Product import allows you to add items to your catalog manually via the import tool, so that they’re available immediately for your marketing strategies.
In this article, you’ll learn how to import products in Connectif.
Difficulty: Low.
When to use it: When integrating your Connectif account and at any time on a one-off basis.
Although the "Contact has visited a product" tag will automatically register the products as they are visited, we recommend carrying out an initial import of the entire catalog when you integrate Connectif so that it’s available from the start.
Before you begin: preparing the product file
To carry out the import, you’ll need a valid CSV file containing the fields of the products to be imported.
The following table shows the fields that can be included in the CSV:
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Product detail URL | Text | URL of the product page (the URL must be unencoded). |
| External product ID | Text | Unique product identifier (in ecommerce). |
| Name | Text | Product name. |
| Unit price | Decimal | Product unit price. |
| Description | Text | Product description. |
| Image URL | Text | URL of the product image. |
| Category | Text list | The category to which the product belongs. If the ecommerce site allows sub-categories, you can indicate them with the full path of the category separating each level with the character '/'. For example: “/Computers/Keyboards/Logitech”. |
| Tags | Text list | The labels associated with the product. |
| Brand | Text | Product brand. |
| Number of reviews | Whole | Number of reviews of the product. |
| Related product IDs | Text list | Related product IDs. |
| Priority | Whole | Priority of a product. |
| Original unit price | Decimal | Original unit price of the product. |
| Unit price without taxes | Decimal | Product unit price without taxes. |
| Percentage discount | Decimal | Discount percentage, range from 0 to 100 without percentage symbol. |
| Reduced amount | Decimal | Reduced price of the product (must correspond to unit_price_original - unit_price). |
Text list-type fields with several texts must have a special format, using the symbol "|" as the delimiter character.
Product Name,Id,Categories,Unit Price
Product 1,1,Category1|Category2|Category3,35.60
The example shows how a product belonging to three different categories would be included for the Categories field.
STEP 1: Data source selection
1. Go to "Eccommerce > Catalog" and click Import products.
2. In the Select a data source section, choose the Import from file option.
It’s possible to carry out the import by copying and pasting the CSV content into the central text box, but this option is more limited because it does not support imports of large quantities of products.
3. Configure the import parameters.
3.1. Select Include header if the CSV file has a header with the column names.
3.2. In Delimiter, choose the character that delimits the columns of your file.
3.3. Select the Overwrite existing option if you want to replace the product information that already exists in Connectif with that included in the file.
3.4. Select the Update only empty fields option if you want only fields without information to be updated.
4. Click Next .
STEP 2: Configuration of the fields to import
Once the file has been imported, the fields of the imported CSV (left-hand column of the interface) must be associated with the fields of the products in Connectif.
5. Select the name of each field from the imported file and drag it to its corresponding Connectif field.
In the example, the field of the ID file is the one that gives value to the External product ID field in Connectif, and Product Name will give it to the Name field in Connectif.
There is also a value (always available) called Literal. Its main utility is to "simulate" that a column is being imported that is not actually in the imported CSV file. When Literal is assigned to a product field, an editor appears allowing you to assign the desired value to that field for all products to be imported.
6. Click Next .
STEP 3: Check import
7. Click Go to import list .
8. Check that the products and their information have been imported correctly.
On this screen, the percentage progress of the product import appears and the summary of this once completed.
9. If there is any error, please download the CSV error report by clicking the button (Download CSV error report).
The most common import error is that one of the rows imported in the CSV file contains a data type that is incompatible with that of the assigned field. For example, if the Text value "PRICE" is assigned to the Unit Price field of the product, the import of this record will cause an error.
Congratulations!
You’ve reached the end of the tutorial.
Do you have questions?
Don’t forget, our Connectif specialists are here to help you. To contact them, just open a Support ticket by clicking the blue “Help” button on your dashboard.
Keep learning!
To make the most of your Connectif account, we recommend reading these articles next:
- Product sheet, to see the labels and categories of your ecommerce products.
- Product sync and verification, to take advantage of the full potential of the Connectif catalog.
- Product segments, to learn how use groups of products that are available in real time in different strategies.
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Offer recommender, to help undecided customers choose products on sale on the web.