Product import is the fastest way to bulk upload or edit the goods in your catalog. In Ecwid product import is based on CSV (comma separated values) files, which can be edited as spreadsheets.
CSV file format
A CSV file contains plain text entries separated by delimiters. Each entry represents a cell in a spreadsheet, each line represents a new row, and each delimiter (comma, semicolon or tabulation) indicates where one entry ends and another entry begins.
You can view and edit CSV files in plain text editors, e.g. Notepad for Windows, Sublime Text, TextEdit for Mac, or in spreadsheet editors like OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Google Sheets, which is more convenient as they present the contents in tabs.
Contents
Each line in a product import file represents a list of attributes associated with a certain product in your store like name, SKU, description, price, etc. Each attribute is separated by a delimiter (comma, semicolon or tabulation) that should be the same throughout the file.
The first line in the file can represent the column headers.
Delimiters
Delimiters indicate where one product attribute ends and another one begins. Ecwid supports three delimiters in CSV files: a comma, a semicolon and a tabulation.
Encoding
Ecwid supports more than ten charsets, such as UTF-8, UTF-16, US-ASCII, etc. When you import your CSV file, you should select the same encoding as used in your CSV file in the settings for proper import.
If you don’t know which encoding is used in your CSV file, try to select UTF-8 which is the most universal charset.
Numbers format
In Ecwid CSV import it is required that:
- you use a dot (a full stop) to separate the decimals, e.g. 3.5 or 10.99
- you do not use a thousand separator for large numbers, e.g. 1350, not 1,350
Product CSV file format
Product import in Ecwid recognizes twenty-one product attributes, so there can be twenty-one columns in your CSV file. Below is their description:
|
Column name |
Type |
Description |
Required or Optional |
Limits |
|
SKU |
String |
Product SKU |
At least SKU or Name field is required |
255 symbols |
|
Name |
String |
Product name |
At least SKU or Name field is required |
255 symbols |
|
Description |
String |
Product description |
Optional |
No |
|
Enabled |
Boolean |
Product availability (enabled/disabled) |
Optional |
"true", "yes", "on", "Y", "1" for enabled, any other values for disabled |
|
Weight |
Floating number |
Product weight |
Optional |
Any valid floating number for weight, empty value for intangible product |
|
Price |
Floating number |
Product price |
Optional |
Any valid floating number |
|
Recommended price |
Floating number |
Product “Compare to” price |
Optional |
Any valid floating number |
|
Quantity |
Integer |
Product quantity in stock |
Optional |
Any valid integer, empty value for unlimited quantity |
|
Image |
String |
URL path to product image |
Optional |
http:// or https:// URLs are allowed |
|
Category 1 |
String |
Category name or path to category, to which the product belongs (e.g.Books/Science/Biology) |
Optional |
255 symbols for each category name in the path |
|
Category 2 |
String |
Path to the second category, |
Optional |
255 symbols for each category name in the path |
|
Category 3 |
String |
Path to the third category, |
Optional |
255 symbols for each category name in the path |
|
Store front page |
Boolean |
Indicates that a product belongs to the store root category |
Optional |
"1" for true, "0" or empty value for false |
|
Fixed shipping rate |
Floating number |
Product shipping freight value |
Optional |
Any valid floating number |
|
Fixed shipping rate only |
Boolean |
Indicates that the product has only fixed shipping rate |
Optional |
"true", "yes", "on", "Y", "1" for true, any other values for false |
|
UPC |
String |
Product 'UPC' attribute (see also: Product types and attributes) |
Optional |
255 symbols |
|
Brand |
String |
Product 'UPC' attribute (see also: Product types and attributes) |
Optional |
255 symbols |
|
Page title |
String |
SEO field, meta title tag |
Optional |
55 symbols |
|
Meta description |
String |
SEO field, meta description tag |
Optional |
160 symbols |
|
Width |
Floating number |
Product dimension for shipping calculation (see also: Product dimensions) |
Optional |
5 symbols |
|
Height |
Floating number |
Product dimension for shipping calculation (see also: Product dimensions) |
Optional |
5 symbols |
|
Length |
Floating number |
Product dimension for shipping calculation (see also: Product dimensions) |
Optional |
5 symbols |
Import a CSV file
When you have a ready CSV file for importing the products to your store, you go to your Ecwid Control Panel Catalog → Products and click Import products.
In the import dialogue window you need to:
- Select the CSV file from your computer.
- Select the delimiter that is used in your file (a comma, a semicolon or a tabulation).
- Select the character encoding that is used in your file.
- Drag and drop the columns to set them in the same order as they are present in your file.
- Uncheck the columns that are not used in the file.
- Use the Skip column option, If you have up to three extra columns in the file. These columns are disregarded during import.
- Check the option Delete all products and categories before import, if you want to clear the catalog before import.
Get a sample CSV file for import
You can download and view a sample product CSV file to use as a template for creating your own CSV files. See the sample file attached to this article. The sample provides an example product with comma-separated values.
You can see the exact import settings for this file below:
Common errors
You may come across the following errors during import:
| In Ecwid maximum category depth is limited to 50. Your import file contains category /Category1/Category2/.../Category80, which has depth of 80. Please reduce the number of its parent categories and try again. | You have too many categories nested. You need to reduce the category path. |
| 'Category name' is too long (400 symbols). The maximum allowed length is 255 symbols. |
In Ecwid category names are limited to 255 symbols maximum. Your import file contains a category name that is longer than 255 symbols. You need to reduce the category name to 255 symbols. |
| Wrong columns count. You have selected 10 columns in import dialog, but the file contains only 8. |
If you select 10 columns for import, each line in your file has to contain 10 values. Values may be empty (it depends on a column type), for example: sku0001;iPhone 3GS 16Gb;;;;;;;;;;;;; You need to make sure that you select the proper number of columns. |
| Unsupported image format (http://www.example.com/image.psd) |
Ecwid supports only JPG, BMP, PNG and GIF image file formats. You need to make sure that you do not use unsupported image formats. |
| Image http://www.example.com/image.jpg is bigger than 4 Mb |
Ecwid doesn't allow to upload images bigger than 4 Mb. You need to reduce the image file size. |
| 'SKU' or 'Name' column has to contain value |
Every product line has to contain at least one value - SKU or Name. Ecwid can’t create or update a product without SKU or Name. You need to make sure that each product line in the file contains SKU and/or Name value. |
| 'SKU' is too long (300 symbols). The maximum allowed length is 255 symbols. |
In Ecwid SKU numbers are limited to 255 symbols maximum. Your import file contains SKU numbers which are longer than 255 symbols. You need to reduce the SKU number to 255 symbols. |
| 'Name' is too long (350 symbols). The maximum allowed length is 255 symbols. |
In Ecwid Name values are limited to 255 symbols maximum. Your import file contains Name values which are longer than 255 symbols. You need to reduce the Name value to 255 symbols. |
| Incorrect 'price'/'weight'/etc value |
The entry in the column has a wrong format. For example, the value contains letters, whereas only numbers are supported. You need to make sure that you use the supported data format for each column. |
| Malformed image URL htp://example.com/image.jpg |
The URL has a wrong format. For example: You need to make sure that URLs are formatted correctly. |
| Cannot upload image http://www.example.com/image.jpg |
Ecwid can not upload the image from server example.com due to server failures, timeouts or other network problems. You need to make sure that your image files are accessible online for download. |
| Ecwid has a limitation of 1000 categories per store. | In Ecwid there can be 1000 unique categories per a store. This error means that you try to import more than 1000 unique categories. You need to reduce the number of categories in your import file. |
