Overview
Create many new products at once from a CSV file, with their variants, prices, stock and images.
Step 1: Upload Product Images
Skip this step if your CSV gives each product an Image URL instead.
- Navigate to Dashboard > Website > File Manager.
- Create a folder named product-images at the top level.
- Upload the images into it, named after a variant SKU: SKU-1.jpg, SKU-2.jpg and so on.
- Use .jpg, .jpeg, .gif or .png.
For a variant with SKU MIRIAM-BLUE-S, name the images MIRIAM-BLUE-S-1.jpg, MIRIAM-BLUE-S-2.jpg.
Shopcada adds them to the product in number order.
The SKU in the file name must match the variant’s SKU exactly.
The extension can be upper or lower case.
Images are added in number order, and the numbers do not have to run without gaps.
Step 2: Prepare the CSV File
Start from the sample CSV file.
It shows three example products with every common column filled in.
Each row is one variant.
Rows next to each other with the same Handler belong to one product.
Leave Handler blank on the rows under the first one, or repeat it.
Shopcada takes the product details from the product’s first row, and the variant details from every row.
Create any classification values the products need before you import.
A classification value that does not match is ignored.
Product Columns
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Handler | Required. A name that groups the rows of one product. The same Handler further down the file, after a different one, starts a separate product. |
| Title | Required. The product name. The product URL is made from it, after the first Category value. |
| Description | The product description, in HTML. |
| Category, Collection, Brand | Names of existing values, separated by commas. Write a value under a parent as Parent > Child, for example Apparel > Dresses. |
| Other classifications | Name the column after the classification followed by (Tag), for example Material(Tag). Values work as for Category. |
| Published | Yes or True publishes the product on your website and in POS. Anything else, or blank, leaves it unpublished in both. |
| Shippable, Track Inventory | Yes or True to turn the setting on for every variant. Blank means No. |
| Image URL | The web address of an image. Shopcada downloads it. Add more images on the product’s other rows, one per row. |
| SEO Title, SEO Description, SEO Keywords | The product’s meta tags. |
| Supplier | The supplier name, for your own records. |
| Product Series, Colour, Colour Image | Groups separate products as colours of one design. Colour Image is the web address of the swatch. Saved only on stores that group products by colour. |
Variant Columns
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Variant SKU | Required on every row. Must not be used by any product already in your store, or by another row of the file. |
| Sell Price | Required on every row, and above 0. |
| List Price, Cost Price | Optional. |
| Sale Price, Sale Price Start Date, Sale Price End Date | Fill in all three or none. Dates as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS. |
| Weight | In grams. Blank means 0. |
| Barcode | Optional. |
| Option 1 Name to Option 5 Value | The option name, such as Size, and this variant’s value, such as XL. A product with more than one variant needs an option on every row. A colon (:) cannot be used in a value. |
| … Quantity | Opening stock, one column per inventory location, named after it: for example Orchard Quantity. Blank means 0. |
| … Rack | The shelf or rack the stock sits on, one column per inventory location: for example Orchard Rack. For your own records. |
Your store’s extra description boxes, if it has any, take a column named exactly as the box.
Step 3: Import the File
- Navigate to Dashboard > Products > Products.
- Click the three-dot menu at the top right.
- Click Import Products.
- Choose your file under Product CSV file.
- Tick Convert new line to paragraph in HTML if your descriptions are plain text with line breaks.
- Click Import.
A product that breaks a rule above is not created. The rest of the file carries on.
The report at the end lists each failure under Errors. Each one names the product’s Handler, and the Variant SKU or CSV row where the problem is.
Import only creates products. It never updates them.
To fix failed products, correct their rows.
Import the whole file again. Products already created fail on their SKU, so they are not duplicated.
The classification, stock and description columns depend on how your store is set up. Please contact support@shopcada.com to confirm which columns apply to your store.
