[intro]Before you begin this Guide, it is essential that you have installed the Product Attributes feature and enabled Custom Attributes. You then need to have assigned some Custom Attributes manually to a Product using this Guide before you install the Import/Export System which will enable you to export all of your Product information onto a spreadsheet. [/intro]

In this Guide, you’ll learn how to assign Custom Attributes to each of your Products using a spreadsheet, so you can quickly add EANs, GTINs, MPNs and other Custom Attributes to lots of Products at once. Assigning Custom Attributes to your Products is useful if you want to allow customers to search for items using Product Filters within your Categories, and essential if you wish to export items to eBay (where all Products need an EAN) or Google Shopping (where Products need a Brand, MPN/GTIN).

[remember] If you are exporting your Products to eBay or submitting them to Google Shopping, you need to ensure that the Custom Attributes are set as visible. [/remember]

1. Before you begin, you need to export your products to a spreadsheet by following the steps in this Guide. When you have opened the file, you should have a spreadsheet that looks something like this:

2. For this demonstration, I’m going to add Custom Attributes to a single Product that has Variants. To make it easier to understand, I’ve coloured the Product row bright yellow - the rows beneath this refer to the Product’s Variants:

The first thing you need to do to the spreadsheet is to add the ‘Edit’ command so that when you upload the file back to your EKM online shop, the system knows that some extra details have been added to an existing Product.

3. Click the A column to highlight it, and then click the Find & Select icon on the top right-hand corner:

4. In the drop-down menu, select Replace:


5. In the window that appears, add the word ‘Product’ in the Find What field and the words ‘Edit Product’ in the Replace With field, before clicking the Replace All button:

This action will amend the ‘Product’ and ‘Product Variant’ rows to read ‘Edit Product’ and ‘Edit Product Variant’ accordingly. When you upload your spreadsheet onto your EKM online shop, the system will be aware that some of the data for the Products has been amended.

[warning] If you have any Products and Product Variants that you do not want to add Custom Attributes to, you need to delete entirely them from your spreadsheet. [/warning]

Adding the Custom Attributes to the Products

6. Your next step is to scroll along your spreadsheet until you see the Attributes columns:

The system will give you one column on the spreadsheet for each Custom Attribute you have created. I’ve already added the Custom Attributes EAN, GTIN, MPN, Size, Colour, Cupwarmer and Handle to a single Variant of this Product, so I can use these cells as a guide for populating the rest of the Product Variants with Custom Attributes.

As the Custom Attributes on the spreadsheet are situated a few columns away from the VariantItem columns (which designate the characteristics of each Variant), it’s a good idea to copy their contents into spare columns to save you from scrolling back and forth on your spreadsheet.

7. To do this, you need to count how many of the VariantItem columns that are populated on your spreadsheet:

I have four VariantItem columns populated on my spreadsheet, so I need to create four empty columns next to my Attribute columns.

8. You can do this by clicking the header of the first Attribute header to highlight the whole column before clicking Insert:

9. This will create an empty column. Repeat this process so you have enough empty columns to copy your VariantItem columns into. You can copy a whole column by right-clicking the header to highlight the column and selecting Copy from the drop-down menu:

10. Repeat this process until all of the VariantItem columns have been copied into the empty columns next to your Attributes:

[tips]

Attributes are displayed in the following order:

  1. The first part is the data itself, such as the EAN, MPN, GTIN, Size or colour;
  2. The number - 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, etc - is the order that the Attribute is displayed in. 1000 is the first Attribute that was added to the Product or Product Variant, 2000 is the second, etc.;
  3. ‘True’ or ‘False’ is whether the Attribute is visible or not. For the likes of Google Shopping and exporting to eBay, the Attributes need to be ‘True’, so that they are visible;
  4. Finally, you’ll have the Name of the Attribute, such as Colour, Size, GTIN, EAN, MPN or whatever name you have given to your Custom Attribute.
    [/tips]

11. First, we’re going to populate the Attribute:Handle column. The data in the VariantItem1 column tells me whether that particular Product Variant has a handle or not, so for all the Product Variant rows with No in the VariantItem1 column, I can copy the data for the Handle:Attribute from the Variant Choice I manually added the Custom Attributes to before, like this:

When I’ve finished copying in data for the Product Variants that have no handle, I then need to amend the data from:

No:3000:True:Handle
to
Yes:3000:True:Handle

12. This is because No means the Variant Choice doesn’t have a handle, and Yes means it does. I then add this new data into all of the cells in the Attribute Handle column, so that every cell has been populated:

13. Now I’ve completed the Attribute:Handle column, I have finished with the VariantItem1 column, so this can be deleted by right-clicking the column header and selecting Delete from the drop-down menu:

14. The next column I’m going to work on is the Attribute:Colour column, using the VariantItem2 column as my guideline. The Product Variant that has already been populated with the Custom Attribute Colour is black, so I can copy this down to all of the other Product Variants that are also black:

15. For the other colours, I just need to change the first part of the data from ‘black’ to the next colour, so from:

Black:1000:True:Colour 

to

Blue:1000:True:Colour

As blue is the next colour listed in the VariantItem2 column. Repeat this until all of the cells in the Attribute:Colour column have been populated, like this:

Now I’ve finished with the VariantItem2 column, I need to delete it as before, by right-clicking it and selecting Delete from the drop-down menu.

16. Repeat this process until you have completed the data for all of your Attribute columns and deleted the VariantItem columns you used for reference, so your spreadsheet should now look like this:

[caution]Please note that in the image above, all of my Product Variants have the same MPN, GTIN and MPN numbers, but this is only an example and may not apply to your Products; ideally, you should have individual numbers for each Product Variant, and if a Product Variant does not have an EAN, MPN or GTIN (such as if the item is custom or handmade) then the cell needs to be populated with ‘identifier exists’ in place of a number.[/caution]

17. You need to save your spreadsheet by clicking the File button in the top left-hand corner as normal:

Now you have finished working on your spreadsheet, the next step is to upload it onto your EKM online shop.

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[contact] If you need our help with your EKM online shop, contact your Ecommerce Expert or the Customer Support Team, who will be able to point you in the right direction. We're open from 8am-6pm weekdays and 9am-5.30pm weekends. If you'd like to suggest a feature or an upgrade on any of the EKM platforms, please let us know on the EKM Suggestions Board. If you have a non-account-specific question to ask the EKM Team, join us in the EKM Community. [/contact]