Is it possible to use Shopify only for checkout? I have my own DB and CMS

Question

I am using a CMS to generate products and host my products on my website. Is there a way to use Shopify for Checkout/Cart and payment? The idea is to have users come to my site, and when they click on the Add To Cart button on my product page NOT on Shopify, it will then post to Shopify and use their Cart as the cart and payment processor. I found something like this here (https://docs.shopify.com/manual/configuration/store-customization/page-specific/cart-page/adding-to-the-cart-from-a-remote-website)

However, it does not explain if I need to have the products in the Shopify system or not. Do I need to have my products in the Shopify system as well? Or can I have my CMS be my product holder and configuration and just pass values to Shopify using a form post and having that work?

Do the products have to exist in Shopify in order to use Shopify's cart and payment system?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

As you can see in the docs the code needed for add to cart requires a variant id which means the item needs to be in your shopify account. However it is easy enough to set up a private app to which your CMS can send product posts to and get back the variant ids needed for the integration. You can also use this to update prices and descriptions so that the cart info stays consistent with your CMS.