How often do distributor prices and stock levels update?
Understand how Salesbuildr polls distributor feeds, what freshness to expect, and where to check last update times for prices and stock.
Written By Victor Raessen
Last updated 19 days ago
Salesbuildr keeps distributor catalog, cost, and stock data in sync by polling each connected distributor on a schedule. How fresh the numbers are in your catalog depends on two things: how often Salesbuildr checks the feed, and how often the distributor actually publishes new data.
How Salesbuildr refreshes distributor data
For most distributors, Salesbuildr checks the feed every hour. When a check runs, Salesbuildr downloads the distributor's price and stock files (or calls their API) and applies any changes to your catalog.
A smaller set of distributors is polled once per day — only where we know their feed updates on a daily schedule. Checking more often would not produce fresher data.
That does not mean prices and stock are always one hour old. Many distributors only regenerate their files once per day (often overnight), even when Salesbuildr polls hourly. In those cases, each hourly check runs, but the file content is unchanged until the distributor publishes a new version — so cost and stock in Salesbuildr can be up to roughly 24 hours behind the distributor's latest data.
Rule of thumb: Salesbuildr's polling frequency controls how quickly we pick up a change once the distributor has published it. The distributor's own refresh schedule controls how fresh the underlying data can be.
Where to see last update times
Settings > Distributors > Connections
Open Settings > Distributors > Connections and expand a distributor connection. The detail panel shows:
If Last check is recent but Last price update or Last inventory update is older, the distributor likely has not published new data since the last successful import.
Product detail > Pricing tab
On a product with distributor feeds, open the product editor and go to the Pricing tab. The Distributors table lists each connected distributor with Stock, Last Updated, and Cost columns so you can compare availability and freshness per source.
Use the refresh icon on the distributors table to request a live stock check for that product without waiting for the next scheduled feed run.
What to do if prices or stock look stale
Check Last check and Last price update / Last inventory update under Settings > Distributors > Connections.
On the product, open Pricing and compare Last Updated per distributor.
Confirm with the distributor how often they refresh their price and stock data — Salesbuildr cannot import changes the distributor has not published yet.
If the distributor confirms they are publishing but Salesbuildr timestamps are not moving, contact Salesbuildr support with the distributor name and the timestamps you see.
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Product Detail — product pricing, distributors, and dynamic pricing
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