Import / Export Product CSV

Import/export Product CSV

This article explains how to use the import/export product CSV tool to manage your Acendy product catalog efficiently.

Intro

This extension allows you to import and/or export the product catalog from your control panel. With this tool, you can both create and edit products.

Import stock status is a simple tool that you can use when you have a file with two columns: "Article number" and "Stock status". It can be both single products and variants; this tool will place the stock status in the correct place.

Import/export product CSV is the full-fledged tool that allows you to create and update your products.

Product Import

Step 1: Upload File

Upload the XLS/CSV file you want to import.

A tip when working is to remove any columns that are not necessary; this makes it more clear when you need to link columns together and makes it easier to work with in the file itself.

Step 2: Connect Data

When using for the first time, we recommend doing an export of your product catalog that you can work with before your first import.

Gives you the opportunity to follow a guide to upload a file to be imported and connect the data fields in this file to the products in your store. Here you have the opportunity to reuse templates from previous imports, which in practice reuses the connection in the fields you set when you saved the template in question.

Choose Method For Import

Here you can choose between “Only update existing products” and “Update existing and create new products”.

Previously Saved Import Templates

Here you can choose whether you want to link the fields manually or reuse a template you have saved from a previous import. Import templates are good to use if you regularly update from files with the same layout.

Choose Which Language The Import File Should Have

If you have multiple languages installed in your store, you can choose which language the import should apply to.

Criteria

Choose how you want to connect products from the file with the products in the database.

Connect products based on With this, you can choose whether products from the import file should be linked together based on article number, pID (unique in Acendy and cannot be changed) or both.

Manufacturer With this active, we ensure that the manufacturer in the file is the same as on the product, which means that if you have several products with the same article number, we will not update the wrong product.This requires the file to contain a column for manufacturer and that this is selected during import.

Update product slug Updates the slug automatically based on the product's name. Read more

Stock balance is: You can now choose to only update products that have a certain number available in stock. This means that customers can import and only update products with stock balance.

No stock restriction

Equal or less than

Equal or less than

Equal or more than

Less than

More than

Connect Columns Together

Here you first choose whether this column should be imported by using the check box to the left, then you choose which column in the Acendy database it should be linked to.

If the column in the file has the same name as the column in Acendy's database, they will automatically be linked together. If the file has other column names, you may need to link it together manually.

Step 3: Control The Data

In this step, you get to control the import before it starts. You also get to save an import template by pressing "Save settings for import?", which is very useful if you are going to import several files with a similar structure.

Updating Product Slug

What is the product's slug? Slug is what you find behind the name of the website. Example: www.minbutikk.no/products/mitt-produktnavn

In the example above, “mitt-produktnavn” is the slug for the product.

By changing the product's slug, you also change the link to the product, which can affect SEO and, in the worst case, give 404 for customers who have saved or bookmarked the original slug.

As a standard, we do not update and change the slug, but the tool has options to do so if you wish. Here are the ways this is handled:

If the choice (switch) is off and nothing is linked to Product slug in the database column = slug is not updated.

If the choice (switch) is on and nothing is linked to Product slug in the database column = slug is updated automatically based on product name.

If the choice (switch) is off and a field from the file is linked to Product slug in the database column = slug is updated with the value from the uploaded file.

If the choice (switch) is on and a field from the file is linked to Product slug in the database column = slug is updated with the value from the uploaded file. In other words, field in uploaded file will override automatic update based on name.

If you choose to update/change the slug, it is smart to set up redirects from the old to the new URL.

Creating Products With Variants

When you are going to import variants, each variant must have its own row in the document. The way we link variants together to a product is by using an article number for the product and a unique article number for each variant.

“Article number” describes the variant's article number, “Article number (base product)” describes the product's article number.

The variant's name and value must be defined in separate columns. In the import tool these are called "Product variant name" and "Product variant value". You can import up to 3 variants per product. When you have more than one variant, the combination of these variants will be an article number.

Examples:

It is common for files from other systems to only have 1 column for the variant value. Instead of the column title "Product variant value 1" perhaps the title is "Size". This must be changed to the example above before it is imported to Acendy.

Small sweater in blue color has article number 101-1, Small sweater in red color has 101-5. Since article number can be anything, we could have used 101-s-bla and 101-s-rod instead.

The column you have for price must be the same down all the rows on a product. If you are going to import variants with different prices, you must have a column with price addition.

The sales price is always 100. This is because this describes the price of the product, not a price for each variant. When the variants are to have different prices, we use the column "Product Variant 1 Price Addition". A sweater in medium will cost 120 kr, large 140 kr etc. Both sales price and price addition are in excl. VAT.

If you are going to import both products with variants and without variants at the same time, you can follow the examples above, but the products without variants must then have the same information in "Article number" and in "Article number (Base product)". This is not necessary if you are only going to import products without variants.

Import Of Product Properties

Through the import tool, you have the opportunity to connect product properties (name + value) to the products. The service supports import of 3 properties at the same time.

Make sure that the file you import has a column with the product property's name and a column with the associated value. This can, for example, look like this:

When linking data, you link the column for name to the database column with name “Datasheet Option 1-3”. The column for value is linked to the database column with the name “Datasheet Value 1-3”.

In the example above, the column “Product property name” would be linked to “Datasheet Option” and “Product property value” linked to “Datasheet Value”.

Number Of Properties

Each individual import can have up to 3 properties per product. The columns marked with the same number will be linked to each other. For example, the value in “Datasheet Value 1” will be added to the name in “Datasheet Option 1”. See example below.

Multiple Values On The Same Name

Import of properties also supports that you can import several values on the same property. See example:

This product would after the import have 3 properties “Gender” with different values.

Important Info:

The import first checks if the property exists:

If yes: connect to existing property

If no: the property is created through export

The import checks if the value exists:

If yes: connect to existing value

If no: the value is created through export

Import of properties will never change existing properties. You can, for example, not change from “Gender” to “Gender” via import. This must be changed manually.

The import will never delete properties from a product, only add properties. Deletion must be done manually.

Importing Stock Groups

A recent update made it possible to import stock groups to several products at the same time. Import of stock groups requires that you have "Advanced Stock Management" installed and that the stock groups are set up in advance in the control panel.

Step 1: How to find ID on your stock groups. Go to a product in your control panel > Click on the tab "Stock groups" > Select the desired stock group. You will then see a field with "Group ID". This number is filled in in the export file.

Image Import

The image import lets you import product images directly from an external URL.

Connect article number or product ID. Then connect the columns in the file that contain URL to “Image 1-8 URL” in Acendy's database.

We support uploading 8 images per product.

Stock Import

With stock import, you can quickly and easily update the stock on several products. All you need is the article number for the product/variant and the stock balance.

Select “Stock import”

Upload the file you want to import

The file must contain one column for article number and one column for stock balance

Link the columns in the file with columns in the database

Start import

Import History

This page shows previous imports that have been done via the app. Each import shows status, any errors and date. In case of errors, you can click on the button "Errors Found" to see an overview. To the right, you will find a choice to download the file that was imported.

Before Import

How To Connect The Import File To Products

The tool for importing depends on the article number or product ID to identify which goods are to be created or updated. Product ID is a unique number that only exists in your Acendy store, and cannot be used to import new products, as you cannot assign a specific ID to a new product. However, product ID is useful when you want to update existing items in the store. The most effective way to initiate such an update process is to first perform an export from the store.

In addition to this, you must make some choices before the import is done:

Connection choice for products: You can choose how the products are to be matched for the import. Choose between a combination of Product ID and Article number, only Product ID, or only Article number.

Linking to manufacturer: Activate this function to ensure that the products that are imported match the manufacturer listed in the control panel. This is especially useful for managing products with identical article numbers from different manufacturers.

Requirements for stock balance: Set requirements that only products with a minimum balance in stock are to be updated. This option helps you to focus the import and updates on products that are available in stock.

Columns That Can Be Imported