How do I import my products from a spreadsheet?

Typing a catalogue by hand takes days. Importing it takes about half an hour for a few thousand products, most of which is tidying the spreadsheet. Once imported, the same products power your POS, your labels and your online store.

Before you start

• An export from your old system, or your own spreadsheet.
• Categories and brands decided, so they are spelled the same way on every row.
• Barcodes for products that already have them. Leave the barcode blank for products that don’t, and RetailPOS Studio can generate one.

Step by step

1. Go to Products → Import products and download the template.
2. Copy your data into the template’s columns. The important ones are: product name, SKU, barcode type, unit, category, brand, purchase price, selling price, tax, and whether stock is managed.
3. For products with sizes or colors, use the variation columns so one product holds all its variants.
4. Save the file as CSV (UTF-8). This matters if names contain Arabic, Urdu or Chinese characters.
5. Upload it and press Submit.
6. If there are errors, the import tells you the row number and the problem. Fix those rows and upload again.

Adding opening stock

Products import without quantities. Add stock with Products → Import opening stock, using the same SKUs, a quantity and the location. If you have more than one shop, add one row per product per location.

Common problems

• Characters show as question marks. The file wasn’t saved as UTF-8. Re-save it with UTF-8 encoding.
• Duplicate SKU error. Two rows share a SKU. Every product and variant needs its own.
• Prices imported with tax twice. Check whether your prices include tax and set the tax type column to match.
• Barcodes lost leading zeros. Spreadsheets treat barcodes as numbers. Format the column as text before pasting.

Tips

• Import a test file of twenty rows first. Check them on the POS and the store, then import the rest.
• Keep your cleaned spreadsheet. It’s the fastest way to bulk-update prices later.
• Group similar items under one category name before importing. Clean categories make the online store, reports and label printing much easier to use.
• Ask for a switching call if your old system’s export looks unfamiliar. Mapping columns together takes a few minutes and is free.