Totdot cut catalogue ops costs by 50% by fully automating catalogue operations
SKU-10432 — Ceramic Planter (Sand)
Shopify → Amazon → Wholesale A
SKU-10488 — Linen Throw (Charcoal)
Price updated across 3 channels
SKU-10501 — Oak Side Table
New variant, imagery processing
The challenge
Totdot operated across Shopify, Amazon, two wholesale portals, and an internal inventory system. Every SKU update (pricing, availability, descriptions, imagery) required manual entry in each system. With 8,000 active SKUs and a catalogue team of four, the process consumed the equivalent of two full-time roles and still produced errors weekly.
What we built
We built a centralised catalogue automation pipeline on n8n, treating their Google Sheets master as the single source of truth. Changes propagate in real time to all five channels via API. Image processing, variant generation, and channel-specific formatting happen automatically. A validation layer catches data errors before they reach any storefront.
How we got there
Map the catalogue flow
Audited how SKU data moved across Shopify, Amazon, two wholesale portals, and the internal inventory system.
Build the sync pipeline
Built the n8n pipeline against the Google Sheets master, with per-channel formatting and a validation layer.
Cut over and monitor
Ran both processes in parallel for one week, then cut over fully and stood up the error-rate dashboard.
Results
The four-person catalogue team was reassigned to merchandising and growth. Catalogue ops costs fell by over 50% year-on-year. Error rates on live product data dropped to under 0.2%. Time-to-market for new SKUs fell from 3 days to under 4 hours.
“We had four people doing nothing but keeping the catalogue alive. Now that team is driving our expansion into two new markets.”Operations Director, Totdot
Services used in this engagement
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