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PrestaShop product importsfrom your supplier’s spreadsheet

Send the spreadsheet exactly as your supplier sent it. We hand back the same products as PrestaShop’s own import files: the products first, then their sizes and colours as combinations. Every product is matched, the gaps are filled from sources you can check, and the formats are fixed. You check the files, then run the imports.

How it works
  • Nothing goes live without your sign-off
  • Every value keeps its source
  • Your data is never shared
PrestaShop fieldBeforeSupplier sentAfterReady for PrestaShop
Reference #TWL600TWL600
Name *TOWEL BATH 600GSM EGYPT COTT WHT/BSEgyptian Cotton Bath Towel
Categories (x,y,z...)Bathroom > Towels > Bath Towels8,21
Price tax excluded£20.83 + VAT20.83
Tax rules IDnot suppliedyour VAT rule’s ID
Weight650g0.65
FeaturesMaterial: 100% Egyptian cotton, 600gsmMaterial:Egyptian cotton:1:0,Fabric weight:600 gsm:2:0
Image URLs (x,y,z...)TWL600-WHT.jpg; TWL600-WHT-2.jpgtwo https links to the full-size images, a comma between
Attribute (Name:Type:Position)*colour and size in the nameColour:color:0, Size:select:1
Value (Value:Position)*WHT/BSWhite:0, Bath sheet:1
EAN135.01235E+125012345678900
A bath towel from a supplier file, as it arrived and as PrestaShop’s imports read it. The last three rows belong to the combinations file, where each colour and size points at its product by PrestaShop’s product ID. The product is an example, the category 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, any names, and no template to fill in. A SKU or barcode on each row is enough to start.

  2. We get it ready for PrestaShop

    Every product is matched to the real thing and checked against a source. The gaps are filled, the formats are fixed, and the data is laid out the way PrestaShop imports it: a products file, then a combinations file for every size and colour.1

  3. You check them, then run the imports

    Nothing goes live without your sign-off. You import the products and then the combinations under Advanced Parameters, Import, and PrestaShop reports “100% validated” and “100% imported” when every row has gone in.1

Where supplier spreadsheets break a PrestaShop import

PrestaShop splits a catalogue across separate imports and packs whole specifications into single cells, and a supplier’s file was never written with either in mind. Each of these is in PrestaShop’s own documentation, linked below.

  • Category names where PrestaShop wants numbers

    BeforeBathroom > Towels > Bath Towels

    After8,21

    PrestaShop’s documentation asks for categories as the ID numbers they already have in your shop, separated by commas, “so you should have imported them first”.1 A supplier’s trail of names is matched to your own categories and written as their numbers.

  • Sizes and colours sent as separate products

    BeforeBATH TOWEL WHT HANDBATH TOWEL WHT BATHBATH TOWEL WHT SHEET

    Afterone towel, three combinations

    PrestaShop builds sizes and colours as “combinations” of attributes, and they go in through an import of their own, each row pointing at its product’s ID with its own reference and barcode.32 A supplier who lists every size as a separate product hands you three towels to manage. Each product is imported once, and its sizes and colours follow in the combinations file.

  • Spec lines that break the Features column

    BeforeMaterial: cotton, 600gsm

    AfterMaterial:Cotton:1:0,Fabric weight:600 gsm:2:0

    Every specification goes in one cell as name, value, position and a last 0 or 1, with colons between the parts and commas between features, and PrestaShop reads every colon and comma that way: in its words, “you cannot use a colon (:) or commas (,)” in a part.1 A supplier’s spec line is full of both, so each value is split out and written in PrestaShop’s order.

  • Spellings that become new values

    BeforeCotton100% cottonCotton (100%)

    AfterMaterial:Cotton, on every row

    PrestaShop does not refuse a feature value it has never seen. With the last part set to 0, a name or value that does not exist yet is created: “the feature and/or value will be added for you.”1 Three spellings of cotton become three values of Material. Every spelling is folded onto the one you choose.

  • Semicolons inside a description

    BeforeSoft; absorbent; quick drying

    Afterthe description whole, in its own column

    PrestaShop recommends the semicolon as the separator between columns, and tells you to remove semicolons from text such as descriptions, or choose another separator.1 One stray semicolon splits a description in two and leaves its row a column too long, and every row must have the same number. The files are written so that cannot happen.

  • Barcodes Excel has mangled

    Before5.01235E+12

    After5012345678900

    PrestaShop’s EAN-13 is “the product’s 13-digit international article number”, and each size and colour can carry its own in the combinations file.42 Excel turns a long barcode into scientific notation when it opens a file.5 The real number is put back from the product itself.

  • Image file names instead of links

    BeforeTWL600-WHT.jpg

    Afterhttps link to the full-size image

    Each image has to be an absolute link, “the link that may be used in a web browser in order to display the image”, with a comma between several.1 A file name from a supplier’s folder brings no picture. We open every link before the file is built and swap thumbnails for the full-size original.

What you get back

Google Sheets or Excel files laid out for PrestaShop’s product and combination imports, plus 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

    Missing specifications, descriptions and images are found 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 feature

    Cotton, 100% cotton and Cotton (100%) become the one value you choose. PrestaShop then never adds a second value for the same thing, 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

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

  • A score before anything goes live

    One quality score for the file and a grade for each product, worst first, so you can see 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.

Questions

Questions PrestaShop sellers ask

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

Do you upload the products to my PrestaShop shop?

You do, under Advanced Parameters, Import: the products file first, then the combinations. Each file then reaches a mapping screen, where you match its columns to PrestaShop’s fields and enter 1 in Rows to skip to leave out the header row. Save that mapping and you can load it again for the next file. Your catalogue stays as it is until you run them.

Why are sizes and colours in a second file?

Because PrestaShop imports them that way. The products go in first, and each size and colour then goes in from a combinations file that names its product’s ID, with its own reference and barcode.

What is the difference between a feature and an attribute?

In PrestaShop, attributes are what a shopper chooses between, such as size or colour, and each mix of them is a combination. Features are fixed details, shown to shoppers in a table and shared by every combination. Which is which “depends on the product itself”. A supplier’s columns are split the same way: the choices go to the combinations file, and the specifications go to the Features column.

How do different prices for each size go in?

Through the combinations file. The product holds one price, in your shop’s default currency, and each size or colour holds an Impact on price: the amount it adds to that price or takes off, as a plain number such as PrestaShop’s own example, -2, for a price 2 lower. Impact on weight works the same way.

Which options should I pick on the import screen?

Leave Delete all products before import unticked unless you mean it, because it erases every product you already have first. If your products are known by your own references rather than PrestaShop’s ID numbers, tick Use product reference as key, and make sure every product in the file has one.

Do my categories need to exist first?

Yes. PrestaShop’s documentation asks for categories as ID numbers that already exist in your shop, so your category tree comes first. Each product in the file is filed into your categories and written as their numbers.

Which unit should weights be in?

Your shop’s own. PrestaShop keeps weights and package sizes in the default units set on the Localization page of the Localization menu, and takes a full stop for fractions, as in its example of 1.23 lbs. So a supplier’s 650g has to arrive as 0.65 in a shop set to kilograms, and every weight is converted to your shop’s unit before the file is built.

Can it be an Excel file rather than a CSV?

Yes. Since version 1.7 PrestaShop also imports .xls, .xlsx and .ods files. Each file holds one language, so a shop in two languages imports two. An Excel file cannot change the separators, though, so the Features column has to use PrestaShop’s own colons and commas exactly.

Doing it yourself?

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

Sources

  1. PrestaShop 9 documentation. Import.
  2. PrestaShop on GitHub. Sample combinations import file (combinations_import.csv).
  3. PrestaShop 9 documentation. Managing Product Attributes.
  4. PrestaShop 9 documentation. Managing Products.
  5. Microsoft Support. Keeping leading zeros and large numbers.

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

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.

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