If you are faced with the task of quickly adding a large number of goods to an online store with all their attributes, then you will have to deal with the feeds and product import and export. Let’s talk about possible difficulties.
What import/export is about for eCommerce
The Import/Export allows the admin user to do a bulk export of all the categories, products, orders, options and other attributes to an Excel spreadsheet file. The spreadsheet file can be edited offline and then be re-imported to the store.
Advantages of using CSV files to edit your store
There are advantages to transforming your files into CSV. Since it’s in a plain text format, and not in code, the file can be easily read by people, and can be manually edited as well. CSV files are also smaller in size and, as a result, are quicker and easier to download. Additionally, with your online store, you can use CSV files to do the following:
- Make bulk changes to your products
- Make bulk changes to your inventory
- Import vital data like customer lists
CSV files are especially useful if you are switching eCommerce platforms since transferring important and large volumes of data, like a list of customer accounts, can be done much more easily by having the list exported as a CSV and then deployed.
Common Problems with CSV files
Sadly, CSV files are not exempt from having their own set of problems.
While exporting from the store
- Missing or incorrect data
- You cannot export your entire store – just parts of it
- You have to remember to update your CSV
- CSV files don’t get images transferred over
While importing to the store
- Product titles exceed the character limit
- Incorrect price formats
- Product titles in all capital letters
- Mismatched data
- Including out of stock products
- Product images don’t follow channel guidelines
- Broken product page URLs
- Missing required fields
Problems with CSV files are actually one of the most common data disasters that we see. They’re intended to make changes to large parts of your store.
Channels to sync with having a product feed exported
Having a proper product feed you have a wide road open to publish your products across multiple channels and sync them with your store stock. Some of those channels are:
- Online Marketplaces (Amazon, eBay)
- Search engines (Google Shopping)
- Social media (Facebook ads)
- Affiliate marketing directories (TradeTracker)
Tools to import/export product feed with CS-Cart
Export
CS-Cart has a built-in tool to export data. This is the list of all export settings. Some of them appear only in specific subsections.
- Products
- Orders
- Features
- Subscribers
- Translations
- Users
Import
XML & CSV Import addon can be especially useful for large stores with thousands of products. Wholesale customers will be able to export the necessary products to develop their own price lists.
Key Features
- Input numerous XML feeds from different suppliers via admin panel.
- Scan fields and attributes of the XML feed for the dynamic setting of fields matching.
- Add products missing from the database.
- Update products in the database.
- Ability to clone import profiles in order to save time on setting up profiles with similar settings.
- Import products automatically by scheduling a CRON script.
- Import in YML (Yandex Market Language) format.
- Process multiple settings:
- Name and description
- VAT
- Main and additional images
- Features
- Prices and stock
- Categories and subcategories
Sync your CS-Cart store with multiple distribution channels
Multi-channel eCommerce is the practice of creating a streamlined shopping experience across a variety of digital channels – marketplaces, social media, different eCommerce platforms, price comparison engines, and even brick and mortar stores.
All the channels may have different feed recommendations regarding field mapping. Expanding to other channels may require something more than a simple import/export tool. Real-time price and stock updates, custom fields and complicated dependencies between stock databases and storefront software create unique conditions for proceeding synchronization which can’t be settled with a single solution. That’s when custom synchronization solutions enter the game.