Importing Products in Bulk

To import product data from an Excel file, the import file must have the correct format. A predefined Excel template can be downloaded from PCM. This file provides the basic structure for uploading your data.

All hard coded product properties are included in the template by default. But as there can be many classification attributes on your site, they aren't automatically included. If you already know which attributes you want to import into your new product data, you can now select them from your available Classification Catalog. Simply choose the attributes that you want (1) and add them to your export by clicking on the arrow icon (2). Then, generate your export (3).

Instead of using a generic template and choosing all classification attributes manually, you can start by downloading one or more products. This allows you to start with products whose attributes are similar to the attributes of the new products you want to import, saving time. Simply select the product in the Products view (1) and choose Export Excel (2) as shown in the following image. You'll be asked to pick the product attributes you want to include in the file. Pick those classification attributes that the new product or products you're importing will also have.

If you want to update the downloaded products, go ahead and modify the downloaded file. You’ll see how to do this later.

If you instead want to add new products, make sure you change the value of the Article Number column before importing. This way, you’ll avoid updating the existing product or products you used as models.

Not only does SAP Commerce Cloud need to understand the file, but you should also have a good understanding of its structure before entering information. Let’s look at it in some detail.

The template will include tabs for different product types. In a later lesson, we'll cover how a standard product differs from variant products, apparel products, and so on. For now, remember that there are differences and that different tabs exist for importing these various product types.

Once the correct tab is selected, you need to understand what each row and column in the file represents.

Columns: Each column in the import file represents a different attribute that is to be imported. Simply add the attribute that you would like to import in the first row. And speaking of rows, there are four rows that you need to be aware of.

First Row: This row is where you define what kind of attribute you're importing. For example, adding "Description[en]" as a column header in the import file will import information from the data rows into the English entry of the localized Description field.

The fields in the first row are dropdowns with all the properties of the product type for that tab, along with any classification attributes you selected during the export process. Select the properties that you wish to upload, one per column.

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that some first-row attributes in our example include special characters. There are four of these characters, each with a different meaning:

These are self-explanatory, but some additional context is needed to fully understand them.

If a column is set to mandatory, any row that is empty won't be imported.

If more than one field is set to unique, then the combination of these fields must be unique. You may sometimes see these unique combinations referred to as a "business key". These business key fields are usually mandatory as well. In our example, the two columns that contain this business key are already selected for you because they're mandatory.

To add multiple values, separate them with commas.

Second Row: The second row specifies the format for providing values when referring to other items in SAP Commerce Cloud. Usually, values are separated by a colon. For attributes that don't reference other items (for example, a simple description), this row is left blank.

For example, how do you specify that a product is to be in the Staged version of the Apparel Catalog? As you can see in the screenshot, the catalog version needs to be provided first, followed by the catalog ID, with a colon between the values. So, in our example: "Staged:apparelProductCatalog."

Third Row: The third row provides default values that will be assigned to all following rows. For example, if all your products are to be imported to the same catalog, you could provide that information here.

Fourth Row and Beyond: Each row represents an individual product that you're importing. Fill each column with the values that you would like for each attribute you specified in the first row column.

• Product information can be uploaded in bulk by using an Excel import.
• An Excel template is available, or products can be exported to an Excel file for editing or as a template to upload other products.
• The attributes you want to download must be selected, with the Article Number and Catalog Version mandatory.
• The Excel file has columns representing attributes and rows for individual products.
• Three header rows define the attribute, required input format, and standard values.
• Attributes can be mandatory, multi-valued, unique, and read-only.