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Topic: Selling Topics

How do I import items from an existing inventory file?

It's elementary, my dear user: often times you may keep your inventory in a spreadsheet, and spreadsheets can be saved as CSV (comma separated value) files that can be uploaded to Bonanzle.

There are three rules you need to follow for your inventory file to be successfully uploaded:

  1. The inventory file must have its fields separated by a comma, tab, or tilde (~). When you are on the inventory file importing page, you tell us how your fields are delimited. The default is by comma, since that's the more common format. If your file's fields are separated by tab or tilde, select that on the import page.
  2. You must begin your file with a header row that describes what each field contains (see example at bottom).
  3. You must include the required fields from the table below: title, price, and description.

Here are all possible Bonanzle column names:

Column NameData expectedRequired?Also known asExample data
titleThe title of your item (up to 60 characters)YesnameDoggie
descriptionDescription of your itemYesdescSmall, slightly used mutt.
pricePrice of your item, as an integer (we'll make it into an integer if it's given as a decimal)Yescost10.0
imagesYou can have as many images columns as necessary. Each should give a full URL (e.g., http://www.bonanzle.com/images/myimage.jpg) to an image for this item.Noimage1, image2, image, image_linkhttp://www.williambharding.com/images/rand11.jpg
idA unique number or string to identify your item, so if you upload your file multiple times, items with identical ids will update (rather than re-add)NoITEM001
categoryThe numeric category for your item, from first and second level eBay category IDs, listed here.Nocategory 11281
shipping_priceThe flat rate price to ship your item within the continental U.S.Noshipping, shipping_price, shipping & handling3.50
quantityThe number of this item that you possess.No12
conditionWhether item is new or used. If condition is the word "new", the item is considered new. If it's anything else, it's considered used.Nonew
upcUPC code for the item (improves rank in Google Product search).No012345029950
isbnISBN number for the item (improves rank in Google Product search).No0-87654-321-2
mpnManufacturer part number for the item (improves rank in Google Product search).NoDOGGIE12

Example file

Here's an example comma separated file (Excel should create something like this for you):

id,title,description,price,images,shipping_price
1,RCA Television,"A television made by the ""RCA company""",65.5,http://www.bonanzle.com/path/to/image.jpg,$5.00
2,Puppy dog,"How much is that doggie in the window?  It's $50, sir.",50,http://www.bonanzle.com/path/to/image.jpg,$4.50
3,Donut,"Yum, donut.",$1 ,http://www.bonanzle.com/path/to/image.jpg,

Other Users Say

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BooksBelow (20) wrote on January 23

When you are having problems with the file importer, send small test files with just 3 or 4 items until you have it the way you want. You will get a much quicker response (they usually process right away) and you can try different things quickly.


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bharding (105) wrote on January 28

Update: The CSV importer will now add up to 10,000 items, which is the maximum number of items for a booth.


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gemrockshop (15) wrote on February 02

HTML import: Double-quotes (") hose up the tab-delimited import. Change them to two single quotes (‘’), and make sure you use ’ and not " in html tags. Import will also balk if tables are sloppy (extra or unclosed elements) – that’s the first thing to check.


Avatar
Watkins_Rep (0) wrote on July 15

Q. A lot of the other sites have a downloadable CVS file with all the headers in place already and some sample products. It would be a lot easier if you guys had that too.
A. Email us at support@bonanzle.com to get your official copy


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grampapa2 (65) wrote on August 30

Q. What are our options when using the bulk lister for image hosting?
A. We don’t have an FTP site — the way we have been handling our CSV image imports is by grabbing them from a publicly accessible location (e.g., other sites the items may be posted on, such as your own web site?). With this information, our CSV importer can take to the web and fetch your images for you. You would then include those web addresses to those four pictures in your CSV file as the image locations.


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avlispub (605) wrote on September 03

Q. Where do I go to upload the file?
A. You will find the CSV import link on your “Sell” page.