An ecommerce product spreadsheet in Kenya should let your website team identify exactly what you sell, which choices belong together and what information has been approved. A folder of supplier photographs and a price list can start the conversation, but it rarely explains the whole catalogue. Missing relationships between products, sizes, colours and images become visible when someone tries to build the store.
This guide helps a business prepare its catalogue before import. It covers the working spreadsheet, not a universal upload template. Your chosen platform determines the final file format. Discuss that distinction with your ecommerce website developer before staff spend time filling columns that the store cannot use.
Separate your working catalogue from the import file
Keep one business-approved master catalogue. From it, the developer can prepare an import file matched to the platform. The master may include internal approval notes, supplier references and questions that should never appear on the public website. An import file contains only the fields and structure required for the agreed operation.
Shopify's product CSV documentation explains that its imports use specified column headings and that some variant fields depend on other columns. It also distinguishes creating products from updating them. That is a useful reminder to use the current platform template and review dependencies before changing an existing catalogue. A spreadsheet that looks tidy is not automatically a safe import.
Name the master file clearly and identify its owner. Avoid having sales, purchasing and the developer each maintain a different final version. When someone corrects a product detail, the change should reach the agreed master rather than remain in a messaging thread that the person preparing the import never sees.
Define what counts as a product and a variant
Start with the choice a customer makes. A particular shirt design might be one product with several size and colour combinations. Another shirt with a different fabric or purpose may deserve a separate product. Agree these relationships before deciding how many spreadsheet rows you need.
Use a stable internal identifier for every sellable item or variant. Your business may already have SKUs in its stock records. Ask whether those identifiers should carry into the new store and check for accidental duplicates. Do not replace them casually just because a new naming pattern looks neater to the design team.
An illustrative catalogue might use a parent reference of POLO-CLASSIC and separate variant references for its maroon medium and maroon large versions. These codes illustrate the relationship only; they are not a template every business should adopt. The useful question is whether the warehouse, website and staff can all distinguish the same item without interpreting its photograph.
Agree the fields before collecting hundreds of rows
Prepare a short sample with the developer first. Choose products that represent different situations: a simple item, an item with options, a product with several photographs and an item whose availability needs explanation. Review that sample together before collecting the full range.
A practical working catalogue can include:
Product reference and variant reference, where applicable.
Public product name and category.
Option names and values, such as colour and size.
Approved description and factual specifications.
Selling price, currency and the person who approved it.
Stock or availability information and the date checked.
Image references and their display order.
Publication status, unresolved questions and approval owner.
These are planning fields, not promised import headers. Keep internal costs, purchasing terms and private supplier notes out of the public description. If an export contains both internal and public information, ask the developer to demonstrate how only the approved fields reach the storefront.
Write descriptions that identify the actual item
Give the writer enough information to distinguish products that look similar. Material, dimensions, capacity, compatibility and included accessories may matter more than another adjective. If a measurement or compatibility claim is uncertain, flag it for confirmation instead of copying a convenient statement from another listing.
Keep each specification in a consistent form. If one row describes capacity in millilitres and another uses litres, agree how staff will compare them. Consistency makes review easier, but conversion should not become guesswork. Ask the product owner to resolve conflicting measurements against the item or an appropriate supplier record.
Check what a buyer will receive. A photograph may show several objects while the listing sells only one. State the sale unit and any exclusions in the approved content. This is especially useful for bundles, accessories and products presented with decorative props. The catalogue should answer the question before the customer has to ask it on WhatsApp.
Give images a clear relationship to each product
Use image references that your team can follow. A filename such as IMG_4271 does not explain whether the photo belongs to a product, a variant or an earlier supplier sample. Connect each approved photograph to its product reference and specify the preferred first image.
For a product with colour options, identify which photographs show which option. Ask the developer how the chosen platform associates variant images. Do not assume that naming a file maroon automatically links it to every maroon variant, or that the first image in a shared folder will become the main product image.
Keep a separate check for image approval. An attractive image can still show the wrong capacity, an outdated package or a colour that is no longer sold. Our website image content brief covers the broader process for assigning image purpose, captions and approval. Use it alongside the catalogue rather than scattering image decisions across unrelated documents.
Treat price and availability as controlled information
Assign someone to approve selling prices before import. Record whether an amount is the current approved price, a proposed change or a value awaiting confirmation. Do not allow an empty cell, a zero or a copied placeholder to become a public offer because nobody agreed how missing data would be handled.
Make the handling of unavailable products explicit too. A product might be held in draft, shown as unavailable or offered through an enquiry route, depending on the store design and your business process. Ask what visitors will see and ensure staff understand the difference between an unpublished product and an item that is temporarily unavailable.
Discuss inventory responsibility separately from the initial upload. Who changes stock when an offline sale happens? Which system is the reference if a spreadsheet and the warehouse disagree? An import can populate a store, but it does not settle the ongoing process for keeping products accurate after launch.
Check the exported file, not just the spreadsheet view
Ask the person preparing the import to review the actual exported file. Spreadsheet software can display values differently from how they are stored or exported. Product references with leading zeros, long identifiers and punctuation deserve deliberate checking rather than a quick visual scan of the sheet.
Agree a few checks that staff can perform without editing platform internals. Compare the number of approved products and variants with the prepared file. Search for duplicate identifiers, missing names, unresolved approval notes and references to images that cannot be found. Record the checks and the version reviewed.
Do not repair a platform import error by deleting unfamiliar columns at random. Ask what the error means and whether the proposed correction changes product relationships or existing information. Keep the previous export so the team can compare versions and explain what changed between the failed attempt and the corrected one.
Approve a small import before the full catalogue
Use a staging store or another agreed safe review process. Ask to see the sample products as customers will see them: category, product page, option selector, image gallery and availability message. A successful import notification is only one part of acceptance.
Compare the result with the approved master. Can you distinguish the variants? Does the selected option show the correct picture and approved price? Are descriptions attached to the intended products? Does the site present the correct sale unit? Have draft items remained out of the public catalogue?
For an existing store, agree backup and recovery arrangements before changing live data. The person responsible should explain the import's scope and how an incorrect update would be investigated. You do not need to create live orders to inspect catalogue accuracy. Keep checkout testing in the separately approved testing process.
Frequently asked questions
Can I send my supplier's spreadsheet directly?
Send it as source material, but review its contents first. Confirm which products you actually sell, which information you can rely on and which fields are internal. Your approved catalogue should describe your offer rather than silently reproduce a supplier's entire range.
Is one row per product always correct?
No. The final format depends on the platform and how variants and images are represented. Agree the product relationships in the working catalogue, then let the developer demonstrate how those relationships map into the required import structure.
Should every product be published immediately?
Publish the items that have complete, approved information under the agreed launch plan. Keep unresolved products clearly marked for follow-up. A smaller accurate catalogue is easier to manage than a larger catalogue containing guesses about price, availability or specifications.
What should I send Mocky before requesting catalogue setup?
Share a representative sample, the approximate range, existing stock identifiers, image availability and the platform if already selected. Use the ecommerce development enquiry to explain whether this is a new store or an update. Include the catalogue preparation and review process in the proposed scope.
