Supplier product feed import to WooCommerce with stock synchronisation

If your shop sells goods from a supplier or wholesaler, entering products by hand and updating stock manually is the first thing that stops the business scaling. A product feed import into WooCommerce means the supplier’s CSV, XML or JSON file or API is read automatically, products are created and updated, and stock stays in sync with the supplier’s warehouse several times a day.

The result is a shop where products go on sale without manual work, prices follow your rules and out-of-stock items disappear before anyone can order them. In the ProSwim e-shop we import the supplier’s feed, merge two stock sources into one and sync stock every few hours; the Nordenbeauty e-shop receives products and stock from a warehouse system feed.

What the work includes

• Feed analysis and field mapping. We go through the supplier’s file or API response and decide which field becomes the product name, description, SKU, EAN/GTIN, price, stock and images.
• Importer setup or development. Depending on the complexity of the feed we either configure a ready-made importer plugin or write a custom importer running on WP-Cron or Action Scheduler. We choose after reviewing the feed.
• Simple and variable products. Sizes, colours and other variants are created as WooCommerce variations with attributes, images and codes; the supplier’s grouping logic is translated into WooCommerce’s own.
• Category mapping. The supplier’s category tree is mapped to your shop categories so new products land in the right place and unknown categories are set aside for review.
• Price rules. Margin as a percentage or a fixed amount, rounding (for example to .90 or .99), currency conversion and VAT handling when the supplier gives net prices.
• Stock synchronisation. A scheduled run several times a day updates only stock and price, which is far faster than a full import. Your own stock and the supplier’s stock are kept separate and shown either as a sum or with your own warehouse preferred.
• Products that leave the feed. We agree what happens to a product that is no longer in the feed: stock to zero, hidden, draft or deleted. The recommendation depends on whether the goods come back.
• Safeguards. A zero price, a missing image or a broken image link never goes on sale; such products wait in the report.
• Log and report. Every run writes a log of how many products were created, updated, hidden and skipped, and errors trigger an email notification.

Typical situations

The supplier sends an Excel or CSV file every morning and someone keys the changes in by hand, which takes hours and still leaves stock days out of date. A wholesaler offers an XML feed or an API, but the off-the-shelf plugin cannot cope with variations or multiple warehouses. The shop sells partly from its own stock and partly from the supplier’s, and the two stock levels must be combined without selling goods that neither warehouse has. Or an import already exists but crashes now and then, creates duplicates and never says what went wrong.

What we need from you

• A sample file of the supplier’s feed or API access with documentation and the update frequency.
• WordPress administrator access and, if possible, access to the server or hosting control panel to set up cron.
• A decision on price rules: margin, rounding and what to do with the supplier’s recommended retail price.
• A decision on what happens to products that leave the feed, and who reviews products held back by the safeguards.
• For existing products, which field (SKU or EAN) links the supplier’s product to the one in your shop.

What is not included

• Manual product entry and writing product copy: see the separate product entry service.
• Outgoing feeds to Google Merchant Center or price comparison sites: see product feed setup.
• Two-way integration with a warehouse or business system where orders flow back, for example an Erply or Directo integration: these are separate services.
• Fixing the feed on the supplier’s side: faulty data can be skipped or flagged in the report, but not corrected at the source.
• Photo editing, translation and SEO copy for the products.

Who it suits

It suits a WooCommerce shop that sells goods from one or more suppliers and wants its range and stock to update without manual work. If the feed is non-standard, needs several sources merged or carries complex business logic, the job grows into custom plugin development and we estimate the scope after reviewing the feed. If you have few products that rarely change, a one-off manual entry is cheaper.