What is the difference between Add feed and Update feed in Stock Sync?

An Add Feed is used to import new products into Shopify. It creates products that do not yet exist in your store. If a product with the same SKU already exists, the Add Feed will skip it.

An Update Feed is used to update existing products in Shopify. It pulls data such as stock, price, or other product fields from your file or source and updates matching SKUs already in your store. It does not create new products.

If a new item is not being created, use an Add Product Feed rather than an Update Feed. If the item exists but its stock is not changing, use the troubleshooting checks below: verify that the product identifier mapping matches the feed, confirm the quantity column is mapped to Quantity (not Inventory tracked), and check that filters or required product tags do not exclude the item. For example, a product excluded by a required tag filter will not be updated.

To add new products and keep their stock updated, create two separate feeds:

1. Go to New Setup > Add new products to store and create an Add Product Feed.
2. Go to New Setup > Update existing products in store and create an Update Feed for stock updates.
3. If both feeds use an FTP source, you can enter the same FTP connection details (host, username, password, and directory) in both feeds. Select the appropriate file or filename for each feed when the files are different.
4. Schedule the Update Feed according to your needs so existing products receive regular stock updates.

In short:
• Add Feed = create new products
• Update Feed = update existing products

Additional notes:
• An Add Feed will automatically import new items from your source, such as new nodes in an XML file, as long as their SKUs do not already exist in your store.
• Add Feeds skip existing SKUs and will not update them.
• Update Feeds handle stock, price, and other field updates for existing products and can be scheduled based on your plan. On the Free plan, updates must be run manually; higher plans allow scheduled updates such as hourly.

Updated on: 03/08/2026