The challenge#
Balazs Kicks is a Hungarian sneaker wholesale business that trades in limited-edition and in-demand models. The sneaker market is unique in that supply changes extremely fast: a limited-edition model can sell out at distributors within hours, and prices can fluctuate dramatically based on supply and demand. Anyone slow in procurement misses the best lots — in this industry, speed directly translates to revenue.
Procurement is international: price lists arrive from European and American distributors — in English, in varying formats (Excel, PDF, sometimes plain email text), in three currencies (HUF, EUR, USD). Some suppliers send updated catalogs weekly, others only occasionally when new shipments arrive. There's no standardized format: one supplier sends Excel spreadsheets with color codes, another sends a PDF catalog with product photos, and a third simply types a few lines into an email. The team had to manually extract data in every case and transfer it to their own system.
The team spent hours daily on manual data synchronization. Procurement price lists had to be individually transferred to Excel, exchange rates calculated by hand, products entered one by one into the Shopify webshop, and barcodes generated and printed for each item. This manual work was not only time-consuming but systematically held the company back from growth: processing capacity was tied to team size, not market opportunities.
The biggest challenge was multi-currency handling. Exchange rates change daily, and in the sneaker market, pricing is critical: if the price is too high, the buyer shops elsewhere; if too low, the margin disappears. Manual price calculation was not only slow but error-prone — a misplaced decimal could mean losses of tens of thousands of forints. The problem was further complicated by the fact that some buyers pay in forints, others in euros, and still others in dollars, and all three prices had to be kept current in the webshop simultaneously.
On top of that, the company operates in two distinct areas: procurement (processing international price lists, pricing) and sales (webshop, contracts, warehouse). Both needed automation, but with different logic. We wrote about the sales automation in detail for the sister brand, OnSize.
Why this solution?#
Sneaker procurement price lists are extremely varied: some are Excel spreadsheets with 200 rows, some are PDF catalogs with images, and some are simple email text with pricing. With traditional automation (e.g., CSV import), only the Excel files could be handled — PDFs and email text would still require manual processing, which accounts for a significant portion of supplier communication.
With the OpenAI API integration, however, we can process price lists in any format: the AI extracts product names, sizes, and prices and converts them into structured data. The AI doesn't simply copy text — it understands context, recognizes whether a number is a size or a price, and handles different column orders, naming conventions, and formatting logic. The same technology also calculates exchange rates, using the Hungarian National Bank's daily mid-rate.
The solution in detail#
We built 9 n8n workflows that cover the entire business process. Here we cover the procurement and inventory management side.
Supplier price list AI processing
The team uploads the price list — whether it's Excel, PDF, or a simple text email. The OpenAI API analyzes the document and extracts:
- Product name and model (brand, color, collection)
- Available sizes and quantities
- Procurement price in the original currency (EUR or USD)
Processing happens in seconds, regardless of format. We trained the AI with sneaker industry terminology: it knows common brand names, differences between sizing systems (EU/US/UK), and industry-specific abbreviations (e.g., DS = deadstock, GS = grade school size). This is critical because a misinterpreted size label would result in the wrong product in the webshop. When uncertain, the system flags it for the team for manual review — it would rather ask than incorrectly process an item.
Automatic exchange rate calculation
The system calculates the value in all three currencies (HUF, EUR, USD) using the Hungarian National Bank's daily mid-rate, adds the pre-set margin, and rounds the final selling price. The exchange rate updates automatically every day — the team doesn't need to worry about it. Every morning at 7am, the workflow queries the National Bank's public API, and if the exchange rate has changed, all affected product prices are automatically recalculated.
Important: the margin rate varies by product category (limited edition vs. general), and the system handles this automatically based on the product type. For limited-edition shoes, a higher margin is applied because their market price rises faster. The system also takes into account a minimum price in forints to ensure the final rounded price looks commercially appealing (e.g., 42,900 HUF, not 42,837 HUF).
Barcode generation and inventory management
Every new product automatically receives a unique barcode (EAN-13 format). The barcode contains the product identifier, and scanning it in the warehouse instantly displays the full product information: model, size, procurement price, selling price, and current stock. Barcode generation happens simultaneously with the Airtable record creation, so the product is trackable from the moment it enters the system.
Inventory syncs in real time between the Shopify webshop and Airtable. When a shipment arrives at the warehouse, the webshop inventory automatically updates after scanning. The batch printing feature allows generating and printing barcode labels for an entire shipment at once, which previously had to be done one at a time. For the warehouse team, this is the only manual step: scanning.
Shopify sync — webshop always up to date
Finalized products in Airtable automatically appear in the Shopify webshop: name, description, price (in all three currencies), images, sizes, and stock. If anything changes in Airtable — whether price or stock — the webshop updates within minutes.
The sync is bidirectional: when a sale occurs in Shopify, the Airtable inventory decreases immediately. This prevents overselling — which is particularly unpleasant in the sneaker market since limited items are difficult or impossible to replace. The system also monitors critical stock levels and sends the team a notification when a popular model is running low, so they can make timely restocking decisions.
Before and after#
- Manual price calculation in Excel, 3 currencies by hand
- Price list processing: 30-60 min/supplier
- Barcode generation: one by one, manual labeling
- Shopify updates: manual entry per product
- Exchange rate updates: morning manual check
- Automatic calculation at National Bank rates, 3 currencies
- AI processing: < 2 min from any format
- Automatic barcode generation, batch printing
- Instant Shopify sync from Airtable
- Daily automatic exchange rate updates
Product catalog — Airtable view (multi-currency)
| Product | Size | Proc. price (EUR) | HUF price | EUR price | USD price | Stock | Barcode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nike Dunk Low Panda | 42 | €89 | 42,900 HUF | €109 | $119 | 3 pcs | 5901234... |
| Adidas Samba OG | 43 | €75 | 35,900 HUF | €95 | $99 | 7 pcs | 5901234... |
| New Balance 550 | 41 | €95 | 45,900 HUF | €119 | $129 | 2 pcs | 5901234... |
| Nike Air Max 90 | 44 | €110 | 52,900 HUF | €139 | $149 | 5 pcs | 5901234... |
Prices update automatically based on the Hungarian National Bank's daily exchange rate. The margin category (limited/standard) is assigned automatically.
Results in numbers#
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Price list processing | 30-60 min/supplier | < 2 min (AI) |
| Exchange rate calculation | Manual, error-prone | Automatic, National Bank-based |
| Barcode generation | One by one, manual | Batch, automatic |
| Shopify updates | 5-10 min/product | Real-time sync |
| Inventory accuracy | ~90% (manual counting) | 99%+ (automatic) |
The team can now dedicate the time freed from operations to procurement relationships and customer service. Price calculations are accurate, inventory is always current, and the barcode system has simplified warehouse operations. The previously 3-4 hour daily administrative burden has essentially disappeared, and the team is now able to process twice as many supplier offers in the same time — directly resulting in a wider product range and higher turnover.
How to apply this in your business#
If you work with international procurement, pay attention to three things:
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Exchange rate automation: Don't check exchange rates manually. The Hungarian National Bank, ECB, or Wise API are all freely available, and you can integrate them with n8n in minutes. Set up a daily scheduled workflow that fetches the current exchange rate in the morning and updates all affected prices. If daily exchange rate fluctuation exceeds a certain threshold (e.g., 2%), the system can also send a notification to review margins. This is especially important if you work with relatively low margins, where a significant exchange rate movement can easily eat into profits.
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Barcode system: Even if your inventory is small, it's worth using barcodes. EAN-13 generation can be automated, and warehouse work immediately becomes simpler. No need for an expensive scanner — a smartphone app is enough. The true power of a barcode system shows when the business starts growing: manual inventory tracking becomes unsustainable beyond a certain item count, and implementing the system retroactively is much more painful than using it from the start.
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Single source of truth: Choose one system (Airtable, Google Sheets, or anything) where product data "lives," and sync everything else from there. Never have different prices or stock in two places. If Airtable is the source of truth, then Shopify, the warehouse system, and the invoicing tool should all get their data from there — never the other way around. This approach may seem more complex at first, but long-term it eliminates the "which price is correct?" questions that cause daily headaches at most retail operations.
Running a webshop and facing similar challenges? Book a free consultation — we'll show you where you can save time right away.
Tech stack#
| Tool | Role |
|---|---|
| n8n | 9 workflows: procurement, pricing, inventory, Shopify sync |
| OpenAI API | Price list processing from any format |
| Shopify | Webshop platform with multi-currency pricing |
| Airtable | Central product catalog and inventory management |