The CSV product import feature allows you to bulk import up to 500 products and their categories from another store platform, such as third party store, Shopify, or WooCommerce, into native store. Note that variations count towards the 500 product limit. For example, this means you can have 300 products with 200 variations but not 300 products with 300 variations.
Note
These instructions cover how to import new products. To learn how to update existing products in bulk, see Bulk Update Products via CSV.
To import products from CSV, you need to export a CSV of products from your current store, update the CSV format so it meets native store format requirements, then you can upload the CSV to native store and your products and categories will be added to the product catalog.
1. Export Products from Store
Following are instructions on how to export products to a CSV from various store platforms:
2. Reformat CSV File
You need to reformat the CSV file to meet the required format for native store.
Note
If you are importing products from third party store, you can skip this step. Maisey will automatically reformat the third party store CSV file for you. However, the third party store does not support variations or category images in the export file. Also, native store does not support products with duplicate names, so if there are two or more products with the same name in the third party store export file they will not be imported.
When reformatting your CSV file, make sure to check for all of the following:
Ensure column names and fields meet native store requirements (see table below for specifics). For example, your original CSV file might have a column titled ‘
product_images’, but for native store to recognize the column you need to rename it to ‘product_image_url’. Or, the price field from your original CSV includes currency, but native store does not include currency in the price field.Confirm required columns are present and contain the correct information. For products, title and price columns are required. For variations, field-type, title, product-option-name, and product-option-value columns are required.
Remove columns that are not supported by native store.
CSV Format Requirements
The following table displays the supported columns and formats for your CSV file:
Column name | Column description | Example format | Default value (if left blank) | Additional information | Required |
url-handle | The product URL. Can accept any legal URL path. This URL is unique per product and is the product identifier. | sample-product | Same as product title | Must be unique per product. Required only for updating existing products; not required for new products. | It depends, see note in Additional information column |
field-type | Indicates whether row data is for a product or a variation. | product | product | Required when updating a variation. | It depends, see note in Additional information column |
title | The title of the product. | Purse | Cannot be left blank. Mandatory field for products. | Must be unique. | Required |
description | The description of the product in HTML format. | <b> Oversized purse for everyday use. <b/> | None | 2,000 character maximum. | Optional |
price | The price of the product. | 100 | Cannot be left blank. Mandatory field for products and variations. | Cannot be left blank. | Required |
compare-at-price | The sale price of a product. | 90 | None | Must be lower than price. | Optional |
sku | The SKU of the product or variant. | 12345 |
| Maximum length of 40 characters. | Optional |
status | The status property controls whether a certain product is visible on the site. | ACTIVE | Active for all except digital, digital is draft by default | Valid values for product are: ACTIVE, PREVIEW IN EDITOR, and DRAFT. Valid values for variations are: SHOW and HIDE. | Optional |
type | Sets the type of the product. | PHYSICAL, DONATION, SERVICE, | PHYSICAL | Digital products can be created without a resource. They are created in draft mode and then in the catalog, you can add the file and activate them. | Optional |
product-image-url | URL at which the product image is found. | None | For products you can add up to 10 images, URLs must be separated with a semi-colon or comma. For variations you can add one image. | Optional | |
product-image-alt-text | Alt (alternate) text describes an image and is an important part of a product description. | Blue purse | None | For products you can add up to 10 alt-texts. The text must be separated with a semi-colon or comma. For variations you can add one alt-text. | Optional |
inventory | Determines whether the item is in stock, out of stock, or has a numeric inventory. | 100 | IN STOCK | Possible values: IN STOCK, OUT OF STOCK, a number. | Optional |
product-option-name-1 | Name of the option type (e.g. color, size) | Size | Mandatory field for variations. | Maximum of 6 options, see the Create Variations section below for details about formatting. | Optional |
product-option-value-1 | Value of the option type (e.g. color, size) | Small; Medium; Large | Mandatory field for variations. |
| Optional |
product-option-name-2 | Name of the option type (e.g. color, size) | Color | Mandatory field for variations. |
| Optional |
product-option-value-2 | Value of the option type (e.g. color, size) | Red; Green; Blue | Mandatory field for variations. |
| Optional |
category | The category or subcategory the product will be assigned to. | Accessories | None | The category the product will be assigned to. To assign multiple categories, separate them with a semicolon (;). To assign a sub category, input the parent category followed by a chevron, then the sub category (for instance Category > Sub Category) . | Optional |
seo-title | SEO Title appears on the product's details page under the Search engine listing preview header in the Page title field. SEO Title is alphanumeric and can include up to 70 characters. | Sample product | Same as product title | If left blank, the value in the Title column is entered into the Page title field on the product's details page. | Optional |
seo-description | SEO description appears on a product's details page under the Search engine listing preview header in the Description. SEO description is alphanumeric and can include up to 320 characters. | Sample description | Same as product description | SEO description appears on a product's details page under the Search engine listing preview header in the Description. SEO description is alphanumeric and can include up to 320 characters. | Optional |
custom-field-name-1 | The name of the custom content block (formerly known as Custom Fields). | Details & Care | None | We support up to 20 fields. | Optional |
custom-field-type-1 | The content block type. | TEXT, | None |
| Optional |
custom-field-value-1 | The value of the custom block. | Hand wash only When using "IMAGE" with custom-field-type-1, enter an image URL (e.g., https://image.jpg). | None |
| Optional |
3. Upload CSV to Native Store
After reformatting your CSV file to match the native store required format, you can upload it and import your products.
To import products:
In the side panel, click Sell Online.
Click Store Management, then click Manage Products.
Click Import.
Select your CSV origin using the Select your CSV origin drop down menu.
Click the Upload your CSV section to upload your file. File size limit is 20MB.
The number of detected products is displayed on the screen. If it is correct, click Import Products. If it is not correct, click Re-Upload CSV File and try again.
If there is an error with your CSV, click Download CSV Error Report to learn what needs to be fixed. After making the required changes, click Re-Upload CSV File.
Once your products are successfully imported, you can click See Product Catalog to view the products and categories.
Variations
Create Variations
To create new variations for a given product, you need to define the relevant option and values in your CSV when importing the product.
For example, if you sell a backpack with 3 sizes (small, medium, large) in 2 colors (red, green) the row for importing the backpack would look something like this:
field-type | title | price | ... (other relevant fields) | product-option-name-1 | product-option-value-1 | product option-name-2 | product-option-value2 |
Product | backpack | 90 |
| Size | Small; Medium; Large | Color | Red; Green |
This creates 6 different variations for your backpack.
Update Variations
Note
Mandatory fields when updating a variation: field-type, title, product-option-name, product-option-value.
To update a variation, you need to specify which variation is being updated by providing details about the specific varition. Continuing with the previous example, say you want to set a higher price to the large green variant. In that case, the CSV file will look like this.
field-type | title | price | ... (other relevant fields) | product-option-name-1 | product-option-value-1 | product option-name-2 | product-option-value2 |
Variant | backpack | 100 |
| Size | Large | Color | Green |
Note
Product fields that can be overridden as part of a variation update:
Price,Product-Image-URL,Product-image-alt-text,SKU,Status,Inventory.In the field-type cell, if "product" or "variant" are misspelled, it will return an error.
Non-Latin Characters
While special characters outside the Latin alphabet (such as those found in languages such as Chinese, Arabic, Persian, and others) are supported, Excel (a spreadsheet program), can cause issues, even if the file is simply opened with it. Because of this we recommend only using Google Sheets to save files.
To export a CSV file using Google Sheets:
Upload your CSV file to Google and open with Google Sheets.
(Optional) Make any desired edits.
Ensure the spreadsheet meets format requirements (see the section CSV Format Requirements above).
Click File then Download.
Click Comma-separated values (.csv, current sheet). Do not open the file.