Connect your first supplier

Everstock's Connect a supplier wizard is one long form that you fill top to bottom, then test, then save. Nothing is written to your store while you are in it: testing only reads from your supplier, and saving only stores the connection. What runs after you save depends on the frequency you pick in the Schedule section.

Open the wizard

Go to Connections and click Connect a supplier. The form has six sections in this order: Supplier, Authentication, Inventory endpoint & mapping, Supplier metafields, Sync scope, and Schedule. Test connection and Save connection sit in the page header rather than at the foot of the form.

Supplier

Start with the Start from field. Leave it on Manual configuration to set up any REST feed by hand, or choose a named supplier preset. A preset prefills the fields below it, and you can still edit every one of them. The presets that ship include BigBuy, Lipsey's, Sports South, Kinsey's, Turn 14 Distribution and a Demo feed. Picking one shows a banner headed "Prefilled from the ... preset" with that supplier's setup notes, plus only the inputs that preset needs, such as an API base URL and a key.

Then complete the two required fields. Display name is what you will see on the connection page and in every list, for example Acme Distribution. Base URL is the root of your supplier's API, for example https://api.supplier.com/v3.

If you want to walk the whole flow without real supplier credentials, click Use demo feed.

Authentication

Choose your Auth type. The seven options are None, API key header, Bearer token, Basic auth, OAuth2 client credentials, API key in the query string, and Login exchange (sign in for a token). The form then shows only the fields that type needs, such as a token URL, a client ID and a client secret. Your supplier publishes these values. Secrets are entered in password fields and stored encrypted.

Inventory endpoint & mapping

Inventory path is the path to the stock feed, for example /inventory. Records path (optional) is where the record array sits in the response, for example $.data.items. Leave it empty if the response is already the array. Response format is JSON, XML or CSV. CSV rows are read from the header line, so CSV needs no records path.

Below that you map supplier fields to canonical fields. Each row pairs a Supplier field path (for example stock.available) with a Maps to target. The eleven targets are SKU, Barcode, Title, Quantity, Price (decimal), Currency, Image URL, Description (HTML), Vendor, Product type, and Tags (comma-separated). In manual mode the wizard pre-creates rows for SKU, barcode, title, quantity, price and currency. Use Add mapping for more. If two rows point at the same target, the last row wins.

Two mappings are the ones that matter. You need a matching key (SKU or Barcode) and you need Quantity. Everstock always matches on barcode first, then SKU, and that cannot be changed. Until both are mapped, a banner reads "This mapping can't sync yet". That banner is a warning rather than a gate: saving only checks the display name and the base URL, so an incomplete mapping still saves. The live preview table below shows Canonical field, Mapped from, Sample value, Normalized and Status for every field, and it updates as you type. Its Sample value and Normalized columns stay empty until a successful test has fetched a sample.

Supplier metafields

Optional. Add rows here to store extra supplier data (material or colour, say) as Shopify metafields, giving each a Supplier field path, Namespace, Key and Type. These are only written when a new product is created. Existing products are unaffected.

Sync scope

Sync inventory is on by default. Sync price is off. Create missing products is off and creates a single variant with initial stock. Any product Everstock creates is a draft and is never published for you. Quantity cap (optional) limits how high a synced quantity can go.

Schedule

On a paid plan, Sync frequency offers Manual, Hourly, Every 6 hours and Daily. On the Free plan the only choice is "Manual only", with a banner reading "Scheduled syncs need a paid plan". Manual syncing works on every plan.

Pick a recurring frequency and Everstock puts the connection on that schedule the moment you save it, and queues a first run straight away, because a connection that has never synced counts as due. Leave it on Manual if you want to run the first sync yourself after looking at a preview.

Test, then save

Click Test connection before you save. It fetches the first page of your feed, keeps the first three records, dry-runs your mapping over them and writes nothing. On success you get a toast naming what it kept, for example "Fetched 3 sample records", the detected supplier field paths appear as clickable buttons you can map with one click, and a per-record preview lists SKU, Barcode, Title, Quantity, Price and Issues for each of those sample records. If the probe fails, a banner headed "Couldn't reach the supplier feed" appears beside the endpoint fields.

Then click Save connection. Two checks can send you back, and both messages appear next to the field they are about: "Enter a name for this connection." and "Enter the base URL of your supplier's API, for example https://api.supplier.com/v3." If you are already at your plan's connection limit, Save connection is disabled and the page shows "Connection limit reached".

What happens next

Saving takes you straight to the new connection's detail page, headed with your display name. If you saved on Manual, nothing has reached your store yet, and nothing will until you say so: run Preview changes for a dry run, and Sync now when you are ready for a real one. If you saved with a recurring frequency, that first sync is already queued, so open the connection and watch its runs. Preview changes and Sync now stay available either way.

Need help? Visit the support page or email hello@usenormalize.com.