Installing Scout
Install from the Shopify App Store. Shopify will show the permissions Scout asks for: read access to products, variants, inventory, and basic store details. Every permission is read-only — Scout cannot create, edit, or delete anything in your store. Order access is not requested at install; you'll only be asked for it if you later turn on Conversion Intelligence.
After you approve, Scout opens inside your Shopify admin. There is no separate login.
Connecting your first channel
From the Channels screen, pick a destination. Most connect with a single OAuth sign-in; Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat add a step where you choose the business, advertiser, or ad account that should own the catalog; Walmart asks you to paste API keys generated in Seller Center. Each channel page explains its own steps.
Starter plans include three channels of your choice; Growth and Scale include all ten. You can connect one now and add more later.
What happens on first sync
Scout mirrors your catalog: every product, variant, image, price, and inventory level your store returns, including drafts and archived items. The mirror is then kept current by Shopify webhooks, so later changes arrive within minutes rather than on a schedule.
Nothing is published during first sync. Scout reads; it does not send anything anywhere until you generate and publish a feed.
Your first feed, step by step
- 1Create a feed for the channel you connected.Scout applies that channel's starter template — the required fields, pre-mapped from Shopify.
- 2Preview.See the real resulting items without writing anything. Free, repeatable.
- 3Validate.Runs the rules and checks against the channel's field requirements. Warnings name the field.
- 4Fix what's flagged in the Rules Engine.Set, prepend, append, replace, or exclude. Your Shopify products are never edited.
- 5Preflight.Scout asks the channel what it would reject — before spending a submission.
- 6Publish.The one step that can't be undone. Then set a schedule, and Scout repeats the loop for you.
The full explanation of each action is on Feed Management.
What the trial includes
Fourteen days on whichever plan you choose, with no payment method required to start. Everything in that plan is live during the trial — real feeds, real diagnostics, real publishing. At day fourteen, nothing is charged unless you've chosen to continue.
Billing, when it starts, runs through Shopify and appears on your Shopify invoice. Scout never sees a card. Plans and what each includes →
Reaching a human
Email support@meerkatscout.com with your shop domain and, if it helps, the feed or diagnostic you're looking at. Support runs Monday through Friday, excluding US holidays, and aims to respond within one business day. There is no SLA, and there is no chatbot in front of the inbox.
Privacy, legal, and security questions have their own addresses on the Contact page.