Platform Consistency
How Cassian compares your Shopify backend data with what visitors actually see on your store.
Platform Consistency
Platform Consistency is the fourth layer of your Cassian Score™, weighted at 15%. It requires an active Shopify connection. This layer checks for something no purely web-based scanner can do: it looks inside your Shopify backend and compares that data to what actually renders on your storefront.
The gap between "what Shopify says" and "what customers see" is where Platform Consistency issues live. These gaps are usually caused by theme bugs, caching problems, or missed sync operations — and most store owners have no idea they exist.
Why this layer exists
Your Shopify backend is your source of truth: product prices, inventory status, variant availability, product images, translated content. Everything you've entered there should be reflected accurately on your storefront.
In practice, it often isn't — and the discrepancies are invisible unless you go looking for them. A product that shows as "In Stock" when Shopify says it's sold out. A price that cached incorrectly after an update. A variant that has images in Shopify but none visible on the product page.
Customers experience these gaps. They just don't file a support ticket — they leave.
Cassian checks this automatically so you don't have to.
What Cassian checks
Product data mismatches
Cassian fetches product data from your Shopify backend (title, price, availability, sale price, compare-at price) and compares it to what's rendered in the storefront HTML on the same page.
Typical mismatches Cassian flags:
- Price discrepancy — The price displayed on the product page doesn't match the Shopify admin price. This can happen when a price was updated in Shopify but the storefront cached the old value.
- Availability mismatch — A product or variant shows as "In Stock" on the storefront but Shopify reports zero inventory (or vice versa).
- Title mismatch — The product title in Shopify differs from what's shown on the page (can happen with custom metafield overrides in themes).
- Sale price rendering — The compare-at price and sale price don't display correctly (sale badge missing, prices shown in wrong order).
Price mismatches are the most serious Platform Consistency issues. Showing a lower price on your storefront than what Shopify charges at checkout is a legal and trust problem. Showing a higher price loses sales. Both are flagged as Critical severity.
Image completeness across variants
Product variants in Shopify can (and should) have images assigned to them. When a customer selects a colour or size variant, the product image should update to show that variant. If a variant has no image assigned, the product page typically shows the main product image — which may not represent the selected variant correctly.
Cassian checks:
- Every variant that exists in Shopify has at least one image assigned
- The image assigned to each variant is referenced in the rendered storefront output
- No variant shows a broken image URL
Where to fix: In Shopify, navigate to the product, scroll to Variants, click on a variant, and assign an image. For stores with many variants, this can be done in bulk via a CSV export.
Translation metafield accuracy
When you use Shopify's translation system (Translate & Adapt, Weglot, or metafield-based translations), translated content is stored as metafields in your Shopify backend. Cassian verifies that the translated metafield values actually render correctly in the translated storefront.
What's checked:
- Translated product descriptions stored as metafields appearing on the correct translated page
- Metafield values not reverting to source-language content on the translated storefront
- Translated content not appearing blank or as placeholder text on the translated page
This check overlaps with Translation Quality but focuses on the platform delivery side — whether the translation infrastructure is correctly wiring translated content to translated pages.
Inventory vs display consistency
Cassian checks that product availability displayed on the storefront is consistent with Shopify inventory:
- Overselling risk: A product marked as available on the storefront when Shopify shows zero inventory and "Do not oversell" enabled. Customers can add to cart and reach checkout before discovering the product is actually unavailable.
- False out-of-stock: A product showing as unavailable on the storefront when inventory exists in Shopify. This one is less common but equally costly — you're turning away customers for products you actually have.
- Variant-level mismatches: A specific variant (e.g., Size M in Blue) showing as unavailable when Shopify says stock exists at that combination.
Inventory mismatches can be transient — they sometimes appear during a brief sync window and resolve within minutes. If Cassian flags an inventory mismatch, trigger a second manual scan to confirm it's persistent before investigating.
Connecting Shopify
Platform Consistency requires an active Shopify connection. Without it, this layer is inactive and contributes 0% to your score.
Go to Sites in the sidebar and click on your store.
Open Settings → Platform.
Click Connect Shopify and follow the OAuth authorisation flow. Cassian requests read-only access to your store's product, inventory, and translation data.
Once connected, the Platform Consistency layer becomes active in your next scan.
The connection is persistent — you don't need to reconnect unless you change your Shopify store URL or want to modify the permissions granted.
What Cassian does NOT do
Cassian requests read-only access to your Shopify store. It does not:
- Modify any product data
- Change prices, inventory, or content
- Access customer data, orders, or payment information
- Write to your Shopify admin in any way
Platform Consistency is a read-and-compare operation. Cassian reads your backend data and flags discrepancies. You fix them.
Where to see Platform Consistency results
- Issues page → filter by "Platform" category. All platform inconsistencies listed by severity with the affected product or page identified.
- Scans page → click any scan → Platform Consistency section shows your layer score and all issues found.
- Dashboard overview → the Platform Consistency card shows your current layer score. If Shopify is not connected, this card shows the layer as inactive.
Platforms other than Shopify
Platform Consistency checks are specific to each platform's backend API. Currently, Shopify is the only fully connected platform. WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, and Medusa connectors are in development.
If your store runs on a platform other than Shopify, Platform Consistency will show as inactive and will not deduct from your score. The other four layers are unaffected and continue to run normally.
Common questions
Do I need to reconnect Shopify after my password or admin changes? No — the connection uses OAuth tokens, not your admin credentials. You only need to reconnect if you explicitly revoke Cassian's access in your Shopify admin (Apps → Manage private apps) or if you move to a different Shopify store URL.
What if my store doesn't use Shopify? Platform Consistency is currently only available for Shopify stores. The layer will show as inactive and won't affect your overall score. WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Medusa connectors are planned for future releases.
My price is correct — why is it flagged as a mismatch? Cassian may have caught a brief caching window — a moment between a price update in Shopify and the CDN cache refreshing across all edge locations. Trigger a manual scan to see if the issue persists. If it does, check your theme's price rendering and your CDN cache TTL settings.
I have 500 products — will all variants be checked? All product and variant data accessible via Shopify's API is fetched and compared against the storefront. For very large catalogues on lower-tier plans, the storefront crawl (which Cassian uses to compare against) is limited by your scan page limit. Upgrading to a higher tier increases the number of storefront pages compared.
Can Cassian fix mismatches automatically? No — Cassian is read-only. It identifies the discrepancy and tells you exactly what differs and on which page. The fix is always made by you in Shopify (or your theme configuration). This is intentional — automated changes to product data without explicit human approval would be a very bad idea.
Is my Shopify store data stored by Cassian? Cassian reads your product data during a scan for comparison purposes. This data is not stored long-term. Cassian stores the comparison results (the issues found) but not the underlying product data snapshot. See the Privacy Policy for full data handling details.