How to import your product catalogue into an ecommerce website
Preparing the source so the import is worth having, what never comes across cleanly, and the one check that stops you selling something for nothing.
Preparing the source is most of the work, and it is worth doing. An importer can only carry across what is actually in your Instagram captions or your PDF — so twenty minutes tidying prices and names before you import saves an hour of correcting afterwards. Then check every price before you publish.
TL;DR
- • Tidy the source first. Garbage in, garbage in a nicer layout.
- • Names and images import well. Variants and stock rarely do.
- • Check every price before publishing. A ₹0 product is a real order for nothing.
- • Import, review, publish. Never import straight to live.
- • Keep the old store up until the new one has taken an order.
Step 1 — Prepare the source
This is the step people skip and then blame the importer for. An import reads what is there; it cannot invent a price that was never written down.
- • Put prices in the captions or the PDF where they are missing. 'DM for price' imports as no price.
- • Use consistent naming. 'Blue kurta L' and 'kurta - blue (large)' become two unrelated products.
- • Delete sold-out and old posts you do not want as products, before importing rather than after.
- • Check your images are yours. Anything you did not shoot is a licensing problem the moment it is on a commercial store.
Step 2 — Know what will not come across
Set expectations honestly, because the gap between what imports and what does not is where the frustration lives.
| Field | How it usually goes |
|---|---|
| Product name | Imports well from captions and listings. |
| Images | Import well. Check the crop — a square Instagram image is not always a good product shot. |
| Price | Imports when it is written down. Missing prices are the number-one thing to fix afterwards. |
| Description | Imports as the caption, which usually needs an edit. A caption is not a product description. |
| Variants | Rarely. Sizes and colours in free text are not structured data. |
| Stock levels | Almost never. Expect to set these yourself. |
Step 3 — The price check that matters
Before you publish, go through every product and confirm it has the right price. This is not busywork.
A product that imported with no price and defaulted to zero is a product a customer can order for nothing — and if you have online payments switched on, that order will go through, be marked paid, and deduct stock. You will find out from the order email.
Sort by price ascending and look at the bottom of the list. It takes two minutes and it is the single highest-value check in this whole process.
Import, review, publish — in that order. Never import straight into a live store. Bring the products in, fix them while nobody can buy them, then publish.
Step 4 — Do not switch off the old store yet
If you are moving from another platform, keep the old store running until the new one has taken a real order from a real customer. Not a test order — a real one.
The cost of running both for a fortnight is one month's subscription. The cost of switching off too early and discovering your checkout has a problem is the orders you never hear about.
Once it is proven, redirect the old domain rather than deleting it, so anyone with a bookmark or an old link still lands somewhere useful.
What good looks like
On SitesPlaced the importer reads Instagram, an existing website, a PDF price list, dm2buy and Shopexer, and it is free on every plan including the free one.
It deliberately does not silently drop rows it is unsure about — it brings them through for review, because an importer that quietly discards items leaves you unable to tell what is missing until a customer asks for something that is not there.
If you do not have the website yet
Everything above assumes you already have a store to put an imported catalogue on.
A SitesPlaced store is free to build and publish, with 0% commission on every sale, on every plan, and 21 integrations included rather than sold as add-ons.
The importer is free on every plan, there is no product limit on any plan, and SitesPlaced takes 0% of every sale.
Frequently asked questions
What should I do before importing a catalogue?
Tidy the source. Add prices where captions say DM for price, make naming consistent, delete old and sold-out posts you do not want as products, and check the images are yours to use commercially.
What does not import cleanly?
Variants and stock levels, almost always. Sizes and colours written in free-text captions are not structured data, so expect to set those up yourself. Names and images import well; descriptions usually need an edit.
What is the most important check after importing?
Prices. A product that imported without one may default to zero, and with online payments on, a customer can genuinely order it for nothing. Sort by price ascending and look at the bottom of the list.
Should I switch off my old store immediately?
No. Keep it running until the new store has taken a real order from a real customer. One extra month of subscription is much cheaper than discovering a checkout problem through orders you never received.
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