For stores with many products, the export and import features can be very useful. An import can greatly speed up the creation of your store if you are transferring from another platform to Shopify. If you want to update many products at the same time on your existing store, you can do an export, make your changes and then import your products. It does take a certain amount of time to get up and running working with imports and exports so they are really more of interest to larger stores.

OpenOffice is open source software that offers tools to edit documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.

For imports and exports, it's recommended that you use the OpenOffice software suite. Shopify imports and exports products with files using the CSV (comma separated values) format. To edit these files, it's best to use the spreadsheet software that comes with OpenOffice. If you are already familiar with another spreadsheet software, this should be quite straightforward. Microsoft Excel and Google Docs can read the files but tend to cause weird formatting errors, not what you want. Download OpenOffice for free on the official website.

Importing and exporting is an advanced feature and may not be for everyone. No store needs to use it but it can make life easier if you're up to it. Don't worry if you're not!

Exporting products

You'll find the Export button at the top-right of the products section. Clicking the button will display a pop-up with the controls for the export. You are presented with two buttons. One will export the products that are currently shown on your screen and the other will export all products in your store. Click on the button of your choice and your web browser will start to download your products export.

Opening the export in OpenOffice

Follow these steps to open the export:

• Locate the downloaded file on your computer. It will be saved to wherever your web browser normally puts downloaded files. It will be called products.csv or a something similar.
• Open the downloaded file using OpenOffice. This will start the process of importing the file in CSV (comma separated values) format into OpenOffice.

• You will need to make sure that the import settings are correct - OpenOffice should do it correctly but it's as well to double check:
• • Character set: This should be set to "unicode (UTF-8)" in the dropdown list.
  • Separator options: "Separated by" should be selected and the comma checkbox should be checked. The text delimiter should be set to a single set of inverted commas or quotation marks as in ".
  • Other options: "Quoted field as text" should be selected.
  • Fields: This is a preview of the import given the current settings. When you scroll across and down, everything should appear normal and there should not be any strange characters.
• If these are all correct then click the OK button to continue. OpenOffice will create a spreadsheet with the product data.

The layout of the product data

Each column of data in the spreadsheet represents a particular field of product information. You can see the column names on the first line of the spreadsheet. From left to right, scrolling as necessary, you will see handle, title, body (HTML), vendor, type, tags, etc. For a full list and explanation of the columns, see the Shopify Docs entry here.
The first column "handle" is a special field as it identifies uniquely each product. You will remember the handle from when we edited a product. You need to be very careful with the handle as changing it may erase your product data when you subsequently do an import. The second column is the product title with which you should easily be able to identify the product if it is not clear already from the handle.

Each row in the spreadsheet has the data for the product defined by the handle in the first column. You will often notice that there can be more than one row with the same handle. This can be for two reasons. One, there is more than one variant for this product in which case each row represents one variant of the product. Or two, the product has more than one product image in which case each row will include the web address of one product image.

Saving correctly in OpenOffice

It's a good idea to save the document as soon as you start making changes. Make sure to name your files clearly so you will be able to easily identify the correct file easily later. To save correctly follow the instructions on the next page:

• Click file > save as.
• Choose a name for the file and where on your computer it is to be saved.
• Make sure the file type is set to "text CSV (.csv)".
• Click save.

• When asked what format to save in, choose Keep current format.
• Lastly make sure the character set is Unicode (UTF-8).

Importing products

Returning to the admin for your store, let's now take a look at importing products. In the products section, click the button Import at the top-right. A pop-up will be displayed with the controls for importing the products.

The health warning that comes with importing

Importing products into Shopify is an advanced feature and should not be taken lightly. Done incorrectly, it could result in errors in your product data. The import cannot be canceled or undone. Effectively all changes to your store are irreversible.

Importing from another platform

If you want to import from Magento, Volusion, ebay or Wordpress, click on the link Need to import products from another platform? Follow the instructions to install an app that will manage the import process. Note the Wordpress app only imports blog posts, it will not import products from a store.

If you want to import from another platform, another alternative is to use the Cart to Cart service. They provide a service to transfer your store from one platform to another and they currently support nearly 50 platforms. They may also be able to help with other platforms - contact them with the specifics. You'll find more information on the Cart to Cart service here.

Shopify may also help you with the import so it is worth contacting them about it too.

For manual imports, start with the right file format

If you want to do a manual import of products into Shopify, bear in mind that you cannot import any old file with products into Shopify. You must use a file with the correct format. Always start with a file that you got from Shopify. This ensures that you start off correctly.

• If you want to enter products from scratch then download the example template. You can download it from the product import pop-up
• If you want to adjust products that you already have in your store, do a product export from your store as explained earlier in this chapter.
• In both cases, you will need to follow the steps for opening the file in OpenOffice. You will also need to make sure that you save the file correctly in OpenOffice. You will find the instructions for this earlier in this section.
• Also spend time getting to know the layout of the product data. There is a full list and explanation of the columns in Shopify Docs here.

The product import process

The process to import products is quite simple. It's really the preparation before that is more complicated. In the first step there are two things to do but you must do them precisely:

With this checkbox unselected the import will ignore any products in the import that are already in your store. So it will ignore any changes you made to existing products.

With the checkbox selected the import will overwrite existing products in your store with whatever you have in the import. This needs to be applied with caution.

When you have these two things correct, click the Upload file button to continue. You will now be shown an overview of the import: how many products are included; the number of SKUs indicates how many variants are included in total; and how many product images. It also specifies if you will be overwriting existing products or not which is helpful just in case you forgot which setting you had chosen.

Further down the page, you will find a preview of the first product in the import spreadsheet. Verify that the field names on the left match up with the data imported for the first product. If all the fields match up correctly and you are happy to go ahead, click the Start import button at the bottom. If not, you can always click Cancel.

Shopify will start the import. Sometimes this can take a while and Shopify will email you to tell you when it is complete. If there are only a small number of changes to be processed, after a few seconds the products section will be displayed with your newly imported products.

To verify everything went to plan, first of all click on the Import button at the top-right of the products section. This is the same import pop-up we looked at earlier but this time it has a short report on the last update. It will list: how many products were imported; how many products failed to import; and how many products were skipped.

Next check a few of the products you have changed and a few of those that you have not changed on your store to verify that everything is correct. You will also receive an email from Shopify with the report on the import. This is particularly helpful if the import takes some time as it signals its completion.

Some general tips for importing products

It's so important to get the import process right that it's worth spending some time getting used to how it works. Here are some general tips to do just that:

1. Do a trial import: Start small and build up to doing full imports. You could start with exporting your products, not touching the downloaded file and then re-importing the file. Start with the setting to not overwrite existing products. If that all goes well then try opening the export in OpenOffice and making a minor change to one product, perhaps to its description. Then try an import with overwrite existing products set. Do a few trial runs and get used to the import process first.
2. Use copy and paste: Rather than writing data from scratch in the spreadsheet, it's often better to copy and paste from an existing cell or row and then adapt it. That way you know you start off with the data in the correct format.
3. Delete unnecessary rows: If you are not changing a product, remove it from the spreadsheet. That way you ensure that you will not overwrite it. Make sure to remove all the rows associated with the product as some products will have more than one row because of variants or multiple product images as explained earlier.

Summary

In this section we have looked in depth at products. We learnt about how to craft effective product pages. We looked at creating, editing and managing products in your store admin. Finally we looked at importing and exporting products.

In the next chapter, we will return to your theme. Now that you have some products in place, you will be better able to customize your theme to suit your business.