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Hey guys! Are you looking to edit your products in your BigCommerce store through CSV or bulk edit?
I’ve said “bulk edit” because CSV is a form of bulk edit, but BigCommerce also has a bulk edit tool. I think I have a different video for that, but for this video, I’ll show you how to do it through CSV.
Before we get started, my name is Kal. I’m a developer, store owner, and I run the ecommerce growth community for store owners like you and me. I record new videos every week to help you out, so if you find this video helpful, subscribe and hit the bell to see more in the future.
Let me share my screen. Oh yeah, that’s me, Kal Wiggins! Now, let’s get started for real.
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We’re not talking about editing in the back end right now. I have a test product set up in the store that I’ll use to show you how editing works in CSV. If you don’t have any products in your store, set one up manually to use as a template.
Once you have at least one product, you’ll want to export that to a CSV file. This will give you a starting point. Here’s how:
Go to the Products tab.
Click Export.
By default, it selects “Default” export template, which we don’t want.
Select Bulk Edit Template instead.
Click Continue.
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Now, here’s where most people mess up. They automatically click the “Close” button, but that only closes the modal without running the export. Don’t do that! Instead, click the link that says Export My Products to a CSV.
Depending on the size of your store, this might take a few seconds. In my case, it’s pretty quick since my store is small. Once it’s done, click Download My Products File, and it’ll download the CSV file to your downloads folder.
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Now that we have the file, we can open it. I use Google Sheets, but if you’re a Microsoft Excel user, you can open the CSV there as well. In Google Drive, just drag it in, and it’ll open in Google Sheets.
Let me hide the cost columns so they don’t distract me. Otherwise, everything here is real product data. You’ll notice there are many columns, and the number can vary depending on how many images you’ve added to your products.
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If you have a new store, there might be only one or two image columns. In my case, I have 13 image columns because I’ve added more images. If you plan to add multiple images via CSV, manually add the images to one product first, then export again. This will ensure all the necessary columns are in the CSV.
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A tip: Freeze the first column so you can scroll and still see the product name. Now, you can edit any fields you need.
Columns Overview:
Item Type: Always “Product”.
Product ID: Automatically assigned. Don’t edit this for existing products. Leave blank for new products.
Product Name: Where you change the name.
Product Type: “P” for physical, “D” for digital.
SKU: Enter your SKU here.
Bin Picking: Optional. Describes bin location in your warehouse.
Brand Name: Easily assign or update brands via CSV.
Option Set: Not used much anymore.
Description: Full product description in HTML format.
Price: Important! Can use formulas like “=price*1.2” for retail price adjustments.
Sale Price: Overrides regular price temporarily.
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Be careful with Free Shipping at the product level; it overrides shipping rules.
For real-time shipping calculators, make sure to enter weight, width, height, and depth if needed.
The Allow Purchase and Product Visible fields are usually set to “Y”.
For Track Inventory, set it to “By Product” or “By Option” depending on your setup. You can also edit stock levels, categories, and assign multiple categories separated by semicolons.
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Next, let’s look at product images. Each image has an ID, file name, description, and a “thumbnail” flag. BigCommerce will assign image IDs automatically, so leave that blank for new images.
You can import images using URLs, and BigCommerce will upload them to its system. This is a great way to bulk add images.
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Search Keywords: These are for internal search, not SEO. Use them to include misspellings or variations of your product names.
SEO Fields: Includes page titles, meta descriptions, and meta keywords (though I don’t recommend using keywords anymore).
Product Condition: Usually set to “New” unless you’re selling used items.
UPC: Enter UPCs if needed.
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If you’re migrating from another system (Magento, Shopify, etc.), use the Redirect Old URL feature. This allows you to create 301 redirects from the old platform URLs to your new BigCommerce URLs, helping you avoid broken links.
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Let’s now make changes to a test product. I’ll change the title, description, and price, and then re-import the CSV into BigCommerce.
Change Title: “Test Test | Just a Test”.
Update Description: “This is only a test, so settle down.”
Adjust Price: $109.
Once the changes are made, download the updated CSV and name it clearly to avoid confusion.
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Back in BigCommerce, go to Products > Import, and drag the updated file into the upload box. Choose Bulk Edit Template and leave the other settings as default. Click Next and ensure the columns are properly matched up. Don’t move or rename any columns when editing CSVs!
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Click Start Import, and BigCommerce will update the products based on the CSV. If there are errors, it will display them for troubleshooting. In this case, everything worked, and the product was updated.
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As you can see, the title, price, and description were all updated successfully. That’s how you edit products via CSV in BigCommerce!
Conclusion:
You have access to so much flexibility when using CSVs to manage your products in bulk. It’s a great feature that can save you a lot of time.
Thanks so much for watching! Be sure to join our free community at ecommercegrowth.com and, if you need a developer, reach out at epicdesignlabs.com. Let me know in the comments what you’re struggling with, and I’ll see you in the next video!
