Adding Products to a new Warehouse in Bulk

This guide explains how to associate a batch of existing products with a new warehouse in one go, using StoreFeeder's product import tool, instead of adding each product to the warehouse one at a time.

Before you start

You'll need the following in place before you begin:

Requirement	Notes
Multi-Warehouse	This is an account feature and isn't a setting you can switch on yourself. If you can't see more than one warehouse anywhere in StoreFeeder, contact StoreFeeder support to have it enabled first.
The new warehouse	Create it first under Settings > Warehouse Management > Your Warehouses using New Warehouse – see Adding A New Warehouse. You're associating products with a warehouse that already exists; this import doesn't create warehouses.
Warehouse permission on your user	Under Settings > Company > Users, open your user and check the Warehouse Permissions tab – see Setting User Permissions. You can only associate products with warehouses you have access to; the import rejects any warehouse name your user can't see.

Step 1: Export a template of the products

Go to Products > Product Import/Export and stay on the Export tab. Choose the products you want (by filter, category, or all products), and make sure both SKU and Warehouses are ticked in the field list. Click Export to download a spreadsheet of your existing products with their current warehouse associations.

Note: The Warehouses field only appears in the field list once Multi-Warehouse is enabled on your account. On a single-warehouse account you'll see a singular Warehouse field instead, which this bulk-association process doesn't apply to.

Step 2: Add the new warehouse to each product's row

In the exported spreadsheet, the Warehouses column lists each product's current warehouses separated by a pipe character, for example Main Warehouse|Returns Warehouse. To associate a product with the new warehouse, add its exact name to that cell:

To add the new warehouse without disturbing what's already there, you only need to add its name to the cell – you don't have to retype the existing ones (see the Append setting in Step 3).
The name must match the warehouse name in StoreFeeder exactly, including spelling and capitalisation.
If you're separating multiple warehouse names in one cell, use the pipe character (|) between them, with no extra spaces.

Warning: Don't remove a warehouse name from this column unless you mean to un-associate that product from that warehouse. If there is stock it will not be able to un-associate though as a product can't be removed from a warehouse that still has inventory, allocated stock, or quarantined stock against it – that row will fail on import.

Step 3: Import the completed file

Go to the Import (Update Existing) tab and upload your completed spreadsheet. Map your SKU column to the SKU field as the Key Field, and your Warehouses column to the Warehouses field.

Next to the Warehouses mapping, set the Append New Records toggle:

Yes (the default) – adds the new warehouse to each product's existing set of warehouses. This is what you want for associating products with a new warehouse without affecting their current warehouses.
No – replaces each product's entire set of warehouses with exactly what's listed in the cell. Any warehouse left out is removed from the product, which fails if that warehouse still holds stock for it.

Run the import. StoreFeeder associates each product with the new warehouse, with priority order set based on the order the warehouse names appear in each cell.

Note: Imports are processed in batches. If you're associating a very large number of products at once and the import is rejected or times out, split the file into smaller batches and re-import.

Step 4: Associating the Products to a Location in the new Warehouse

Once your products are linked to the new warehouse you will need to associate them to stock locations in that warehouse to be able to add the stock.

You can find our knowledgebase on how to do this here: How to Bulk Assign Products to a Stock Location

Troubleshooting

"Warehouse [name] does not exist."
The name in the spreadsheet doesn't match a warehouse on your account exactly, or your user doesn't have permission for that warehouse. Check the spelling and capitalisation against Settings > Warehouse Management > Your Warehouses, and check your Warehouse Permissions under your user in Settings > Company > Users.

"Warehouse '[name]' cannot be removed from product as it has stock associated with it."
This appears when Append New Records is set to No and a warehouse was left out of the cell for a product that still holds inventory, allocated stock, or quarantined stock in that warehouse. Either add the warehouse name back into the cell, or set Append New Records to Yes so existing warehouses aren't touched.

"You cannot remove every warehouse from a product."
Every product must stay associated with at least one warehouse. Check the row hasn't left the Warehouses cell empty when Append New Records is set to No.

The new warehouse doesn't show stock for the product after importing
The association is separate from stock. Associating a product with a warehouse gives it a zero-stock row there; you'll still need to bring stock in via a stock take, transfer, or adjustment.

Still stuck? Contact StoreFeeder support with your account name, the warehouse name you're trying to associate products with, and a sample row from your import file that failed, along with the error message shown on screen.