supported by the connected systems |
| Historical information | Migrated, archived or made accessible according to business and compliance needs |
| Warehouse and logistics processes | Preserved where appropriate and validated through end-to-end testing |
| Commerce Vision customisations | Assessed individually to determine whether they should be replaced, improved or retired |
The final migration approach depends on the merchant’s Commerce Vision configuration, ERP, data quality, integrations and business requirements.
Modernise the storefront without disconnecting the operations behind it
Slow customer-experience change
Frontend improvements, content updates and new buying experiences can become difficult or time-consuming to deliver.
Manual B2B workflows
Pricing, quotes, approvals, account management and ordering may depend on emails, spreadsheets or disconnected systems.
Limited flexibility
Custom experiences, multi-brand requirements and new commerce initiatives can be difficult to introduce within the existing platform.
ERP dependency
Products, inventory, customers, pricing and orders may still depend on an established ERP that cannot simply be replaced.
Accumulated customisation
Years of platform-specific development can make it difficult to determine which functionality is essential and which should be retired.
See the B2B experience Commerce Vision merchants can build on Shopify
Watch how Pocketknife brings customer-specific information and B2B purchasing workflows into a connected Shopify portal.
Watch a walkthrough of the Pocketknife portal and see how Shopify can support customer-specific pricing, account information and connected B2B purchasing workflows.
View walkthrough video transcript & overview +
In this walkthrough, Loris Campanile, ERP integration and e-commerce specialist at Pipelabs, showcases how Pocketknife transforms Shopify Plus into a fully connected B2B portal for wholesale and distribution operations.
- Customer Login & Authentication: Direct login experience with multi-user organization controls and standard corporate credentials.
- Contract Pricing: Fetching precise contract rates and live volume-break discounts mapped directly from back-office pricing matrixes.
- Active Quotes: Building custom order quantities, creating and downloading itemized PDF quote sheets, and converting them to orders instantly.
- Order Approvals & Budgets: Configuring spending thresholds so subordinate orders are paused and routed to corporate approvers.
- Invoices & Balances: Accessing ERP accounts receivable statements, ledger balances, Net 30/60 terms status, and paying outstanding invoices with credit card checkout.
- ERP Sync & Operations: Ensuring pricing updates, catalogs, inventory levels, and order dispatches are bidirectionally synchronized with operational ERPs (Pronto, Business Central, Apparel21, or bespoke legacy custom systems).
A modern storefront connected to your operational systems
Data can be synchronised in real time, near real time or through scheduled processes depending on the source systems and business requirements.
See how Soundbay moved from Commerce Vision to Shopify Plus
Soundbay, the group behind Store DJ and Manny’s, moved away from a restrictive Commerce Vision environment to create a more flexible multi-brand commerce platform while retaining Pronto Xi as an important operational system.
Soundbay moved away from a restrictive Commerce Vision platform to unlock flexibility and omnichannel growth.
How Soundbay modernised their e-commerce architecture.
As a leading Australian music retail group, Soundbay required deep Pronto ERP integration to operate their multi-brand business. Their legacy Commerce Vision setup had become a bottleneck for customer experience, frontend customisation, and omnichannel capabilities.
The Solution: Pipelabs architected a headless Shopify Plus solution powered by Pocketknife middleware. This enabled Manny's Music and Store DJ to maintain independent, responsive frontends while executing Pronto-driven retail logic, inventory updates, and branch-specific customer workflows in real time.
The Operating Model: Pronto Xi remains the master source of truth, Shopify Plus handles the storefront experience, and Pocketknife synchronises transactions and custom B2B logic.
"As our business continued to grow, we recognised we'd outgrown Commerce Vision and needed a modern commerce platform that could better support our customers and future ambitions.
Migrating from a long-established platform is a significant undertaking, so choosing the right implementation partner was critical. Pipelabs took the time to understand our business, our operational requirements and the complexities of the migration, giving us confidence throughout the entire process.
The result is a unified Shopify Plus platform that not only delivers a significantly better customer experience, but also integrates seamlessly with our existing ERP and business systems.
We're extremely pleased with the outcome and continue to see Pipelabs as a trusted partner as we evolve our commerce platform."
A structured pathway from Commerce Vision to Shopify
Pipelabs plans the transition across data, integrations, customer workflows, testing and launch to reduce disruption and protect essential operational processes.
01
Discovery and strategy
Identify what must be preserved, improved or retired to define the scope and architecture.
Outcome: A defined migration strategy, solution architecture, scope and delivery roadmap.
Discovery and strategy
Identify what must be preserved, improved or retired to define the scope and architecture.
We begin by understanding your business's existing Commerce Vision environment, customer journeys, internal workflows and operational dependencies.
Before proposing the migration, we identify what should be preserved, what can be improved and what no longer needs to move into the new architecture.
02
Data assessment and migration planning
Determine the source of truth for products, customers, pricing and order data.
Outcome: A validated migration plan with clearly defined data ownership.
Data assessment and migration planning
Determine the source of truth for products, customers, pricing and order data.
Moving from Commerce Vision does not mean every piece of historical information should simply be copied into Shopify.
We review products, customers, pricing and order data to determine what should be migrated, cleaned, archived or accessed through an integration. The objective is to place the right information in the right system.
03
ERP and backend integration
Design real-time and scheduled synchronisation between Shopify and your operational systems.
Outcome: An integration model with clear ownership and monitoring.
ERP and backend integration
Design real-time and scheduled synchronisation between Shopify and your operational systems.
We design the architecture so your ERP can remain the operational source of truth.
We define how pricing, inventory, customers, orders and invoices move between Shopify and the systems already running your business, creating reliable and scalable synchronisation.
04
Shopify storefront design and development
Design and develop a high-performing storefront focused on the customer journey.
Outcome: A modern Shopify storefront connected to the processes customers already rely on.
Shopify storefront design and development
Design and develop a high-performing storefront focused on the customer journey.
We design and develop the Shopify storefront around the actual B2B and/or B2C customer journey.
Complex purchasing requirements should feel simple to customers, while the operational systems behind each transaction remain connected.
05
B2B workflow implementation
Configure essential B2B features, customer-specific pricing and custom order flows.
Outcome: Reduce manual processes and administrative overhead for sales and operational teams, without removing the workflows customers rely on.
B2B workflow implementation
Configure essential B2B features, customer-specific pricing and custom order flows.
Since Pipelabs solutions are built for B2B growth on Shopify, we determine what can be handled natively and where Pocketknife is required to deliver real-time ERP connectivity and custom features for complex B2B business flows.
06
Testing, training and launch preparation
Validate the complete commerce ecosystem, data flows and internal processes.
Outcome: A validated platform, trained team and formal launch readiness.
Testing, training and launch preparation
Validate the complete commerce ecosystem, data flows and internal processes.
We believe thorough testing should validate the entire commerce ecosystem, not just the front interface.
We use realistic customer accounts, products, pricing and orders to test the experience across Shopify, Pocketknife and the ERP under various conditions.
07
Launch and ongoing optimisation
Coordinate a safe, phased cutover and establish a roadmap for ongoing improvement.
Outcome: A supported transition and an ongoing roadmap for improving the commerce experience.
Launch and ongoing optimisation
Coordinate a safe, phased cutover and establish a roadmap for ongoing improvement.
We coordinate a detailed, phased cutover across data migrations, backend integrations, customer communications and internal support channels.
Launch is positioned as the beginning of the continuous optimisation phase rather than the end of the project.
View the Commerce Vision migration guide
See the seven decisions involved in moving Commerce Vision data, pricing, customer accounts and ERP-connected workflows to Shopify Plus.
Related Pocketknife capabilities
Each capability is designed to maintain operational continuity and enhance the buyer experience when migrating from Commerce Vision to Shopify Plus.
Shopify B2B portal
Recreate your legacy web store inside a modern, high-converting customer portal built natively on Shopify Plus.
ERP integrations
Ensure Pronto Xi, Business Central or other back-office systems continue to synchronize seamlessly with your new storefront.
Customer-specific pricing
Maintain the correct trade-pricing experience by connecting Shopify with the agreed pricing source and business rules.
Quotes and approvals
Allow customers to build quotes and route orders for internal approval online, removing the need for manual email back-and-forth.
Orders and backorders
Give buyers full visibility over active order statuses, backorder allocations, and repeat ordering directly from their portal.
Invoices and online payments
Streamline your accounts receivable by allowing B2B buyers to view balance statements and pay outstanding invoices online.
Account management
Support multi-user company accounts, custom buyer roles, and complex organizational hierarchies mapped from your operational systems.
Common migration questions
Can customer and historical order data be migrated? +
Yes. Customer records, branch account relationships, shipping addresses, and historical sales order data can be mapped and migrated from Commerce Vision or your ERP into Shopify. This ensures buyers can log in and immediately see their active accounts and historic orders, maintaining business continuity.
Can our ERP remain the source of truth? +
Absolutely. Your ERP (such as Pronto Xi, Dynamics 365, or Apparel21) continues to act as the single source of truth for products, master inventory levels, customer contract rates, credit limits, and official sales order processing. Shopify is used as the customer experience and transaction storefront, while Pocketknife orchestrates the logic between them.
How is customer-specific or contract pricing handled? +
Pocketknife maintains direct ERP connectivity to fetch and display the correct contract-specific pricing matrixes, quantity breaks, and promotional discounts in the customer portal. This ensures complex trade terms are preserved precisely as agreed without manually configuring rules in Shopify.
What happens to customer account and branch structures? +
We map your ERP account hierarchies directly to Shopify. This means complex organizations with parent accounts, multiple child branches, and individual buyer contacts with differing levels of spending limits and ordering permissions can log in and purchase seamlessly.
Can existing quotes and approval workflows be recreated? +
Yes. Pocketknife supports full quote-building and order-approval routing. Subordinate buyers can create a cart and submit it for corporate approval, routing it directly to authorized managers who can approve or modify the order online within their portal.
Will the migration affect warehouse and logistics processes? +
No. Orders placed on Shopify Plus flow securely through Pocketknife into your ERP as native sales orders, automatically respecting your existing warehouse codes, stock allocation priority, and shipping/fulfilment methods. Your day-to-day warehouse logistics operations remain completely unaffected.
Can Commerce Vision and Shopify operate in parallel during the transition? +
Yes. During the cutover period, both platforms can be run in parallel. This allows for thorough parallel testing, system validation, and a controlled, phased user migration to ensure the business suffers zero downtime or operational disruption.
How are integrations tested before launch? +
We perform exhaustive end-to-end integration testing in staging environments using duplicate customer accounts, real product data, and test transactions. Every data flow, synchronisation routine, and exception-handling fallback is fully validated and signed off prior to cutover.
How long does a Commerce Vision migration take? +
Migration timing depends on the storefront, data quality, ERP, integrations, custom workflows and testing requirements. An initial discovery process is required before a reliable timeline can be provided.
What determines migration scope and cost? +
Scope and cost are determined by the complexity of your custom B2B workflows, the cleanliness of your existing product and customer database, the number of independent storefronts (brands), the depth of historical records requiring migration, and the specific version and state of your operational ERP.
Which ERP systems can Pocketknife connect with? +
Pocketknife is designed to connect seamlessly with Pronto Xi, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Apparel21, SAP, ASW, and Exact, as well as complex legacy or bespoke in-house operational databases.
What does the free discovery workshop include? +
The free discovery workshop is a dedicated assessment session with Pipelabs' lead solution architects. We map your current Commerce Vision environment, identify ERP dependencies, define catalog and account structures, and outline a low-risk, step-by-step transition roadmap to Shopify Plus.