Import/Export Product CSV
  • 10 Oct 2023
  • 12 Minutes to read
  • Dark
    Light
  • PDF

Import/Export Product CSV

  • Dark
    Light
  • PDF

Article Summary

A bulk processing tool for products, you can, among other things, update prices, change product descriptions, and add variants.

About the app

With this app, you get the option to import and/or export your product catalogue from your control panel.
With this tool, you can both create and edit products.

  • Import inventory status is a simple tool that you can use when you have a file with two columns. "Article number" and "Inventory status". It can be both individual products and variants, this tool will put the stock status in the right place.
  • Import/Export Product CSV is the full-featured tool that allows you to create and update your products. 

File types supported are .csv, .xls, and .xlsx

Import

On first use, we recommend making an export of your product catalogue that you can work with before your first import.

Allows you to follow a guide to upload a file to import and link the data fields in this file to the products in your store.
Here you have the opportunity to reuse templates from previous imports that in practice reuse the link in the fields you set when you saved the template in question.

Step 1:
Upload the XLS/CSV file you want to import. 

A tip for when you are working is to remove any columns that are not necessary, it makes it easier to link columns to each other and makes it easier to work with in the file itself.

Step 2:
You have the following fields.

  •  Choose method of importing: Here you have the following options: "Update existing products only" and " Update existing and create new products".
  • Previously saved import templates: You can choose whether to link the fields manually or reuse a template that you saved from a previous import.
  • Select the language of the import file: If you have several languages installed in your store, you can choose which language the import should apply to.
  • Associate columns: Here you first choose whether this column should be imported using the check mark box on the left, then choose which column in Mystore database it should be linked to.

Step 3:
In this step, you can check the import before it starts.
You can also save an import template by pressing "Save import settings?", which is very useful if you need to import multiple files with similar structure.

Import History

This page shows previous imports that have been made through the app.
Each import shows the status, any errors, and date.

You can tap on any errors to see which rows have failed and why.

Export

Using this service, you can easily export all products in your online store.

NB! For online stores with many products, generating the export file may take some time.
While it's being generated, you can do other things in the Control Panel.

Export History

This page shows previous exports that have been made through the app.
Each export displays the status, any errors, date, and "Download" button so that older exports can be redownloaded.

 

Creating products with variants

When importing variants, each variant should have its own row in the document.
The way we link variants together to a product is through the use of an article number for the product and a unique article number for each variant. 

Article numberArticle number (base product)

101-1

101
101-2101
101-3101
101-4101

"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 named "Product variant name" and "Product variant value".

It is common for files from other systems to have only 1 column for the variant value. Instead of the column, the title "Product variant value 1" might be titled "Size." This must be turned into the example above before it is imported into Mystore.

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.

Small sweater in blue color has the article number 101-1, Small sweater in red color has 101-5. Since article numbers can be anything, we could use 101-s-blue and 101-s-red instead. 

The column you have for price must be equal down all rows on a product. If you're importing variants with different prices, you need an additional pricing column.

The selling price is always 100. This is because this describes the price of the product, not a price for each variant. When the variants should have different prices, we use the column "Product Variant 1 Surcharge". A sweater in medium will cost £120, £140 etc. Both the selling price and the surcharge are excl. VAT.

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

Here you can download a sample file/template file with 6 products. 3 with varieties and 3 without. Here we have also added all other columns that are common to include in an import.

  

Importable columns

  • Product ID

The import tool relies on the item number or product ID to know what to create or update.


Product ID is a number that exists only in your Mystore store. You can't use Product ID to import new products because you can't decide which ID a product should have.

 

Product ID is great to use if you need to update something that is already in your store and you start this job by taking out an export from the store. 

  • Article number
    The import tool relies on the item number or product ID to know what to create or update.

    Article numbers are useful when creating new products, or if you need to update your products through a file you get from a supplier, etc. These will usually not contain the product ID.

    If you import a row that does not contain the article number or product ID, a new product will be created with no article number attached.

    Max 32 characters in the article number.
  • Name
    Product name.
  • Product Description
    The description can be a bit awkward to work with in an import file. If you export a file where descriptions are already in place, you will see that it comes with some html code and the column can generally contain a huge amount of data. You can write the description straight ahead with plain text, then this will appear on the product without formatting.

    If you only need to update product descriptions, you can do this by importing a file with 2 columns. Article number/Product ID and product description.
  • Purchase price
    Price of the product excluding VAT.
    Any decimal places are written with periods, not commas.

    If you only need to update purchase prices, you can do so by importing a file with 2 columns. Item number/Product ID and purchase price.

    If you want to update the purchase price of variants, the following fields must be included in the import file:  ProductID, Product variant combination, Item number and purchase price 
  • Selling price (excluding VAT)
    Price of the product excl. VAT.
    Any decimal places are written with periods, not commas.

    If you only need to update purchase prices, you can do so by importing a file with 2 columns. Item number/Product ID and sales price (excluding VAT).
  • Offer price
    With this, you can import the new offer price of the product. The price imported must be excluding VAT.

    Note: if the product does not already have an offer price, the status must also be imported in order for the sale price to be imported. 
  • Offer status
    This sets whether the offer is "Enabled (on)" or "Not activated (off)".
    The status can be defined in the following ways: 
    Activated
    Can be defined in one of the following ways:
    Not enabled
    Can be defined in one of the following ways:
    10
    ActiveInactive
    ActivatedDisabled
    OnOf
  • Offer ends
    Date when the offer is due to end. Formatted as follows:
    YYYY-MM-DD (2023-02-16)
  • Product Weight (Grams)
    The weight of the product in grams. Does not accept decimals.

    If you only need to update purchase prices, you can do so by importing a file with 2 columns. Article number/Product ID and weight.
  • Disposable stock
    The store's stock. If you have inventory history or inventory count enabled in your store, you will have 2 choices when importing a file: Available inventory and Physical warehouse. If this is the case, we recommend that you import into physical inventory. Disbonible inventory in this case is the warehouse minus reserved goods.

    If you only need to update purchase prices, you can do so by importing a file with 2 columns. Item number/Product ID and available/physical storage.
  • Value Added Tax (VAT)
    This can be written in three different ways:

    As stated in the control panel (tax class), eg. VAT 25, alternatively you can write 25% or only 25.

    If you change the tax code on a product, the selling price incl. VAT will change hereafter.
  • Category
    The name of the category in which the products should be added.
    If you write a category/category path that does not exist, this will be created upon import.

    Formatting:
    Main Category/Subcategory/Subcategory2

    You can put the product into multiple categories by dividing the different category paths by semicolons.
    Ex: Shoes/women's shoes/sneakers; Shoes/men's shoes/sneakers; (Here the product will end up in 2 different categories)

    Each category can be a maximum of 32 characters. If one of the categories in the path you're importing has more than this, you risk messing up your category structure.
  • Category image URL
    Here you can enter the file name of the image to associate with the category. For instance photo.jpg
    The app does not allow you to upload images, these must be uploaded via the control panel or FTP. The following article discusses uploading to FTP.
  • Barcode (GTIN)
    Product barcode, 13 digits.
  • Country of origin
    The country where the product is produced.
  • Producer
    The manufacturer with whom the product is to be linked. If you write a manufacturer that does not exist, this will be created by import.
  • Image URL 1-8
    Here you can enter the file name of the image to be associated with the product. For example, photo.jpg. 
    The image that you enter the file name of must have already been uploaded to the store or uploaded after import. The import tool does not allow you to upload images, this must be done through the file explorer.
    The following artikkel tar for seg filutforskeren

    Images 2 through 8 become sub-images.
  • Visibility
    Determines whether the product should be active, hidden, or deactivated.
    Here it is possible to set visibility by importing "Active", "Hidden" and "Disabled" or the number indicating the status:
    • Active = 1
    • Hidden = 2
    • Disabled = 0
  • Sorting
    If you want to sort your products, you can do this here. This is done with digits, the products with the lowest numbers come first in the sorting.
  • Date created
    If this field is empty, the date you run the import will be added.

    This field can be used to "trick" the system a bit, examples of this are if you use the date for sorting, or if you want to display the news banner on the product a little longer.

    Formatting: 2021-05-08 13:12:38
  • Date available
    If you use the feature that allows your customers to pre-order products, this can be used to enter the date the product becomes available.

    Formatting: 2021-05-08 13:12:38
  • Warehouse location
    Where the product is in your warehouse, e.g. row and shelf number. This requires the APP "additional product information".
  • Artnr supplier
    Vendor article number. This requires the APP "additional product information".
  • Note
    Note on the product. This requires the APP "additional product information".
  • Page title/meta title
    This is the title that the page of the product gets, if this is blank then the name of the product will become the title.
  • Meta description
    The meta description is an invisible text that can be added to the products under the SEO tab. Google and other search engines can read this text, but in recent years this has been deprioritized in favor of product name, description and other more relevant fields.
  • Meta keywords
    Keywords in the meta text
  • Article number base product
    This is the article number of the base product/main product if you have variants. This is used if you are going to create products with variants or you need to update the variants.

    If you import an item number that does not exist in the store, a new product will be created, if the item number already exists then this product will be overwritten.

    If you do an export, you'll see that the Article number and Article number (Base product) columns are the same on products that don't have variants.
  • Product Varieties Names 1-3
    Here you insert variant name, e.g. "Size"
  • Product Variant Value 1-3
    Here you insert the variant's value, e.g. "Large"
  • Product Variant Price Supplement 1-3
    Here you insert the variant's price surcharge (excluding VAT).
    For example, if size "Large" costs 50, - extra, you fill in the extra price in additional cost.
    Remember that prices are excl. VAT.
  • Product Variant Purchase Price
    Here you can set the purchase price of the variant.
  • Selling price (excluding VAT) (Customer group: XXX)
    Here you can set the sales price for your different customer groups.
    This is only available for purchase of the "Advanced reseller solution" app.
  • Physical inventory
    With "Physical inventory" you can import the quantity you physically have in stock.
    The system takes into account reservations and corrects the available stock.
    For example, if you import 10 pieces into physical stock and have 1 product reserved in order, the system itself will show available stock as 9 pieces.

    This means that you can reset the warehouse by importing quantity 0 and the import will still keep the reserved quantity so that the available stock is correct.

    This can be used, among other things, for manual inventory counting where the stock must be reset first.

    Physical inventory is available only to customers who have "Warehouse management with history" installed.

  • Inventory group ID
    With this, you can link products to stock groups if you have "Advanced warehouse management" installed in your store.
    Read more about inventory groups and imports here.  
  • Product last updated on
    The date that the product was last updated.

    Formatting: 2021-05-08 13:12:38

Calculate inventory value

By opening the export file in e.g. Excel or Google Sheets, you can calculate the value of your inventory.
Then you multiply the cell "Purchase Price" by "Physical inventory" and then get the inventory value of the product. Then sum the inventory value of all products.
This should only be done on products with positive quantity in "Physical stock", i.e. not products that have minus in stock.

NB! To get the correct inventory value, all products must have a purchase price. This is up to each store to keep up to date.

 

Example of calculation
In the video clip (GIF) below, we have used export from the online store and opened this in Google Sheets. To make post-production easier, we have removed several columns that are not necessary to calculate the value of the warehouse. 

NB! The video has headlines in English. Product Cost is "Purchase Price" and Product Stock On Hand is "Physical Inventory".

 

Import of inventory groups

A recent update made it possible to import inventory groups into multiple products at the same time.
Import of warehouse groups requires that you have "Advanced warehouse management" installed and that the warehouse groups are set up in advance in the control panel. 

Step 1: Here's how to find the ID of your inventory groups.
Access a product in your control panel > Click on the "Stock Groups" tab > Select the desired stock group.
You will then see a field with the "Group ID". This number is entered in the export file.

Import of inventory status

Inventory status import allows you to import and export a price file with inventory status for all your products.


Was this article helpful?

What's Next
Changing your password will log you out immediately. Use the new password to log back in.
First name must have atleast 2 characters. Numbers and special characters are not allowed.
Last name must have atleast 1 characters. Numbers and special characters are not allowed.
Enter a valid email
Enter a valid password
Your profile has been successfully updated.