Import in Magento

How to run an import in Magento

• Log in to the backend of the webshop

• Go to System > Data Transfer > Import

• Entity Type: Products

• Import Behaviour: Add/Update <-- very important!

• Validation Strategy: Skip error entries

• Allowed Errors Count: 10000

• Select File to Import: Browse to your file that you want to import

• Click in the right upper corner on Check Data

• After the data has been checked, you will get a summary at the bottom of the page

  • If there are no errors, you can press Import

  • If there are errors: check them in your file and fix them. If there are faulty errors, you can still import the file, but please know that the error entries will be skipped.

Prepare import file

Importing in Magento works best with CSV files. CSV files are actually Excel files, where the data is comma-separated when saved, hence CSV (comma separated value).

In order to reduce the amount of errors I highly recommend you to use OpenOffice Calc instead of Microsoft Excel.

Microsoft Excel also saves mark-ups, which can corrupt your CSV file and that is not working well in combination with imports. Where to download OpenOffice? Over here: https://www.openoffice.org/nl/download/

Key thing to keep in your mind: The primary key for importing is the SKU, which needs to be unique. When you are importing data with an existing SKU, the existing data will be overwritten(!).

In order to update certain information with an import, Magento needs to know what you want to update. The first column should have the SKU in it, so that Magento knows which product you mean. All columns next to the SKU, are columns where you want to update the information. The headers of these columns are determined by the attribute code.

You can find the attribute code you want to update, by going to Stores > Attributes > Product and search for the attribute you want to target. In the column Attribute Code, you can see the attribute code which you can use as a header.

I.e. when you want to update the product name, you search for the attribute and look for the right one. In this case it is attribute code "name".

As the possibilities are enormously wide, I would like to ask you to read the documentation of Magento itself. You can use the following website to help yourself out: https://docs.magento.com/user-guide/system/data-import.html

Example import files

Below this article you will find an example import file for mass-updating prices. Please note: Prices always need to have a specific format.

Example: if the price is € 109,00    ....   the value in the cell needs to be 109.00
Example: if the price is € 109,95    ....   the value in the cell needs to be 109.95

So no comma but a dot, and always enter the decimals.

Explanation of the fields in the example import file

• Column A: sku

  • In this column, the SKU is targeted where you want to update the price(s)

• Column B: price

  • This column is the base price, or MSRP, of the product. This column always needs to be filled.

• Column C: special_price

  • When there is a promotion and you want to lower the prices, you can do so by entering the special price in this column.

  • When there is no promotion and you want to clean or leave the special price empty, you can enter the following value, so that Magento understands to clear this field in the database: __EMPTY__VALUE__

Whenever you need help, always first check the documentation of Magento: https://docs.magento.com/user-guide/system/data-import.html