How often to update your product feed is one of those questions with an honest answer of "it depends", but it depends on things you can check in ten minutes. A feed is only as fresh as the slowest step between your admin and whoever reads it. This article explains those steps, what different readers expect, how Vendigit handles it, and what to do before a sale when prices change fast.
If you need a refresher on what a feed is, see what a YML product feed is.
A feed has three clocks
When you change a price in your admin, it does not reach a customer in one jump. It passes three clocks:
- Your data. The moment the price or stock changes in your store database.
- Your platform's feed file. When the platform rebuilds the export. Some build it on every request, some on a schedule, some only when you press a button.
- The reader's download. When the marketplace, ad platform or assistant fetches the file again.
The real delay is the sum of the waits at steps 2 and 3. A reader that downloads every hour gains nothing if your platform rebuilds the file once a day.
An illustrative example
Say you change a price at 10:00. Your platform rebuilds the feed nightly at 03:00, and a reader fetches it every 6 hours. The new price lands in the file at 03:00 the next day, and the reader may pick it up as late as 09:00. That is up to 23 hours. If the same platform built the file on request, the delay would be at most 6 hours. Same reader, same schedule, very different result.
These numbers are an example, not a measurement. Your job is to find your own two waits.
Find your platform's clock
Here is what the platforms' own documentation says about when the export file is rebuilt.
| Platform | When the file is rebuilt | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Prom.ua | Generated at the moment the export link is requested | Prom help |
| Horoshop, Prom export | Updated automatically within a day if you do not regenerate it manually; auto-generation is switched on in the export options | Horoshop help |
| Horoshop, marketplace feeds | Generated with the "Generate feed" button; check your feed's settings for automatic updates | Horoshop help |
| WooCommerce, OpenCart, Shopify, Magento | Depends on the feed plugin, extension or app; many offer on-request or scheduled (cron) generation | The plugin's own settings |
| A file you upload by hand | Never, until you replace it | — |
A quick test works on any platform: change the price of one product, open the feed URL in a private window, and search for that product. If the new price is there right away, your file is built on request. If it is not, look for a schedule or a regenerate button.
What different readers expect
Readers have very different ideas of "fresh".
- Google Merchant Center expires products 30 days after their last refresh, according to its help article on managing products. But it also compares your feed with your product pages, and a price mismatch can get products disapproved (Google help). So 30 days is the outer limit, not a target.
- Marketplaces usually re-import on their own schedule, set in your seller account.
- An AI assistant answers customers in real time, so its standard is the strictest: whatever is in the feed it has is what the customer hears.
How Vendigit keeps your catalog current
- Every 6 hours. A feed connected by URL is re-read automatically every 6 hours.
- On demand. Press Sync now in the dashboard to fetch the feed immediately, for example right after a price change.
- Uploaded files stay as they are. A file is never re-synced. Replace it when the catalog changes, or switch to a URL.
- Failed fetches retry. If your site does not answer, Vendigit keeps the last good catalog and retries after about an hour.
- Truncated exports are caught. A scheduled sync that would cut a catalog of 100+ products to less than half keeps everything and fails with the counts. More on that in product feed errors.
- Price and stock changes are light. Only products whose names, descriptions or attributes changed are re-processed for search, so a price update does not trigger a full rebuild.
Delivery, payment and return terms do not come from the feed. Vendigit reads them from your site's pages, re-reads them weekly, and you can edit them in the dashboard's Knowledge section at any time.
How often to update your product feed
Match the feed to how fast your catalog moves. As a rule of thumb:
| Your catalog | What to aim for |
|---|---|
| Stable prices, deep stock (furniture, tools, books) | A daily rebuild is fine; Vendigit's 6-hour read is more than enough |
| Weekly promotions, moderate stock | Rebuild on request or several times a day; press Sync now after each promo change |
| Fast-moving stock, last units, flash sales | Rebuild on request; Sync now before and during the sale |
| Prices tied to the exchange rate | Rebuild on request; check the feed the morning after a rate change |
Two habits help regardless of size:
- Keep stock honest. If a product is down to the last unit, consider marking it out of stock a little early rather than late. A customer told "in stock" for something that sold an hour ago is the most common feed complaint.
- Use
oldpricefor discounts. Keep the regular price inoldpriceand the sale price inprice. When the sale ends, you only change one field.
Before Black Friday: a short checklist
Black Friday falls on 27 November in 2026, and many shops start discounts days earlier. Prices change more in that week than in a normal month. A checklist for the day you change prices:
- Update prices and sale flags in your admin.
- Rebuild the feed if your platform does not build it on request.
- Open the feed in a private window and spot-check three discounted products.
- Press Sync now in Vendigit.
- Ask the assistant in the simulator about one of those products, the way a customer would. The price in the card should match your site.
- Repeat after the sale ends.
During the peak, customer questions keep coming at night too. If that worries you, read answering customer messages at night.
FAQ
Can I make Vendigit sync more often than every 6 hours?
The automatic schedule is every 6 hours. When you need an update sooner, press Sync now in the dashboard; it fetches the feed straight away.
Does a sync interrupt the assistant?
No. The assistant keeps answering from the current catalog while the new one is read. Products are updated as they come in.
What happens to products I removed from the feed?
After a successful sync they are removed from the catalog, and the assistant stops recommending them. If many products vanish at once, the shrink guard holds them until you confirm with Sync now.
Should I update the feed if only stock changed?
Yes. Stock is the answer customers ask for most after price, and the assistant can only know what the feed says. If your platform builds the feed on request, there is nothing to do: the next sync picks it up.