This guide will show you how to update lots of products at once using a spreadsheet. It's like having a super-powered tool that lets you make changes to many products with just a few clicks.
Why Use a Spreadsheet?
Spreadsheets are great for making quick changes to many products at the same time. This can be helpful for things like:
- Quickly adjust prices for a whole category of products, like when you have a sale or need to account for supplier increases.
- Mark products as inactive when they're out of season, so they don't show up in your sales system.
- Add or remove tags to help you filter and organise your products.
Before you Start
Here are a few things to keep in mind before you begin:
| Editing Products Only | This guide is for making changes to existing products. |
| Backup your Data | Always make a copy of your product information before you start editing, just in case something goes wrong (e.g., product-export-backup). |
| Remove Stock/Inventory Columns | Always remove stock/inventory columns. If you want to update your stock levels, make sure you either complete a purchase order (to add stock) or an inventory count (to remove stock). |
| Preserve the ID Column | Each product has a unique ID number. Don't change or delete this column, or you might mess up your product data. |
| Field Guidelines | Leaving Type or Tag fields blank will overwrite existing data. Leaving Tax Rate fields blank will not default them to the store's standard rate. For more information on these fields check out this list here. |
| File Format | Use the XLSX format to avoid problems with how product codes are displayed. |
- Export your Products
- Navigate to Catalog > Products
- Use the filters to find the products you want to edit (e.g., search by Purchase Order number or category).
- Click Search to apply filters
- Click Export List... and choose XLSX as the file format.
- Save a copy of the file as a backup (e.g.,
product-export-backup.xlsx).
- Edit the File
- Open the file in a spreadsheet program like Excel or Google Sheets.
- Delete all the columns related to inventory (including their headers). [Critical]
- Make the changes you want to your products, like updating prices, tags, or categories.
- Save the file as a CSV or XLSX format.
- Navigate to Catalog > Products
- Click Import.
- Drag and drop your file, or click Choose a file to upload to search for and add the file.
- LightSpeed will automatically validate the file for column matching and formatting.
- Resolve Validation Errors (if any). If validation is successful move straight onto step 6.
- If unmatched columns are detected:
- Use the drop-down menus to match columns correctly.
- Optionally, skip importing specific columns.
- If mandatory columns are missing:
- Download the error report, fix the file, and re-upload.
- If unmatched columns are detected:
- Confirmation:
- Once validation passes, review the confirmation screen.
- Click Continue with import to finalise the process.
If the upload fails:
- Refer to the LightSpeed Common errors with product spreadsheet imports guide.
- Double-check formatting, column headers, and mandatory fields.
Tips for Success
- Use Filters - Before you export your products, use the filters to narrow down the list to only the products you want to edit. This will make it easier to manage your spreadsheet.
- Validate before importing - Double-check your changes in the spreadsheet before you import them into LightSpeed. You can even do a test import with a small number of products to make sure everything looks right.
By following these steps, you can quickly and easily update your products in bulk, saving you time and effort.