Supplier feeds by FTP, SFTP or web link: automatic stock and prices

At a glance

What a supplier feed is

A supplier feed is the set of files your supplier gives you access to: its catalogue, its stock levels and its prices. invtri reads those files, applies your margin rules and keeps every channel up to date.

• The catalogue describes the products, with details such as the SKU, EAN, title, description and images.
• The stock file gives quantities, which set the stock your channels show through the supplier’s Stock table.
• The price file gives your cost, which your margin rules turn into a sell price for each channel.

Catalogue, stock and price can arrive in one file or as separate files, and invtri works with either. You can connect more than one supplier, and import your own stock from CSV or Excel to sell alongside theirs.

File formats and the three ways a feed arrives

invtri can bring in a supplier’s files in three ways. Any distributor that provides its files in one of them, in the formats below, can be connected, and adding such a feed needs no development.

• FTP: CSV or Excel (.xlsx) files, or a ZIP containing a CSV or Excel file, collected with login details from your supplier. CSV files can be comma, semicolon, tab or pipe separated.
• SFTP: the same file types, collected over SFTP with your supplier’s login details.
• Web link: a direct https link to a CSV, Excel (.xlsx) or XML file, open or protected with a username and password, with no FTP account needed.

A web link can be the simplest route if your supplier already publishes its file at a link. If the link is protected, ask for its username and password along with it.

Before you connect, ask for a sample of each file. The sample shows you the columns to map, and lets you spot gaps, such as missing EANs, before anything is listed. In invtri, a web-link feed also shows its columns and sample values while you map them. Add a supplier feed takes you through adding the supplier in invtri.

How often to update stock and prices

For each supplier, you set separate stock, price and listing schedules, up to the number your package allows:

• As often as every 5 minutes
• Daily, weekly or monthly, at a time you set
• Whenever you press Run now

The schedule you set drives stock and price on every channel, including your Shopify store and each Mirakl storefront. Stock and price go out of date in different ways, though, so weigh each one when you choose.

Stock decides whether you can fulfil what you sell. If a channel shows stock your supplier no longer has, a customer can buy it and you may have to cancel. On Amazon in particular, keep seller cancellations low: accurate stock is your best protection, and our Dropship page sums up Amazon’s rule.

Price decides what you earn on each sale. If your supplier’s cost rises and a channel still shows the old price, each sale there earns less than you planned.

So let stock set the pace. Ask your supplier how often it refreshes each file, and at what time. Ask, too, whether the stock file and the price file update together. Then choose a schedule that reads the stock file at least as often as the supplier refreshes it. Time any daily, weekly or monthly run for just after your supplier’s files refresh, not just before.

Schedules are set per supplier. A supplier whose stock changes through the day needn’t share a timetable with one that sends a weekly price list. When a supplier tells you its prices have changed, press Run now rather than wait for the next run.

Your own sales don’t wait for the feed. invtri brings them in from every channel every 15 minutes. When an order syncs in, stock is cut and pushed to your other channels automatically. More in Set when your feeds update.

Map the columns once

Your supplier’s column names may not match the names invtri uses. Mapping tells invtri which column holds which value. In the example on our Supplier feeds page, a column called Qty maps to Stock and one called Cost maps to Supplier cost.

You map the columns once in the app, whether the supplier sends one file or separate catalogue, stock and price files. Map the values invtri works with, such as the SKU, EAN, cost, stock, title and description. Before you rely on a new feed:

• Study the sample file first, so you know every column before you map.
• Confirm what the cost column holds, because your margin rules start from it.
• Press Run now after mapping, then compare a few products’ cost, stock and title with the supplier’s file.
• Ask your supplier to warn you before it changes the file’s layout, and check your mapping when it does.

Map your feed’s columns has the details.

Match products by EAN/GTIN

invtri matches your supplier’s products to marketplace catalogues by EAN/GTIN, with UPC converted automatically. That match is what links a supplier’s product to an Amazon ASIN or an eBay catalogue entry. On TikTok Shop and Temu, products are created with your EAN rather than matched to an existing product.

On Mirakl marketplaces, invtri lists your offers by EAN against the marketplace’s catalogue. On Amazon, invtri prefers the single-unit ASIN and holds suspected multipacks for review. For edge cases, you can approve or block a held match.

That makes the EAN column the one to check first. Ask a new supplier whether every product has an EAN or UPC. Then look for gaps in the sample file before you list.

The SKU matters too. The Import Listings tool matches listings you already have to your supplier feeds by SKU and EAN. In your Shopify store, products you import and approve sync price and stock when their SKU matches your supplier feed.

Margin rules for each channel

The price file gives invtri your cost. Margin rules turn that cost into a sell price for each channel, from supplier cost, marketplace fees, shipping and your target margin. So the same product can carry a different price on each channel.

Each channel’s rule takes in that channel’s fees. Amazon referral fees are calculated automatically, with defaults you set. eBay fees and OnBuy’s commission are built into pricing, and you set a fee percentage for each Mirakl storefront. Rules are set per supplier as well as per channel.

When your supplier changes a price, invtri picks it up on the next update, and every channel updates using the margin you set. Before you set a margin, ask what the supplier’s price includes. Is it your trade cost, and does it include VAT and delivery? Your margin is only as sound as the cost it starts from.

On Amazon, once you set a min/max rule, an on-demand competitor price check flags out-of-range prices, and a price guard holds any listing priced too far from the lowest competing offer for your review. Where more than one supplier carries a product, you can compare every supplier’s landed cost on each order. Reporting shows your profit after fees and VAT for every order line, and you can filter it by SKU and channel. See Set your margin rules.

Stock caps and channel modes

Your channels show stock worked out from your supplier’s file, and every sale cuts stock on your other channels. Two settings give you more control. Each supplier’s Stock table limits the stock you show: its top row works as a cap. Each channel can also be set to Normal, Zero or Paused for each supplier.

With a cap, your channels show no more than the limit you set, however large the figure in the supplier’s file. That suits a new feed you don’t yet know well, or a supplier whose stock you’d rather not offer all at once.

For each supplier, you choose the setting channel by channel, so one channel can be on Zero or Paused while the rest stay on Normal. Along with your caps and the stock cut after every sale, these settings help you avoid overselling. Control the stock your channels show has the details.

When a product leaves the feed

When a SKU drops out of a supplier’s feed, invtri detects it automatically and lists it for one-click delisting. You check the list and delist the products you can no longer supply.

This matters because a live listing can keep selling after your supplier stops carrying the product. Delisting it prevents orders you can’t fulfil, and the negative seller metrics that follow.

A product your supplier marks out of stock is a different case. It stays in the feed, and invtri picks up the change at the next update.

Ask a new supplier how it shows discontinued lines: does it remove them from the file, or keep them with zero stock? Ask it, too, to warn you before it changes its product codes. invtri spots a discontinued product by its SKU leaving the feed. See Delist discontinued products.

Where product content comes from

Titles, descriptions and images come from what your supplier provides. So the quality of your listings starts with its catalogue.

For any supplier whose data is thin, you can take content from Icecat, UPCitemdb or EcomSource instead, using your own accounts with them. You choose the source for each supplier. These services are optional subscriptions, and you enter your account details in invtri’s settings.

invtri then fits some content to marketplace rules automatically: it shortens titles that are too long for eBay. eBay and TikTok Shop get automatic category selection, and Temu listings get required-field checks. TikTok Shop and Temu also get basic image pre-checks. A1TechDeals does too. When everything is ready, you can list a whole supplier feed, then approve and publish in bulk.

Ask a new supplier which products lack titles, descriptions or images. If you take content from a data service, check its terms for how you may use its content. More in Choose where product content comes from.

Checklist: what to ask a new supplier

Before you connect a new supplier, ask it about the following. Most of the answers decide a setting in invtri; the rest shape how you handle orders. First, the files:

• How the files will reach you: FTP or SFTP login details, or a direct https link and its username and password, if it has them.
• Which formats it can send: invtri reads CSV or Excel (.xlsx) files (or a ZIP containing one) by FTP or SFTP, and CSV, Excel (.xlsx) or XML by web link.
• Whether catalogue, stock and price come in one file or separately and, if separately, whether all three use the same product codes.
• How often each file is refreshed, at what time, and whether the stock and price files update together.
• A sample of each file, so you can see the columns before you map them.
• Notice before any change to the file’s layout or to its product codes.

Then the products and orders:

• An EAN or UPC for every product you want to sell.
• What its prices include: whether they are your trade cost, and whether VAT and delivery are in them.
• How it shows discontinued lines: removed from the file, or kept with zero stock.
• Which products lack titles, descriptions or images.
• Blind shipping, so parcels and paperwork show your business, not the supplier’s, as Amazon’s drop shipping policy requires.
• How returns work, since you handle them with your customer and your supplier.