Formatting First Columns on your Spreadsheet
It is important to understand how Ablestar Bulk Product Editor handles formatting on spreadsheets and the first column identifier.
1. General Format
The spreadsheet should have a header row and at least two columns, but you can include as many as you need.
The first column is always the identifier field, and will be used to locate products or variants to edit, with the remaining action columns dictating which data to modify.
Learn more about CSV or Excel file formats in this related article
2. Identifier Column
There are two types of data types to consider when prepping your spreadsheet. The type of data you are editing will dictate which first column "identifier" should be present:
- Variant-Level fields: When editing Variant-level fields like 'price' or 'barcode', you only have two options as the identifer:
- SKU
- Variant ID
- Product-Level fields: When editing Product-level fields like 'tags' or 'descriptions' or 'type', you can use any of these identifiers:
- Barcode
- Product Handle
- Product ID
- Product Title
- SKU
- Variant ID
Caution: If you use a Product-level identifier to edit Variant-level data, all the variants will end up with the same data.
For example, if you wanted to edit the price and inventory levels based on SKUs, you would use a Variant-level match field because 'Inventory' is a Variant-level data type. Your spreadsheet might look similar to this, with SKU being the Variant-level identifier:
| SKU | Price | Inventory Level |
| 30235 | 70.95 | 999 |
| 30236 | 25.29 | 10 |
When the app starts mapping your spreadsheet, it will go through each line, search for the identifier column first to determine if the action columns will update product or variants.
Learn more about CSV or Excel file formats in this related article
✅ Tips and Troubleshooting
- If you upload a CSV file and receive an error, try saving it as an Excel spreadsheet and upload it again.
- See more Variant-Level data examples
- See more Product-Level data examples
(03.24)