Getting all your products quickly onto the Magaroo platform is a key step in getting ready to sell.
This help document will take you through how to create a file that lists all of your products.
This file can be quickly uploaded to Magaroo.
Here at Magaroo, we know that every business has its way of doing things. For this reason, we use comma-separated value (.csv) file to let sellers bulk upload a list of products/services and updates.
We recommend uploading documents using our template or by creating a .csv file using a spreadsheet.
A comma-separated file or .csv file is a file tgat allows data to be saved in a tabular format.
For example, let's say you want to create a simple .csv file to upload a set of product names and descriptions. The file might look like this:
Name,Description
Apple,Green Apples from Kent
Pear,Pears from Somerset
Each product entry is a line, with its properties separated by commas.
This file could be written in a simple text editor such as Notepad on a PC or TextEdit on a Mac.
When you create the file with a text editor be sure to save the file with a .csv extension.
Spreadsheet software can often be used to open or create .csv files from a spreadsheet file.
For example, this .csv file...
Name,Description
Apple,Green Apples from Kent
Pear,Pears from Somerset
Would display in a spreadsheet like this...
| Name | Description |
| Apple | Green Apples from Kent |
| Pears | Pears from Somerset |
Using spreadsheet software can be an efficient way to upload and edit a file of products. Popular spreadsheet programs include Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers and Google Sheets.
Note: Your accountancy, till or EPOS systems may be capable of creating a file of products that you can edit in a spreadsheet ready to upload to Magaroo.
When you create the file with a spreadsheet program be sure to save the file with a .csv extension. For example, products.csv.
If you want to get started quickly then you can download and edit one of our example files to and edit it to match your product list. Upload the file you make to add the list of your products to Magaroo.
Find essential and optional product descriptives. You must use the headings stated below.
The following is a description of each of the fields that can be used. If you want to add a particular field to the CSV file please make sure that you use the correct heading. Alternatively if you want to add those fields at a later stage you can access them from the edit function on the Product Manager.
'Your ID' is any ID that you have that uniquely identifies the product to you and your business.
It may be a name, code number or something that interacts with your internal stock or EPOS system.
If you do not already have an existing ID then you are at liberty to use whatever suits you e.g. Apple 1 , Pizza 2 or simply 1,2,3,4 etc.
This is an essential field and every product you create or update must have this field. If you are uploading a file of products that you have already uploaded then this field is used to determine if any of the products you are uploading already exist in Magaroo. If this is the case then that product is updated with the property values you have specified in your file.
If no product exists with this ID then a new product is created.
This is the name of the product/service which will be displayed on your shopfront. Customers can also search for the product.
Here you specify how the product is sold. These are your only choices, please specify one for each product you are listing.
This is the price of the product relative to how the product is sold i.e. price per kg/ml, price per individual item and price per pack.
Specify the currency in which a product is sold. The currency property must be chosen from a list of currency codes that Magaroo supports. Our default is pounds sterling (£) this should be set to GBP.
When a customer clicks on your product the first thing that they will see is a description of the product, which you can set here.
The description should require any salient information including any information you are legally required to provide as a seller.
If you are using a text editor and want to include commas in your description then you must enclose your description in quotation marks. For example, "Apples from Taunton, Somerset."
If you are using a spreadsheet program to create your file enclosing your description in quotation marks is not necessary, as your spreadsheet program should automatically do this if it is required.
This is where you can set which category a product fits into e.g. fruit, vegetables, starters, mains, etc.
Customers can search by category from your storefront so this is a useful field to add.
Some products can of course fit within multiple categories. If so then you can list multiple categories here. Simply make sure that there is a comma between them e.g. meat, beef, diced.
If you are using a text editor then you must enclose your categories in quotation marks if there are more than one and you have used commas. For example, "meat, beef, diced".
If you are using a spreadsheet program to create your file enclosing your categories in quotation marks is unnecessary as your spreadsheet program should automatically do this if it is required.
This is potentially an important field to add depending on how you wish your products to be displayed.
However, if there is a particular order that you want your products to be shown in, then this is where you can set that order.
You may want to group a particular set of products - e.g. starters, main courses, salads etc.
This is a field that allows you to set the country of origin of a product.
However, if you are completing this field you must use the correct country name.
If you want to list a product as locally sourced you can set the 'local' property to TRUE.
By default, if the 'local' property is not included in your file it will not be set for a new product.
If you are entering this within a .csv file simply fill in TRUE or FALSE within the field in the .csv.
This is the VAT rate that is included in your unit price displayed to customers.
This field does not affect your price and is for reporting purposes only.
You should enter the figure as the percentage rate. For example, if your sales tax rate is 20% the value of this property should be 20.
By default, if the 'sales tax rate pct' property is not included in your file it will be set to false for a new product.
If you have a product that is currently in stock then set this to TRUE.
If however, it is a seasonal product that is currently out of stock then set it to FALSE.
If you look at your storefront you will see that your product is still visible in your storefront but is marked “Sorry this is currently out of stock”. Customers will not be able to purchase items when they are sold out.
By default, if the 'in stock' property is not included in your file it will be set to false for a new product.
As this section is all about uploading new products for the first time then we can assume that the product is available.
In which case select TRUE. If this is marked as FALSE, the product will not be visible to customers, or for sale, but will remain in the system.
If at a later date you want to remove it from your storefront this is dealt with on the product manager help file.
By default, if the 'available' property is not included in your file it will be set to false for a new product.
Although this is an optional field, it is particularly helpful for certain types of businesses where items are sold by weight. Mainly local produce sellers such as grocers, butchers, and fishmongers.
If you sell and price an item by weight or volume, then if you complete this field as the customer adds a certain weight to their basket, this will allow us/them to estimate the number of products that they are adding.
By default, if the 'average item weight' property is not included in your file it will not be set for a new product.
This field is useful when a product is sold by weight or volume.
You can set the minimum increment or increase in weight/volume you want to allow when a customer clicks on the + button to add to their order size.
By default, if the 'minimum order increment' property is not included in your file it will not be set for a new product.
This is the minimum amount you are prepared to allow for an order.
By default, if the 'minimum order quantity' property is not included in your file it will not be set for a new product.
This is an optional field which allows you to set the maximum quantity of any product that you are prepared to offer for sale.
By default if the 'maximum order quantity' property is not included in your file it will not be set for a new product.
In addition to the above, you can specify the other product properties listed below if desired. These properties can be set for a product. However, Magaroo does not currently use these. They are instead reserved for use by future Magaroo features that are still in development.
Once you are ready to upload your file.
For each product in your file you will see one of three types of status message:
Please review the status of each of the products and scroll to the bottom of the displayed product list.
If you are happy with you review you can click on the button to upload new products or update existing products.
The most common issues that arise when Magaroo reads your file of products occur when a product property requires a specific value from a defined list.
For example, the product property 'sold' specifies how a product is sold. This property can take one of four possible values from the list below:
If you have specified anything other than the above four values for the 'sold' property Magaroo will not be able to read that property.
Other properties that require a specific value from a defined list are country and currency.