What is CatalogRelay?

CatalogRelay is a SaaS platform that automates the flow of product data from supplier feeds into your e-commerce stores.

It sits between your suppliers and your stores, handling everything in between:

Suppliers (CSV / XML / JSON / API)
         ↓
   CatalogRelay
   ├── Import & parse feeds
   ├── Normalize to your schema
   ├── Apply pricing & stock rules
   └── Export to your stores
         ↓
Magento 2 / Shopify / WooCommerce

Who is it for?

CatalogRelay is built for e-commerce operators who:

• Source products from one or more suppliers (distributors, wholesalers, manufacturers)
• Need to keep product data in their stores up to date automatically
• Work with multiple sales channels or storefronts
• Spend too much time manually maintaining spreadsheets or custom import scripts

If you’re running a single Shopify store with one supplier CSV and 200 products, a spreadsheet may be enough. If you’re managing 5 suppliers, 50,000 SKUs, three storefronts, and you need prices to update daily — CatalogRelay is what you need.

Core concepts

Suppliers and import feeds

A supplier is a source of product data. Each supplier can have one or more import feeds — URLs pointing to their product catalogue in CSV, XML, JSON, or API format.

When an import feed runs, CatalogRelay downloads the file, splits it into 1,000-row chunks, and processes each chunk idempotently. If a run is interrupted, it resumes where it left off.

The normalized catalogue

All product data from all suppliers flows into a single normalized catalogue — your internal source of truth. CatalogRelay maps raw supplier columns to your canonical attribute schema, so a product from Supplier A and the same product from Supplier B end up in the same format.

The catalogue is read-only from the supplier’s perspective: CatalogRelay never modifies what the supplier sent. Rules are applied only at export time.

Export profiles

An export profile connects a set of products (filtered by supplier, category, brand, price, etc.) to a destination store. Each profile can have:

• Its own schedule (hourly, daily, every 30 minutes)
• Its own field mappings (map delivery_days → Magento’s custom_attributes.delivery_time)
• Its own pricing rules and guard rules
• Deduplication settings for products appearing in multiple supplier feeds

Pricing and stock rules

Pricing rules calculate the sell price from the supplier price. The most common rule is cost_plus_percent: sell at cost + 30%. Rules chain in priority order.

Guard rules protect your store. If a pricing rule misconfiguration or a corrupt supplier feed would result in a zero-price or below-cost export, the guard rule blocks that product before it reaches your store.

What CatalogRelay does not do

• It does not manage your store’s UI or CMS. Product pages, images, and descriptions are managed in your store platform.
• It does not host your images. Image URLs from supplier feeds are forwarded as-is to the export destination.
• It does not process orders or handle inventory reservations. Stock levels come from supplier feeds; order processing is your store platform’s job.
• It does not replace your ERP or PIM. It is purpose-built for the supplier → store data pipeline.

Next steps

• Quick Start — connect your first supplier and run your first export in 15 minutes
• Connecting a Feed — detailed guide on adding a supplier feed
• Pricing Rules — set up cost-plus margins and other pricing strategies