How does order synchronisation work?

Afosto integrates with a growing number of marketplaces, webshop platforms, and other sales channels. How does the system ensure a reliable connection, and what should you as a retailer take into account?

Polling vs pushing

This deserves some explanation. There are essentially two ways to keep two systems in sync. With the first method, polling, Afosto queries the external system every x minutes to check for updates. In practice, we read the list of orders in the external system via an API and look for new data. If new data is found, we synchronise it. With the second method, Afosto does nothing until it receives a notification from the external system indicating that a new order is ready to be imported.

Polling: any news?

Most integrations support only polling. This means the system looks for new information at a fixed interval. We set this interval as short as possible, ideally no more than one minute, though that is not always possible. Some systems, for example, do not allow requests that frequently because it would put too much load on their infrastructure.

Pushing: real-time notifications

When pushing is supported, Afosto always implements it. This way we can import new orders much faster, because the system does not have to wait for the next polling interval to expire.

FAQ - Frequently asked questions

Why is my order not yet in Afosto?

Afosto depends on the APIs of external systems. If those systems experience issues (delays or downtime), the integration cannot retrieve orders and will fall behind.

How often does the system retrieve orders from BOL.com?

The platform checks for new updates in your BOL.com account every minute. Note: it happens regularly that an order is already visible in your bol.com account but has not yet appeared in the API that Afosto uses to connect with BOL.com.

How do I know if an external partner is experiencing issues?

At the moment, Afosto does not yet display the status of an external platform within the platform. This feature is being worked on. Once available, you will be able to see directly whether there are potential problems with the order integration.