How do I import products?
E3 Product Import Guide—Overview
The E3 product import is an easy way to enter a large number of products into your online store at one time. The only requirement is a basic spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel or Open Office (free). All of your products can be imported using one spreadsheet in CSV text file format. Below is a basic example of what your product import will look like:
Import File Overview
Doing your own product import is not as hard as it sounds. Instead of manually adding each product and image to your store, you can import all of your products and images at one time. Your import file is just a flat, spreadsheet file. Each product in your store has a set of attributes that need to be added to your store.
Columns
Each different column represents one type of attribute. For example, the product column imports your product name and the shortdescr column imports your short product description. The column name is always the first row of your CSV file. This is how the import software knows where to assign each attribute.
The columns can be in any order. For example, the category column can be the first column and the productcode column can be last. The order does not affect the import.
The column names have to exactly match the names listed in this guide and the template file, with the exception of extra fields (descirbed below). They are not case sensitive, but the import will fail if the names are different. For example, productcode is correct and product code will cause the import to fail.
Rows
Your first product starts on the second row of your file. As you see in the sample import screenshot and file, the first product is the Fenton Sofa. The second row contains all the information for this product. The third row moves on to the next product, the Paxton Sofa.
Important: All information for each product is entered into only one row.
Every product row requires certain information for a minimal import:
· productcode,
· product
· category
· price.
If any of these attributes are left empty, the product will not import correctly.
Required Attributes/Columns
From the above images and the sample files, you see that there are a number of attributes
that can be imported into the system. The following attributes are required for the
product import to work.
productcode – (format: text ex: #EA-001)
This is your sku, product id, or part number. If you do not have defined productcode for some products, you can use any combination of numbers and/or letters.
Example: (cat123, bigtee5, wheel5a)
· This attribute can be set to visible or hidden on the front of your store. The option is
· under General Settings-Appearance, the option is 'Show SKU in product title?'.
· It can be used as your primary mechanism for tracking inventory and store reports.
· Customers can search by productcode on your store.
product – (format: text ex: Fenton Sofa)
This is your product name as displayed on the front your site and is a searchable attribute.
category – (format: text ex: Category/SubCat1/SubCat2)
The E3 system provides a category/subcategory structure to store your products in. All categories defined in your import file are automatically created during the import. Every product needs a category for it to live in. The Fenton Sofa is stored in Furniture/Sofas. This means that main category for this products is Furniture. The Furniture category has a subcategory of Sofas. This is the category that the product is actually stored in.
The E3 Import also allows you to place a product in multiple categories. This is done by simply adding extra category columns to your import file.
As this example shows, the 'Fishing Pole' belongs to two different categories. If a product type fits multiple categories on your site, you can add it to them. Again, only one category is required. Any additional categories are optional.
You may have as many main level categories as you need. We recommend you try to keep the number of main categories under 10 as this aids with navigation, it’s difficult for shoppers to choose from more than 10 main categoryies.
These categories can be segmented into as many subcategories as required. All of the subcategories will be listed after the customer clicks on the main category.
· In your import file, the main category and subcategories are divided by one forward slash /
· You can add as many subcategories as necessary. For example, you want to add an additional subcategory for leather sofas. The Fenton Sofa will be stored in this category.You would type in 'Furniture/Sofas/Leather' in the category field. The Fenton Sofa product will now be imported into the 'Leather' category.
Category Hierarchy:
· Furniture (main category)
o Sofa (subcategory 1)
§ Leather (subcategory 2)
· Fenton Sofa (product)
price – (format: decimal, ex: 3498.00)
This is the selling price of your product. Note: if you have the Flexible Pricing add-on module, you may import special pricing by quantity and customer type. This is explained later on this page.
· The price column in your import file should be formatted as a number. The import will not work correctly if a currency symbol is added in front of the numeric price (example: do not add a $ to the price).
· The price is displayed on the product list page and the product detail page.
Additional Attributes/Columns
In addition to the required productcode, product, category, and price fields, there are numerous other product attributes that can be imported. All of these attributes are optional, but many are highly recommended.
descr – (format: text, ex: A Fenton Sofa)
This is your short description field that appears on the product list page. In the above image, the short description (descr) for the Paxton Sofa is 'Paxton leather sofa'.
· There is no limit on the size of the short description. However, it should usually be kept under 1-2 paragraphs. The full description (fulldescr), will provide the detailed product information on the product detail page.
· If the full description (fulldescr) is left empty, the short description (descr) will be used in place on the product detail page.
thumbnail – (format: text, ex: imageName.jpg, ImageName.gif)
This is the small thumbnail product image that appears both on the product list page and product detail page. The thumbnail field is case sensitive. The name of the image in your import file has to exactly match the actual image name.
· The import can use (.bmp, .jpg, .gif, .png) type images. All other types of images need to be converted to one of these formats.
· All imported thumbnails and images need to be on our servers before the import.
· Image names are Case Sensitive (i.e if the image name is: Sofa.jpg, sofa.jpg won’t work)
· By default, thumbnails will automatically be resized during the import according to the size set in General Settings-Image Optimization
image – (format: text, ex: imageName.jpg, ImageName.gif)
This is the fully sized, detailed image for your product. Each product can have multiple detailed images. To specify multiple images, simply add additional image columns to the import file.
· The field format is identical to the thumbnail format.
· The detailed image can be the same as the thumbnail or a different image.
· Detailed images appear (by default) by clicking on the images tab on the product detail page.
· By default, detailed images will automatically be resized during the import according to the size set in General Settings-Image Optimization
fulldescr – (format: text)
This is the full description visible on the product detail page. The full description does not have a size limit. It can be multiple paragraphs and include html code referencing images, formatted text, and other elements. However, it will display a normal text description just fine.
list_price – (format: decimal, ex: 3995.00, 49.50, default: 0)
This is an optional column for the product list price. The E3 system allows you to show savings from the list price to the price based on percentage or dollars. This is illustrated in the above product detail screenshot.
weight - (format: decimal, ex: 2, 4.5, etc., default: 0)
This is the product weight. It is usually expressed in lbs. The weight column is optional. However, you have the option of setting up your shipping rates based on weight. In this case, weight is necessary. Note: do not include an text (such as lbs.) in this field, numeric values only
avail - (format: integer, ex: 200, 500, 10000, etc, default 0)
The E3 system features an inventory tracking component that automatically updates your available inventory whenever an item is sold. If the available items reach 0, the item will not be purchasable on your site. Use of inventory tracking is optional and the 'avail' field is optional.
forsale - (format: text, valid options: Y or N, default: Y)
This is a 'Y' or 'N' field that tells the system whether the item is for sale on your site. By default, this is set for 'Y'. If you want to add a product to your site and not make it available for purchase, place a 'N' in this column.
shipping_freight- (format: decimal, ex: 5, 10, 15, etc)
This will add an extra shipping freight charge on top of the normal shipping charges for a product. This optional column is only needed for applicable products. If used, rows without a shipping_freight charge can be left blank.
free_shipping - (format: text valid, options: Y or N, default: N)
This optional column allows you to designate a product to receive free shipping. By default, all products are eligible for shipping charges.
discount_avail - (format: text, valid options: Y or N, default: Y)
By default, all imported products are eligible for global discounts. If you wish to exclude a product from global discounts, this optional column can be added. Any product with a discount_avail value of 'N' will be excluded from global discounts.
min_amount - (format: integer ex: 2, 5, 10, etc.)
This optional column specifies a minimum order quantity for the applicable product. By default, all products are imported with a minimum order quantity of 1. This can be changed by adding the min_amount column and specifying a different minimum order quantity.
low_avail_limit - (format: integer, ex: 5, 20, 50, etc.)
The E3 system allows you specify a low availability limit for each product of your site.
By default, this set at 10. If you are using the inventory tracking component and a different low availability limit for a product is needed, the low_avail_limit column can be added.
free_tax - (format: text, ex: Y or N, default: N)
This optional column allows you to exclude a product from all taxes that would normally be applied by setting the value as 'Y'. This means that no taxes will ever be applied to this product.
manufacturer – (format: text ex: Fenton)
This optional field can assign a brand (manufacturer) to any product. With all optional attributes, these fields can be left empty.
The manufacturer field gives customers another way of finding your products from the
storefront of the site using the Brands side element. A customer who clicks Fenton, will see all products with the manufacturer set as Fenton.
Extra Fields
You may have additional fields for your products that do not match the importable fields listed above. Before importing you must setup the additional fields, see Manage-Product Fields.You can import up to ten additional fields in your spreadsheet.
Note: You must name the columns for your extra fields exactly as you set them up in Manage-Product Fields.
These fields will appear on your product detail page and give more information about your product. This is illustrated in the following example:
As the example shows, three columns have been added for three extra fields. These are 'material', ‘warranty’ and ‘length’. The Fenton Sofa is now being imported with a 'warranty' of five years and 'material' set as 100% Leather and a ‘length’ of 6 Feet. If a product does not contain warranty, material or length information, the appropriate fields can be left empty
Extra fields allow you to import additional information commonly associated with many of your products. Instead of fitting this information into the description, you can add an extra field for a more common attribute. This also makes it easier to edit your product information later. The only constraint is that extra fields fall outside of the site logic and are only used for informational purposes to give the customer more detail about a product.
Flexible Pricing - format (membershipname:quantity:price)
The E3 system features an optional, Flexible Pricing add-on module that allows for different prices for a product based on the customer type. You have the option of defining multiple customer types.
The format for importing flexible pricing for a customer is to add additional price columns. This is illustrated in the following example:
As illustrated, there are now three price columns in our sample spreadsheet. The first price column has not changed. It is the standard price for your product. The second price column sets the price for wholesale customers. The wholesale price format for the 'Brown football jersey' is wholesale:5:35. This means that wholesale customers get a price break to $35 per item when they purchase 5 or more jerseys. The third price column defines prices for premium customers. From the example, Premium customers can purchase one or more of the 'Baseball Glove' product for $55. This format is set as premium: 1:55.
In summary, with the Flexible Pricing add-on module enabled, multiple prices per product can be imported to your site. These are defined by adding additional price columns and using the appropriate format.
Performing the Import
Now that you’ve prepared you product import file, you’re ready to import the product data into your store.
First, save the spreadsheet as CSV. Please see your spreadsheet vendors help system for information on how to perform this operation, it is usually a very simple "Save as.." procedure.
If you need more detail information on the Bizatomic E3 Ecommerce Website Import please see BizAtomic E3 Ecommerce Manual
