Automating Bulk Course Purchases with Shopify and DigitalChalk

The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), a UK-based institution with over 31,000 chemical and process engineer members, needed help integrating Shopify and DigitalChalk, their Learning Management System (LMS).

The challenge centered around multi-user course purchases on Shopify, where employers would purchase multiple seats for courses, but IChemE had to manually collect employee details and input them into DigitalChalk. This manual process was inefficient and prone to delays.

Before automation, IChemE handled single-user purchases easily, but bulk orders required them to email employers to gather employee details (names and emails), then manually register each person in DigitalChalk. This process was time-consuming and made it hard to track registrations accurately.

We created a couple Zapier-based workflow to solve this.

When a multi-user purchase was detected on Shopify, an email was sent to the employer with a link to a dynamic JotForm. Some key parameters where passed over the URL as order number and number of seats.

Employers could input employee details directly into the form, which adjusted based on the number of seats purchased.

After submission, the workflow checked if employees had DigitalChalk accounts, creating new ones if necessary, and then registered them for the course automatically.

By leveraging Shopify SKUs, the correct course IDs were passed seamlessly to DigitalChalk, ensuring accurate course enrollments.

The outcome? IChemE saw a dramatic reduction in manual work. What previously took hours to manage was now fully automated, giving them time back to focus on delivering high-quality training.

Employees also experienced a smoother registration process, ensuring they could access their courses quickly and without hassle.