What the catalog import does with each product

Where to find it

In your account menu, under Catalog and exports, Import tab → Import spreadsheet. This article explains what happens to the products when you confirm an import, especially Import new catalog, which is the one that can deactivate products.

How the import recognizes a product that already exists

The product is recognized by its code (SKU), with no difference between uppercase and lowercase. For each row of the spreadsheet:

• a code that already exists in the store's catalog → the product is updated;
• a new code → the product is created;
• a row with no code but with a description → the description is also used as the code;
• a row with no code and no description → the row doesn't go in and becomes the warning "SKU and description missing".

⚠️ Changing a product's code in the spreadsheet doesn't "rename" the product: the import creates a new product with the new code, and the old one (absent from the spreadsheet) is deactivated in the full import. The new one doesn't inherit history, photos or last paid price from the old one.

Columns you didn't map stay as they are

The import only writes the fields the spreadsheet brings. If you import a spreadsheet with no stock column, for example, the stock of existing products is not zeroed: it stays as it was. The same goes for unit, packaging and the other fields: a column missing from every tab is a preserved column.

What happens to a product that isn't in the spreadsheet

In Import new catalog, every active product in the store whose code doesn't appear in the spreadsheet is deactivated. That's the number the screen calls Removed.

"Removed" here means out of circulation, not deleted:

• the product disappears from search and from the catalog the buyer sees;
• it stays registered and appears in the product list with the Status filter set to Inactive only or Active and inactive;
• if the code comes back in a future import, the product is reactivated and updated, not created again.

In Update existing catalog, no product is deactivated.

⚠️ In a store whose catalog is synced with the ERP, products that came from the ERP are not deactivated for being missing from the spreadsheet: there, the ERP is what decides what can be sold.

Repeated codes in the spreadsheet

When the same code appears twice in the same tab:

• if the two rows differ only by variant (color, size), they become variants of the same product;
• otherwise, the first row wins, and the second becomes the warning "SKU 'X' duplicated (keeping previous row)" in the Duplicate SKUs list.

When the code appears in two tabs that are checked, the row from the last tab wins.

Cross-references, photos and collections

Cross references: in the full import, the other brands' codes declared by the spreadsheet replace those that came from previous imports. An alternative code that left the spreadsheet stops being valid. Barcodes read by the ERP or registered by hand are not deleted. If the spreadsheet has no cross-reference column, nothing changes.

Photos: a column with the image link (starting with http:// or https://) makes the import download the photo; photos pasted inside the spreadsheet's cells are also used. See Import the product photos for photos that are in a folder.

Collections: the column classified as Collection groups the products by its value, creating the collection when it doesn't exist yet.

What the full import does with price tables

When the spreadsheet brings one or more commercial price table columns, the full import treats the spreadsheet as the store's entire list of tables:

• columns with the same name as an existing table update that table;
• new names create new tables;
• ⚠️ the store's active commercial tables that don't appear in the spreadsheet are deactivated and lose their prices;
• promotional tables are never deactivated because of this.

See Load price table prices by spreadsheet.

Common questions

"I imported and the Removed number came out high." The spreadsheet didn't bring those codes. Check the product list with Status → Inactive only; to bring them back, reimport a spreadsheet that contains them (the update also reactivates whatever comes back).

"A product I had deleted came back." If its code is in the spreadsheet, the import creates or reactivates it.

"The stock didn't change after the import." The stock column wasn't mapped, and an unmapped column stays as it was. In a store where the product list shows the stock read from the ERP, the number on screen is the ERP's, not the spreadsheet's.