If you need to change some property of many products in your store, you can use the export-import tool in your ecommerce site:
Step 1 — Export the products to a CSV file
- Go to Control panel → Catalog → Products
- Use search filters to find the products that need to be updated
- Click Export all found or Export all depending on whether you want to edit all your products or only some of them
- In the Export products settings pop-up mark 'Product name', 'SKU' columns and the ones you want to edit (e.g. price)
- Click Download CSV file and save the resulting file on your computer
Step 2 — Open the CSV file in a spreadsheet editor (e.g. OpenOffice Calc or Microsoft Excel) and edit the columns containing the properties you want to change.
- By means of the built-in spreadsheet program features, you can quickly update many lines. For example, you can set the same value for the whole column or even apply some formula to a column so that all the values are changed in the same manner. You can insert a formula that will instantly add, subtract, multiply or divide numbers in columns or rows. For example, this way you can add a 10% price markup to all the products - just multiply the whole 'price' column by 1.1 . Please refer to your spreadsheet program's documentation for further details on using formulas.
- Please make sure the SKU column in your editor has the 'text' type, when you initially open your CSV file. Sometimes, spreadsheet editors recognize numeric SKUs as integer numbers and set 'numeric' format for the SKU column, which results in changing their values (e.g. '0005' becomes '5' when considered a number). This may cause some issues during import, e.g. duplicating of store products. The SKUs in the CSV file must be imported by the spreadsheet editor exactly as you see them in Ecommerce control panel - setting the text format for the SKU column upon opening the file in the spreadsheet editor does the thing.
- When saving the changed file, you will most likely be prompted to change the format of the file - that is not what you want, always proceed with saving exactly to CSV format, not to Excel document or Open Document.
Step 3 — Import the edited CSV file back to Ecommerce site
- Go to Control panel → Catalog → Products
- Click Import products on the top
- In the import settings popup choose to import from CSV and open the CSV file with the Choose file button
- Select the delimiter to be used in the exported CSV file (it is semicolon by default)
- In the Import columns list tick the columns that are present in your CSV file. Important: the column order must be the same as in the CSV file, please re-arrange them if needed (in order to do it you should drag-and-drop the list items)
- Important: uncheck the Delete all products/categories before import checkbox at the bottom of the window.
Example.
The Quantity import field can be used for updating your store inventory. How to do it:
- Export your products (three columns will be enough: Product name, SKU, Quantity)
- Modify the CSV file in your spreadsheet editor (change the products quantities)
- Import the file to ecommerce site.
The number in the Quantity column will be used to update the quantity of the product with the corresponding SKU or product name. If there is no value in the Quantity column, the Unlimited quantity option will be enabled for the product. Example of a CSV file:
name;sku;quantity
cherry;item132;2
cucumber;item7;
apple;item7635;15