Spending hours updating prices and stock? We explain how to automate dropshipping and save 20+ hours per week.
Familiar situation? Monday, 9 AM. You open Excel with a supplier's price list, compare it with your website prices, manually change what's different. An hour later, you open the price list from the second supplier. Another hour later — from the third.
By lunch, you've spent 4 hours on routine work. And if the supplier changes prices twice a week? Multiply by two. If you have 5 suppliers — by five.
Our client Oleksandr from Kyiv runs a dropshipping business for building materials. 8 suppliers, 3500+ products. He used to spend 2-3 days a week updating price lists. Now — 0 minutes. The system does everything automatically.
**How It Works**
Each supplier provides a price list in their own format. One — in Excel, another — in XML, third — via API, fourth even sends PDF via email.
We built an automated system that:
- Fetches price lists from all sources (even from PDF — uses OCR)
- Normalizes the format (makes it uniform)
- Compares with your prices
- Applies your markup (e.g., +30%)
- Updates prices on the website
- Checks stock and hides out-of-stock products
All this — automatically, hourly or daily, as you configure it.
**Real Case: 20 Hours → 0 Hours**
Oleksandr used to work like this:
1. Download 8 price lists from email
2. Open each in Excel
3. Find changes (often manually)
4. Change prices on the website through admin panel
5. Repeat for 3500 products
The process took 2-3 days. Errors? Constantly. Either forgot to update a price, or didn't check stock — customer orders, but the product is out of stock.
Now the system:
- Fetches price lists from email automatically
- Parses even complex PDFs
- Updates 3500 products in 15 minutes
- Zero errors at night
Oleksandr says: "I just check the report once a week. Everything works."
**What Else the System Can Do**
1. **Smart Markup**
Not just +30% on everything. You can configure:
- On cheap products (+40%)
- On expensive ones (+20%)
- On bestsellers (+15%)
- On seasonal products (dynamic)
2. **Stock Control**
If the supplier is out of stock — the site automatically hides it from the catalog. Back in stock — shows it. The customer will never order what's unavailable.
3. **Notifications**
The system messages you in Telegram:
- "Updated 234 prices"
- "12 products out of stock"
- "Error: supplier didn't send price list"
4. **Change History**
See a chart: how the product price changed over a month. Supplier raised prices? You'll notice immediately.
**Why Do This**
Imagine: you spend 20 hours a week updating price lists. That's half your work week. If your hour costs at least $10 — that's $200 per week, $800 per month.
The system pays for itself in 1-2 months. After that — it's pure time savings.
But the main thing isn't even money. The main thing — you stop being an "Excel updater". You focus on business: finding new suppliers, improving marketing, talking to customers.
**Who This Is For**
Automation makes sense if:
- You have 2+ suppliers
- More than 100 products
- Prices change more often than once a month
- You value your time
If you have 1 supplier and 20 products — you can do it manually. But if you have 5 suppliers and 1000+ products — automation isn't an option, it's a necessity.
**What You Need to Start**
1. **Access to Price Lists**
Do suppliers send price lists? Great. Don't send? Ask — most will.
2. **Website with Admin Panel**
So the system can update products. If you have Shopify/Prom/OpenCart — we'll integrate via API. If it's your own site — even easier.
3. **Markup Rules**
Tell us how you calculate prices. "+30% on everything" or something more complex — we'll configure it.
Development takes 2-4 weeks depending on the number of suppliers and complexity of price lists.
**Pitfalls**
1. **Price List Format**
If the supplier sends a price list in a new format each time — the system breaks. Ask the supplier to make price lists consistent.
2. **Stock vs Availability**
Not all suppliers give exact stock numbers. Some write "in stock", others "on order". Need to agree on clear designations.
3. **Minimum Prices**
If the supplier accidentally sets a price of $0.01 (error) — the system shouldn't update the site price to a penny. We configure protective filters.
**Conclusion**
Price automation isn't "would be nice". It's the standard for dropshipping in 2026. Competitors are already using it. If you're still updating prices manually — you're losing in speed.
Oleksandr now processes orders and finds new clients instead of sitting in Excel. His revenue grew by 40% because he got time for marketing.
If you spend more than 5 hours a week on manual updates — write to us. We'll calculate ROI and show how it works on your actual price lists.
