How to self-integrate a sales channel using the StoreFeeder REST API

Overview

This article explains how to use the StoreFeeder REST API to integrate a sales channel that StoreFeeder does not natively support, enabling order import, despatch notifications, and inventory sync.

Before you begin

Review the following prerequisites and limitations:

1. API access is at additional cost. Contact the StoreFeeder sales team to discuss enabling REST API access. Two support levels are available:

   • Supported: StoreFeeder will guide you through questions but does not provide bespoke code.
   • Unsupported: StoreFeeder only assists when you have identified a bug in the API.
2. You need a developer. StoreFeeder does not maintain a list of recommended developers.
3. Listings are not mapped automatically. Orders import as unrecognised because StoreFeeder has no listing to map against. However, if your channel SKUs match product SKUs in StoreFeeder, or a matching barcode is found, StoreFeeder automatically decrements stock on the correct product.
4. Consider an out-of-stock threshold. You may want your integration to send 0 to the external channel when StoreFeeder stock falls below a set threshold (for example, below 5 units) to reduce oversell risk.

Integration steps

1. Create a Phone Order channel to house the orders. You can add a custom logo to distinguish it from standard phone channels.
2. Create a dedicated StoreFeeder user with full access to all warehouses and the channels you need.
3. Authenticate the user. See the StoreFeeder REST API documentation at https://rest.storefeeder.com/ and the Getting a StoreFeeder API key article.
4. Set up order import. Create a scheduled process that polls your external channel every 15 minutes for new orders and inserts them into StoreFeeder in batches of 5 using the POST orders/create-orders-v2 endpoint. Add logic to avoid re-importing orders already in StoreFeeder. Use the GET channels endpoint to retrieve the channel ID.
5. Set up despatch notifications. Create a scheduled process that runs hourly and polls StoreFeeder for orders despatched or pre-despatched since the last iteration using the GET orders endpoint. Filter by channel ID and the LastStatusChangeFrom parameter. Optionally use PUT orders/mark-orders-as-downloaded to flag processed orders. Use PUT orders/mark-orders-as-not-downloaded to reverse this if errors occur.
6. Set up inventory sync. Create a scheduled process that polls StoreFeeder for inventory values every 15 minutes and passes them to your external channel. Use the GET warehouses/{warehouseID}/inventory-report endpoint. This sync is essential to minimise oversell risk.

These six steps create a working basic integration. Additional functionality is available at https://rest.storefeeder.com/Help.