Inventory Stock/Management Software Recommendations

[Marcos Millet]

Hi there!

Firstly, sorry if this post isn't in lime with the UKBF rules... No infringement intended.


So as the titles suggests, I'm after recommendations for a piece of Software/Programme Tool to allow me to automatically (or very easily) check the inventory level of the products I stock in my store. I need to keep track of the 20+ suppliers who offer me a dropship service who send the 3000+ products I stock...


I'm not very tech-savvy so the easier it is to implement, the better.

I have the URL of every single product I supply (I have them bookmarked). Most of them have the live stock level on the page of the product. Is there a piece of software which allows me to enter in every URL, and it compiles all of the stock levels in an easy to view format? If it tells you when products come back into stock, then amazing. If it does it all automatically (after the URLs have initially been entered) then even better!

What I envision is simple, but can't seem to find a solution because of my lack of knowledge (and not knowing the correct terminology). I just wanna cut the jargon and find an easy to use piece of equipment to satisfy my needs.

I've searched the internet, but because of I'm SO not-tech-savvy, it still manages to go over my head. I don't want to be sold anything, or on some package where I don't even know if it'll work or not. I just need an extremely simple tool which allows me to track stock, based on my requirements. Does this exist!?

Sorry for long post...

 

[Pish_Pash]

I'm not fully understanding what you want - do you want to track your own stock levels for each product ...or the stock levels of your suppliers. Also you say you have a URL for each product...is that a URL to your own website? Using a URL to pull in data like this is not the usual approach ...you'd normally use something called an API - but the API you'll need depends on what software you are using.

In short ...more info needed.

 

[Marcos Millet]

I'm not fully understanding what you want - do you want to track your own stock levels for each product ...or the stock levels of your suppliers. Also you say you have a URL for each product...is that a URL to your own website? Using a URL to pull in data like this is not the usual approach ...you'd normally use something called an API - but the API you'll need depends on what software you are using.

In short ...more info needed.

Well, the stock level of my supplier is my stock level. But I need to keep track of my suppliers stock levels, so I can update my site's stock levels (so my customers don't order products I can't get!).

The URLs I'm referring to are the URL of the product from my supplier. In most scenarios, I order the product from my suppliers website but enter the customers address as the delivery address.

Sorry for being ambiguous - this is where my inexperience comes into play.

Also, the store is on WooCommerce on WordPress.

 

[Pish_Pash]

Ok, that clears things up.

What you probably could try is some URL scraping software ...google it (I've no recommendations as I don't use URL scrapers).

The problem you're going to have is if you have lots of suppliers, they'll probably change their page layout regularly, which would then need you to reconfigure your scraper software....as I say, the proper way to do it would be via an API (because the data would always be in a prescribed format), but then you'd need to get authorised from each of your suppliers - unlikely if you've lots of suppliers.

 

[Marcos Millet]

Ok, that clears things up.

What you probably could try is some URL scraping software ...google it (I've no recommendations as I don't use URL scrapers).

The problem you're going to have is if you have lots of suppliers, they'll probably change their page layout regularly, which would then need you to reconfigure your scraper software....as I say, the proper way to do it would be via an API (because the data would always be in a prescribed format), but then you'd need to get authorised from each of your suppliers - unlikely if you've lots of suppliers.

I know a lot of my suppliers offer CSV files - are these the same/related to the API?

The API route is looking my best option. It's probably time I learnt about it. Any recommendations as to programmes/software?

 

[Pish_Pash]

the problem with a CSV files is they're out of date the minute they are saved to file (& no CSV files are not the same as an API).

Without wanting to sound rude, by your own admission you're not very IT savvy....APIs are about as extreme you can get wrt having to learn/embrace, so I don't think this will be a viable path. Besides an API is just a way/mechanism for pulling in data....you still need to store it, & process it - that really needs a database, so now you're in the domain of learning about APIs *and* databases (it can all get like treacle real quick). Did you look up URL scrapers...there may be some good ones out there...i.e. give it the scraper program your supplier URL, tell it which bit data on the webpage you want it get (stock level)....& it might just do the trick for you.

But like I say the API is the proper way to do this, but you'd need all of your suppliers to grant you API access (they might not even have this in place) & then you'd probably have to hire someone.

So, in summary the trade here is carry on as you are (time sump) or flash the cash (expensive but you get your time back!)

 

[Marcos Millet]

the problem with a CSV files is they're out of date the minute they are saved to file (& no CSV files are not the same as an API).

Without wanting to sound rude, by your own admission you're not very IT savvy....APIs are about as extreme you can get wrt having to learn/embrace, so I don't think this will be a viable path. Besides an API is just a way/mechanism for pulling in data....you still need to store it, & process it - that really needs a database, so now you're in the domain of learning about APIs *and* databases (it can all get like treacle real quick). Did you look up URL scrapers...there may be some good ones out there...i.e. give it the scraper program your supplier URL, tell it which bit data on the webpage you want it get (stock level)....& it might just do the trick for you.

But like I say the API is the proper way to do this, but you'd need all of your suppliers to grant you API access (they might not even have this in place) & then you'd probably have to hire someone.

So, in summary the trade here is carry on as you are (time sump) or flash the cash (expensive but you get your time back!)

Looking into URL scrapers as I type this (testing out a sitemap I've just created).

Thank you so much for your help. You've put me in the right direction... hopefully, this URL scraper will suffice for now. I'm hopeful

 

[johndon68]

Also bear in mind that your suppliers may not be too happy at you scraping their sites...

John

 

[ffox]

I'm after recommendations for a piece of Software/Programme Tool to allow me to automatically (or very easily) check the inventory level of the products I stock in my store. I need to keep track of the 20+ suppliers who offer me a dropship service who send the 3000+ products I stock...

How do you currently update your own site stock availability? Is the update done daily, weekly, or more frequently?

The RoI for automation will depend absolutely on what it saves you over your current method.

 

[Marcos Millet]

Thanks all for the responses. I learnt some new stuff and have come to a conclusion that manual checks will have to suffice for now!

 

[Page]

What is wrong with CSV feeds

They may not be as good as API but that does not mean they are not much better

Look for improvements and what they can give versus the time to implement them

As opposed to some imagined prefection

Your suppliers might give an update csv once an hour - what is there not to like and use

Except if you do not have the skills and knowledge then as Pish Pash has pointed out it is pony up the dollars time or stay as you are

 

[Pish_Pash]

Thanks all for the responses. I learnt some new stuff and have come to a conclusion that manual checks will have to suffice for now!

If you're to run a tight ship, then manual (time intensive) repetitive tasks have really need to be addressed - it's what computers were made for ....the time saved can be better spent (growing your business, or relaxing & cracking open a cool one) - didn't the earlier recommended URL scraper work?

 

[Marcos Millet]

Sorry to bring up a few months old thread. It appears I'm still in the same situation.

What is wrong with CSV feeds

They may not be as good as API but that does not mean they are not much better

Look for improvements and what they can give versus the time to implement them

As opposed to some imagined prefection

Your suppliers might give an update csv once an hour - what is there not to like and use

Except if you do not have the skills and knowledge then as Pish Pash has pointed out it is pony up the dollars time or stay as you are

The majority of my suppliers offer either CSV or XML files. These are great, but my trouble is using these files to automatically update my own WooCommerce stock levels. I'm sure there is a way to obtain this - but how?

I can't find a uniform way of doing it? I've asked many developers, and they all seem to like coming up with their own solutions which is still just as costly as implementing API...

If you're to run a tight ship, then manual (time intensive) repetitive tasks have really need to be addressed - it's what computers were made for ....the time saved can be better spent (growing your business, or relaxing & cracking open a cool one) - didn't the earlier recommended URL scraper work?

I couldn't agree more. I've always wanted to take advantage of the best technology I feasibly can at any point. It's been a few months now, and I'm spending 10+ hours a month just updating stock (go ahead and laugh). So yeah it's time I addressed this problem.

I dabbled with URL scrapers and it's good for allowing me to see which items are out of stock faster than I previously did, but I still have to go and edit my stock levels myself.

As you said, this is a task for computers! Why am I struggling so much to find a solution? Are they all costly?

It seems so simple. There is data on one web page. I just need my web page to be linked to it in some way and copy it. I'm almost certain I'm missing a trick here by not knowing the correct terminology or something. What am I missing?
​

 

[Pish_Pash]

It seems so simple. There is data on one web page. I just need my web page to be linked to it in some way and copy it. I'm almost certain I'm missing a trick here by not knowing the correct terminology or something. What am I missing?​

It may seem simple, but actually pulling a bit of data from a third party website & then using theatdata to do something (update a stock level) is actually a bit involved.

I dabbled a bit in this when I first started supplying Amazon...I wanted to track which of my products Amazon retail were actively selling on all their 5 EU marketplaces...it was tedious (& *very* time consuming) to do manually...so I lashed somethung together (& I mean lashed...most programmers would recoil in horror at what I did!) to do this 'tracking' automatically, but from recollection it wasn't trivial ...also, thakfully the data I was pulling was fairly standardised actoss Amazon's 5 marketplaces (same data, same type of webpage, same layout)....you said you had several suppliers, they're all going to have different websites, different layouts etc ...I predict that even if you did get something in place, chances are you'd be always having to edit the code due to your suppliers changing the layout of their webpage.

I don't think you ar missing a trick...what you need is bespoke software (as you have rather bespoke requirements)...so unfortunately, I don't think there's a magic term/phrase that's going to get you on track wrt locating the program you seek.

 

[Page]

If you can the data from suppliers into excel
And upload the data in a CSV to the channel / woocommerce
And have a modicum of technical skills and can learn stuff

Then you are away

But ...

I do not know about the structure of woo commerce and how it works though to automate that part of it
It may be you can push to it somehow
It may be that woo commerce needs to fetch from somewhere and this can be set to automatically happen on a regular basis

So do you know what is possible with woo-commerce

 

[ffox]

There is a connector for woo-commerce available at -
https://www.codelessplatforms.com/connectors/woocommerce-integration/

I haven't used it, but It looks reasonable at a one off price of £500. That still leaves the question of what you are going to use at the home (local) end. The connector offers solutions for ERP, CRM. Sage and a host of others. If you do go this route please keep me posted, it may be useful for my clients in the future.