Upload products from a spreadsheet

Before you start

Uploads need an organisation with a compliance profile — base country, business type and destination markets — because the profile decides which rules are checked. The platform asks you to create one before the first upload. Uploading products and running the engine is part of the subscription; see What the free account includes.

Step 1 — the file

In the platform, open Products in the sub menu and choose the upload action (the dashboard’s “Upload your products” step opens the same drawer). Drop a file or click to choose one:

• CSV, Excel (.xlsx, .xls) or JSON, up to 10 MB.
• A workbook with several sheets is merged into one list; junk rows, blank rows and footer rows are stripped, and the preview says what was merged or skipped.
• If no clear header row is found, the first row is used as column names — verify them in the preview.

One row is one product. Variants (sizes, colours) can be separate rows; the platform detects variant columns later and groups them.

Step 2 — field mapping

The platform reads the columns and proposes a mapping. Four core fields are required:

• Unique identifier — the column that identifies each product (SKU, EAN, product ID). Re-uploads merge on this column, so choose the one that stays stable.
• EAN / GTIN — the barcode column (EAN-8/13, UPC, GTIN-14). It can be the same column as the identifier.
• Display name — the name shown in the UI.
• Image URL — optional, but it makes the product list easier to scan.

The second mapping step covers the classification fields. At least one column must be assigned to Product description — the classifier needs text to work from; other detected fields improve accuracy but do not block the upload. Mappings are saved per upload and can be changed later under Settings › Field mappings.

Step 3 — review and confirm

The review shows what the upload will do before anything is written: how many products will be created, how many existing products will be updated (they keep their current collections), and rows that match archived products (skipped — restore them first if they should be updated).

Choose a collection for the new products: create one (prefilled with the file name) or add them to an existing one. Collections are groups you report on separately — by market, range or customer — and they scope the progress flow on the dashboard. Then confirm.

What happens next

The products are saved immediately and the pipeline runs in the background: analysing the data structure, detecting variant columns, working out each product’s intended use, grouping similar products, validating the groups, creating folders and finally classifying — assigning HS codes and the compliance rules that apply. You can close the drawer; a banner on the Products page shows the phase, and the Notification Center tells you when the upload has finished or failed.

Products that need more information stop in Awaiting clarification; see Classification, gaps and compliance status.

Common problems

• “No products detected” — the identifier is mapped to an empty or non-unique column. Go back and pick another.
• Upload failed — the file is over 10 MB or not a supported type. Split it or save it as CSV.
• A column cannot take another role — it is the only description column; add another first.

If an upload is stuck for more than an hour, send a request with the file name and the time you confirmed it.