Importing supplier catalogues: CSV, XML and automation

If you work with suppliers who send you their catalogue, the last thing you want is to copy it by hand. PrestaShop offers an importer, and there are many ways to automate it.

The PrestaShop importer

In Advanced Parameters > Import you can load CSV files of products, combinations, categories, customers and more. Useful for one-off loads. Its limits:

• You have to adapt the file to its columns.
• It does not schedule periodic imports.
• With large catalogues it can run out of execution time.

Automating

For catalogues that change (prices, stock, new and discontinued products), you need a scheduled process that:

1. Downloads the supplier's file (URL, FTP, API).
2. Translates its fields into your store's fields (mapping).
3. Applies your rules: margin, price rounding, your own categories.
4. Creates, updates or disables products.
5. Leaves a report of what it has done.

Details that make the difference

• Stable identifier: the supplier reference or EAN, never the name.
• Do not overwrite what you improve: if you have rewritten the description, the import must not overwrite it.
• Images: download them only when they change; uploading them all again every day fills the disk.
• Discontinued products: disable, do not delete, to keep the history and the URLs.