Frequently asked questions
How often should I set the stock to be uploaded?
We want to get data that is as up-to-date as possible. That is why most POS systems that integrate with us provide stock information every 15 minutes. The more often, the better.
We need information to be updated at least once every 24 hours to keep your products live in channels like Google, but we recommend uploading your stock at least every 6 hours (but ideally every 15 minutes or 1 hour). We want to prevent people being disappointed by coming into your store expecting a certain product to be in stock that has been sold out since.
What file formats are accepted?
We accept CSV files (comma separated and semicolon separated), as well as Excel 2007+ (XLSX) files.
View example files here: Example stock files.
Product file uploads currently only support CSV.
Should I upload products that aren't in stock?
Yes please! Uploading stock lines for barcodes that have a quantity below 1 is a signal to our system to mark these products as out of stock immediately.
If you don't include out of stock products, we will only mark barcodes as out of stock once we haven't seen that barcode in any stock upload for more than 7 days.
How are store locations/branches identified?
Each store location will get a unique FTP password, also known as an 'Upload Key'. You upload a separate stock.csv file for each location.
Do all of my products need pricing information?
Yes, we can only accept products which have a price set. We'll automatically discard rows in the CSV with an empty value or 0 as the price.
Should we include sale prices and discounts?
Our general rule of thumb for pricing is this:
What would you pay for this product if you went in store and bought one of this item right now?
That means:
- Include any applicable VAT
- Include time/date-base discounts in the price you send to NearSt whenever possible
- Don't include quantity-based discounts (2-for-1, etc.)
Should I use passive or active mode?
The NearSt FTP Gateway supports both active and passive mode FTP connections. Use the one that works best with your FTP client library, and consider that passive mode FTP connections potentially require firewall exceptions for more than only port 21.
Do you support FTPS (FTP with TLS) or SFTP?
Yes, we do support FTPS! Whenever possible, please enable TLS. This further protects your connection with our servers. We don’t currently support SFTP.
For FTPS, we support both TLSv1.2 and TLSv1.3.
How can I check if my upload was successful?
When you upload your first file to our server, we’ll automatically create a file called upload_log.txt that shows information about your most recent upload.
You'll also be able to see processing information about the latest stock upload in our Partners dashboard.
What file encoding should I use?
Your CSV file should be UTF-8 encoded, using UNIX or Windows style returns. If it isn’t, we’ll try our best to convert it for you. In most cases this means you don’t have to worry about this.
Can I use Windows Explorer to connect to the FTP server?
No, sorry, Windows Explorer doesn't support our FTP server. Try using a stand-alone FTP client like FileZilla (opens in a new tab) or Transmit (opens in a new tab) to debug your connection.