B2B sales

XML feeds

Product data exchange format

An XML feed is a file in which a wholesaler or shop publishes products, prices and stock, used to sync with suppliers and to populate Google Merchant Center.

What is XML feeds?

XML feeds are product data files that a supplier publishes at a fixed URL or on an FTP server, listing its range, purchase prices and stock levels. A shop downloads them on a schedule and updates its catalogue from them, and in dropshipping the entire operation depends on this data. The same mechanism works in reverse – a shop publishes its own product feed, for example for Google Merchant Center, which accepts XML files among other formats.

How we use it at Koda Plus

We build and maintain wholesaler feed synchronisation as part of our system integrations work: mapping supplier categories to the shop's own, matching products by EAN or SKU, calculating selling prices with margin rules and applying stock buffers. Before each import we compare the file size and item count with the previous run, so a truncated file cannot wipe out half the catalogue overnight. On the advertising side we prepare the product feed for Google Merchant Center and make sure prices and availability match the Product structured data on the page. This often sits alongside ERP connections and tools such as BaseLinker.

When it makes sense

  • You run a dropshipping shop without your own warehouse
  • You source products from several wholesalers at once
  • Supplier purchase prices change frequently
  • You run Shopping campaigns through Google Merchant Center

Frequently asked questions
XML feeds

  • How often should stock be pulled from a supplier feed?

    As often as the supplier refreshes the file and your stock turns over – pulling more frequently achieves nothing if the wholesaler updates its data once a day. For fast-selling dropshipping products, stock and prices can be refreshed every 15 minutes or so, with the full catalogue and descriptions updated once a day, typically overnight.

  • Why do accented characters in an XML feed turn into gibberish?

    Usually the file is saved in a legacy encoding such as Windows-1250 or ISO-8859-2 but read as UTF-8. Detect and convert the encoding on import, because the declaration in the XML header does not always match the file's actual content.

  • Can a supplier feed be sent straight to Google Merchant Center?

    No. A supplier feed usually contains purchase prices and the supplier's own data, while Merchant Center needs selling prices that match your shop and links to your own product pages. The Google feed should therefore be generated from the shop, based on its current prices and stock.

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