Sync Updates: Full Update vs. PQS Update
Full Update:
A "Full Update/Upload" is the initial upload of your product data in which the content data such as the supplier's images, titles, descriptions, categories, and more are uploaded to your sales channel. This process is typically only run once in the lifetime of a product. After the product data has been uploaded once, that product then switches to the "price/quantity/status update" (PQS) process noted below. A full update will be required if you re-assign or rename categories in the Category Mapping tool after the first initial update.
It's important to note that a full update can overwrite the following customizations made from your sales channel with the original product data:
- Images: If you have added additional images or swapped the supplier's images out for your own.
- Titles, descriptions: If you have modified the product titles or any verbiage in the descriptions via product customization.
- Categories: If you have created any custom categories outside of the Inventory Source Category Mapping tool.
Product Customizations: We recommend making any product customizations directly in the Catalog Manager to avoid the risk of overwriting your work. See more on customizing your Catalog products here
If necessary, you can schedule your own full update directly within your Catalog Manager using the Catalog Rules tool. Simply access the Catalog Rules > Controls and select Next Sync Update Typeand switch the option to FULL. From there you will be prompted to confirm permission to run the full update:
When uploading to marketplaces that house their own content data, such as Amazon and Walmart, the full update process is simply matching the UPC from the supplier with the Marketplace listing's existing content data. There is no actual "upload" of images, titles, etc.. Edits in the Inventory Source product customization tool will have no effect on the Marketplace listing.
Price/Quantity/Status (PQS) Update:
During your daily PQS updates, we update the price, quantity, and status of your products. Customers will receive at least two updates per 24 hour period. Customers on our Plus plans are on Optimized Syncing, meaning they will receive updates as frequently as their suppliers updates their inventory feed (sometimes be up to 12x per day). This allows customers to have the most updated inventory details possible. See also Optimized Sync vs. Standard Sync.
The PQS On-Demand update is typically used in cases where you have made a recent change to your price or filter settings and want to push the update to your store. All customers are allotted at least one On-Demand update per 24 hour period. However, customers on our Plus plans have the option to run On-Demand updates four times per 24-hour period. See also What is an On-Demand update?
To run an On-Demand update, simply access the On-Demand Update button on the Integrations page in your Inventory Source dashboard:
You will receive an email after each PQS update completes to confirm the number of products that were updated successfully. Occasionally some products may fail to update. If you see repeated product update failures and want to know more about them, contact our support team.
You can view the time and date of your most recent update for each of your integrations in your Catalog Manager. You can also view your update history by clicking the bar graph icon on the right-hand side of your Catalog Manager.
