Spark Shipping offers an option for users who wish to manually upload their inventory and/or catalog feeds, the same method can also be used for setting up emailed feeds.
1. Ensure your products' SKUs are correctly mapped to the vendor's. The CSV mapping file should contain no errors, such as duplicate entries, typos, etc. Mapping instructions can be found here.
2. If you're using a built-in vendor, navigate to the 'Advanced Settings' tab on the left side navigation menu. For custom vendors, find the 'Inventory' section and click on 'New Inventory Update'.
3. Prepare the inventory file, make sure it contains no errors, i.e duplicate entries, typos, etc.. Next, select the inventory strategy as 'Manual Upload' > Select the file type (csv, xlsx, xml.. ) > Create Inventory. Proceed with uploading a sample file, and click 'Update'.
Next, wait for the system to parse your sample file and understand its format (may take a few seconds up to a minute depending on your sample file size) > You will then be presented with the columns settings. Next step is to map the columns and update the settings.
Important: If you wish to create a product catalog out of this manually uploaded file, make sure you check the box "Import Products to Vendor Catalog"
4. Upload the inventory file manually.
** For Emailed Feeds, click on 'Upload Inventory' and find the unique email address that Spark Shipping generated for this inventory template. You can share this email address with your vendor to have them email the file directly to Spark Shipping to have the inventory automatically update in your store. Emailed feeds are treated exactly as manually uploaded feeds, they will processed when the email is received.
Inventory Settings Notes:
- The delimiter field should be the separator that is used in the inventory file. Delimiters can be commas, semicolons, pipe delimiters.. etc.
- Checking the box for 'Update Inventory Quantity in Shopping Cart' will push the inventory update from your vendor's feed to your shopping cart.
- Setting a number for 'Shopping Cart Update Threshold' will make Spark Shipping skip updating quantities higher than this number. If the quantity at the vendor feed falls below this number, Spark Shipping will push the update to your shopping cart. This helps reduce the number of API calls made to your site.
- Setting a number for 'Out of stock threshold quantity' will make Spark Shipping set the quantity as 0 in your shopping cart if the quantity falls below this number in your vendor's feed. This helps avoid overselling a product.