OmegaNet uses two systems for retail (B2C) websites: WordPress/WooCommerce or Zen Cart. In both cases, you can manage categories and products directly in the admin without using a spreadsheet, however the spreadsheet is the fastest way to update your products, especially if you have hundreds or thousands of products. Managing through the spreadsheet also allows you to see all your products in one place, so this tutorial focuses on managing products through spreadsheets. All new retail sites are being built on WooCommerce.

WordPress/WooCommerce

OmegaNet has created a series of introductory video tutorials about WordPress and WooCommerce, which you can view here.

OmegaNet has also created a plugin for WooCommerce called “EZB2C.” It syncs categories, category images, product data and product images from a CAMEO EZ wholesale (B2B) site to a WooCommerce retail site so if you have both a wholesale and a retail site, you can manage both from the wholesale site.

WooCommerce spreadsheets are in the .csv format and can be edited in Excel. Log into the woocommerce Word Press dashboard and click on WooCommerce in the sidebar on the left side of the screen and click on CSV Import Suite. There are two tabs at the top of the screen Import Products and Export Products. To see all of the products on your Word Press retail website click on Export Products and then on the Export Products button. If your Word Press retail websites has variations/options for products you will need to export a separate spreadsheet (see Export Variations button). The exported excel spreadsheet is in the .csv format and will need to be imported in this format. Woo Commerce Spreadsheet:

Click Here to see an explanation of the column headers on a Woo Commerce (WP) spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet for the CAMEO EZ© Retail System is a tab-delimited file (extension: “.txt”) that can be edited in Excel but must be saved as tab-delimited for importing to the web site. Below are instructions for filling out each column of the spreadsheet.

TIP: This type of file requires that you “escape” any single quotes ( ‘ ) that you include in your spreadsheet by putting a backslash in front of them. This is so the system will recognize the single quote mark as text to be displayed instead of part of a programming statement. Example: “3′ X 5′ American Flag” would be read as “Three-foot by Five-foot American Flag”. In your spreadsheet it needs to look like: “3\’ X 5\’ American Flag” (The backslashes will not be visible on the web site).

ZenCart Retail Spreadsheets

are in the tab-delimited file format with the extension: “.txt”. In the ZenCart admin dashboard select Tools from the navigation bar and then click on Easy Populate. To export a .txt document with all of the products on your retail website click Download Complete tab-delimited .txt file to edit (Attributes Not Included). The file will be downloaded as a .txt in a text editor program such as Notepad. In the text editor software program Click Edit and then Select all. Copy the contents of the spreadsheet and paste into New excel document to see all of the information in the .xlsx format. In the ZenCart admin dashboard to upload a new spreadsheet click on the Tools button in the navigation bar and click on Easy Populate. Choose File button below Upload EP File and choose the ZenCart spreadsheet from your files. Then click on the Insert into db button. The file must be in the .txt format to upload so be sure to save the spreadsheet and select the Save as type format Text (Tab delimited) (.txt) in excel . Here are the columns on the ZenCart spreadsheet and the contents for each:
1. Column A: “v_products_model” This is your SKU number by which you designate your product. This column is mandatory.
2. Column B: “v_products_image” This is the name of the image associated with this product. This column is mandatory, but the image name can be anything you want, although it is good practice to name your images by the SKU.
3. Column C: “v_products_name_1” This is the name or short description of your product. It will appear on the thumbnail page on your website. This column is mandatory.
4. Column D: “v_products_description_1” This is the long description of your product. It will appear on the product details page with the large picture of the product. This column is NOT mandatory.
5. Column E: “v_products_url_1” If you wish you may enter a web location where more information about the product can be found. This column is NOT mandatory.
6. Column F: “v_products_price” This is the base retail price to charge for your product. Enter the price as a decimal number but without a dollar sign. This column is mandatory.
7. Column G: “v_products_weight” This is the weight of the product expressed in pounds or fractions of pounds. Examples: “1.5” would mean one-and-a-half pounds; “.25” would mean one-quarter pound. This column is NOT mandatory if you are charging shipping by the table rate method, but IS required to calculate shipping if you are using UPS, FedEx or the postal service.
8. Column H: “v_date_avail” Put a date here if the product won’t be available until that date. The item won’t be available on the web site until then. If the item is available immediately, put nothing here.
9. Column I: “v_date_added” This date will be generated automatically when you import the spreadsheet, so you don’t have to fill it in.
10. Column J: “v_products_quantity” This field represents a simple inventory system. The number entered here increments down each time an order is placed. When the number reaches “0” the product will no longer be available on the website. If you do not choose to use this feature, you will need to put a high enough number so that you do not “run out”. We suggest 100000. This column is mandatory.
11. Column K: “v_manufacturers_name” If you are selling products from multiple manufacturers, you may want to enter the Manufacturers’ names in this column so that customers can search by manufacturers if they wish to, regardless of what Category the items from that manufacturer are in. This column is NOT mandatory.
12. Column L: “v_categories_name_1” Every product must be in a Category. This column is mandatory.
13. Column M: “v_categories_name_2” There are several levels of subcategories in columns M through R. You can use as many as you need, but keep in mind that each Category level requires the customer to click down a level before they can see and buy products. In the Category/Catalog editor in the Admin you will be able to upload a Category Image. This column is NOT mandatory.
14. Column N: “v_categories_name_3” See Column M above.
15. Column O: “v_categories_name_4” See Column M above.
16. Column P: “v_categories_name_5” See Column M above.
17. Column Q: “v_categories_name_6” See Column M above.
18. Column R: “v_categories_name_7” See Column M above.
19. Column S: “v_tax_class_title” In most cases, enter “Taxable Item” here. The only exception would be a service that would not qualify for sales tax, such as gift wrapping or project plans, etc. This column is mandatory.
20. Column T: “v_status” In most cases, enter “Active” here. The only exception would be when you wish to discontinue an item, change “Active” to “Inactive”. This column is mandatory.
21. Column U: “EOREOR” This column merely tells the system it is the “End Of Record” or the last field for this record. Always enter “EOREOR” in Column U for every row of your spreadsheet. This column is mandatory.