How to Get 10,000 Products on Your eCommerce Site

By Lori McDonald

Learn about our special offer to get up and running fast and leverage BigCommerce to grow your business.  Move to BigCommerce in less than 30 days and save $5,000. 

Original Post:

One common dilemma that we have seen companies struggle with is how to get a large number of products setup on their eCommerce site. For companies who are just starting an online store, this endeavor can set back the entire project by months. In the interest of helping businesses get their eCommerce site launched and having online sales coming in sooner, I offer these suggestions for getting products listed quickly on your eCommerce site.

  1. Consider listing a smaller set of products when you originally launch your website and adding more products over time. What are your top selling products? What are your products with the best profit margin? Consider putting these products on your website first.
  2. Develop a template that defines the information you want to collect for each product. Most eCommerce software packages have bulk import tools available to assist in getting data setup. Many time this involves entering your data in a predetermined format (for example, an Excel file with specific columns) and then the file can be uploaded into the website – quickly adding hundreds or thousands of your products at once.
  3. Make use of software tools to import as much data into the system as possible and speed up the process. Are your products already in a software program or database? Many times product data can be exported into a format that can then be imported into your website. Even if this data needs to be changed or modified before it is imported on your new website there are many tools available help with that. For example, SQL Server Integration Services is a great tool for data extraction, transformation, and loading.
  4. Plan resources (internally or externally) to work on entering products into a format that can be imported into the website database. Carefully consider what it will take to prepare your products for your eCommerce site. It isn’t enough to throw the product codes and prices on a page, you need to provide enough information for buyers to get their questions answered about your products, and ideally, present it in a manner that compels them to make a purchase from you versus your competition. Plan to use resources (internal and/or external) to prepare and enter your products on your website.

I am also interested in other solutions or ideas, so please share how your company dealt with getting many products listed on your eCommerce site via the comments on our blog.

About Lori McDonald

Lori graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer-Electrical Engineering and leads Brilliance Business Solutions with over 20 years of computer engineering and software development experience.  She is an Episerver EMVP, a Microsoft Certified Professional and a regular contributor on Practical eCommerce. Her status as a recognized industry expert has resulted in regular speaking engagements at business conferences.

Follow Lori McDonald on Linkdin

Related Content

  • Exploration Tech

    Who Should Read This? Manufacturers and distributors looking for ideas how to grow their business leveraging digital commerce
    Need to Know: There are quick wins you can put in place without large investments

  • RFPs are Flawed

    Who Should Read This? Organizations using request for proposal (RFPs) documents
    Need to Know: Background questions are important. Doing your due diligence is important. Asking overly complicated questions to make yourself look smart, are not important. Ask yourself, what do we really need to know about this company in order to qualify them as a vendor. And if 100 questions are necessary, can you at least give that company the opportunity to present in person (or at minimum, web meeting)? Sure, that adds additional commitments to the decision makers but this project required a detailed RFP process; that same level of detail should be applied when reviewing the responses.

  • Insite Software and Episerver: How Episerver’s Acquisition of Insite Provides a Stronger Foundation for B2B Commerce Growth

    Who Should Read This? Episerver and Insite current and prospective customers.
    Need to Know: While it is less than 2 months into the combination, the product and engineering teams are aligned and excited about the near-term and future product roadmap, with clear synergies around best-in-class digital experience, personalization, commerce and analytics. Great news for Episerver and Insite current and prospective customers!

  • Year-end Showdown: Epi vs. Magento vs. Sitecore

    Who Should Read This? Decision-makers of B2B sellers looking for the best digital commerce platform.
    Need to Know: We have created a convenient free downloadable chart summarizing my last two articles Sitecore vs Episerver: Why Episerver is the Better Choice for Your B2B Business and Magento vs Episerver for B2B Digital Commerce: Revisited.

  • Magento vs Episerver for B2B Digital Commerce: Revisited

    Who Should Read This? B2B sellers considering Magento as their digital commerce platform.
    Need to Know: For you to grow against much larger online competitors, you need to select a software platform that enables you to demonstrate that you understand your customer, their pain points, and your products and services.

  • Sitecore vs Episerver: Why Episerver is the Better Choice for Your B2B Business

    Who Should Read This? Anyone currently using Sitecore or considering Sitecore for their B2B business.
    Need to Know: We reviewed Sitecore and Episerver several years back and made the choice to partner with Episerver because we believed Episerver’s ability to support efficient upgrades along with a strong commerce and content framework and innovative personalization tools was the best fit for our customers.