FitGate help

FitGate asks shoppers the fitment questions each part needs, such as their vehicle's year, make and model and anything else that decides whether the part fits, and stops orders for parts that don't fit.

• Set up FitGate
• Write fitment rules
• What shoppers see
• What happens at checkout
• Orders: seeing what the shopper answered
• AI shopping assistants
• Find parts that need rules (Scan)
• Edit many rules at once (Bulk edit)
• Settings
• The Dashboard and return costs
• Troubleshooting
• Uninstalling
• Contact us

Requirements: FitGate works with the Online Store and a theme that supports app blocks (Online Store 2.0 themes such as Dawn).

Set up FitGate

Open FitGate from Apps in your Shopify admin. The Get started with FitGate guide on the Rules page walks you through these steps.

1. Choose your fitment levels. These are what shoppers pick first. Pick Auto parts (Year · Make · Model · Submodel · Engine), Bike parts (Brand · Model · Year), or Questions only if your parts don't depend on a vehicle. You can change them later in Settings.
2. Add the fitment box to your product pages. In your Shopify admin go to Online Store → Themes → Customize, open a product page, and add the FitGate fitment check block near the Add to cart button. Save. The box only appears on products that have FitGate rules.
3. Turn on FitGate's checkout rule. Go to Settings → Checkout → Checkout rules, add FitGate's rule and turn it on. Leave "Block checkout if app experiences a problem" unticked. FitGate stops wrong orders itself; that box would also stop every order if FitGate's check ever failed. (If you want the strictest setup, you can tick it. FitGate's Install status then shows "Active (strict)".)
4. Add rules to your first part. See Write fitment rules, or start from a scan.

Check it worked: in FitGate, Settings → Install status shows the checkout rule as Active. Open a part with rules in your online store and you should see the fitment box.

Write fitment rules

Go to Rules, find the product and open it. A product with rules is Protected.

Which vehicles fit. Each selection is one group of vehicles the part fits, for example 2018–2022 · Honda · Civic. Add as many selections as you need. Leave a level blank to mean "any": a blank Submodel fits every submodel. If a level is Required in Settings and you leave it blank, FitGate warns you; shoppers are still asked for it, and any answer fits.

Questions. Add a question when the vehicle alone doesn't decide the fit, for example "Which body style?" or "Does your truck have the tow package?".

1. Click Add question and write it in Question the buyer must answer.
2. List the Answer options, one per line.
3. Turn on the switch for every answer that fits. The others don't fit.
4. Optional:
   • "I don't know". Choose whether to offer it on this question, and what to tell a shopper who picks it (for example how to check). A shopper who isn't sure can still buy; their order shows they didn't know, so you can follow up.
   • Message when the answer doesn't fit, for example "This bumper only fits the sedan."
   • A part that fits instead: pick the answer it applies to, then give a link or a SKU. Shoppers see "See the version that fits →".

Rules for one variant. Rules normally apply to every variant of the product. To give one variant its own rules, choose that variant at the top of the editor. A variant's own rules replace the product's. Variants with no rules of their own, on a product with no product rules, aren't checked at all.

Save. The part is protected straight away: the box appears on its page and checkout checks it.

Size limit. Each product's rules have a size limit, which gets a little smaller as your store adds levels. If a rule is too big, FitGate says so when you save; split very long vehicle lists across fewer, broader selections.

What shoppers see

On a protected part, the fitment box asks for the vehicle, then shows all the part's questions at once. As soon as the shopper has answered, it shows one of these:

When checkout blocking is on, your theme's own Add to cart and Buy it now buttons are switched off on protected parts, so shoppers add the part through the box. That way their answers always go with the part. If a shopper picks a variant that has no rules, the box hides and your theme's buttons work as normal.

What happens at checkout

FitGate's checkout rule checks every protected part in the cart. If a part has no answers, an answer that doesn't fit, or a missing level, checkout stops and tells the shopper which part it is and what to do, for example:

Front bumper: needs fitment confirmation before checkout. Answer the fitment questions here: yourstore.com/products/front-bumper

Parts without rules are never checked. Turn checking off at any time with Settings → Block checkout when fitment isn't confirmed.

Very large carts. A cart with many protected parts can be more than FitGate can check at once. Checkout then asks the shopper to remove some items and buy the rest in a separate order. What happens when FitGate can't check a part is up to you; see Settings.

Orders: seeing what the shopper answered

Each protected part in an order has a Fitment line with the vehicle and answers, for example 2020 · Honda · Civic — Body style: Sedan. You see it on the order in your Shopify admin. Shopify's standard packing slip doesn't print it, so check the order in your admin before packing. If the shopper answered "I don't know", the line says so, so you can check with them before shipping.

AI shopping assistants

Shoppers increasingly buy through AI assistants. FitGate's checkout rule checks those orders too: an assistant can't complete a checkout for a protected part without the shopper's answers. Assistants that know FitGate ask the shopper the same questions and hand them a cart link that carries the answers. Assistants that don't know FitGate get the checkout message, which points the shopper to the product page.

Each protected part gets its own cart link, so a shopper buying several protected parts through an assistant places one order per part.

Find parts that need rules (Scan)

Scan reads your products and lists the ones that seem to have fitment information, so you know where to start. Choose where that information lives today, such as Product descriptions, Product tags, Collections or Metafields, and start the scan. You can leave the page while it runs.

The products it finds are listed under Rules → Proposed. Open one to see what the scan found, fill in the rules and click Approve & protect, or click Decline. To work through many at once, use Export as CSV, fill in the file, and import it in Bulk edit.

Edit many rules at once (Bulk edit)

Bulk edit (CSV) exports your rules and return costs to a spreadsheet and imports them back.

1. Export. Choose what to include and click Export. You can leave the page; when it's done, click Download.
2. Edit the file in Excel, Google Sheets or similar. Each row is one selection of a product. The status column can protect a product (protected) or remove its rules (unprotected, on every row of that product).
3. Import. Drop the file in the Import box. FitGate checks it and shows a preview of every change before anything is saved. Click Apply to save. Rows with problems are listed with the reason, and Download skipped rows gives you just those rows to fix.

Recent jobs, at the bottom of the page, lists your recent exports and imports.

Settings

• Fitment levels. What shoppers choose first and in what order. For each level, choose its type (a range such as years, or a list of names), whether it's Required, and whether to Hide from buyers. You can't remove a level your rules still use; FitGate checks before saving and tells you which products to change first.
• Buyer questions. The wording of the "I don't know" answer, and an optional "My selection isn't listed" link to your contact page.
• Checkout blocking.
  • Block checkout when fitment isn't confirmed: on by default. Off means FitGate still asks and advises but never stops an order.
  • When FitGate can't fully check a part: what to do in the rare case a part's rules can't be read, or a cart is too large to check. Block checkout (the default) is safest: the shopper is told which part couldn't be checked. Let the order through means fewer blocked orders. Wrong or missing answers are blocked either way.
• Return cost. How the Dashboard turns blocked orders into money saved; see below.
• Install status. Whether the checkout rule is active.
• Support tools → Resync. Sends all your rules to FitGate's service again. Use it if a part's box behaves as if it has old rules, or if support asks you to.

The Dashboard and return costs

The Dashboard shows the orders FitGate stopped: by product, the most recent blocks with the vehicle chosen, and What FitGate is worth, the return costs those blocks avoided.

Set how a return is costed in Settings → Return cost: one average cost for every product, a percentage of each variant's price, or specific costs per product on the Return costs page.

Troubleshooting

The fitment box doesn't show on a product.

• Check the product has rules: it shows Protected on the Rules page.
• Check the FitGate fitment check block is in your product template (Online Store → Themes → Customize).
• If only some variants have rules, the box only shows on those variants.

Checkout doesn't stop a wrong order.

• Settings → Install status should show the checkout rule as Active. If not, turn it on in Settings → Checkout → Checkout rules.
• Block checkout when fitment isn't confirmed must be on.

The box says "We can't verify fitment right now — please try again." FitGate's service couldn't be reached, or doesn't have the part's latest rules. Wait a minute and reload. If it keeps happening, run Settings → Support tools → Resync and contact us.

A shopper says checkout asks them to answer questions they already answered. Their cart was probably made outside the fitment box, for example from an old cart link. Ask them to remove the part and add it again from its product page.

Checkout says a cart has too many parts to check. Ask the shopper to split the order. To let such orders through instead, change When FitGate can't fully check a part to Let the order through.

Uninstalling

Uninstall FitGate from Settings → Apps in your Shopify admin. Before you do:

• If FitGate's rule is still listed in Settings → Checkout → Checkout rules, remove it.
• Remove the FitGate fitment check block from your theme.
• Optional: export your rules in Bulk edit first, so you have a copy.

Rules and settings FitGate saved in your store stay there until you delete them. What FitGate keeps on its own servers is deleted after you uninstall; see the privacy policy.

Contact us

Email support@centaurapps.com. We aim to reply within one business day.