Webhooks are a tool for retrieving and storing data from a certain event. They allow you to register an https:// URL where the event data can be stored in JSON or XML formats. Webhooks are commonly used for:

• Placing an order
• Changing a product’s price
• Notifying your IM client or your pager when you are offline
• Collecting data for data-warehousing
• Integrating your accounting software
• Filtering the order items and informing various shippers about the order
• Removing customer data from your database when they uninstall your app

Shopify webhooks are a fundamental aspect of the Shopify platform’s functionality, allowing merchants to automate processes and integrate external services with their online stores. Essentially, webhooks are notifications sent from Shopify to a specified URL (usually an endpoint of an external service) whenever certain events occur within a store. This enables real-time communication and triggers actions based on those events, such as updating inventory, sending notifications, or syncing data with other systems.

Here’s a brief introduction to Shopify webhooks:

1. Definition: A webhook is a method for applications to communicate with each other in real-time. In the context of Shopify, it’s a way for the platform to notify external services about events that occur within a store.
2. Events: Shopify provides a variety of events that can trigger webhooks, including orders being created, products being updated, customers being created or updated, and many more. You can find a comprehensive list of these events in Shopify’s documentation.
3. Setup: Setting up a webhook involves specifying a URL to which Shopify will send notifications, selecting the events that will trigger those notifications, and configuring any additional parameters required for the webhook.
4. Security: Shopify uses HTTPS to ensure secure communication between its platform and the webhook endpoint. Additionally, each webhook request includes a signature, allowing the receiving server to verify the authenticity of the request and ensure that it originated from Shopify.
5. Usage: Webhooks are commonly used for various purposes, including inventory management, order fulfillment, customer communication, analytics tracking, and more. For example, when a new order is created in a Shopify store, a webhook can be triggered to notify a fulfillment service to process the order and update inventory levels accordingly.
6. Development: Developers can create custom webhook endpoints to handle incoming notifications from Shopify. This typically involves writing code to parse incoming webhook requests, perform the necessary actions based on the event data, and send appropriate responses back to Shopify.
7. Testing: Shopify provides tools for testing webhooks during development, including the ability to send test webhook notifications and view logs of webhook delivery attempts.
8. Best Practices: It’s important to follow best practices when working with webhooks, such as validating webhook requests to ensure they are legitimate, handling retries for failed webhook deliveries, and implementing appropriate security measures to protect sensitive data.

In summary, Shopify webhooks are a powerful mechanism for automating processes and integrating external services with Shopify stores. By leveraging webhooks, merchants can streamline their operations, improve efficiency, and provide a better overall experience for their customers.

https://shopify.dev/docs/api/admin-rest/2024-01/resources/webhook