Prepare your Excel file with photos

Start from the example file, fill in your products and place the photos so the import can read them.

A well prepared spreadsheet imports in one go, with its photos. The quickest way is to start from the example file that cataloop gives you, which already has the headings the importer understands.

1. Open Import in the admin and, on the Upload step, choose Download a sample file. You get an .xlsx file.
2. Open it. The tab Your products is blank, with the headings and a note. The tab Examples has three filled-in rows to copy from.
3. Type your products under the headings, one per row. You can rename a heading: the importer asks you which column is which.
4. To add a photo, place the picture over the sheet on the row of its product. The sample has IMG 1 style columns that show where a picture goes.
5. Save the file as .xlsx, then follow Import products and photos.

The columns

• SKU is the only column you cannot skip: rows are matched on it. Name and Price are needed only for products that do not exist yet.
• The rest are optional: Stock, Category, Subcategory, Description, Case pack, EAN / barcode, Active (Yes or No), Length (mm), Width (mm), Height (mm), Weight (g), Inner pack and Master box.
• Any other column becomes a custom attribute, or you can set it to ignored.

Good to know

• Limits: 5,000 rows per sheet, 2,000 photos per file, and 4 photos per product.
• Only .xlsx keeps photos. An .xls imports its text without the pictures, and a CSV cannot carry pictures at all.
• Photos must float over the sheet. Pictures placed inside a cell are not read: the text imports and you add those photos on the Photos screen.
• A photo is tied to the place where it was put, not to the product. If you sort the sheet or insert a row after pasting the photos, they end up one row out. Sort first, then place the photos, and check them in the preview.
• A blank cell leaves that field as it is on an existing product. It does not erase it. More detail, and how to use subcategories without mixing two methods, in Import products and photos.
• Sizes are in millimetres and weights in grams. A file in centimetres imports too small, and the preview is where you catch it.
• Keep SKUs such as 0012 as text, so the spreadsheet does not turn them into 12.