Sandshot Product Import - A Key Tool for Complex Batch Imports
Batch Imports Made Easy
Although StoreFront 6 provides a built-in product import utility as part of its Merchant Tools administration, the utility is limited in that in does not import all product-related fields, including product categories, manufacturers, vendors, related products and product attributes.

Essential StoreFront 6 Add-ons Sandshot Product Import - A Key Tool for Complex Batch Imports “I created Product Import after  working the night shift in Russia as part of my work on nuclear non-proliferation.” - Rick Dennery, Sandshot Software Batch Imports Made Easy Although StoreFront 6 provides a built-in product import utility as part of its Merchant Tools administration, the utility is limited in that in does not import all product-related fields, including product categories, manufacturers, vendors, related products and product attributes.   “I created Product Import after working the night shift in Russia as part of my work on nuclear non-proliferation.” - Rick Dennery, Sandshot Software   Merchants who use the StoreFront utility are faced with updating this additional product information manually through Merchant Tools - fine if you have a small number of products, but labor intensive and not a productive use of time if you need to regularly update large numbers of products. The Sandshot Product Import Add-on fills the gap left by the built-in StoreFront utility by providing you with a comprehensive and flexible means of importing all product-related data in one easy step. For most users, the import process is quite seamless - select a source file with your product data, select the fields you wish to import, and get a cup of coffee while the software runs unattended. Not For Everyone We designed the Product Import Tool so developers could rapidly set up a new store     If you have a limited number of products in your store, or your product inventory changes very slowly or not at all, then you may not need an import tool. On the other hand, if you are routinely adding new products to your site because of rapid inventory changes or quick turnover - you have two choices - add products by hand through the StoreFront Merchant Tools, or automate your process through a flexible batch import tool such as Sandshot Product Import. Ultimate Flexibility The Sandshot Product Import Tool is highly configurable and supports most database and file types that you might receive from your suppliers or vendors - including spreadsheets, databases and text files. Alternatively, Sandshot provides templates in spreadsheet format that provide an easy way for you to tweak your product data before importing it directly into your StoreFront database. Importing product attribute data, such as size and color, can be complex - Sandshot supports this with additional spreadsheet templates that can be customized to your specific product line. Surprising Easy “We designed the Product Import Tool so developers could rapidly set up a new store,” explains Rick Dennery of Sandshot Software. “However, we found that merchants loved the tool to manage routine inventory updates.” Other Benefits The ability to update prices for an entire group of products in one step is a major advantage for merchants supporting multiple suppliers with periodic price changes. Additionally, the Sandshot Import tool provides the flexibility to: Automatically create manufacturers, vendors, categories and subcategories during import Create categories, subcategories, manufacturers and vendors without importing products Import pricing and inventory changes for pre-existing products Import an unlimited multi-tiered pricing schedule unique to each product Import inventory levels, inventory low notification levels and gift wrap Create non-standard product image link paths Import related products for new and existing products Create attribute import templates customized to your store Create user-configurable profiles for each import - this allows you to save pre-selected import fields, and allows regular imports at the touch of a button. “Above all this Product Import tool can be a major productivity tool: “We have seen that some merchants would rather spend tens or hundreds of hours manually entering products rather than spend the $100 or so on the import tool; it comes down what’s your time worth and do you have better things to do with it” - Rick Dennery of Sandshot Software. Rick gets it - if you are interested in managing rapid inventory turnover or frequent price changes for large numbers of products, the Sandshot Product Import Tool is for you. At $100, Sandshot Product Import is one of your best bet productivity tools, and one of our top picks as a must-have StoreFront 6 Add-on. For more information on Sandshot Product Import Tool for StoreFront 6 and StoreFront 5 - as well as demos of these and other productivity tools by Sandshot - Visit Sandshot.com How helpful did you find this review?   Very helpful   Somewhat helpful   Not helpful   Ned vanSise DigitalBeach.org Web Services and Marketing StoreFront 6.0 Development and Integration Specialists Digital Beach offers comprehensive web services including design, development, ecommerce, integration, reporting and marketing. Digital Beach supports a range of ecommerce solutions, including acting as a StoreFront development partner.