Do Not Make Product Import to Magento a Burden

Magento gold rule is: Before making any changes with your eCommerce live Magento store, do not proceed without current database backups. It is the first and the most valuable thing you need to consider.

Magento. The only platform that can offer much more than even an experienced user may require. Most tasks in Magento can be less that straightforward. But when we talk about Magento product import, is it so? Not always.

It is extremely important to know all secrets of successful data import as it is not always as easy as you would like it to be. Thats why in this post we will try to cover the primary import methods along with some necessary tips and tricks to help you avoid any issues that may occur here. As the error puzzle is not easy to resolve, it is better to prevent the problem before it caused some damage.

Here are some tips on data import preparation you would need the most:

Make the data backup. It is a very important step! Without a backup, you would be at risk of data losing in case of any errors. The loss of critical data can have a significantly impact on the work of your website, resulting in financial losses. So do not ignore it.

Prepare products. To prepare products for import, create a template file by first exporting the sample data from your store.

Prepare files. Before importing files, make sure they contain the right field value. It is easy to do in Notepad and Microsoft Excel.

Check field names. Usually, while importing feeds from your vendor, the field name may not match the field in the Magento store. So do not forget to check them.

Test your import. When everything is ready, it is recommended to use a test store for the first import to avoid errors with live website.

Also be sure you know how to access the store installation files, in case of any threat.

How to Export Products?

If you do not have a ready file template, then run this 4 easy steps:

1. Login to your admin panel. Go to Import/Export section and chose Profiles.
2. Export All Products profile. Make all necessary changes to the Profile Information, File Information, Data Format and Export Filters sections.
3. Run Profile tab and then press Run Profile in Popup.
4. Browse to your Magento installation /var/export folder and download the export_all_products file.

How to Import Products?

It is not very convenient to manually add a large number of products to a Magento installation. In such cases, you need some automatic way to do this job.

File2Cart service is a primary method for Magento bulk import. It will not take much of your time as the process is fully automated.
It can import all data from CSV, XML, XLS or TXT files to Magento quickly, easily and without any bugs.
Only a few minutes will be needed to prepare everything.

1. First of all you need to register an account. Then, login and press Create New Import button within your File2Cart admin panel. After that, you will be able to proceed to import setup.
Specify your target shopping cart details: version, store URL.
Don't forget to download and set up the Connection Bridge.

2. On the second step, provide your file or URL and select whether you want to import new data or just to update an existing product catalogue.

3. Map the fields from your source file with the fields in your store database.

4. After everything is done it is recommended to run a free demo import. Then confirm the full data import and check products in the admin section on the public site.

If you hadn't done everything correctly, some errors may still arrive. Here are the most common ones.

Images are not imported along with products. First, make sure the file permissions is "777". Also check if the image fields are valid and if the image full URLs (www.store.url.com/...../image.png/image1.png) and names (/image.png/image1.png) are in the right fields.
One more reason for that can be in the wrong fields mapping.

SKU not defined or path is not valid.
Usually it is caused by the wrong characters in the import file. So check your title and all fields that contain text.

Duplicate products.
This issue can be caused when for the same products SKU from the file you import do not match to the SKU in your store. If the SKU not defined or path is not valid there should be wrong characters in the import file. So check the title and all fields which contain text.

Now you have a few tips to work with, and you are ready to import products to your Magento store quickly, easily and fully automatically.