This is a short How To post to get you ready for your new e-commerce or product catalog website. We’ll go over preparing your product list for simple products. For products with variations (different sizes, colors etc…) of the same product, you should go through this post first and then head on to the variable one here.
Create your CSV for simple products
To help you get started, you can download the sample csv file here. If you’re planning on adding a product image, please add a column at the end with the file name of the image. Below you’ll find a table guiding you on what you need to fill in and what the system will be filling in.
| COLUMN | DESCRIPTION | ACCEPTED VALUES | EXAMPLE |
|---|---|---|---|
| id | Assigned by our platform. | N/A | N/A |
| tax:product_type | Required. Whether your product is Simple, Grouped, External, or Variable. | simple / variable / grouped / external | simple |
| post_id | Assigned by our platform. | N/A | N/A |
| post_type | By default, this is product. | product | product |
| menu_order | Use this to sort your products. | Numerical | 5 |
| post_status | Choose whether your post should be published or not. | draft / publish / pending / private | draft |
| post_title | Required. Name of the product. | Text | Killer Heels |
| post_date | Date/time from your our platform admin. You only need to add a date if you don’t want to use the current date. If you’re updating products, leave this as the exported value unless you want to make the product appear more/less recent. | mm/dd/yyyy dd-mm-yyyy |
01/02/2015 02-01-2015*Both of these are January 2, 2015 |
| post_content | Post content, normally a description of the product. | Text | Super high heels are all the rage. Look beautiful this season with a gorgeous pair of killer heels. Available in 5 colors! |
| post_excerpt | Short description of the product. | Text | This season’s latest heels! |
| post_parent | Use for grouped products and variations. Enter the ID of the parent product. Note: Variables should be imported in a separate spreadsheet. | Post ID | 234 |
| post_password | If your post is private, include the password. | Text | !MyAwesomePassw! |
| visibility | Choose visibility for your product. | visible / catalog / search / hidden | visible |
| sku | Recommended. SKU of the product. Must be unique. | Text | SH99786 |
| upsell_skus | SKU(s) of the product to which you wish to upsell. | Text – multiple skus separated by a “|” character. | SKU1|SKU2 |
| upsell_ids | ID of the product to which you wish to upsell. | post ID – multiple IDs separated by a “|” character. | 236|569 |
| crosssell_skus | SKU(s) of the product with which you wish to crosssell. | Text – multiple skus separated by a “|” character. | SKU1|SKU2 |
| crosssell_ids | ID of the product that can be purchased with this product. | post ID – multiple IDs separated by a “|” character. | 236|569 |
| featured | Whether this product should be featured or not. | yes/no | yes |
| downloadable | Whether your product is downloadable or not. | yes/no | no |
| virtual | Whether your item is a non-physical object or not. | yes/no | no |
| regular_price | Required for all products except variable products. Normal price of your product. |
Float (Decimal number) | 99.99 |
| sale_price | Sale price of your product, if on sale. | Float (Decimal number) | 69.99 |
| manage_stock | Whether or not you are managing stock for the product. | yes/no | no |
| stock | Number of this item you have in stock. | Numerical | 3 |
| stock_status | Whether you have any in stock or not. | instock / outofstock | instock |
| backorders | Whether you’re accepting backorders. | yes/no/ notify | yes |
| weight | Weight of your product. Complete if you’re using weight-based shipping rules or a shipping method that pulls rates from an external service. Use the same measurement unit set for your site. |
Numerical | 0.73 |
| length | Length of your product. Use if you pull rates from an external service, such as USPS. Use the same measurement unit set for your site. |
Numerical | 10.5 |
| width | Width of your product. Use if you pull rates from an external service, such as USPS. Use the same measurement unit set for your site. |
Numerical | 15 |
| height | Height of your product. Use if you pull rates from an external service, such as USPS. Use the same measurement unit setted in your site. |
Numerical | 8 |
| tax_status | Use to determine whether your product is taxable or not. | taxable / shipping / none | taxable |
| tax_class | Tax class of your product. | zero-rate, reduced-rate Notice that you have to use the slug of the tax class. Leave blank if the value should beStandard Rate. |
reduced-rate |
| tax:product_shipping_class | Product’s shipping class | Allows you to set the Shipping Class when uploading a product to your store. | Class 1 |
| sale_price_dates_from | Date from when your sale price is used. | MM DD YYdd MM YY MM” / “DD” / “YYDD” / “MM” / “YY” | 01/02/2013 |
| sale_price_dates_to | Date when your sale ends for this product. | MM DD YYdd MM YY MM” / “DD” / “YYDD” / “MM” / “YY” | 01/04/2013 |
| images | Import images. Use a pipe to separate multiple images. Enter the image URL or file name. The importer will look in wp-content/uploads/year/month where year/month are the year and month in which the import is run. The first image is the main product image and will be used for the featured image. | Text | image1.jpg | image2.jpg | image3.jpg |
| product_url | Use if the product is sold on another site. Used by External/Affiliate products only. | URL | https://amazon.com/etc |
| button_text | Text that will appear on your “Add to cart” button. Used by External/Affiliate products only. | Text | Buy on Amazon! |
| meta:_sold_individually | Can the product only be sold on its own? | yes/no | no |
| meta:total_sales | Total sales for this product. | Numerical | 56 |
Once you’re done, you can send it over to us, and we will import it and set up your new online store. Don’t forget, if you have product variations, go on to this post for part 2. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments section, or give us a call.
