Methods for adding products to ShipStation via the app or importing in bulk with a CSV file. Recommendations for how to identify products within ShipStation.
ShipStation automatically creates product records when orders import from your selling channels and contain a product that does not yet have a record in ShipStation.
All automatically created products will include the name and SKU as sent from the selling channel. By default, ShipStation uses the product SKU as the unique identifier for each product record, unless you change this in your store settings.
There are two other ways to add products to ShipStation:
Before importing your products, determine if you need them to be uniquely identified by SKU or by Name (we recommend by SKU, which is the ShipStation default setting).
If you wish to identify products by Name instead, do the following:
Go to
Settings > Selling Channels > Store Setup.Click Edit for the store whose products you are working with.
Go to the Products tab.
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Select Product / Listing Name under Products for this store are uniquely identified by this.
Click Save Changes.
This setting affects how ShipStation recognizes new products and applies product defaults to orders. When changing this option, the change will affect products importing in the future, and will not retroactively affect already imported products.
To manually add individual product records to ShipStation:
Click New Product.
Enter the product’s SKU (the SKU cannot be edited after saving).
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Enter the product’s Name.
Check the option Override the imported name if you want this name to appear in your ShipStation Order Details instead of the name sent from the Selling Channel.
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Fill in any of the Product details you need.
Review the Product Details in the Products Overview article for more information on each option.
Click Save New Product.
To create product records in bulk, you must use ShipStation’s pre-formatted CSV template.
To download ShipStation's CSV template:
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Go to the Products tab and click Import.
Click Download a sample CSV file to download the template.
Open the CSV file in Excel (or equivalent spreadsheet program) or import it into Google Sheets to edit.
Delete the sample data in row 2.
You can now enter your product information into the corresponding columns.
SKU and Name are required fields, but all other fields are optional. When you are done, save your modified CSV with a new name.
Do Not Change the Product CSV Header Row
Do not make any changes to the text or change the order of the columns in the header row (row 1) of the pre-formatted CSV template. Doing so will cause the product import to fail.
To import your product CSV:
Click Import on the Products tab again.
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Click Select File and choose your product CSV
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Set your import options:
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Identify your products:
by SKU (recommended) - or -
by Name
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Update product information for products that already exist
- or -
Ignore products that already exist.
(If this is your first product import, leave it at the default setting.)
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Click Start Import.
You will receive a message that your import has been sent. Close that window and you can continue to work in ShipStation while the import completes in the background. An alert will appear when the import has successfully completed.
If your import fails, you will receive an import failure message that indicates the potential reason. See the Product Imports Troubleshooting article for steps to troubleshoot any errors you may encounter.
Products for Jet.com
Trying to import inventory from Jet.com? Product lists from Jet require a different CSV file. See Importing Jet Product Listings in Bulk for the CSV template and instructions.
Notes about Product Records
ShipStation creates product records with only the Name and SKU sent by the selling channel.
All new products are Standalone products by default. If you wish to create relationships between products for reporting purposes, review the Product Types article.
ShipStation will only receive product information from the selling channel. ShipStaton does not send product information back to the selling channel (with the exception of Jet.com).
In the product CSV, if the Active column is left blank ShipStation will ignore it and leave the product in its current state.
If your import fails, you will receive an import failure message that indicates the potential reason. Review the CSV Import Troubleshooting article for more details.