Custom Dealer Vehicle CSV Importer
Automated Daily Vehicle Inventory Import from Dealer Feed CSV
Skills applied to this project
Built an automated WooCommerce vehicle inventory importer that processes daily CSV feeds from the dealer management system — keeping the public listing site accurate without any manual effort.
What was the problem?
An auto dealership's WooCommerce website listed their vehicle inventory. The dealer management system (DMS) exported a full inventory CSV daily. Staff had to manually import, update, and remove vehicles — a 2-hour process every morning. Vehicles that sold were still showing online for days. New arrivals took days to appear after arriving on the lot.
How I solved it
I built a custom WP plugin that fetches the daily CSV from a secure FTP server, parses vehicle data (VIN, year, make, model, trim, price, mileage, status), and performs a full diff against existing WooCommerce products. New vehicles are created, updated vehicles get refreshed metadata, and sold/unavailable vehicles are set to draft. Vehicle images are downloaded and attached to the product gallery on first import.
Measurable results
The manual morning process was fully replaced. The site now reflects accurate inventory by 7am daily, automatically. Sold vehicles come down within hours of status change in the DMS. The team can focus on selling rather than data entry.
- 2 hours of daily manual work eliminated
- Inventory accuracy improved from days-old to same-day
- Sold vehicles removed from site automatically within hours
- New arrivals appear online the same day they enter the DMS
- VIN-based duplicate detection prevents duplicate listings
Technical highlights
- WP CLI command for on-demand import runs during testing
- WP Cron scheduled at 6am daily with configurable time via settings
- Full diff engine: create / update / archive based on VIN comparison
- Image downloader with attachment creation and deduplication
- CSV column mapping UI for non-technical admin configuration
- Import log with per-vehicle status tracking and error reporting
My process applied to this project
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Diagnose
Understand the real business problem, user flow, and technical constraints before touching code.
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Plan
Choose the cleanest technical approach, identify dependencies, and define what success looks like.
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Build
Create custom WordPress/PHP solutions, plugins, integrations, or automations using best practices.
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Test
Validate edge cases, staging behavior, logs, checkout flows, order statuses, and user roles.
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Deploy
Release carefully with rollback awareness, staging verification, and clear documentation.
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Improve
Monitor, optimize, and refine based on real usage, client feedback, and production behavior.
Tech used in this project
How AI accelerated this work
AI tools helped me review error logs, trace query patterns, and generate diagnostic hypotheses in minutes rather than hours — so I could focus on fixing, not searching.
I used AI to audit integration logic, catch silent failure paths, and validate that custom hooks would hold up under different WooCommerce states before going live.
AI-assisted documentation made the final plugin handoff clear and actionable for the client's internal team — reducing support questions after delivery.
Have a similar challenge?
I help e-commerce teams solve the technical problems that cost them time and revenue. Let's talk about yours.
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