You connect a supplier, and their range runs to several thousand products – sometimes more than ten thousand. First thought: the integration handles everything anyway, so why not take the lot? Sometimes that’s the right call, sometimes it isn’t. In this article you’ll learn what your options are when you import supplier products, how to match the right one to your store and what to check before the first products go on sale.
Your supplier has thousands of products. You don’t have to take them all
When people think about how to import supplier products, they usually picture the technical side: the file, the columns, the mapping. The integration takes care of that part. What’s left on your side matters more – deciding which parts of the supplier’s range should go into your store.
Adding just 1,000 products by hand takes around 160 hours – with an integration, that time disappears. The decision about which products make sense in your store doesn’t. A supplier sells to many stores with different profiles, so their range won’t always fit yours as a whole.
This decision is made right at the start, before the integration goes live. It’s worth making it deliberately, not on autopilot.
Five ways to set the scope of your import
Before the integration starts, you choose which products from the supplier’s range should go into your store. There are five approaches to choose from. You pick one of them – you can’t combine several.
All active products
The supplier’s entire current range goes into your store.
Who it’s for: stores with a broad profile, or stores where the supplier is a good match for what you sell.
What to watch out for: with the whole range, getting your margin right is particularly important – more on that below.
Selected categories
Only products from the categories you choose go into your store.
Who it’s for: specialised stores working with a supplier whose range is broader than theirs. You sell pet accessories, but the supplier also stocks home and garden products? Then take only what fits your store.
What to watch out for: the supplier’s categories don’t always match the way you think about your own range. Before you pick categories, check what’s actually in them.
Selected manufacturers
Products from the brands you choose go into your store.
Who it’s for: stores that build their range around brands, because their customers look for specific manufacturers rather than a type of product.
What to watch out for: one manufacturer may have products in many categories, including ones that don’t fit your store.
Individual products only
Only the products you pick one by one go into your store.
Who it’s for: stores with a small, carefully curated range, or anyone who wants to test a new supplier on a handful of items first.
What to watch out for: this is the most time-consuming option. You have to pick every product yourself, so for a larger range, categories or manufacturers work better.
Everything except exclusions
The supplier’s entire range goes into your store, except for the products you exclude.
Who it’s for: stores where almost everything the supplier offers is a good fit, but you want to leave out a few items – because they don’t match your profile, have poor data or you simply don’t want to sell them.
What to watch out for: you exclude specific products, so new products the supplier adds to their range later will still go into your store. If any of them don’t fit your range, you can change the scope.
How to choose the right approach for your store
There’s no magic number of products to start with. It’s better to ask yourself a few questions:
- How does the supplier’s range compare with your store’s profile? If it overlaps almost completely – all products, or everything except exclusions. If it’s much broader – categories or manufacturers.
- What are your customers looking for? If they want specific brands – manufacturers. If they want a type of product – categories.
- Do you already know this supplier? If you’re just starting to work with them, a smaller selection lets you check their data quality and order handling before you sell their full range.
- Are you planning for a specific season? Then choosing categories for that sales period makes particular sense.
Choosing a niche and building a range from scratch is a separate topic. If that’s where you are, take a look at our articles on dropshipping product selection and on whether to go for a big or small online store assortment.
Before you choose: check the supplier’s file
Products go into your store with the data from the supplier’s file – including descriptions and images, as long as the supplier provides them. So it’s worth looking at the file before you choose. It gives you a good idea of which part of the range to start with.
Data quality can vary even within a single supplier’s file. Sometimes one category or one manufacturer has full descriptions and good images, while others have less. If you’re torn between a few categories or brands, complete data is a good reason to start with them – those products are ready to sell straight away.
If something is missing from the file, you don’t have to give up on those products. Descriptions can be filled in – see what to do when the feed is missing descriptions. And if you want to know what to look for in the file, read our article on dropshipping supplier data quality.
Margin from day one
It’s worth setting your prices at the same time as the scope of your import. You set the selling price yourself, using pricing rules applied to the supplier’s price:
- a percentage or fixed-amount markup,
- rounding the final price – to x.00, x.49, x.50, x.99, or no rounding,
- a pricing policy, meaning a different markup depending on the product’s price.
That last one matters most when you import whole categories or the entire range. A single category can include products costing a few pounds and products costing several hundred. The same percentage markup may not cover the cost of handling the order on a cheap product, while on an expensive one it can push the price above what the customer would be willing to pay. A markup set in price bands evens this out.
Suppliers change their prices. If you switch on automatic price updates, your selling price is recalculated automatically when the supplier’s price changes, and your markup stays in place. Read more in our article on dropshipping pricing rules.
Your choice isn’t set in stone
Deciding on the scope of your import doesn’t lock you in. Once the integration is live, you can change the product scope – for example, by adding another category or manufacturer, or by switching off some products.
So you don’t have to get your range perfect straight away. It’s better to start with a well-thought-out selection and expand as you see what sells than to bring in everything and then dig through thousands of product pages.
Checklist before your integration starts
Before you choose the scope of your import, ask yourself a few questions:
- Which categories or brands from the supplier’s range fit your store?
- What does the file data (descriptions, images, sizes, stock levels) look like for the part of the range you want to take?
- What markup will you set, and should it differ for cheap and expensive products?
- Which of the five approaches best fits your situation: all products, categories, manufacturers, individual products or everything except exclusions?
Summary
When you import supplier products, you’re first and foremost deciding what your store will sell. Thinking it through at the start saves work later. If you’re still planning an integration, check whether your supplier is available with us.