Product variants (3): Importing from a spreadsheet in Brightpearl Video Lecture | Using Brightpearl: Product Management - Data & Analytics

in this video I'm going to show you how
to create product variants by importing
an excel file and also update existing
variants in product groups using a
spreadsheet here's the product I want to
import it's aight variations of a
product group called climbing trousers
each variation within the group is given
its own skew the columns marked in green
are those that are required to create a
new product I've added some extra
columns in black and then have
highlighted the product option columns
in orange the color doesn't matter when
you import the file it's simply so that
you can see which ones I'm talking about
and then finally we've got a column that
holds the product type temporarily
because we can't actually import the
product type virus spread sheet new
products created by spreadsheet are
always assigned the default product type
and for that reason it's important to
set all of your product options as being
available for the default product type
the first thing you need to do is create
the product options that you need from
set up products and inventory options
you don't actually need to create the
values in Brightpearl because they can
automatically be created when you import
the spreadsheet you then need to add a
custom field to temporarily hold the
product type and then create a data map
which you do from data / import import
products here's one I've created earlier
called create new in the product type
trousers that's got the columns that we
saw in our spreadsheet first of all
we're going to import the file without
importing the actual products themselves
to test the data and to create the
missing option values I'm not going to
skip items using match column a I'm
going to create new ones i do want to
create missing option values i do want
to create missing brands and missing
categories and then finally just import
the file that loads the file checks the
data and creates any missing option
values and here you can see we've got 30
32 34 and 36 as waist sizes and the
color terracotta that weren't previously
in the system otherwise there are no
problems with the file so we're ready to
import take import values untok skip
items choose your file and then upload
the green message says we've had eight
new products created so let's do a
product search for trousers where we can
see all 8 of the climbing trousers were
just imported going to the Edit variant
screen you can see the sizes and colors
and the SKUs the position of each option
on the grid in other words whether it's
a row or a column is determined by
bright pearls database it's not
something you can change upon import you
can change the position of these later
however and there's a separate video in
this product variant series that shows
you how to do that the last thing we
need to do is update these imported
products so they've got a product type
of trousers we imported the value
trousers into a custom field which means
we can simply filter the product list by
that custom field type contains trousers
find all the products and then batch
update so let's choose to set the
product type to trousers next what we're
going to do is update existing products
that are not yet in a product group to
bring them into a product group by
giving them the same name and then we're
going to assign options to them so we've
got a couple of hiking trousers here in
large and small I've got a spreadsheet
with the same product skews that's going
to bring these into the same product
group and assign the options so we're
going to rename both of these items to
simply hiking trousers and then I've
added large and small into the size
column you can also see here that there
are other option columns but these are
empty that's fine we'll go to our data
import screen click to import values
untok skip items and importantly click
to update only otherwise it'll try and
create new products find our file and
import we can see that two products are
updated so next time I search for hiking
we can see that the name has been
updated and then they've been given
options of large and small that's put
them into the same product group which
means I can use the edit variant screen
if you want to import lots of different
product
types with different options in the same
file that's fine and what we've got here
is a couple of trousers on the top row
and then some boxes on the subsequent
rows when these product groups are
created the relevant populated option
columns will be assigned to that product
group so only sighs will be given to
trousers and only height and length will
be given to these boxes make sure that
all the combinations of options for any
given product group in other words where
they've all got the same product name
are unique so here for example we've got
large red occurring twice for the same
product group which is invalid data and
the import would complain at you so what
you need to do is make sure that all of
these are completely unique and define
actual inventory items if you have
product options such as this with cable
or without cable make sure that every
value for this product group is
populated so even though these two
variants don't have a cable you can't
leave it blank you actually have to
define a value in here so that the full
grid of options is populated for every
product group as with all imports into
bright pole make sure you work with
sensible data sizes so that it's much
easier to find out where you've gone
wrong if there's a problem so in this
video we learn how to create products
with variance using a spreadsheet we
then batch updated the product type
because all imported products are of the
default product type and then finally we
use the spreadsheet to update existing
products