Bulk product upload: from supplier files to a live store
Adding products one at a time works for a boutique with fifty items. Stores that sell from supplier catalogs deal with hundreds or thousands of products, and the catalog keeps changing. Bulk upload is the only practical way to get them online, but uploading a file once is the easy part. Keeping those products accurate afterwards is where most of the work is.
Built-in import versus supplier data
Shopify, WooCommerce, OpenCart, PrestaShop and other platforms all have a CSV import. Each expects its own template with its own column names. A supplier's price list almost never matches that template, so the usual routine looks like this:
- download the supplier's file;
- rename and reorder columns in a spreadsheet;
- calculate your prices with formulas;
- save it in the platform's format and upload it;
- repeat for every supplier, every time prices change.
Each step is a chance for a mistake: a shifted column, a formula copied to the wrong row, a price uploaded without markup.
What a good bulk upload process includes
Field mapping that is set once
Each supplier's columns are mapped to your product fields a single time: name, SKU, price, quantity, brand, category, images, attributes. The next file from the same supplier is read with the same settings.
Product matching
When two suppliers sell the same item, it should be one product in your store, not two. Matching by SKU, barcode or other fields prevents duplicates and lets you choose which supplier's offer to use.
Pricing rules
Markups by category, brand or price range, currency conversion, rounding and minimum margins are applied during the upload, not in a separate spreadsheet.
Images and attributes
Image links, descriptions and specifications come with the product, so new items do not appear in the store half-empty.
Updates, not only uploads
After the first upload, the same process should update prices and stock for existing products and add new ones, ideally on a schedule.
Before your first bulk upload
Start with identifiers. Every product needs a unique SKU, because duplicates are the main cause of overwritten products. Then decide on categories: supplier categories rarely match yours, and it is much easier to map them before the upload than to fix them afterwards.
Upload twenty products first and check how they look in the store before sending the rest. And export your current catalog before replacing anything, so there is a way back.
Bulk upload with YfiFX
YfiFX takes supplier price lists in Excel, CSV, XML, YML or JSON, or directly from an API, and turns them into one catalog with your prices. From there it uploads products to your store or creates a feed file, and keeps them updated on a schedule. It works with Shopify, WooCommerce, OpenCart, PrestaShop, CS-Cart, Shop-Script, Horoshop and Prom.ua, and other platforms can be connected through an API, a feed or the store database.
The catalog size you can work with depends on the plan: up to 1,000 products on the free plan, up to 30,000 on Business, and more on a custom plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many products can I upload at once?
As many as your plan allows in the Master price list: up to 1,000 products on the Free plan, up to 30,000 on Business, and more on a Custom plan. Supplier price lists themselves are not limited on Business.
Are product images uploaded too?
Yes. Image links from supplier price lists are imported with the products and exported to your store together with names, prices and stock.
Which file formats are supported?
Excel, CSV, XML, YML and JSON, as well as supplier APIs. Files can be uploaded manually or received by link, e-mail, FTP, Google Drive or Dropbox.
Set it up once. YfiFX does the rest
14 Days Free Trial. Sign up and import your first price list today.