Yeah, also:
When using axios with then and catch, you should manually return the response. In my example I omitted then and catch, Axios in this case returns the response automatically.
let externalData = await axios.post('URL', shopifyProduct, axiosConfig)
.then((res) => {
console.log("RESPONSE RECEIVED: ", res.status);
console.log("RESPONSE ", res);
//you've missed the return
return res // <<<<<<<<< That one. Since you had only console logs there it was not returning any data
})