File2Cart vs Magento Admin Section Import Tool

When you talk about product import to Magento, how do you feel? Rather frustrating?
Because you already know, that to fill Magento product catalogue with new items is a complex and not always straightforward task. Nevertheless, if you want to be a winner in eCommerce market - it is a necessity.

There are a number of solutions to make this process easier for you. The first that may come to mind is to hire a programmer. But is it comfortable? Not always. It will be too expensive, especially if you need to add products regularly.

Then maybe you will test your patience and try yourself in adding products manually? Inserting products one by one will take a loooong time. Especially if you have hundreds or thousands of them.

How about import via Magento admin panel? Thousand of store owners fill their product catalogue this way. So why not? Although it is fairly simple to do, many Magento users often encounter difficulties when using the import functionality built in to Magento.

Or maybe an alternative import way? Like File2Cart - automated data import service, for example. It is a great time saver that will perform all the work quickly, effortlessly and the most important- without your participation.

So which way will you chose? We see a fair number of inquiries on this, so we've decided to write a little tutorial to help you better understand the difference between the most popular ones.

Lets put File2Cart and Magento face to face to reveal the key benefits and loses so that you could make a more grounded decision. These will give you a brighter outlook and lets you see a clear picture of what you really need.

First, we will make the checklist of options you would need the most.

• Data Source

File2Cart imports products to Magento installation from CSV, XML, XLS, XLSX, TXT files or from URL with the data? Unlike Magento supports only CSV format.

• Import type

Both Magento and File2Cart can do one-time import, as well as update existing product catalogue. But only in File2Cart admin panel you can set up scheduled import, that will allow to add products on a regular basis (daily/weekly/monthly).

• Data available for import

Both methods allow to import products, categories and manufacturers. Plus additionally, Magento can transfer customers from your file to the store website.

• Additional features

File2Cart offers you assisted and customized data import. From the opposite side, Magento can automatically resize images if it is required.
One more thing is that Magento can transfer data only from FTP, while File2Cart import data both ways: from URL and from FTP.

Now we will address all steps you need to take with File2Cart and Magento in order to achieve a successful import results.

Before proceeding this "guides" ensure a few things:

1. You know how to generate a .csv file with products
2. Your Target Shopping Cart is available online
3. You have an admin and FTP access to your Shopping Cart
4. You're familiar enough with Magento to navigate it's admin section
5. You understand your server's file system configurations

Anyways...Product import via Magento admin panel, is done through System - Import/Export - Import



A status screen will open, and you can start importing products.

First, create an import .csv file, which will include all the data you want to bring into Magento.
By default, the creation of new products requires some information like:

• name
• price
• description
• short description
• SKU
• type
• attribute_set
• tax_class_id
• status
• weight, etc.

Once you had prepared everything correctly, select the .csv file you've downloaded from the FTP. Make sure you have the right one - if they don't match, you'll get errors.

When the import is complete you can go to the products section of the Magento administrator backend and check the imported products.

Despite this method is not very complicated, many users have reported many issues here. Mostly it concerns missing or not showing data, incorrect file encoding, wrong file formatting, etc.

As an alternative to the traditional import solutions, you can use File2Cart service. It will do this job in a minutes.

• Provide your shopping cart details and download the connection bridge to implement interaction between your source file and your target store.




• Set up your import details, attache the product file or provide the URL with the data you want to import. The required fields for the file with products are:
• Product ID (SKU)
• Product name
• Product description
• Product price
• Start FREE Demo Import, check its results, and if everything is ok you may start Full Data Import.

And you're done. No errors you get...

NOTE: Despite all that, the average time for performing data import in Magento Admin can take hours or even days! Especially when you have hundreds or thousands of products. And nobody will guarantee, that data will be imported to your store without errors, duplicates, and missing data.

Rather than wait for things to happen, try to be proactive and MAKE THINGS HAPPEN. Let File2Cart perform boring product import procedure for you.
Keep on aiming high and go for it with File2Cart!