Magento Raw Product Import CSV Creation & Download

Bulk product handling in Magento is an expertise of its own, independent of skill-sets relating to web design, programming or general data-entry. To be especially efficient at Magento product imports, knowing spreadsheet software, such as OpenOffice Calc or Microsoft Excel, would convenient the CVS creations, and knowing the basic product structure of the target Magento website will make the whole product import/editing process more efficient.

The below tutorials should cover information to expedite any bulk product editing and importing projects, broken down in the following topics:

Magento CSV & Tools

To take advantage of most tutorials explained in this article, you will require two things:

Magmi: Magento Extension for Fast Imports
In a previous post, we introduce a free tool for fast product imports in Magento, which you should download and setup. You can learn more about the extension and how to set it up here.
Excel or OpenOffice.org's Calc
To generate the CSV files, we require spreadsheet generating software that allow formulas/functions, such as Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice. Both work similarly, but although OpenOffice is more preferred, the examples below will be done via Excel, due to its more common use.

Magento Importing Basics

Both Magento's Dataflow and the Magmi Extension have the same behavior when it comes to importing. By default, these two tools will look for the importable CSV files in your root/var/import folder, and the images in your root/media/import folder (root being the folder of your Magento install). If those folders don't exist, you will have to create them in the specified path, or change where the tool you use should look for these files. This assumes that you have an FTP software, such as FileZilla, and have access to your target stores install folders.

Generating the Raw Product CSV and Columns

To generate the basic CSV file to use for imports in the target Magento store, you will want to do a product export from the admin of that store by doing the following:

Dafaflow Profiles - Product Export
  1. Login to your Magento Admin
  2. Go to the Dataflow Profiles via System->Import/Export->Dataflow - Profiles, and choose Export All Products.
  3. In the Profile Wizard, just make sure All fields is selected in Export: under Data Format, which it should by default, then click on Run Profile and Run Profile in Popup.
  4. After the Profile executed, you should find your generated .CSV file in a folder of your Magento install, by default in root/var/export called export_all_products.csv.

Once you have the exported spreadsheet open, copy the entire header row to a new Excel Spreadsheet. The spreadsheet will vary per Magento store, because it includes all the custom created attributes, but at the very least, the minimal product import/export values on Magento 1.7 are:

store,websites,attribute_set,type,category_ids,sku,has_options,name,meta_title,meta_description,image,small_image,thumbnail,url_key,url_path,page_layout,options_container,image_label,small_image_label,thumbnail_label,msrp_enabled,msrp_display_actual_price_type,gift_message_available,price,special_price,weight,msrp,status,is_recurring,visibility,enable_googlecheckout,tax_class_id,description,short_description,custom_layout_update,special_from_date,special_to_date,news_from_date,news_to_date,qty,min_qty,use_config_min_qty,is_qty_decimal,backorders,use_config_backorders,min_sale_qty,use_config_min_sale_qty,max_sale_qty,use_config_max_sale_qty,is_in_stock,low_stock_date,notify_stock_qty,use_config_notify_stock_qty,manage_stock,use_config_manage_stock,stock_status_changed_auto,use_config_qty_increments,qty_increments,use_config_enable_qty_inc,enable_qty_increments,is_decimal_divided,stock_status_changed_automatically,use_config_enable_qty_increments,product_name,store_id,product_type_id
Tip: You can copy the above list into a text file and open it with OpenOffice to choose CSV (comma-separated-value) to break it down in cells.

When importing via Magmi, many of the values can be disregarded and importing will work normally, but if you do intend to import via the Magento Defaflow method or do want custom values for the below columns, then you may want to add the following columns that I left out (although it may work without):

country_of_manufacture,meta_keyword,custom_design,custom_design_from,custom_design_to,product_status_changed,product_changed_websites

It is important to note that the order of these columns do not matter when importing via Dataflow or Magmi. Simply having the column headers is sufficient for it to be queued during import.

Importable Product CSV Sample Download

The below Product CSV sample is based on Magento 1.7, but may also work on earlier versions, starting at 1.4.

Download “Magento Product Import CSV” raw-import-products-magento-1.7.csv – Downloaded 6751 times – 19 KB

I'm a developer at Maximus Business.
  • Carol Willkins
    Hi! Thanks for helpfull information! Just want to say than I saw an interesting solution recently - a private sale script from Plumrocket. A number of magento extensions and magento private sales theme. And there you can find an extension RSS Feed Generator, allows you to easily create custom magento product feed as well as rss feeds for categories. I think you can find it on their site, maybe you'll find it valuable for yourself.

    Said on Jun 25, 2013 by Carol Willkins - Reply
  • bikram
    not worked in my case for magento 1.7.0.2 the provided csv too didnot worked

    Said on Jun 28, 2013 by bikram - Reply
  • shirin
    Hi Thank you very much for such a helpful post but i can't download the cvs sample .could u plz help

    Said on Sep 24, 2013 by shirin - Reply
  • ravi
    sir how i put multiple items in config attributes in configurable csv

    Said on Sep 23, 2014 by ravi - Reply
  • Abhishek Agarwal
    I am not able to download this file gettting message as You do not have permission to access this download. Go to homepage →

    Said on Oct 13, 2014 by Abhishek Agarwal - Reply
  • alok kumar
    What do you this about this procedure http://www.ddcantt.in/2014/12/solved-how-to-import-export-product-in.html

    Said on Dec 21, 2014 by alok kumar - Reply
  • Stefan
    If you want to add CSV file of simple product without custom options, let’s try this module Wholesale Fast Order: http://bsscommerce.com/magento-2-wholesale-fast-order.html Hope it helps.

    Said on Jan 17, 2017 by Stefan - Reply
  • Jeeva
    Hi, How can i import images using by magmi for my multi store Magento? As a single store its working fine, after added additional store, magmi image not working. csv screen shot : https://snag.gy/Ju6MbK.jpg if i did any error, pls let me and demo CSV sheet.

    Said on Aug 2, 2017 by Jeeva - Reply

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