Bulk Import & Export for eCommerce Inventory Management

If you own an online store, you understand the inventory management challenge. We offer ready-made templates to make it easy for you to bulk import & export for eCommerce inventory management. This feature can simplify inventory management and tracking by adding the products to shelves in a predetermined manner. You can save time using this feature instead of manually entering each item.

In this article, we will discuss:

• Benefits of Bulk Import & Export
• How to Bulk Import Your Product Information
  • Activate the Bulk Editing Tools
  • Choose a File Format
  • Upload Your Products
• How to Bulk Export Your Product Information
• Review

Benefits of Bulk Import & Export

Below are the benefits of importing or exporting your product information in bulk:

• Boost efficiency - Uploading products one by one can be a time-consuming task, especially for businesses with a large inventory. By using bulk product uploads, you can add or modify multiple products simultaneously, which helps you save valuable time and resources.
• Improve inventory accuracy - When products are uploaded individually, there is a higher chance of making errors or inconsistencies in the product details. You can use a single file for bulk upload to maintain data consistency and accuracy.
• Hassle-free updates - You may often need to update your product listings due to new stock arrivals, promotions, or seasonal changes. These periodic updates can be seamless through bulk uploads.

How to Bulk Import Your Product Information

To import your product information, follow the steps below: 

• Activate the Bulk Editing Tools
• Choose a File Format
• Upload Your Products

Activate the Bulk Editing Tools

1. Log in to your account via https://www.web.com/my-account/login.
2. In your Account Manager, select Websites on the left side of the page:
   • If you have multiple website products, click Launch next to the product you would like to update. ​

3. In your eCommerce dashboard, click Store on the left menu and choose Settings from the options:

4. Select Manage Add-ons.

5. Select Learn More on the Bulk Editing Tools card.

6. Click Activate in the pop-up to activate bulk editing and creating file templates.

Choose a File Format

1. In your eCommerce dashboard, click Store on the left menu and choose Products from the options:

2. On the top-right corner of the page, click on the Upload Inventory button:

3. Click on Manage File Templates in the pop-up:

This will take you to ready-made file templates. The screen defaults to 5 templates, but you can expand the list or navigate to the next page with the browse icons on the bottom right.

The File Templates table will show your custom templates and our ready-made templates: 

• Bulk Kit Import Format - Use this to try existing products or group new products in kits. If the products already exist, choose to overwrite them. 
• Bulk Parent-Variation Import Format – Use this to bulk import products with variants. If the products already exist, choose to overwrite them. 
• Bulk Product Removal Format - If you need to remove multiple products, add the SKUs and upload them using the overwrite option. This will remove the products and product data but not the listings from your storefronts.
• Bulk Remove Parent-Variation Import Format – This format has a similar function to the Bulk Product Removal Format, but it also captures variations.
• Bulk Update Default Warehouse Format – Use this to organize where your products are stored and choose the overwrite option. 
• Bulk Variation Attribute Import Format – Use this to save time, especially if you need to assign multiple attributes to your variations.

4. Click on the Actions icon (⋯) for the product you need, then click on  Download Format. This will be the file you will use to organize your product information for the upload process. Do not change any of the columns, as this pre-selected format tells your eCommerce account what the file contains. If you need to change a format, you can choose one that offers an edit option.

After organizing your data, you can begin the upload. 

Upload Your Products

1. Navigate back to Products on the left menu.   

2. On the top-right corner of the page, click on the Upload Inventory button:

   

3. Choose the file from your computer. 
4. Select the format that you used to set up your product information. 

Please Note: The options below will determine how your eCommerce account processes and updates the information:

• Perform no action – If your file contains products already in your eCommerce account, our system will skip those details and only create products that are not in your account.
• Overwrite existing details – If your file contains products already in your eCommerce account, our system will replace the existing information with the new file details. Choose this option if you want to update existing reference IDs.  
• Increase existing quantity – Our system will add the quantity in your uploaded file to the existing quantity.

5. Click the Upload button. This will update your product information. 

How to Bulk Export Your Product Information

To export your product information, follow the steps below:

1. Log in to your account via https://www.web.com/my-account/login.
2. In your Account Manager, select Websites on the left side of the page:
   • If you have multiple website products, click Launch next to the product you would like to update.

3. In your eCommerce dashboard, click Store on the left menu and choose Products from the options:

4. Select the products you want to export by checking the boxes on the left. 
5. Click the Bulk Actions drop-down and select Export Inventory:

Please Note: You can expand the list of products on the bottom right to 75 and export up to 75 products at a time.

6. Choose an Export Template from the drop-down and click Continue to begin exporting.

Optional: If you want to edit what information is exported, click on Manage File Templates to edit the file formats. Then, click the EDIT icon for the format you want to update:

You can edit what storefronts and warehouses to export and decide what attributes to add and how to organize them:

7. Click  Save Template after updating the format and click Continue to begin exporting. 

Review

Managing inventory can be a time-consuming task. However, with the bulk import and export features, you can efficiently add or modify multiple products at once, saving time and improving inventory accuracy. To understand more about bulk import & export for eCommerce inventory management, follow this guide.