Connect a module

Retail Express

Connect Retail Express to ShopMCP so Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and other MCP clients can answer questions about products, stock, customers, suppliers, purchasing, sales, payments, and fulfilment.

Read access is live

Every workspace can connect Retail Express and use its read tools. Customer connections are read-only. Retail Express write tools remain restricted to ShopMCP admins during controlled QA.

Before you start

A Retail Express client with API access enabled.
A dedicated Retail Express API key for that client.
Owner or admin access to the ShopMCP workspace you want to connect.

Retail Express issues API keys per client. If your team does not already have one, ask your Retail Express account owner or contact Retail Express to confirm API licensing and request a key. Do not send the key by email or paste it into an AI conversation.

1. Get a Retail Express API key

Request a dedicated key for the Retail Express client you intend to connect. Each key only provides access to that client’s data, so use a separate connection for every Retail Express client or retail group you manage.

Read the Retail Express API getting-started guide.
Ask the client account owner to provision or approve a dedicated API key for ShopMCP.
If API access is not enabled, contact Retail Express support or your Retail Express account contact.

2. Connect Retail Express in ShopMCP

Open Settings - Integrations, choose Retail Express, then enter:

Account label - a recognisable name such as Perth stores or Client name - Retail Express.
API key - the complete key issued for that Retail Express client.

Select Connect Retail Express. ShopMCP exchanges the key for a short-lived Retail Express access token, runs a small read request to verify the connection, and stores the API key encrypted at rest. The key is never exposed to your AI client.

3. Confirm the connection

When verification succeeds, the account appears in your connected accounts list. Start with a narrow read so you can confirm the correct Retail Express client and outlets are in scope.

List my Retail Express outlets with their IDs and names.
Show ten active products with SKU, description, price, and available stock.
Which products are low on available stock across my outlets?
Show open purchase orders due in the next 30 days, grouped by supplier.
Summarise orders and payments from yesterday by outlet.

What you can read

ShopMCP exposes 125 read tools from the Retail Express v2.1 REST API. You can ask in plain English; you normally do not need to know the individual tool names.

Retail Express read coverage
Area	Examples
Reference data	Countries, currencies, freight types, shipment types, reasons, statuses, vouchers
Outlets and users	Retail outlets, fulfilment outlets, source outlets, users
Products and pricing	Products, barcodes, attributes, price groups, suppliers, replenishment methods
Inventory	Available stock, outlet inventory, movement logs, stock receipts, transfers
Customers and loyalty	Customers, delivery addresses, customer types, loyalty history, survey segments
Purchasing and suppliers	Suppliers, purchase orders, receipts, invoices, returns, credit notes
Orders and payments	Orders, order items, payment records, return reasons
Fulfilment	Fulfilment orders, order fulfilments, shipping ports and statuses

Write access

Retail Express customer connections are read-only. ShopMCP has implemented 74 write operations for supported customer, catalogue, pricing, purchasing, supplier, stock, and transfer workflows, but those tools are only available to ShopMCP admins during controlled sandbox QA.

Write tools will not appear for normal users

This is expected. Connecting Retail Express does not allow Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or another MCP client to change Retail Express data. A public write release will require separate validation and release approval.

September 2026 API update

Retail Express will retire REST API endpoints that use alternative hostnames in September 2026. ShopMCP already uses the supported canonical base URL: https://api.retailexpress.com.au/v2.1/.

Retail Express also documents response-field changes for orders, outlets, and products, including customer surname fields, outlet currency and source/fulfil outlet fields, and the product carton_quantity type. ShopMCP tracks the current v2.1 specification so users do not need to change the connection URL.

Retail Express says its legacy SOAP APIs are not affected by this hostname change. See the official endpoint-change notice for the complete migration detail.

Troubleshooting

Retail Express rejected the API key - copy the complete key again and confirm it is active for the client you are connecting.
Verification was rate-limited - Retail Express usage limits are shared at client level. Wait a minute, then try again.
The wrong account answered - check the connection label and API key. Each API key is scoped to one Retail Express client.
A write tool is unavailable - customer access is intentionally read-only. Write tools remain restricted to ShopMCP admins.
A legacy workflow is missing - some ecommerce, warehouse, inventory planning, accounting, and notification workflows still use separate Retail Express SOAP or extension APIs and are not part of this v2.1 REST connection.