The image above (also attached) shows the most popular product data fields that can be imported into GroovePacker. Any of these can be added later but you'll need to have the SKU and Barcode/UPC value for each item for it to be scanable. If you do not have or need a product name the SKU can be used for both SKU & Product name.* If your Barcode will match your SKU or your SKU will match your barcode you can copy and paste the data from one row to the other. There are also options available to copy the SKU to the Barcode field (aka generating the Barcode from the SKU) after the products are imported.
Please note that GroovePacker imports CSV files (comma separated value). A CSV file is basically a text file with a specific format. Data can be saved to CSV from Shopfiy, ShipStation, ShippingEasy, Excel, Open Office, Google Sheets and other apps, but XLS, ODS, and other spreadsheet formats are not recognized by GroovePacker. When saving your CSV please choose the UTF-8 format and use the comma as the delimeter if the option is available.
Tips around the initial product import can be found here but we like to do that for you. :)
Catch errors and save time
Here are some common issues that we look for when we receive product data to import. If you can catch and eliminate these issues it will make setup even faster:
- Leading Zero's Dropped. If your UPC/Barcodes should all have the same number of digits, but some are shorter than others it is often due to the leading zeros getting dropped. When a spreadsheet app opens, your product data it will often assume that any column with numbers should be treated as a number. Since 000004 is equal to 4 it will often "help" by removing the 0's. You can prevent this by telling the app to treat the column as "text". This article explains in more detail.
- Scientific Notation. Also covered in the same article, you may find that 12340000000000 has been reduced to 1234e10. The solution is the same. The field needs to be treated as if it were "text" and it will be left as is.
- A leading apostrophe. In some cases, to avoid dropping the leading zeros an apostrophe will be added. 0012341234 will be saved as `0012341234. This does prevent the zeros from being dropped but it also prevents the barcodes from being recognized unless the barcodes printed on your products begin with an apostrophe. This is unlikely, but you can check if you like. Just scan a barcode while your cursor is in a text document (like notepad or notes). The barcode saved in GroovePacker should match what the scanner sends, nothing more, nothing less.
- Blank rows. Put data on every row of the file if possible.
- Multiple Variant items sharing the same SKU. If you have an item SCARF that comes in two sizes and 3 colors you'll need six unique SKU's and six unique Barcodes to tell them apart. ie SCARF-BLUE-L, SCARF-BLUE-SM, SCARF-GREEN-L, SCARF-GREEN-SM, etc. If your file has only a single SKU "SCARF" with the color in another column and the size in a third column it will be necessary to create unique skus and add them to your shopping cart so that orders will contain the unique SKU. In some cases, you may not have unique skus but you do have unique barcodes. In this case, it is possible to use the barcode as both the SKU & the Barcode. While this technically works it makes for a poor user experience. SCARF-BLUE-L is much easier to remember and recognize for humans than a string of numbers like 40918469462.
While it's possible to import this data into GroovePacker yourself (details here) we are happy to do the initial product setup for you during your onboarding. This gives us a chance to verify the import and help address any issues or exceptions that may arise with the data. If you would like to give it a try yourself please feel free to do so. Even if it doesn't go smoothly it's no problem to clear it out and import again if needed.
The second file attached: Example Products Import Headers Blank.csv is a CSV with just the column headers. If you are manually putting together the file rather than exporting from another source you can use this file as a guide.
If you need to export your product data from multiple sources we can merge the data in GroovePacker as long as the files each share a common SKU. The SKU will be the means for adding the product data to the correct record.
If possible, please email your product CSV(s) to support at groovepacker.com well before your scheduled setup call so we can resolve any issues and have the products imported and ready before the call.
