Prepare Your Product Data for Import

Goal

Prepare your product data so that it can be imported into a Product Catalog and, in Fashion-enabled catalogs, enriched by Mapp Fashion.

Prerequisites

• A Product Catalog in Connect. You need to know whether it runs in Standard mode or in Fashion-enabled mode. The catalog list marks Fashion-enabled catalogs with a Fashion indicator.

• Access to an export of your product data, for example from your shop system or product information management system.

Note

If Mapp prepares the import for you, use steps 1 to 5 as a checklist for the product data you send to Mapp.

Procedure

1. Include All Mandatory Attributes

Make sure that your Source Feed contains a value for every mandatory attribute of each variant. Which attributes are mandatory depends on the catalog mode:

• Standard mode: all attributes with the State Mandatory.

• Fashion-enabled mode: all attributes with the State Mandatory, plus all attributes with the State Mandatory for fashion for variants with the Enrichment Type fashion. New variants without an Enrichment Type are treated as fashion.

For the full list, see Predefined Attributes.

2. Set the Enrichment Type for Mixed Catalogs

If your Fashion-enabled catalog contains fashion and non-fashion products, add a column for Enrichment Type. Use fashion for products that Mapp Fashion should enrich and none for all other products. If your catalog contains only fashion products, you can skip this step. For details, see Mixed Catalogs and Enrichment Type.

3. Provide All Available Product Images

In Fashion-enabled catalogs, Mapp Fashion labels each garment based on its images. Features that are not visible in any image cannot be labelled. For each variant, include all product images that are available in your shop, ideally with different views:

• Product only: front, back, and side view

• On a model: front, back, and side view

• Close-ups on a model, for example of the front or back

• Colour swatch

If possible, include at least one front view, either of the product only or on a model. For details, see Recommended Image Coverage.

4. Put All Image URLs in One Column

Place all image URLs of a variant in the same row and in one column of your Source Feed. When you create the import job, map this column to Image URL. Do not use one column per view, because each file column can be mapped to only one attribute. For details, see Providing Several Images in One Import.

5. Check the Value Formats

Some attributes require a specific format. Check in particular:

• Material: a comma-separated list of fibre entries such as 95% cotton, 5% elastane. See Material.

• Localized attributes: language, country, and currency codes that follow the ISO standards. See Data Formats and Validation.

6. Check the File Requirements

Save your Source Feed as a UTF-8 encoded CSV file with a header row and commas as delimiter. The file can be up to 50 MB. For all requirements, see Import File Requirements.

7. Import the File and Check the Result

1. Create an import job and map your columns to the Product Catalog attributes. See Import Export.

2. Wait for the job to finish. If the status is Completed with warnings or Failed, open the error report from the email notification and correct the listed variants. See Error Handling.

3. Export the catalog with the Image URL attribute and check that each variant lists all image URLs from your Source Feed. See Export Behavior.

Result

Your product data is in the Product Catalog. In Fashion-enabled catalogs, variants with the Enrichment Type fashion carry all available product images for labelling.

Troubleshooting

Your Source Feed Has Only One Image per Variant

The import accepts variants with a single image URL, but labelling may be incomplete. Check whether your shop system or product information management system can export additional images, and add them to your Source Feed. If your export cannot include more images, contact your Mapp account contact or open a support request.

Your Source Feed Has One Column per Image View

Combine the image columns into one column before the import. Only one column can be mapped to Image URL. If you need help transforming your data, contact your Mapp account contact or open a support request.

Next Steps

For the complete attribute requirements, see Product Attribute Model. For details on import, mapping, and validation, see How Catalog Data Flows.