Admin panels › Product details
Product Importer
Bringing a catalogue in from a CSV file, with a preview of exactly what will be created and what will be updated before anything is written. 3 parts.
Quick links
Where to find it:WP Admin › EasyCart › Products › Products
Getting a catalogue in
File, preview and matching
What the importer reads, what it shows you first, and the rule that decides create or update.
The file and its columns
What the importer reads, and what it refuses
no stored settingsThe importer takes a CSV. The most reliable way to build one is to export your existing products first and edit that file, because the export already carries the column names the importer expects and the identifiers it matches on.
When a file is chosen it is checked before anything happens. The importer reports how many rows it read and how many columns it recognised, so a file with the wrong separator or a stray header row is caught immediately rather than halfway through.
A column with no header is refused outright, with the position named, because an unnamed column cannot be mapped to anything and guessing would be worse than stopping.
💡 Note: Export from Products first and edit that file. It already has the right columns and the identifiers the importer matches on.
The preview
What will happen, before it happens
no stored settingsNothing is written until you have seen a preview. It shows how many rows will create new products and how many will update existing ones, with the first rows displayed so you can check the data landed in the fields you expected.
Rows that will be skipped are listed separately, with the reason, so a partial import is a decision rather than a surprise. On a large file the counts cover the whole file while only the first rows are displayed, which the screen states rather than implying you have seen everything.
Problems that must be fixed before importing are separated from rows that will simply be skipped. The first group blocks the import; the second does not.
💡 Note: Stock can be imported separately from Inventory Report, which previews in the same way and writes every change into the stock history.
Creating against updating
The single most important thing to get right
no stored settingsA row carrying a product ID updates that product. A row without one creates a new product.
That is the whole rule, and it is why the export-edit-import cycle works. It is also the thing that goes wrong. Removing the ID column, or letting a spreadsheet drop it while reformatting, turns an update of five hundred products into the creation of five hundred duplicates. The preview will tell you, in the count of new against updated rows, which is the number to read before confirming.
The import runs in the background once started, and the screen asks you to leave the window open while it works. Rows that could not be written are reported at the end rather than failing silently.
⚠️ Careful: Check the new against updated counts in the preview before confirming. If you meant to update existing products and the preview says they are all new, the product ID column has been lost and you are about to duplicate your catalogue.
Keep going
Related panels
Exporting the catalogue to build an import file.
Importing stock levels, which works the same way.
The product fields an import populates.
Categories products are imported into.
Option sets, and importing variations.
The export batch size, if exports time out.
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