Feature
Defyn SAM is the connector layer between your Stories Art and Money tenant and your online store. Artists, artworks, editions, products, variations, discounts and stock flow one way; orders, donations and gift vouchers flow the other. Every record carries an audit trail so you always know what synced, when, and whether it succeeded.
Works on Shopify and WordPress / WooCommerce.
Art centres without dedicated SAM integration tend to live with one of three workarounds. None of them scale.
Defyn SAM watches SAM via its V3 API and pushes changes to the storefront on the schedule you choose. Storefront events (sales, donations, gift vouchers) post back to SAM the moment they happen.
SAM's full category tree pulls into a private sam_cat taxonomy. The category mapping screen lets you route SAM categories into shopper-friendly display buckets.
Artist records sync as a dedicated Artist post type (WP) or Metaobject (Shopify) with biographies, language groups, photographs and any custom profile types you've configured in SAM.
Each one-of-a-kind artwork, limited edition print run, and stock product syncs with full metadata: title, description, dimensions, pricing, photographs, GST flag, edition number, artist link.
Stock changes arrive via authenticated webhook within seconds; scheduled syncs catch anything the webhook missed. Discount campaigns mirror as WooCommerce coupons / Shopify discount codes so customers can use them at checkout.
Every storefront sale builds a SAM /store/sales payload. Donations and gift vouchers flow via the same endpoint with the right SAM category mapping. Failures retry with exponential backoff via Action Scheduler (WP) or Inngest (Shopify).
Scenario: An artist drops a new painting at the centre. Coordinator photographs it and enters the record in SAM.
Result: Within the next scheduled sync, the artwork is live on the storefront with all metadata, photographs and pricing. The coordinator never opens WordPress / Shopify admin.
Scenario: A customer buys a one-of-a-kind piece at 3am on a Saturday.
Result: The order pushes to SAM as a sales record within seconds. Stock for that piece is decremented (already at zero since it was one-of-a-kind). The next sync confirms the product disappears from the storefront. No oversold pieces.
Scenario: SAM runs a 10% NAIDOC discount campaign for two weeks.
Result: The discount mirrors as a WC coupon / Shopify discount code via the next sync. Customers apply the code at checkout. The discount is carried back in the order payload so SAM's books reflect the correct receipt.
Schedules from 1 hour to manual-only are supported. Stock changes don't wait for the schedule — they arrive via SAM webhook within seconds of the change in SAM. So even on a daily catalogue sync, stock stays current.
Manually-created products live alongside synced ones. The plugin tags everything it syncs with a sam_id post meta, and only manages records with that meta. Anything you created by hand is untouched.
The order is queued via Action Scheduler (WP) or Inngest (Shopify) and retried with exponential backoff. The customer experience is unaffected — they get their order confirmation immediately. The push to SAM completes when SAM comes back.
Categories, artists, artworks, editions, products, variations and discounts are inbound (SAM → store). Orders, donations and gift vouchers are outbound (store → SAM). Stock flows inbound via webhook + scheduled sync. The pattern matches where each record's source of truth lives.
Yes. The Sync Dashboard has buttons for full and partial syncs — Categories, Artists, Artworks, Editions, Products, Discounts, or Sync All. Useful for testing or after bulk edits in SAM.
Want a 15-minute screenshare against your actual SAM data? Send us a quick note or call — we’ll line up a walkthrough at a time that suits.
