While Growcer allows you to manually create a catalog and add catalog entries. However, this option is less useful when it comes to managing a large catalog and that too when options, tags and specifications are involved. Therefore, use import/export options to efficiently move products into and out of a catalog through a simple .csv file. The following import/export options are available:

1. Product Catalog: With this option, catalog can be created, updated and deleted. 
2. Product Options: It is likely that many of your products are available in different sizes and/or colours. Create and import product options by entering the product option types you want to use in your storefront.
3. Product Tags: Update, delete, add tags on product catalog in bulk. 
4. Product Specifications: Start adding products specifications, update, delete in bulk.

1. Export Process 

Click on the Hamburger menu , select ‘Import Export’. Click ‘Export’ from the left navigation menu, select option ‘Catalogs’ and click on the ‘Content’ tab of the shown ‘Catalogs’ form. The following information is required to be submitted to download the .csv file:

1.1 Content Tab

 This tab has following information prompted to download a .csv:

• Language: We provide you a content section to download data into multiple languages as added by admin in the system. For instance if you want to save content in the English language simply select English and submit. Similarly for other languages follow the above process with respective languages.
• Select Data: Select data option from the dropdown list. Learn and understand how different catalog content data are exported. Select from available options:

1.2 Product Catalog

 To export/download product catalog data, it is must to enter information into the following displayed field:

• Export Data Range:Select range of data to export from.  Know what are the available options:
  • Doesn’t Matter: Will display complete catalog records in one go. Please note that the default upper limit for data export is set to 1000. However, if your existing catalog has more than 1000 entries, opt for export Id range or batch wise options. 
  • By Id Range: This option allows you to export catalog products within a selected range e.g. Set the ‘Start ID’ as 5 and ‘End ID’ as 15. Only the set/asked range records will be displayed. 
  • By Batches: This option allows you to export catalog products batch wise. There is a provision to export records in batches. Suppose, there are 50 records available and the decided size of the particular batch to be exported is 10. So this allows the admin user to create 5 separate batches. 
• Understanding Sequence Of Downloaded .csv For Product Catalog: Open the downloaded file and start adding/editing product catalog information using the relevant columns. Data can be viewed in the following sequence:

1. Product ID*: Display unique product ID. This works as a unique ID for the system to identify a particular product. 
2. Product Identifier*: User defined unique identifier for the product. This works as a unique key for the system to identify a particular product.
3. Username: If added by the seller, the name of the seller will be displayed, otherwise it will show admin’s name. 
4. Name*: User defined field for product name. Add/edit/update names. 
5. Description: User defined field for product description. Add/edit/delete information as required. 
6. Youtube Video: User defined field for product Youtube video URL. Add/edit/replace new links with existing ones.
7. Category Identifier*: User defined unique identifier for the category. This field needs to be the same as the ‘Category Identifier’ defined in the Categories Content sheet. Make edits/additions/changes as required.     
8. Brand Identifier*: User defined unique identifier for the Brand. This field needs to be the same as the ‘Brand Identifier’ defined in the Brand Content sheet. Make edits/additions/changes as required.     
9. Model: User defined field for product model. Make edits/additions/changes as required.     
10. Min Selling Price*: User defined field for minimum selling price for the product. Make edits/additions/changes as required.     
11. Tax Group Identifier*: User defined unique identifier for the Tax category. This field needs to be the same as the ‘Tax Category Identifier’ defined in the Admin section under the Tax Management section. Make edits/additions/changes as required.     
12. Ean/upc/gtin Code: User defined field for EAN/UPC code of the product. Make edits/additions/changes as required.     
13. Featured: User defined field to mark a particular Product as featured or not. Possible inputs for this field are 'Yes' & 'No'. Make edits/additions to featured products by entering information either in ‘No’ or ‘Yes’.
14. Approved: User defined field to mark a particular Product as Approved or not. Possible inputs for this field are 'Yes' & 'No'. Default value should be set as 'Yes' to display products in the system.
15. Active: User defined field to mark a particular Product as active in the system or not. Possible inputs for this field are 'Yes' & 'No'. Default value should be set as 'Yes'. Make edits/additions to this column by entering information either in ‘No’ or ‘Yes’.
16. Deleted: User defined field to mark a particular product as deleted in the system or not. Possible inputs for this field are 'Yes' & 'No'. Default value should be set as 'No' to display products in the system. 
17. Product Veg Status: User defined field to mark a particular product as Veg & Non-Veg in the system or not. Possible inputs for this field are 'VEG' & 'NONVEG'. 
18. Lastly, save the prepared content file into your document folder.

Columns marked with asterisk* are mandatory to input information and cannot be left blank. 

1.3 Product Options

 To export/download product options data, it is must to enter information into the following displayed field:

• Language: We provide you a content section to download data into multiple languages as added by admin in the system. For instance if you want to save content in the English language simply select English and submit. Similarly for other languages follow the above process with respective languages.
• Select Data: Select data option ‘Product Options’ from the dropdown menu.
• Export Data Range: Select range of data to export from.  Know what are the available options:
  • Doesn’t Matter: Will display complete product options records in one go. Please note that a set default upper limit of 1000 for options exports is applied.
  • By Id Range: This option allows exporting product options within a selected range e.g. Set the ‘Start ID’ as 5 and ‘End ID’ as 10. Only the set/asked range records will be displayed. Look at the exported results in the screenshot pasted below:
  • By Batches: This option allows exporting product options in predefined batches. Say for ‘Batch Number ‘1’, the expected count of counts is 10. Your exported results will look like this:
• Understanding Sequence Of Downloaded .csv For Product Options: Open exported .csv file. At this point you also need to decide how data is thought to be imported back into the system. Once a file is accessed, data can be viewed in the following sequence:
  1. Product Identifier/ID*: User defined unique identifier for the Product. This field needs to be the same as the ‘Product Identifier’ defined in the Product Catalog Content sheet.
  2. Option Identifier*: User defined unique identifier for the Option. This field needs to be the same as the ‘Option Identifier’ defined in the Option Content sheet.  Please note that each product can only be binded/associated with one option. Also it is noteworthy to know that  options need to be pre-exists in the system for the product to bind with. Enter new/edit/replace new products with new ones. 
  3. Lastly, save the prepared content file into your document folder.

Columns marked with asterisk* are mandatory to input information and cannot be left blank. 

1.4 Product Tags

This option is catered to bind tags with the catalog products. To export/download product tags data, The following information is required to be submitted to download the .csv file:

• Language: We provide you a content section to download categories in multiple languages as added by admin in the system. For instance if you want to save content in English language simply select language English and submit. Similarly for other languages follow the above process with respective languages. 
• Select Data: Select data option ‘Product Tags’ from the dropdown list. 
• Export Data Range: Select range of data to export from.  Know what are the available options:
  • Doesn’t Matter
  • By Id Range
  • By Batches
• Understanding Sequence Of Downloaded .csv For Product Tags: Open exported .csv file and once a file is accessed, data can be viewed in the following sequence:
  1. Product Identifier*: User defined unique identifier for the Product. This field needs to be the same as the ‘Product Identifier’ defined in the Product Catalog Content sheet. Enter new/edit/replace new products with new ones.
  2. Tag Identifier*: User defined unique identifier for the Tag. This field needs to be the same as the ‘Tag Identifier’ defined in the Tag Content sheet.
  3. Delete Product Tag: User defined field to mark a particular product tag as deleted in the system or not. Possible inputs for this field are 'Yes' & 'No'. Default value should be set as 'No' to display tags in the system. 
  4. Lastly, save the prepared content file into your document folder.

Columns marked with asterisk* are mandatory to input information and cannot be left blank.

1.5 Product Specifications

This option is catered to bind specifications with the catalog products. To export/download product specifications data, it is must to enter information into the following displayed field:

• Language: We provide you a content section to download data into multiple languages as added by admin in the system. For instance if you want to save content in the English language simply select English and submit. Similarly for other languages follow the above process with respective languages. 
• Select Data: Select ‘Product Specifications’ from the listed data options.
• Export Data Range: Select range of data to export from.  Know what are the available options:
  • Doesn’t Matter
  • By Id Range
  • By Batches
• Understanding Sequence Of Downloaded .csvTo Import Content Data For Product Specifications: Open exported .csv file and once a file is accessed, data can be viewed in the following sequence:
  1. Product Identifier*: User defined unique identifier for the Product. This field needs to be the same as the Product Identifier defined in the Product Catalog Content sheet. Enter new/edit/replace new products with new ones.
  2. Lang Code: Display language into which data has been exported.
  3. Specification Name*: Showcase  name added to specification.
  4. Specification Value*: Specify product associated value of specification.
  5. Delete Specification: Display deleted specifications as ‘Yes’ and existing ones as ‘No’. 

Columns marked with asterisk* are mandatory to input information and cannot be left blank. 

2. Media Tab

The following information is required to be submitted to export catalog media into .csv:

• Export File Language: We provide you a content section to download media in multiple languages as added by admin in the system. For instance if you want to save content in the English language simply select English and submit. Similarly for other languages follow the above process with respective languages. 
• Export Data Range: Select data option from the drop-down list. Select from available options:
  • Does Not Matter: This option will export/download complete catalog media. 
  • By Id Range: This option allows exporting catalog media within a selected range say between 5 to 30 or 35 to 50 and so forth.
  • By Batches: This option allows exporting catalog media in predefined batches. Say for ‘Batch Number ‘1’, the expected count of counts is 10. Once you click on the ‘Submit’ button, check the downloaded media into your downloads folder. 
• Understanding Sequence Of Downloaded .CSV: Before understanding the downloaded sequence, we recommend to go through the following prerequisites to avoid confusions later:
  • Open the following files simultaneously:
    • Open the auto downloaded ‘Media .CSV File’ that has been obtained when the media file has been sent to the server. 
    • Open the exported media .csv file downloaded through Media Tab above. 
    • Once you have files opened mentioned above, go through the following sequence of columns to prepare media data:
• With the file exported through media tab, view the following sequence of columns to prepare a media ready for import:
  1. Product Identifier*: User defined unique identifier for the Product. This field needs to be the same as the Product Identifier defined in the Product Catalog Content sheet.
  2. Lang Code: User defined field to link the product image for a particular language. 'Universal' is to be used as an option to link the media in all languages. Language codes can be looked up by clicking the language option in the top header. Language codes need to be used if the Product has different images for each language.
  3. Option Identifier*: User defined unique identifier for the option. This field value needs to be the same as the Option Identifier defined in the Options Content sheet.
  4. Option Value Identifier*: User defined unique identifier for the option value. This field value needs to be the same as the Option value Identifier defined in the Options Value Content sheet.    
  5. File Path*: Detail about system generated file path. Copy the ‘file path’ from the Media .csv File opened alongside with the currently opened file.  Images stored locally on your personal device/machine cannot be uploaded. Preferred image dimensions for the product images are greater than 500*500 pixels.
  6. File Name*: Details about file name of uploaded media. Copy the ‘file name’’ from the Media .csv File opened alongside the file you’re currently working upon. 
  7. Display Order: This column is dedicated to showcase display order of associated product images. Based on the numerical inputs orders are decided. When a product has multiple images then this field defines the order of display. If you are unsure about this field add display order as '1'.

3. Import Process

For ‘Content’ once required information is added/edited, double check your data and format of file in case you have opted to create your own .csv file. Check the file for formatted headers and columns so that mandatory fields cannot be left blank. Whereas, for ‘Media’ ensure that you have followed the prerequisites by adding media to the server. In addition to this, to prepare and complete importing media you need to open the following downloaded files simultaneously:

• Open the exported media .csv file downloaded through ‘Media Tab’ above.
• Open the auto downloaded ‘Log file’ that has been obtained when the media file has been sent to the server. 

Also, imports are matched to existing records using unique product identifiers. Once a unique identifier/ID connects an imported record to an existing record, data is overwritten.

3.1 Content Data

Once the data has been added and ready to import, click on the hamburger menu  on the left, select ‘Import Export’, click ‘Import’, from the left hand menu, select ‘Import’  select option ‘Catalog’. Upon click, the following modular ‘Import Instructions’ tab will appear where information is displayed into various tabs:

1. Instructions: On this tab, click on the plus icon  to go through instructions set for each data type separately. We recommend a thorough reading of instructions to avoid uploading errors.
2. Content: On this tab, the following fields are displayed to import data:
   • Language: Select imported language file from the dropdown list provided. Please note that the list of languages displayed has a direct relation with the number of languages enabled in the system. 
   • Select Data: Select ‘Data’ from the various options displayed. Please note selection of data is dependent on the exported data file and its preparation. Select relevant option:
     • Product Catalog
     • Product Options
     • Product Tags
     • Product Specifications
   • File To Be Uploaded: Click on ‘Browse File’, locate the file, click ‘Open’ and then ‘Submit’. The ‘Data Imported/Updated Successfully’ message will be displayed when the file is uploaded within the system. 

Exit the section and congratulations you have successfully uploaded/updated newly added data into the system. In case of any discrepancies found, an error message is displayed and a log file will be automatically generated. A preview of log file can be seen in the screenshot below:

Go through the log file, mark the areas highlighted for error and re-import. In case a problem persists, contact team Growcer.

3.2 Media Data

Exporting catalog media is useful if you want to make many changes to your catalog inventory or bulk upload images. Please note that to update media library files in bulk a compressed zip folder is created containing all the media images intended to upload. Learn how to add media to the server in the next section. 

Here it is noteworthy to know that media upload is catered only to the ‘Product Catalog’ option. Other available options such as product tags, options, specification are excluded as they do not contain any media library. Learn how to add media to the server from here.

Once media data is setup and ready to be imported, click on the ‘Hamburger Menu’  on the left, select ‘Import Export’, click ‘Import’, from the left hand menu, select import option ‘Catalog’ and choose ‘Media’ tab from the shown ‘Import Instructions’ form.

• Upload File Language: Select the language from the drop-down list media file is set up for import.
• File To Be Uploaded: Click on the ‘Browse File’, locate the file destination, click ‘Open ‘ and finally click on the ‘Submit’ button.