Syncing products and orders between Ecwid and Lightspeed Retail
Once you connect your Lightspeed Retail (X-Series) account with your Ecwid store, the products are not imported automatically. This means that you need to select the Ecwid products that you want to upload to Lightspeed Retail (and vice versa, Lightspeed Retail products to upload to Ecwid). You can upload entire product catalog or configure separate product lists for each platform as desired.
Product import is undertaken within your Ecwid admin panel and cannot be done within Lightspeed Retail.
What product info syncs with Lightspeed Retail and Ecwid
The initial import transfers the following product information:
| Ecwid | Lightspeed Retail |
| Name | Name |
| Description* | Description* |
| SKU** | SKU |
| Categories (limit: 75 categories per product) | Tags*** |
| Options (no more than 3) | Attributes |
| Variations/variants (no more than 200) | Attribute Values |
| Product Availability | Active/ Inactive |
| Quantity in Stock | Inventory |
| Pricing | Retail Price |
| Images* | Images* |
*Descriptions and images are only synced from Lightspeed Retail to Ecwid at the initial sync. Products imported from Ecwid to Lightspeed Retail will not sync images. See synchronization rules below for further information.
**Lightspeed Retail requires unique SKUs, so make sure that in Ecwid each SKU is used only once. Otherwise products won't sync to LS Retail.
***The tags that a product has in Lightspeed Retail are converted into Ecwid categories after import. If you later add a tag to a synced product in Lightspeed Retail, it will not be synced. See synchronization rules below for further information.
Product synchronization rules
The following synchronization rules are applied to the products that are already synced:
| Lightspeed Retail → Ecwid | Ecwid → Lightspeed Retail |
| When a product is updated in Lightspeed Retail, its name, stock, SKU, and price are automatically updated in Ecwid. Images and descriptions DO NOT sync after initial publishing to Ecwid. |
When a product is updated in Ecwid, the information (including stock) DOES NOT sync back to Lightspeed Retail. You must use Lightspeed Retail as the system of record for product information. Images ARE NOT updated as you may have a higher resolution image attached to your product in Ecwid. |
| When a variation is added to a product in Lightspeed Retail, and the product is already synchronized with Ecwid, this variant will be automatically added to Ecwid. | When a variant is added to a product in Ecwid, and the product is already synchronized with Lightspeed Retail, the variant will not be added to Lightspeed Retail. You must use Lightspeed Retail as the system of record for adding a variant if you wish for both platforms to have this variation. |
| Deactivating a product in Lightspeed Retail will unpublish the product in Ecwid. When a product is activated in Lightspeed Retail, it will be enabled in Ecwid. |
Disabling a product in Ecwid, it will not be deactivated in Lightspeed Retail. When a product is enabled in Ecwid, it will not be activated in Lightspeed Retail. |
| Deleting a product from Lightspeed Retail won't delete it from Ecwid. You may still want this product to be available online. | When a product is deleted in Ecwid, it will not be deleted from Lightspeed Retail. |
| When an item is sold in Lightspeed Retail, the stock is automatically updated in Ecwid. Order information is kept separately in Lightspeed Retail and Ecwid. |
When an item is sold in Ecwid, the stock is automatically updated in Lightspeed Retail. If you enabled the "Post Ecwid sales to Lightspeed Retail" option in the settings, Ecwid will send the new order information to Lightspeed Retail. The order must have the “Paid” status to be synced and appear in Lightspeed Retail. The stock for the orders that don’t have the “Paid” status in Ecwid is not updated in Lightspeed Retail. |
| Lightspeed Retail products with Product Tags are converted into categories when imported to Ecwid. If the category already exists in Ecwid, the product is assigned to the existing category. If the category doesn't exist in Ecwid, the category is created. If you add a tag to a synced product in Lightspeed Retail after the initial sync, it will not be synced to Ecwid. |
The categories that a product has in Ecwid are converted into Lightspeed Retail tags after import (the limit is 75 categories per product). If you later add a category for a synced product in Ecwid, the tag is not added in Lightspeed Retail. |
|
Products in Lightspeed Retail do not support price modifiers for options. |
If you sync products that have options with price modifiers, these modifiers will not appear in Lightspeed retail. Also, the modifiers will be deleted in Ecwid when product information gets synced back from Lightspeed Retail. Consider creating product variations with fixed prices instead.
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Tweaking synchronization settings
Before you import your products for the first time, you need to check and define the synchronization settings. You can do it on the Lightspeed Retail synchronization settings page that becomes available after the accounts are connected.
To manage the synchronization settings:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Other Channels → Lightspeed Retail.
- Click on the arrow next to your store name.
- In the dropdown menu, choose Lightspeed Retail settings:
- On the opened page, click Edit.
- Edit the synchronization settings if needed:
You can set whether the sales made in Ecwid will be sent to Lightspeed Retail and whether the changes in price and inventory settings that are made in Lightspeed Retail will be synced for the same products in Ecwid. By default, all these settings are enabled.
We recommend choosing "Online payment" or "Cash" in the Payment dropdown. Choosing "Gift card" (even if you have gift cards in Lightspeed Retail) may result in errors in order syncing. - Click Save settings.
Now you will need to select and upload products from your Ecwid account into your Lightspeed Retail (X-Series) account (and vice versa).
Importing products between Ecwid and Lightspeed Retail
Things to be aware of before the sync/import:
- The tax configuration used in Lightspeed Retail should be the same in Ecwid (i.e., both set to tax exclusive).
- After the sync, the default tax rate that you use in Lightspeed Retail becomes the manual tax rate enabled by default for all products in Ecwid.
- The currency used in Ecwid should match the currency in Lightspeed Retail.
- To import products from Ecwid to Lightspeed Retail, products require both name and SKU to be provided (and variants should have unique SKUs).
- Make sure that your current plan limit (both in Ecwid and in Lightspeed Retail) hasn't been reached in terms of product/category quantity.
- If "Track Inventory for this product" is enabled in Lightspeed Retail for a product, stock control is also enabled in Ecwid after the import. If you don't want the stock control on for a product, please switch it off manually after import.
- Once products are imported, stock control settings in both Ecwid and Lightspeed Retail are expected to be kept the same, i.e., both on or both off.
- The low stock threshold is not set after the import, so you'll need to set it manually.
- Brand information is not imported.
- Composite products are not supported in Ecwid, so they cannot be imported.
- In Lightspeed Retail, if the product has variants, the product quantity must be equal to 0, and the base product quantity for the product with variations in Ecwid should be equal to 0 to be imported into Lightspeed Retail.
To import products from Ecwid to Lightspeed Retail (or vice versa):
- Log in to your Ecwid admin.
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Catalog → Products and click Listed on Lightspeed Retail (or Other Channels → Lightspeed Retail → Select your products):
- Click Upload Ecwid products to Lightspeed Retail or Upload Lightspeed Retail products to Ecwid:
- Select one or more products to be imported; products can be searched by name or SKU. To import all the products, click the Upload all link:
Your products need to have unique SKUs to be synced. - Click Add Products to begin the import.
All done! The sync status will be displayed on the Products listed on Lightspeed Retail page in your Ecwid admin.
Once products have been imported from Lightspeed Retail to Ecwid and/or Ecwid to Lightspeed Retail, the system of record is Lightspeed Retail. You should manage your product catalog, pricing and inventory information (e.g., update product names or add product options and variations) manually in Lightspeed Retail to ensure everything stays accurate and up-to-date.