How to Sync Shopify Customers to HubSpot with n8n

n8n Dashboard > Workflows > + New Workflow

Create a new workflow in n8n

Log into your n8n instance and click the orange '+ New Workflow' button in the top-right corner of the Workflows dashboard. Give the workflow a clear name like 'Shopify → HubSpot Customer Sync' so it's easy to find later. You'll land on the canvas with a single empty trigger node waiting to be configured. n8n saves drafts automatically, so you won't lose progress if you close the tab.

1. 1Click '+ New Workflow' in the top-right corner
2. 2Click the pencil icon next to 'My Workflow' and rename it to 'Shopify → HubSpot Customer Sync'
3. 3Click the empty trigger node in the center of the canvas to open the node selector

Canvas > Trigger Node > Search 'Shopify' > Shopify Trigger

Add a Shopify webhook trigger

In the node selector panel, search for 'Shopify' and select the Shopify Trigger node. Set the event to 'Order Created' — this fires whenever a customer completes a purchase, which also captures new customer registrations made during checkout. n8n will generate a unique webhook URL for this trigger; copy it immediately because you'll paste it into Shopify in the next step. Do not use the polling-based Shopify node here — webhook delivery is near-instant while polling checks every 15 minutes at best.

1. 1Type 'Shopify' in the node search box
2. 2Click 'Shopify Trigger' from the results list
3. 3Set the 'Topic' dropdown to 'orders/create'
4. 4Click 'Copy Webhook URL' and save it to a text editor

Shopify Admin > Settings > Notifications > Webhooks > Create Webhook

Register the webhook in Shopify

In your Shopify Admin, navigate to Settings > Notifications and scroll to the bottom of the page to find the Webhooks section. Click 'Create webhook', set the Event to 'Order creation', the Format to 'JSON', and paste the n8n webhook URL into the URL field. Set the API version to the latest stable release (currently 2024-01). Click 'Save webhook' — Shopify will immediately send a test POST to verify the URL is reachable, so your n8n workflow must be active and saved before this step.

1. 1Go to Shopify Admin and click 'Settings' in the bottom-left sidebar
2. 2Click 'Notifications', then scroll to the 'Webhooks' section at the bottom
3. 3Click 'Create webhook'
4. 4Set Event to 'Order creation', Format to 'JSON', and paste the n8n URL
5. 5Set API version to '2024-01' and click 'Save webhook'

n8n Canvas > Shopify Trigger Node > Listen for Test Event

Test the trigger with a real Shopify event

Back in n8n, click 'Listen for Test Event' on the Shopify Trigger node. Then in Shopify, go to your store's admin and place a test order using Shopify's 'Bogus Gateway' payment method — this simulates a real order without charging a card. Within 5-10 seconds, n8n should receive the webhook payload. Click through the received data to confirm you can see fields like customer.email, customer.first_name, customer.last_name, and line_items. This sample data will autocomplete field references in all downstream nodes.

1. 1Click the Shopify Trigger node to open its panel
2. 2Click 'Listen for Test Event' — the node enters waiting state
3. 3In Shopify Admin, go to Orders > Create Order, add a product, apply Bogus Gateway, and complete checkout
4. 4Return to n8n and confirm the payload has arrived

Canvas > + after Trigger > Search 'Code' > Code Node

Add a Code node to extract and clean customer data

Click the '+' button after the trigger node and add a 'Code' node. This is where you extract the fields you need and normalize them before they hit HubSpot. Paste the transformation code from the Pro Tip section below into the JavaScript editor. The code pulls customer email, name, phone, and Shopify customer ID, converts total_spent from Shopify's string format (e.g. '149.99') to a float, and builds the last_order_date in ISO format that HubSpot expects. Run the node against your test data to confirm the output shape before moving on.

1. 1Click the '+' connector after the Shopify Trigger node
2. 2Search for 'Code' and select the Code node
3. 3Set the language to 'JavaScript'
4. 4Paste the transformation code into the editor
5. 5Click 'Test Step' to run it against the sample payload

Paste this into the Code node (Step 5) positioned between the Shopify Trigger and the HubSpot Search node. It extracts and normalizes all customer fields, handles guest checkout null cases, converts Shopify's string prices to floats, and formats dates to the ISO 8601 'YYYY-MM-DD' format HubSpot's date picker properties require.

// n8n Code Node — Shopify to HubSpot Customer Data Transformer
// Position: between Shopify Trigger and HubSpot Search node
const order = items[0].json;

// n8n Code Node — Shopify to HubSpot Customer Data Transformer
// Position: between Shopify Trigger and HubSpot Search node

const order = items[0].json;
const customer = order.customer;

// Guard: skip guest checkouts with no customer email
if (!customer || !customer.email) {
  // Return empty array — n8n will stop this execution branch cleanly
  return [];
}

// Normalize email to lowercase to prevent HubSpot duplicates
const email = customer.email.toLowerCase().trim();

// Parse total_price from string to float (Shopify always sends as string)
const totalSpent = parseFloat(order.total_price) || 0;

// Format order date to YYYY-MM-DD for HubSpot date picker properties
const rawDate = new Date(order.created_at);
const lastOrderDate = rawDate.toISOString().split('T')[0]; // e.g. '2024-03-14'

// Extract billing address fields (may be null for digital-only orders)
const billing = order.billing_address || {};

// Build the normalized output object
const normalized = {
  email: email,
  firstname: customer.first_name || '',
  lastname: customer.last_name || '',
  phone: customer.phone || billing.phone || '',
  shopify_customer_id: String(customer.id),
  last_order_date: lastOrderDate,
  total_spent: totalSpent,
  orders_count: customer.orders_count || 1,
  city: billing.city || '',
  country: billing.country || '',
  // Flag for downstream logic: is this a repeat buyer?
  is_repeat_customer: (customer.orders_count || 1) > 1,
};

return [{ json: normalized }];

Canvas > + after Code Node > HubSpot > Contact > Search

Search HubSpot for an existing contact

Add a HubSpot node after the Code node. Set the Resource to 'Contact' and the Operation to 'Search'. Use the customer's email address from the Code node output as the search filter — set Property to 'email', Operator to 'Equal to', and Value to the email expression. This step determines whether the customer already exists in HubSpot so you can either create a new contact or update the existing one. HubSpot's contact search returns the full contact record including the internal contact ID (vid) which you'll need for the update path.

1. 1Click '+' after the Code node and search for 'HubSpot'
2. 2Select the HubSpot node, set Resource to 'Contact', Operation to 'Search'
3. 3Under Filters, set Property Name to 'email', Operator to 'Equal to'
4. 4Set the Value field to the email expression from the Code node: {{ $json.email }}
5. 5Click 'Test Step' to confirm it returns results or an empty array

Canvas > + after HubSpot Search > IF Node

Add an IF node to branch on contact existence

Add an IF node after the HubSpot Search node. Set the condition to check whether the search returned any results: use the expression {{ $json.total }} and check if it is greater than 0. The 'true' branch handles existing contacts (update path), and the 'false' branch handles new contacts (create path). This prevents creating duplicate contacts in HubSpot when a customer makes their second or third purchase. Connect both branches to their respective HubSpot operations in the next two steps.

1. 1Click '+' after the HubSpot Search node and add an IF node
2. 2Set Condition type to 'Number'
3. 3Set Value 1 to {{ $node['HubSpot'].json.total }}
4. 4Set Operator to 'Greater Than', Value 2 to 0
5. 5Confirm the node shows two output connectors labeled 'true' and 'false'

Canvas > IF Node (false branch) > HubSpot > Contact > Create

Create a new HubSpot contact (false branch)

Connect the 'false' output of the IF node to a new HubSpot node. Set Resource to 'Contact' and Operation to 'Create'. Map each field from the Code node output to the corresponding HubSpot property using the field mapping table below. At minimum, set email, firstname, lastname, phone, and the custom properties for shopify_customer_id and last_order_date. Make sure you reference the Code node output using $node['Code'].json.fieldname rather than the HubSpot Search node output — the data path here comes from two nodes back.

1. 1Drag a new HubSpot node from the node palette onto the canvas
2. 2Connect the 'false' output of the IF node to this HubSpot node
3. 3Set Resource to 'Contact', Operation to 'Create'
4. 4Map email, firstname, lastname, phone from {{ $node['Code'].json.email }} etc.
5. 5Add Additional Fields for shopify_customer_id and last_order_date

Canvas > IF Node (true branch) > HubSpot > Contact > Update

Update an existing HubSpot contact (true branch)

Connect the 'true' output of the IF node to another HubSpot node. Set Resource to 'Contact' and Operation to 'Update'. For the Contact ID field, use the HubSpot Search node's result: {{ $node['HubSpot'].json.results[0].id }}. Map the same fields as the Create node — this overwrites outdated phone numbers, addresses, and purchase data with the latest values from Shopify. You do not need to re-send email on an update since HubSpot uses the contact ID to target the record.

1. 1Drag another HubSpot node onto the canvas
2. 2Connect the 'true' output of the IF node to this node
3. 3Set Resource to 'Contact', Operation to 'Update'
4. 4Set Contact ID to {{ $node['HubSpot'].json.results[0].id }}
5. 5Map firstname, lastname, phone, shopify_customer_id, total_spent, last_order_date from the Code node

Workflow Settings > Error Workflow | Node Settings > Continue on Fail

Add error handling with a catch node

Click the settings gear on both HubSpot nodes (Create and Update) and enable 'Continue on Fail'. Then add an Error Trigger node connected to a Slack or email notification node — this catches any execution that fails at the HubSpot API level and alerts your team before the data gap grows. Without this, a HubSpot API outage or rate limit breach will silently drop customer records and you won't know until your CRM is visibly stale. In n8n, you configure this under Workflow Settings > Error Workflow by pointing to a separate error-handling workflow.

1. 1Click the three-dot menu on the HubSpot Create node and toggle 'Continue on Fail' on
2. 2Do the same for the HubSpot Update node
3. 3Click the workflow name in the top bar, then 'Workflow Settings'
4. 4Under 'Error Workflow', select or create a separate error-notification workflow
5. 5Save the workflow

n8n Canvas > Activate Toggle (top-right) | Left Sidebar > Executions

Activate the workflow and verify end-to-end

Toggle the workflow from 'Inactive' to 'Active' using the switch in the top-right corner of the canvas. Place another test order in Shopify and watch the Executions log in n8n (left sidebar > Executions) to confirm all nodes run green. Check HubSpot Contacts to verify the new record appears with correct field values. Set a calendar reminder to review the Executions log after 48 hours of live traffic — you'll quickly spot any edge cases like orders with missing customer emails (guest checkouts) that need additional handling.

1. 1Click the 'Inactive' toggle in the top-right to switch it to 'Active'
2. 2Place a test order in Shopify using a real or test email
3. 3Click 'Executions' in the n8n left sidebar
4. 4Click the most recent execution and confirm every node shows a green status
5. 5Open HubSpot Contacts and search for the test email to verify the record