Setting up the import file

Setting up the import file

Setting up the import files

To import inventory items via our Retail Imports team, please refer to this article.

The Item Import tool extracts your inventory data from an import file (CSV or Excel file) that you create and then upload to the Item Import tool. To help you create your import file, you can download a template CSV file directly from the Item Import tool's welcome modal or when you start a new import. If you're an Omnichannel merchant (Retail with eCom), the template CSV file contains additional eCom-related columns.

Whether you start your import file from the template CSV or from scratch, it needs to contain a set of columns that the Item Import tool supports (e.g. UPC and Description). For each item you want to import or update, you then need to enter information in its associated columns (e.g. 1234 and T-Shirt). For the import to work, you need to format the column headers and the information in each column in a specific way. If there are any formatting errors in your import file, you'll need to fix them and upload your import file again. To help you know how many errors your file contains and how to fix each of them, the Item Import tool creates a version of your import file with two additional columns that you can download and upload again. For more information, please see 1.1 Formatting item import files and 1.2 Importing matrix items.

Before you begin

Please note the following before importing your items:

  • Import files must be in CSV, XLS or XLSX format.
  • You can import up to 1000 items at a time. If you have more than 1000 items, you can split them up into multiple import files. For example, if you are importing 1500 items, you can split your items into two import files of 750 items each.
  • You can only do one import at a time.
  • Imports cannot be undone.
  • At this point, you can only import the quantity on hand (QOH) of items if they don't exist in your inventory yet. If the items already exist, you can't update their QOH with the Item Import tool.
  • You can't import custom fields.

Prepare your item import file

  1. From your Retail account, download the template CSV file in one of the following ways:
    • Inventory > Import Items > Download a template CSV
    • Inventory > Import Items > New Import > Download Template CSVimport_samplefile-danfix.gif

Note: If you are updating your existing items, you may want to start by exporting your Retail inventory instead. This way, your CSV file will have each item's System ID, UPC, EAN, Manufacturer SKU or Custom SKU for the Item Import tool to match on.

  1. Open the file in a spreadsheet editor, such as LibreOffice (free and recommended), Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers or OpenOffice.

Note: If you use OpenOffice, make sure to set the file import Separator Options to Comma-separated when opening the CSV file (File > Open > Text Import > Separator Options > Separated by > Comma). The default settings for OpenOffice result in formatting issues in the CSV file.

  1. Enter your item information in the columns of the CSV file.

Note: For more information on how to format the information in each column, see 1.1 Formatting import files and 1.2 Importing matrix items.

  1. Save the file in CSV, XLS or XLSX format. Only these file formats are compatible with the Item Import tool.

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