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BigCommerce product uploadsfrom your supplier’s spreadsheet

Send the spreadsheet exactly as your supplier sent it. We hand back the same products in BigCommerce’s own import columns, with every product matched, the gaps filled from sources you can check, and the formats fixed. You check it, then import it.

How it works
  • Nothing goes live without your sign-off
  • Every value keeps its source
  • Your data is never shared
BigCommerce columnBeforeSupplier sentAfterReady for BigCommerce
Itemnot in the fileProduct, then a Variant row for each size
Typenot in the filePhysical
NameFITTED SHT 400TC EGYPT COTT WHT400 Thread Count Egyptian Cotton Fitted Sheet, White
Price£34.9934.99
Weight1.2kg1.2
CategoriesBedding > Sheets > Fitted31
Brand IDHollinsby102
UPC/EAN5.01235E+125012345678900
Options, on the Double’s Variant rowS/D/K/SK, all in one cellType=Rectangle|Name=Size|Value=Double
Image URL (Import), on an Image rowFS400-WHT.tifhttps link to the full-size JPEG
Here is a fitted sheet from a supplier file, as it arrived and as BigCommerce’s modern import reads it: the Product row first, then a Variant row for each size and an Image row for each photo directly beneath it. The product is an example, the category and brand numbers stand in for your own, and the weight assumes a store set to kilograms.12

How it works

  1. Send the file as it arrived

    Any columns and any names, with no template to fill in. A SKU or barcode on each row is enough to start.

  2. We get it ready for BigCommerce

    We match every product to the real thing and check it against a source. We fill the gaps, fix the formats, and lay the rows out the way your store’s import reads them: in the modern one, a Product row with its Variant and Image rows directly beneath it.1

  3. You check it, then import it

    Nothing goes live without your sign-off. When you are happy, you upload the file in Products, Import, which shows you the first product before anything is imported.3

Where supplier spreadsheets break a BigCommerce import

BigCommerce’s help has a section for this very job: reformatting a supplier’s spreadsheet so that it imports. These are the changes the modern import needs, each with BigCommerce’s own help page linked.

  • Units typed into the weight

    Before1.2kg850 g2.6lb

    After1.2

    BigCommerce takes weights and sizes as bare numbers, because the units come from your store’s settings and apply to every product.14 A weight with its unit still attached fails with an error ending “must be float”.5 We convert every row to your store’s unit before taking the unit off.

  • Category names where the modern import wants numbers

    BeforeBedding > Sheets > Fitted

    After31

    The modern import takes “the category’s ID only, not its name”, with a semicolon between several, and it cannot make a category: “You can only assign pre-existing categories to products.”63 We file each product into your own categories, then write them as their numbers.

  • Brands written as names

    BeforeHollinsbyHOLLINSBY LTD

    After102

    In the modern import a brand also goes in as its number in your store, and it “does not support the ability to create new brands”.7 We find each product’s brand and match it to the brand you already have, whatever the supplier called it.

  • Every size in one cell

    BeforeS/D/K/SK

    Aftera Variant row for each size

    Each size or colour is a Variant row directly under its product, with its option written in BigCommerce’s own formula, such as Type=Radio|Name=Size|Value=M.21 The modern import also cannot add a size to a product that already has sizes, so the full set has to be right the first time.2

  • Barcodes the spreadsheet has rewritten

    Before5.01235E+12

    After5012345678900

    BigCommerce warns that a spreadsheet program “automatically converts numerical product identifiers, such as SKUs or UPCs, to scientific notation”, and its UPC/EAN column takes numbers only.56 Barcodes are “typically assigned by a product’s manufacturer”, so we put the real number back from the product itself.8

  • Images the import cannot fetch

    BeforeFS400-WHT.tifIMG_4471.JPG

    Afterhttps link to the full-size JPEG

    Every image has to be hosted at a web address rather than on someone’s computer, in JPEG, GIF, WebP or PNG: “They cannot be TIFF, BMP, or PDF file formats.”1 An image whose host blocks the request fails too.5 We open every link before the file is built and swap thumbnails for the full-size original. A TIFF or BMP comes back as a JPEG, at a link we host for 30 days.

  • Blank cells that stop the import

    Before(an empty cell)

    Afterfilled from a source, or the column left out

    In the modern import, unless BigCommerce says otherwise, a cell cannot be left empty. A blank one comes back as an error ending “is missed”, and BigCommerce advises removing any column you do not need.65 Supplier files are full of half-empty columns, so we fill each one from a source or leave it out.

What you get back

You get a Google Sheet or Excel file laid out in BigCommerce’s import columns, with one tab per category and the same products before and after, so you can see exactly what changed.

  • Every product matched and checked

    Each SKU or barcode is matched to the real product, and every source page is checked to make sure it really shows that product.

  • The gaps filled, with sources

    We find missing specifications, descriptions and images on manufacturer and retailer pages. Every value keeps a link to where it came from, so anyone on your team can check it.

  • One spelling for every value

    Freestanding, Free-standing and freestanding become the one word you choose. Your filters then offer one option instead of three, and every future file lands on the same word.

  • Titles and descriptions written from the facts

    Product titles, descriptions, page titles and search snippets are written from the values already in the data, to length limits that are enforced, not hoped for.

  • Images that will import

    You get the full-size original behind every thumbnail, with logos, badges and duplicates taken out, and every link is opened before the file is built.

  • A score before anything goes live

    The file gets one quality score and each product a grade, worst first, so you know what to look at. It warns and never blocks.

Recent jobs

Our own account of work we have done. The customers are unnamed here, and every figure comes from our own records of the job.

  • 3,566dead links caught before export

    Musical instrument retailer · 12,015 image links

    Read the job in full
  • 19 of 19corrections pointed one way

    Appliance retailer · refrigeration accessories

    Read the job in full
  • 874of 901 checked against a source

    Percussion and pro-audio retailer · 901 products

    Read the job in full
Questions

Questions BigCommerce sellers ask

What BigCommerce sellers ask before they send us a file. Anything else, ask us and a person answers.

Is this a BigCommerce data entry service?

Yes. BigCommerce’s help lists what a supplier’s spreadsheet needs before it will import: an Item column, every header renamed to an importable field with the spelling and casing exact, any column that matches none removed, and each variant and image on its own row under its product. We do all of it without retyping, and fill the gaps from sources you can check.

Do you upload the products to my BigCommerce store?

You do, in Products, Import, once you have checked the file. BigCommerce previews every field of the first product before you click Start import, shows a progress bar while it runs, offers Stop Import part way, and ends with a summary listing each error with its line in the file. Nothing reaches your store until you start it.

Which BigCommerce import do you use?

The one your store uses, because BigCommerce has two and they read different columns. The modern import needs the v3 Add/Edit Product experience; a store on v2 uses the legacy one. Brands show the difference: the modern import takes a brand only as its ID and cannot create one, while the legacy import takes its name and creates any brand your store lacks. We lay the file out for yours.

My supplier only sends product codes. Is that enough?

Yes. BigCommerce’s help says a product’s MPN and UPC/EAN are usually assigned by its manufacturer, and “you may need to contact them or your supplier or distributor” to find them. We start from the code instead, match each one to the real product, and fill in its barcode and specifications from sources you can check.

Can I add a new size to a product that already has sizes?

Not with the modern import. BigCommerce says new variants “cannot be added or deleted” by CSV on a product that already has variants, and a file that tries gets the error “has already been used on this product”. So the first file that gives a product its sizes and colours needs all of them, up to BigCommerce’s limit of 600 variants per product.

Will importing it overwrite products I already have?

In the modern import, only rows that carry BigCommerce’s own product ID update anything, and those IDs come from an export of your store. A supplier’s new lines have none, so they come in as new products. Overwrite existing products is ticked by default; leave it that way when you do mean to update.

Can two SKUs differ only in capital letters?

Not in BigCommerce. It treats SKUs as case-insensitive: in its words, abc-123 and ABC-123 “are considered to be the same SKU”, and a SKU “cannot be duplicated”. So supplier codes told apart only by capitals clash. BigCommerce also advises against commas in SKUs, which can stop imports working as expected. Codes like these are flagged for you before the file is built.

Why is my BigCommerce import stuck?

BigCommerce lists the common causes: 1,000 images or more in one file, image links that are not public, base64 images or malformed HTML in descriptions, and text over a field’s limit, such as SKU or Page Title. For a stall at the same point every time, it suggests splitting the file to find the line. We open every image link in our file first and write text to length.

Doing it yourself?

Everything on this page is written up in full on the blog, with BigCommerce’s own pages cited, and every word of the trade is in the glossary in plain English.

Sources

  1. BigCommerce Help Center. Modern Product Import/Export | Importing Your Catalog from Scratch.
  2. BigCommerce Help Center. Modern Product Import/Export | Importing Product Variants, Images, and Other Complex Attributes.
  3. BigCommerce Help Center. Product Import/Export Overview (Modern Experience).
  4. BigCommerce Help Center. Physical Dimension Settings and the Shipping Calculator.
  5. BigCommerce Help Center. Modern Product Import/Export | Troubleshooting Import Issues.
  6. BigCommerce Help Center. Modern Product Import/Export | Supported Product Fields.
  7. BigCommerce Help Center. Managing Brands.
  8. BigCommerce Help Center. Adding Product Identifiers.

BigCommerce is a trademark of its owner. RefynData is an independent service, not affiliated with or endorsed by BigCommerce.

Send the fileas it arrived

Nothing goes live without your sign-offEvery value keeps its sourceYour data is never shared

Send one supplier spreadsheet, exactly as it came. We will show you the same products before and after, ready for the platform you sell on, with a source on every value we add.

One email with the upload link. Nothing else lands in your inbox.