This article walks you through the whole process in four steps: you choose products, you check them in your import list, you import them, and they appear in your webshop. Each step links to a detailed article if you want to go deeper.
The process is the same for every platform. Where a page is in a different place in the Shopify app than in the portal for WooCommerce, Prestashop and CCVShop, we mention both.
You do not have to activate a supplier first
You can start searching and importing straight away. As soon as you import a product, we activate that supplier for you automatically. This works for one-click suppliers as well as integrated suppliers, so you do not have to arrange anything up front.
There are two situations where you do activate the supplier yourself first:
Suppliers that require approval. With these suppliers you request access first and you can import once the supplier has approved you. See Suppliers that require approval.
Adding products per category. The categories page only appears once a supplier is active, so for that route you activate the supplier first. You can read how this works in step 1.
We do recommend filling in your company details and VAT number before you get started. It is not required in order to import, but it makes sure the VAT on your invoices and your payments to suppliers is correct from the start. See Company details and VAT number.
Step 1: Add products to your import list
There are two ways to do this, and you can combine them.
Per product, via the search page. In the Shopify app you find this page under Products in the navigation. In the portal you click Search products on your dashboard.
Filter on supplier, keyword, category, brand, SKU, EAN, stock or price range, and click Search.
Click Add to import list on every product you want to sell. Variants are linked, so the other sizes or colours of that product come along automatically.
Want to add more at once? Filter on one supplier and use Add page to import list to add every product on the current page. It can take up to five minutes before they show up. More about searching and filtering: Find products to sell.
Per category, via the categories page. Would you rather add a supplier's whole category in one go? Go to Suppliers and click View categories on the card of the supplier you activated. You then see the supplier's category tree with the number of products per category.
Click the actions button at the end of a category row and choose Add category to import list. The category and all of its subcategories are added.
Want several at once? Tick the categories you want and click Add selected categories to import list.
It can take a few minutes before all products are in your import list. Good to know: the categories you select here also determine which products come along if you later switch on automatic importing in the supplier settings.
The categories page exists in the Shopify app as well as in the portal. See Import whole categories automatically (Shopify app) or, for WooCommerce, Prestashop and CCVShop, Map supplier categories to your own (portal).
Step 2: Check your products in the import list
Everything you added ends up in your import list. This is a staging area: nothing here is visible in your shop until you import it. Open it via Import List in the Shopify app navigation, or via the Import list page in the portal.
Per product you see your purchase price (Cost), the supplier's recommended retail price (SRP), your own selling Price, your Profit and the supplier's stock. You can change the price per product directly in the list, and a Loss badge appears if you would be selling below your purchase price.
This is the moment to check your margins, because titles, images and descriptions come from the supplier and cannot be edited here. Do you want to set your margin for all products at once instead of per product? That is done in the supplier settings. See Supplier settings explained.
More about the import list: How the import list works.
Step 3: Import them into your webshop
Open your Import List.
Click Import all to import everything, or tick the products you want and click Import selected.
Confirm in the dialog.
The products get the status Pending import and are then created in your webshop in the background. You do not have to keep the page open and you can carry on with something else.
More about importing, timing and the product limit: Upload products to your store.
Step 4: What happens after the import
Your products are created with all their variants and the supplier's stock level.
They get the status you chose under New product status in the supplier settings, so either Active or Draft. Set to Draft, they are in your shop but not yet for sale, which gives you time to sort out your collections and pages first.
From that moment on we keep the stock and the purchase price in sync with the supplier automatically, so you do not have to maintain that yourself.
Want to know what each status means? See Product statuses explained.
If something does not go as expected
Your import list stays empty after adding products. See Products not showing in your import list.
Product limit reached: your subscription has a maximum number of products. Remove products or upgrade your plan. See Remove products.
A product gets the status Not imported. The reason is shown next to the product in your import list. See Product statuses explained.