In some cases, the same product in your store’s catalog may be available from multiple suppliers. This commonly occurs when your store is integrated with more than one warehouse distributor via auto integrations or when you maintain local inventory alongside external supplier stock.

Naturally, suppliers can differ significantly in terms of logistics, product pricing, service fees, operational stability, and service quality. This means that choosing which supplier's inventory to display and rely on for order fulfillment can directly affect your store's profitability and customer satisfaction.

Your goal is to prioritize suppliers that offer the most favorable conditions for your business—maximizing profit margins while maintaining a high-quality shopping experience for your customers.

X‑Cart 5.5.1.x supports this need by allowing you to configure which supplier’s inventory should be used when a product is available from several sources. This functionality is provided through the Stock & Price Priority settings within the Auto catalog import add‑on. Based on the priorities you set, the system activates only one stock source per product, and this source determines the quantity and pricing information shown to your customers.

You can find the Stock & Price Priority section on the settings page of the Auto catalog import add-on.

Method 1

Method 2

The content of the Stock & Price Priority section may vary depending on the options selected and the specific auto integrations enabled in your store.

At the top of the Stock & Price Priority section, you will find the most critical setting:

When “according to stock priorities” is selected, a priority table appears beneath the setting.

This table lists all stock sources available to your store, including:

By default, the supplier auto integrations are listed in the table as they were installed in your store (newly installed integrations are added to the top of the list).

A yellow triangle icon next to an auto integration name indicates the auto integration is installed but not configured.

A gear icon links to the settings page of the auto integration.

You can rearrange the priority using the Drag-and-Drop tool.

A properly configured stock source listed at the top of the table is considered the highest priority and will be selected first when determining which source to use.

Following a successful data import from the corresponding auto integration, this stock source will be activated for all products in your store's catalog that satisfy both of the following conditions:

Stock sources listed further down in the Stock & Price Priority table act as fallback options (the logic behind how they are used will be discussed later in this guide - see the section Automatic and Manual Control of Active Stock Sources).

Activating a particular stock source for a product means that the inventory from this stock source will be used to display the product's availability on the storefront. If a customer places an order for that product, it will be fulfilled using the selected stock source. X‑Cart will also calculate shipping costs based on this source, display the corresponding shipping rates at checkout, and generate the shipment accordingly—ensuring consistency throughout the entire order fulfillment process.

When a stock source is activated for a product, the Use stock toggle for this source is switched to the “enabled” position on the Inventory tab of the product details page.

Since a product is always sold from only one active stock source, the Use stock toggle for all other sources will be set to “disabled.”

After adjusting your stock and price priorities, click Save changes. You will be prompted to choose how to apply the new settings:

Option 1: Use current data

Option 2: Re-import data

As mentioned earlier, the stock source listed at the top of the Stock & Price Priority table is treated as the highest priority when determining which source should be activated for a product. Stock sources listed further down in the table serve as fallback options.

If, during a data import, the currently active stock source (i.e., the one with Use stock = On on the product's Inventory tab) reports zero available stock, X‑Cart will automatically switch to the next eligible stock source in your priority list. In this case, the Use stock toggle will be enabled on the product's Inventory tab for the new source and disabled for the one that was previously active.

Unless manually overridden, the currently activated stock source will remain active for the product at least until the next data import. If the next import confirms that the product is still in stock at this source, the source will remain active for the product going forward—until the next import and availability check. However, if the product is found to be out of stock at the active source during the next import, X‑Cart will automatically switch the product's active stock source to the next eligible source in your Stock & Price Priority table. This ensures that product availability on the storefront reflects the most current data.

You can also choose to change the active stock source for a product manually. To do so, simply toggle the Use stock setting on the Inventory tab of the product details from the current stock source to another source available for the product.

Important: Once you manually define your stock source preferences at the product level (via the Inventory tab), X‑Cart will continue to automatically switch the active source during imports unless you specifically disable this behavior. You can control this using the Update manually edited stock & price setting located under Catalog Import > Settings > General.

This setting has two modes: