Case study 9: Updating prices with import and export

You can use a combination of import and export to update product prices in bulk.

The easiest way to create a CSV with updates for existing product attributes is to export your products, edit the file and then save it again as a CSV. To make managing the file easier, you can delete all the unnecessary columns except for the product identifier column (SKU or ID, or both) and the columns with the attributes that you want to update. After that, you can simply upload the file back into your store.

In this section, you’ll learn how to update product prices in your store with import and export (say, you had a price increase to cover your expenses).

To update product prices in bulk:

1. From your store admin, go to Catalog → Products.
2. If you want to update prices for all products, click Export All below your product list:
   

   

   If you need to update prices for particular products only, you can select them in the list and then click Export Selected.
3. A CSV file will be downloaded to your device. It will contain all the attribute columns available for your product(s), separated by a comma as a delimiter. You can now edit the file to enter data on new prices.
4. For that, open your file in a spreadsheet editor and delete all the columns except for “type”, “product_internal_id”, “product_sku” and “product_price”. You can also leave the “product_name” column to make it easier for you to read the file.
   Sometimes, spreadsheet editors recognize numeric SKUs as integer numbers and set “numeric” format for the SKU column, which results in changing their values (e.g., “0005” and “0006” turn into “5” and “6”). You can set the “text” format for the SKU column in your spreadsheet editor to avoid this or exclude the SKU column from your file at all, as the ID column is enough to identify products.
   Enter new prices for each product in the “product_price” column. Here is, for example, how your data can look in Google Sheets after you remove all the unnecessary columns:
   

   

5. Save the file as .csv.
6. Go to Catalog → Data Import & Export in your store admin, click Upload Catalog File, and choose the file on your device.
7. See if there are any errors and click Start Import.

That’s it! After the import is complete, product prices in your store will be updated automatically.