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Onboarding Checklist

Welcome aboard. This page lays out the first weeks on Endless as nine stages, in the order they unlock each other. Some brands move through it in three days; others take a few weeks. Both are normal. What matters is that each stage builds on the one before, so the sequence is doing real work for you.

Use this as a reference point. When you finish a stage, come back to see what's next.

Stuck? Ask early.

Don't spend an hour trying to figure out where something lives. Your onboarding lead would much rather shortcut it for you.

Stage 1 — Set up shop​

Why this matters. Endless is structured as Companies that hold Brands, with Users assigned across them. You set this up once; the rest of the platform reads from it.

  • Your company is created in Endless
  • Your first brand is created under the company
  • Stripe billing is connected
  • Your first teammates are invited and assigned roles (Admin, Operator, Guest)

Read more: Catalog overview — brands, SKUs & company

What's next: Get your products into the system.

Stage 2 — Get your products in​

Why this matters. Products are the foundation of nearly everything else in Endless. Inventory, orders, and purchase orders all reference products. Get the catalog right and the rest of the platform comes alive. Get it wrong and every downstream module inherits the mess.

One mental model first

In Endless, a product is the atomic SKU — a single size, a single color, a single variant. Where some systems roll sizes up under one parent product, Endless treats each variant as its own record. You'll roll them back up later using attributes.

This is the cleanest path no matter where your product data lives today — a Shopify export, a master spreadsheet, a 3PL extract, or a bit of all three. The template gives you a predictable structure that maps directly onto Endless's product fields, so the import is fast and the result is consistent.

  1. Inside Endless, navigate to Products → Import Products and download the current import template from that screen.
  2. Fill the template in. Only Name and SKU are required — everything else (UPC, dimensions, costs, customs data, custom attributes, images) is optional and can be enriched later. The full field reference and rules are in Importing & exporting products.
  3. Upload the completed CSV via the same Products → Import Products screen.
  4. Endless will report how many rows created new products, updated existing ones, were skipped, or failed. Failed rows are listed individually — fix them and re-upload, or fix in place if the issue is a missing SKU.
Speed up the data mapping with an LLM

If your product data is spread across several spreadsheets, an LLM is excellent at mapping your existing columns to the Endless template. Download the template and your source files into a single folder, point Claude (or your tool of choice) at both, and ask it to fit your data to the template. Import the result. This is the same workflow the Endless team uses to bootstrap a new brand.

Other ways to get products in​

  • From Shopify (one-time bulk import). If your Shopify integration is set up, you can run a one-time product import from the integration's actions menu. Variants come in as individual products. Drafts, archived items, and gift cards are skipped automatically. See Shopify integration.
  • A few products by hand. For small batches, add products directly in the app — start with Name and SKU, fill in the rest later.

Read more: Products overview · Importing & exporting products · Shopify integration

What's next: Now that the products exist, give them the data that makes them useful.

Stage 3 — Enrich your data​

Why this matters. The product catalog's job is to answer any question anyone asks about your products — your team, a retailer, an API call from Amazon. Every unanswered question is a gap waiting to be filled. The richer your data, the smarter every downstream system gets: marketplace listings populate themselves, demand planning sees what's actually moving, EDI mappings just work.

Don't try to do this perfectly in one pass. Pick one product, fill in everything you know, then bulk-update the rest from there.

  • Pick one SKU and complete every relevant field — dimensions, weight, UPC, HTS code, country of origin, cost breakdown, packaging hierarchy, images. This is your reference SKU.
  • Define your custom attributes — anything specific to your brand that isn't already a built-in field (NRF code, season, fit, retailer-specific identifiers). Add them on the Attributes page, not inline. Endless makes you do this on purpose so your data model stays tidy as your team grows.
  • Group your attributes so the catalog is easy to scan. Two patterns work well:
    • By product type — e.g. Stovetop, Oven, Hood — for clusters of attributes that only apply to certain SKUs.
    • By sales channel — e.g. Amazon, Target, Walmart — for channel-specific listing fields.
  • Bulk-fill the rest using the Product Sheet View or a CSV upload. Custom columns use the custom.<handle> format (e.g. custom.color).
  • Add images. Upload once and associate with every SKU that shares the image — no need to re-upload per size or color.
  • Set your Quick Filters on the Products and Inventory pages — pick the four or five attributes you actually want to slice by day to day.

Read more: Products overview · Custom attributes in CSV import

What's next: Tell Endless where your stuff actually lives.

Stage 4 — Map your physical world​

Why this matters. A building in Endless is anywhere your inventory sits and orders ship from — a warehouse you run, a 3PL, even a virtual location. Each building has one Inventory Source (where its numbers come from) and any number of destinations (where they get pushed). Modeling this carefully means inventory stays accurate everywhere, and orders route to the right place.

  • Add your first building — name, address, and whether it's the default for the brand.
  • Set the Inventory Source to Endless. You'll switch this to an integration later if you connect a system that should own the inventory numbers (e.g. a 3PL syncing real warehouse counts).
  • Set the fulfillment service to Endless. Same idea — you'll point it at your downstream integration in Stage 5 once that's wired up.

Read more: Buildings overview · Locations

What's next: Wire up where orders go out.

Stage 5 — Connect downstream​

Why this matters. Once buildings are mapped, the next step is wiring up the systems that actually ship orders out — a 3PL's warehouse management system, ShipStation for label creation. Setting these up before you turn on order ingestion means orders never pile up with nowhere to go.

  • Add a downstream integration for each building that needs one (3PL/WMS, ShipStation).
  • Update each building's fulfillment service to point at that integration so Endless knows where to send the order.
  • Test by routing one real-but-not-critical order through the integration manually. Did inventory deduct correctly? Did the label print?

Read more: Integrations overview · Extensiv integration

What's next: Open the upstream pipe so orders start flowing in.

Stage 6 — Connect upstream​

Why this matters. Stage 5 wired up where orders go out. This stage wires up where they come in. Upstream integrations are the technical connections to systems that originate orders — your ecommerce platform, marketplaces (Walmart, Nordstrom Marketplace), EDI partners (Wayfair, Best Buy, Macy's). Most orders Endless processes will arrive through an upstream integration, though you can also create orders manually inside Endless when you need to.

Integrations vs. sales channels

These are easy to confuse. Integrations are the pipes that bring orders into Endless. Sales channels (Stage 7) are the rules and labels Endless applies to those orders once they're in. One integration can feed multiple sales channels — for example, a single ecommerce integration can carry both your DTC orders and your marketplace orders, which then get routed to different sales channels by tag.

  • Add an upstream integration for each system that originates orders. Anything you set up in Stage 2 may already be wired here.
  • For each integration, turn on order listening so Endless ingests new orders, paid orders, fulfilled orders, and updates as they happen.
  • Test by placing or generating one order in the upstream system. Confirm it appears in Endless within a few minutes.
  • If marketplace orders currently flow through your ecommerce platform (e.g. via Mirakl or Disco), you can keep that pipe as-is, or work with us on a direct integration when you're ready.

Read more: Integrations overview · Shopify integration

What's next: Set up the rules that label and route incoming orders.

Stage 7 — Wire your sales channels​

Why this matters. Now that orders are flowing in from upstream integrations, sales channels are how you organize, route, and price them. A sales channel is a record in Endless that represents where demand comes from — your DTC store, a specific marketplace, wholesale, an EDI partner. The integration brings the order in; the sales channel decides what to do with it.

This split is what lets one integration carry orders from multiple channels (DTC, marketplaces, wholesale) and have each behave differently in routing, fulfillment, pricing, and reporting.

  • Add your first sales channel. Your primary online store is often the default.
  • Add additional channels for marketplaces, wholesale, and EDI partners as they apply.
  • Set up automation rules that map incoming orders to the right channel — for example, orders tagged Nordstrom route to the Nordstrom Marketplace channel.
  • For each channel, configure auto-fulfillment, routing, and price tier rules.

Read more: Sales channels overview · Integrations overview

What's next: Track what's on the way in, not just what's going out.

Stage 8 — Track what's coming​

Why this matters. Once your inbound flow is in Endless, every product's inventory page tells the full story — what's on hand now, what's on PO that's shipped, what's on PO that hasn't. That's the foundation for demand planning, landed cost calculations, and avoiding the "I'm out of stock and didn't know" surprise.

  • Add your suppliers.
  • Create your open POs in Endless. Match them to what you actually issued to your factories.
  • Create shipments against those POs. A single shipment can pull line items from multiple POs — factories combine containers, and Endless handles it.
  • Fill in shipping details: carrier, BOL, container number, expected arrival.
  • When a shipment arrives, check it into inventory. Costs allocate automatically by weight or value if your product dimensions are right.

Read more: Supply chain overview · Supply chain import & export (purchase order CSV import; supplier CSV export; shipments managed in-app)

What's next: Settle into the day-to-day rhythm of running on Endless.

Stage 9 — Monitor and adjust​

Why this matters. You've been live throughout this journey, not just at the end. Value has been compounding for weeks: your catalog is centralized, your buildings are mapped, integrations are running, orders are flowing. This stage isn't a destination, it's the rhythm of running on the platform — watching what's working, fixing what isn't, and expanding into the parts of Endless you haven't used yet.

  • Watch your dashboard for restock thresholds, slow-moving SKUs, and order anomalies.
  • Revisit Quick Filters and attribute groups as your catalog grows.
  • Expand into adjacent capabilities when you're ready: more sales channels, EDI partners, demand planning, supply chain visibility.
  • You can answer the question "where is SKU X right now, and how much do I have?" without leaving Endless.

If a question isn't answerable from these docs, that's an opportunity — please tell us, and we'll add it.