Once every few weeks, we will receive a request from a client requesting a cost estimate for uploading hundreds of products to a new online store or for adding thousands of products as part of a transition between a closed-source store management system (rental) and an open-source store management system (ownership). It’s all, of course, a matter of price.
In this article, we will review how we will do this in cases where we take on ourselves projects such as this one.
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Uploading multiple products to an online store
We’re going to go ahead and say that uploading hundreds or thousands of new products to an online store requires one of these two:
- Skilled and numerous personnel (content inputters).
- A professional specializing in database solutions.
In quite a few cases, store owners operate using the first method, which is also the better one (yes, uploading content with SEO components often requires personal intervention for each and every product) but there are also cases when we need to upload many products and at record speed. And in these cases, we should turn to the second method.
In this article, we want to review the second method and explain how it actually works, and what are the basic requirements to allow it.
How can you upload a large number of products to the website?
Well, to answer this question, we need to understand how a website content management system is built.
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There is a wide variety of management systems for online stores, but in most cases, the systems are based on online databases that contain the information in the actual store.
Databases are built in a similar way to the one that might be familiar to you from the Microsoft Excel program – we have columns and rows, and each column contains a large number of parameters which are then displayed on the site. For example, each product gets its own row in the database and each column in the database contains various details about the product, such as the product name, product price, product categories, etc.
Therefore, when we want to upload a large number of products to an online store, we want to ask the customer for an Excel file (export from a cash register system or export from an existing store management system) so that we can have as many details as possible about the products in the store before proceeding to the next step.
Uploading many products to an online store
As soon as we have an Excel file detailing all the products we want to upload to the online store, we can follow the following steps:
- Preparing the file by removing unnecessary columns.
- Converting the file into a readable language (columns in English).
- Adding missing and essential values to the Excel file.
- Adding links/media file names to a separate column.
- Saving the Excel file as a file in CSV utf8 format.
- Crossing columns between the file and the site’s database.
- Proactive and quick uploading of the products to the store.
- Checking/posting the products in the store.
Using these steps, we make the previous Excel file or database “talk” to the new website database. The information is in the correct columns in the database, and we get to publish a large number of products at record speed and without investing hundreds of billable hours.
How much does it cost to upload products from an Excel file?
The cost of uploading products based on an Excel file will vary between the different stores depending on the level of complexity. Also, sometimes the export file is not ready by the end of the month, and it is necessary to go over every product and add missing information, and when it comes to thousands of different products, it can certainly take quite a bit of time.
Still, the cost of a quantitative increase for online stores can be divided into three levels:
- Basic cost – $2,000 + VAT.
- Average cost – $4,000 + VAT.
- High cost – $6,000 + VAT or more.
When it comes to transferring between different store management systems, it is often a basic cost, because there is a large degree of compatibility between the export file and the database of the website on the receiving end + the images are often available for quick retrieval from the previous system.
When it comes to an export file from a cash register system or when the file is standard but not adjusted correctly, we are required to work more hours and therefore you might need to spend a little more for the service. Rarely is the data situation so bad that we decide between a high cost in an Excel-based upload and a person manually uploading all of the products, with everything that it implies.
A little something for the end,
There is one drawback that must be considered when increasing the number of products for stores. In many management systems, external organic promotion (SEO) plugins are used and in some cases the export file does not contain the metadata values of the products and the products go up to the new site without their organic promotion layer.
Want to check how much it will cost you? Interested in exploring the possibility of switching between your old closed-source management system to a new open-source management system? Feel free to consult us free of charge and without obligation and we will be happy to answer all your questions.
