Squarespace product CSV import: shaping a supplier spreadsheet to the version 7.1 template

What a Squarespace product CSV import expects

A supplier spreadsheet lists an enamel bread bin as three rows, one per colour, each with a category of Kitchen > Storage, a price of £34.99 inc VAT, a weight of 2100g, all three dimensions in one cell and a link to a thumbnail. To import products into Squarespace from a CSV, those rows are rebuilt in Squarespace’s template: in the Products panel, click Import, then Download CSV template, complete it following the column table for your site’s version, and upload it from the same panel.¹ On the way, Kitchen > Storage becomes the slug of an existing category, /kitchen/storage, and the price becomes 34.99.¹

The file is Squarespace’s bulk upload for products, and it runs once: later changes to the spreadsheet “won’t automatically sync”.¹ The import article gives its column rules in six tables, one for each of three jobs in a version 7.1 and a version 7.0 form.¹ A supplier spreadsheet is the third job, and this post follows its version 7.1 table.

The two new-product tables differ only in Product Page and Categories. On version 7.0, a blank Product Page creates “a new, not-linked store page”; on version 7.1 both are required, and the store page and every category the file names must exist before you import.¹

The import article allows 10,000 products on a version 7.1 site, 200 on a version 7.0 site and 250 variants per product: physical and service products only, priced up to 1,000,000 in any currency.¹ Its page on adding products puts the 10,000 and the 200 “per store page” instead, so above 10,000 products, ask Squarespace which reading holds.⁴

The version 7.1 columns, one by one

The template the import article links to has 26 columns, from Product ID [Non Editable] to Hosted Image URLs.² Keep its header row and “replace all existing values below the header row with your own product details”.¹ On version 7.1, six columns are required: Product Type, Product Page, Product URL, Title, Categories and Visible.¹ Despite its header, Product Type [Non Editable] takes the new product’s type, Physical or Service.²¹

Delete the template’s sample rows rather than writing over them. They describe Lemons and Pickled Things and break the version 7.1 table three times: Product Page is blank, Categories reads Sour Stuff rather than a slug, and Pickled Things has sale prices while On Sale is No.²¹ Left in, they can import with your products.¹

Variants: one first product row, then option rows

Squarespace’s sample sets out the layout: “Row 3 is the First product row, and rows 4-8 are the Option rows.” Each row holds a different combination of options, and “Each pair of Option Name # and Option Value # creates a variant”.¹ The columns the table above marks First product row go on that row only.¹ Each option row carries what differs: its SKU, option names and values, prices, On Sale, Stock, weight and dimensions, as the template’s own option rows do, with the option names repeated on every row.²

The template has three pairs of option columns, though Squarespace’s variants page allows a product up to six options.²⁵ Deciding what is a product and what is a variant comes first; variants: size and colour works through it from the supplier’s rows.

Where supplier files break the import

Categories typed as the supplier’s path. Kitchen > Storage, KITCHEN/STORAGE and Storage & Bread Bins are labels, not slugs. The column takes the slug of an existing category, “including the /”, in lower case; a category the site lacks brings the error Categories not assigned, fixed by adding it and re-importing.¹ Version 7.1 allows 1,000 categories and subcategories in up to three levels, so a four-level supplier path loses one.⁶ Names are case-sensitive, and Squarespace advises against commas, +, & and % in them, which “can cause issues with links”.⁷ Where each product belongs comes first, as mapping supplier categories sets out.

Words and symbols where numbers go. Prices arrive as £34.99 inc VAT, 34,99 or 10.513, and stock as In stock or 50+. Price and Sale Price take “numbers and decimal points (.) only”, and Price takes two decimal places, so 10.513 becomes 10.51. Stock takes a number, or unlimited.¹

Units inside the cell. 2100g on one row, 2.1 kg on the next, and 34 × 22 × 20cm in a single Dimensions column. Weight, Length, Width and Height take “numbers (up to 10,000) and decimal points (.) only”, and after the import they “will match your store’s measurement standard”, pounds or kilograms for weight.¹⁸ There is no room for a unit, so convert first: on a store set to kilograms, 2100g is 2.1. Weight-based shipping needs weights and dimensions on every product and variant.⁸

Image links that are not images. A thumbnail, a product page, a cloud share link, a file name from someone’s hard drive. The column wants the image itself, “not a page that includes the image”, and nothing can come from a hard drive.¹ Squarespace’s image requirements allow .jpg, .gif, .png and .webp files, call a width of 2500 pixels ideal for most images, and warn that “images less than 1500px wide may appear blurry”.⁹ If images do not appear, it suggests importing again with the other protocol, https:// for http:// or the reverse.¹

A second import cannot mend a broken link, and they are not rare: a musical instrument retailer’s catalogue held 3,566 broken or blocked links among 12,015. Google Shopping image requirements sets out the audit.

The spreadsheet itself. Bulleted lists, hyperlinks and nonstandard characters are the formatting problems Squarespace names when an import fails, and, depending on their settings, some spreadsheet programs may separate values with semicolons instead of commas.¹ Its first remedy is to paste the text into a new spreadsheet and upload that, which “will resolve most issues”.¹

One supplier row, before and after

The Cream bread bin, as sent and in the template’s columns. Bold is what the import gets; amber is for a person to decide.

The Slate and Sage option rows carry their own SKU, option value, price, stock, weight and dimensions.¹² Weight is the cell to read twice: strip the g from 2100g without converting, and 2100 is still within the column’s limit of 10,000, so that rule will not catch a 2,100 kilogram bread bin.¹ Visible is No so the products can be checked before shoppers see them; an import can publish or hide, but not schedule.¹

The amber cells need a person: In stock is not a number, and the barcode has no column. Finding values the supplier never sent, and checking the ones it did, is what product data enrichment adds to a template.

Shaping the file, step by step

1. Check the site’s version at the bottom of the Pages panel.³
2. Build the store before the file. Create the store page and every category, then copy each slug from its settings rather than typing it from the name.¹⁶ On version 7.1, Squarespace recommends one store page for all products.⁴
3. Download the template and empty it, keeping the header row.¹²
4. Map each supplier column to one template column, and keep the map for that supplier’s next delivery.
5. Lay each product out as a first product row plus an option row for each other combination.¹
6. Write values Squarespace’s way: slugs for Product Page and Categories, bare numbers in the store’s units, Yes or No, and a number or unlimited for stock.¹
7. Fetch every image link before the import; no later import can change the images.¹¹⁰
8. Set Visible to No and save as a comma-separated .csv with the header in the first row.¹ Import a handful of products first, and leave them out of the main file.
9. Import and read the results. Drag the file into the Upload Squarespace CSV box, correct any errors and re-import, then click Save. Product page not found means the Product Page slug matches no store page; a request to add a Product ID column means that column is missing or a row sits above the header.¹

When it is not obvious

Where do the barcodes go? Not into a new-product file, as Squarespace documents it. The template has no GTIN or MPN column and neither new-product table lists one; only the two tables for moving products between Squarespace sites do.²¹ The product editor has GTIN and MPN fields.⁴ Since the import article asks you to keep the file’s structure, keep the supplier’s barcodes, checked, in your working copy rather than adding a column it does not describe.¹

Categories or tags? Categories build the store page’s navigation, with subcategories on version 7.1, while tags mainly drive filters that show some products and hide the rest.⁶ Filters are version 7.1 only, and only on store pages with 200 or fewer products.⁶ On a store page of 2,000 products, shoppers browse by category, not by tag filter. Both are case-sensitive, so fold a supplier’s Enamel, enamel and ENAMEL onto one spelling before they become three tags.⁷ Normalising attribute values sets out the method.

Before you click Import

All of this happens in the spreadsheet, before Squarespace sees a row, and it is the part we prepare for Squarespace stores from a supplier file. Each SKU or barcode is matched to the real product, every item is filed into your own category tree, measures are converted to one unit, spelling variants are folded onto one value, and the full-size original behind each thumbnail is found and its link checked. Every value keeps a link to its source, and the file comes back laid out for Squarespace’s own importer.

Whichever way the file is built, create the store page and categories first, import five products before five hundred, and fetch every image link before the first import. Then keep the map from the supplier’s columns to Squarespace’s: the next delivery will bring the same Kitchen > Storage and the same 2100g. RefynData’s product data enrichment service starts from that file as it arrived.