How to sync supplier inventory to Shopify automatically
Your supplier sends a stock file every day. Here is how to get those numbers into Shopify without copy and paste, and without a bad file wiping your store.
If you resell from a distributor or wholesaler, your stock levels live in their system, not yours. Most suppliers share them as a file: a CSV or Excel export emailed every morning, a link on their trade portal, a Google Sheet, or a file dropped on an FTP server. Shopify has no built-in way to read that file on a schedule, so the numbers drift and you sell things the supplier no longer has.
Option 1: update stock by hand with Shopify's inventory import
In the Shopify admin, go to Products → Inventory, export the inventory CSV, paste the supplier's quantities into the Available column for the right location, and import it back. It works for a few dozen products, but it is slow, easy to get wrong (one shifted row updates the wrong item), and it has to be repeated every time the supplier's stock changes.
Option 2: let an app read the supplier file for you
A feed sync app does the same job on a schedule:
- It downloads the supplier's file from its link, Google Sheet or FTP folder.
- It matches each row to a variant in your store by SKU or barcode.
- It updates the quantity at the location you choose, and optionally prices and costs.
The risk is the file itself. Suppliers' exports break: a column gets renamed, half the rows go missing, or every quantity comes through as zero for a day. An app that applies whatever it receives will copy that mistake into your store and take products offline.
What to look for before you automate
- A preview. The first sync should show you every change before anything is written.
- Safety limits. If the file suddenly has far fewer rows, or most items would go out of stock, the sync should stop and wait for you.
- Undo. If something does slip through, you should be able to reverse the whole sync without touching sales that happened since.
- Clear matching reports. Rows that match nothing in your store, and items that were skipped, should be listed so you can fix SKUs.
Feedguard was built around those four points. Add the supplier's file, choose the SKU and quantity columns, check the preview, and set it to run daily or hourly.
Tips for a clean sync
- Make sure your SKUs match the supplier's item codes exactly. Feedguard ignores case and spaces, and can ignore leading zeros.
- Keep a buffer: if the supplier's count is often a little optimistic, hold back one or two units on every item.
- Decide what happens to products that drop out of the file. Leaving them alone is safest; setting them to zero suits dropshipping.