We have been working with them over the past 14 days, creating the site layout and customising the administration panel to fit their stock control and dispatch needs. One of the main jobs on today’s task list was to import their existing product database. Unfortunately prior to using Qcart the client was using CandyPress which is a pretty robust eCommerce system in its own right but is a bit of a bar-steward to get any form of decent product export from - especially if there are random characters in the product descriptions!

After spending 2 hours cleaning the export from CandyPress I imported the 183 existing products into the clients new Qcart in under 2 minutes, which even by my speedy typing record is pretty fast. To view the imported products on the clients site please click here. This is where the inspiration from todays blog post has come from after doing an import for the first time in months I thought now would be a good time to write a quide on how to bulk upload products using Qcart, enjoy…

Bulk Uploading Of Products - A Step By Step Guide

This section allows you to upload product data into your Cart using a .CSV file. Most database programs (including Excel) will allow you to import or save data in this format. Once uploaded, Cart will ask you which column represents what data type (Product ID, Product Name, Price, etc.). Cart uses Product ID as its data key, so products with a duplicate Product ID will be overwritten with the new data. This is a 3-step process and the data will not be stored until the final step is complete.

1.     Click Bulk Products Loader, as shown in the Figure below.

The Bulk Uploading Of Products (Step 1 of 3) page will open.

Note: You can also directly open the Bulk Uploading Of Products (Step 1 of 3) page, by clicking on Bulk Products Loader link in the Admin Area Home page.

2.     Category: Select a Category that allows selecting products category with undefined category keys. The products with undefined category will be moved to this category.

3.     Uploading Settings: Enter the following information:

a.     Data Separator: Select from the drop down menu, comma or semicolon, which is used as a data separator.

b.     Data Update Rule: Select from the drop down menu, if the bulk loader has a duplicate Product ID, should it overwrite the existing data with the bulk loaded data, keep it and add new, clear all the products from the selected category first and then add a new bulk loaded data or update existing products only.

c.     Uploaded Products Availability: Use this option to enable/disable display of these products on Cart. Select from the drop down menu, Products Are Available For Sale, if you want to display these products on Cart. Otherwise, select Products Are Not Available For Sale, if you do not want to display these products on Cart. Incase you would like to display some of the products this has to be done manually.

4.     Click Browse to select the .CSV file with products data.

5.     If you want to reset the form, click on the Reset form button.

6.     Click Upload file button to save the data.

The Bulk Uploading Of Products (Step 2 of 3) page will open, as shown in the Figure below.

Note: All blank lines and lines with wrong price will be skipped.

7.     Select the respective titles for the data in the lines from the drop down menu.

8.     Click Back button to go back to Bulk Uploading Of Products (Step 1 of 3) page.

9.     Click Insert into DB button to go to the next-step.

The Bulk Uploading Of Products (Step 3 of 3) page will open, as shown in Figure below. This page will show the complete details regarding the Bulk uploaded products.

If you need any help bulk importing products into your Qcart please feel free to contact me directly through our helpdesk.