Working with Products

Work with Products

This guide covers everything you need to create new products in StoreFeeder and keep them up to date. From single simple products through to variant and kit products, plus bulk tools for making changes at scale.

Product types overview

StoreFeeder supports three main product types. Choose the right one before you begin, as it determines the structure of the product record.

CREATING PRODUCTS

Set up variant attributes

Before creating any variant product, you must configure the attributes (e.g. Size, Colour) and their possible values in the Product Attribute Manager. This is a one-time setup per attribute type.

Navigate to Products > Product Attribute Manager.

1. Click the green New Product Attribute button.
2. Enter the Attribute Name (e.g. "Size") and set a Display Order, then click Save.
3. Your new attribute appears in the Existing Product Attribute list. Click Edit to add its values.
4. Click Add and complete the fields for each value (e.g. Small, Medium, Large):

5. Save the values, then return to the Product Attribute page and click the final Save button to complete setup.

Important: The Product Attribute Short Value must be identical to the Product Attribute Value. Mismatches will cause errors when creating variant products.

Create a simple product

Navigate to Products > Manage Products and click the green New Product button.

Basic details:

1. Enter the Product Name.
2. Set Product Type to Simple Product.
3. Optionally enter a custom SKU, or leave it blank for StoreFeeder to generate one automatically.
4. Click Create.

General Information tab:

Product Suppliers:

Description: Click Description in the left-hand menu. Enter product copy in the visual editor. To write or paste HTML directly, click the HTML tab at the bottom left of the description box.

Images: Click Images in the left-hand menu, then New Image. Supported formats: JPG, GIF, PNG. After uploading, click Make As Default on the image you want to use as the primary product image.

Create a variant product

A variant product has a parent container record and individual child products. One per variation (e.g. Blue / Small). There are three ways to create them.

From scratch (manually)

Use this method when starting from zero with no existing simple products.

1. Go to Products > Manage Products and click New Product.
2. Enter the Product Name and optionally a Product SKU. Set Product Type to Variant Product.
3. Select the first Attribute (e.g. Colour) and its Default Value (e.g. Blue), then click Create.
4. To add further attribute types (e.g. Size), click New Variant Attribute and repeat.
5. Click Add New Variant to create each child product. Fill in its price, inventory, weight, bin location, and attribute values.
6. Complete the Description and Images sections using the left-hand menu. Images can be assigned to specific variant attributes or applied to all variants.

From existing simple products (manually)

If you already have simple products in StoreFeeder that represent individual variations, you can group them under a new variant parent without recreating them.

Note: The simple products you want to use as variations must already exist in the system before you begin. The parent container product cannot itself be an existing simple product.

1. Create a new parent product: go to Products > Manage Products > New Product, set Product Type to Variation, add the first attribute and default value, then click Create. The parent only needs a SKU; pricing and inventory are optional.
2. On the parent's General tab, find the Product Variants section and click Add Existing Product.
3. Enter the SKU of the child product in the pop-up and click + Add Existing Product. Repeat for each variation.

Managing linked variants:

In bulk via import

For large catalogues, convert existing simple products into variant children by importing a spreadsheet. The parent product must exist in StoreFeeder before you import.

File structure:

Example: SHIRT-BLUE-M, SHIRT, Blue, Medium (SKU, ParentSKU, VariationAttribute-Colour, VariationAttribute-Size)

1. Go to Products > Import/Export and select the Update Existing tab.
2. Upload your .csv or .xlsx file.
3. Map the columns to the corresponding StoreFeeder fields and click Import.

Tip: Attribute values not already present in StoreFeeder are created automatically during import. You do not need to pre-create every value in the Product Attribute Manager.

Common import errors:

Create a kit product

A kit combines two or more existing products into a single bundle listing. The component products must already exist in StoreFeeder.

1. Go to Products, locate the product to use as the kit container, hover over it and click Edit.
2. Click Additions and Swaps in the left-hand menu.
3. On the Your Product Bundle page, enter the component product's SKU in the Product Addition field and set the Qty.
4. Configure the two bundle settings:

5. Click Add to include the component. Repeat for additional items, then save.

UPDATING PRODUCTS

Edit an individual product

Go to Products > Manage Products, hover over the product row and click Edit.

General tab: Holds core product data. Inventory, pricing, tax class, weight, warehouse location, manufacturer, barcodes, manufacturer part numbers, pick bin locations, reorder levels, and package dimensions.

Description: Click Description in the left-hand menu. Edit in the visual editor or switch to the HTML tab.

Important: Changes to the product description are not automatically replicated to existing listing descriptions on channels such as Amazon or eBay. You must update the relevant listing separately.

Images: Click Images, then New Image (JPG, GIF, PNG). Click Make As Default to set the primary image.

Weights: All weights are in kilograms (kg). Update via the General tab for a single product, or use Product Import/Export for multiple products at once.

Custom attributes

Custom attributes store product information beyond standard fields (e.g. "Flavour Profile"). They must be created individually on a product before they can be used in bulk.

Create a custom attribute:

1. Edit the product and click Additional Information in the left-hand menu.
2. Scroll to the product attributes section and click + New Custom Attribute.
3. Enter the attribute name and click + Add Custom Attribute.

Note: Custom attributes cannot be created in bulk. Each must be created individually first. Once created, they can be populated across multiple products using Import/Export.

Add or update values individually: Open the product > Additional Information > select the attribute from the dropdown > enter the value > save.

Add or update values in bulk: Use Products > Product Import/Export. Custom attribute tokens appear below Standard Fields tokens in the export options. Export, fill in the values, and re-import using Update Existing.

Special attributes

A product special attribute adds supplementary text that can be displayed on customer invoices.

1. Edit the product and click Additional Information.
2. Locate the special attribute field and enter the text.
3. For parent or variant products, tick the checkbox to also apply the attribute to all associated child products.

To display special attributes on invoices, contact StoreFeeder support with the attribute token and your preferred position on the invoice.

To filter products by special attribute: Products > Manage Products > filter icon (top right) > select Product Special Attribute as the filter field.

Bulk update via import/export

Navigate to Products > Product Import/Export. Supported formats: .xlsx, .xls, .csv.

Export: Go to the Export tab, select the fields you need (Standard Fields, Custom Attributes, Variation Attributes), and download. A blank template option is also available.

Import to create new products (Import – Create/New tab):

1. Upload the file and map columns to StoreFeeder fields (auto-matched if headers are identical).
2. Enable Create New Items for fields like Brands if you want new records created automatically.
3. Click Import and review the results report.

Import to update existing products (Import – Update Existing tab):

1. Upload the file and select a Key Field. Either Item ID or SKU.  To identify records.
2. Map remaining columns, then configure:

3. Click Import and review the completion report for errors.

Bulk inventory update

Inventory levels cannot be changed via the standard Product Import/Export. Use Products > Bulk Inventory Update instead.

Method 1 - File import (.xlsx, .xls, .csv):

1. Click Select File… and upload your spreadsheet.
2. Map the Inventory and SKU columns.
3. Select import type: Absolute (replaces current inventory) or Adjustment (adds to existing inventory).
4. Click Confirm Import. Errors are reported with line number and description.

Method 2 - Update by SKU (up to 50 SKUs at a time):

1. Select the adjustment type (Adjustment or Absolute Adjustment).
2. Search for each product by SKU, EAN, Name, or Manufacturer Name.
3. Enter the new inventory amount and provide an update reason.
4. Click Update.

Move variants to a new parent

To reassign child products from one parent to another, inventory and variation data transfer automatically.

1. Create the new parent product. It must have the same variation attributes as the original. Leave the placeholder child product in place for now.
2. Export the full catalogue. Go to Products > Product Import/Export, select Standard Fields, Custom Attributes, and Variation Attributes, and export.
3. Edit the spreadsheet. For each child product being moved, change the Parent Product SKU column to the new parent's SKU. Remove the placeholder variant row.
4. Re-import using the Update Existing tab. The children will be reassigned to the new parent.

Remove HTML formatting from descriptions

Descriptions copied from web pages often contain HTML that causes validation errors on channels like Amazon, which only supports: <b>, <br>, <p>, <ul><li>.

Recommended method - strip via Notepad:

1. In the description editor (design view), select all text and cut it. Confirm both design and HTML views are now empty.
2. Open Notepad and paste the text. Notepad strips all formatting.
3. Select all in Notepad, copy, and paste back into the product description design view.
4. Switch to the HTML tab and verify only supported tags remain. Add line breaks manually where needed.

Tip: Avoiding unsupported HTML in the master product description from the outset is advisable. New channel listings always copy from the product description, so cleaning it at source saves you from fixing individual listing descriptions later.