Importing products is useful if you switch to X-Cart from another platform or if you want to make multiple changes to your products or inventory that are not supported by bulk editing. It enables you to add new and update existing product data by submitting a specially formatted file.
For data import/export, X-Cart uses CSV files. Such files can be edited using any popular spreadsheet editor like MS Excel or LibreOffice Calc.
If you have a CSV file exported from another source (a list from a supplier, an export file from some 3rd party store, etc.), you need to rebuild it to X-Cart's format. If the format doesn't match, the import fails. Learn more about the X-Cart Products CSV file format here.
Before you start:
Export a CSV file with products from your store. You can use it as a sample for creating your own CSV files. It includes information about demo products with comma-separated values.
Edit the sample file and enter product data into it, committing to the file format. If you have a file from another source, it may have columns not found while importing to X-Cart. Do not paste those columns into the file.
Once you’ve prepared your CSV file, you can import it into your store:
Open the "Import" page of your store Admin area (Catalog -> Import):
Next, click "Choose files" and select a CSV file from your computer.
Configure import settings:
Do not verify images to run the process faster: The setting allows checking if an image specified in the import file exists in your file system. Disable the setting if you want the images verified during import. Images verification may slow down the import process.
Import mode: Select the mode for importing new data.
The mode ‘Create new items and update existing items’ enables you, as the name suggests, to both create new and update the existing items. So, for example, if your import file contains items that do not yet exist in the store’s database, they will be created due to the import. Likewise, new items will be created based on product SKU.
The mode ‘Update existing items, but skip new items’ enables you to update the existing items without creating new ones.
In both import modes, any missing item that is dependent on an existing item will be created. For example, if you specify a non-existing category for a product to be updated, this category will be created in your store during import.
Charset: Select the character encoding used in your file.
CSV delimiter: Select the delimiter used in your file (comma or semicolon).
Click Start import.
When your CSV file uploads, you’ll see a notification of a successful import. If the import failed, X-Cart notifies you of the reason.
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