Product upload guide
If you're getting an online shop built, your products need to go into it. This page explains exactly what I need from you so that goes smoothly.
It looks like a lot written down. In practice it's one spreadsheet and a folder of photos, and most people have half of it already.
Two ways to do this
You supply the details — €150 per 50 products You fill in a spreadsheet and send me your photos. I do the rest. This is the cheaper option and it's what this page is about.
The €150 covers up to 50 products. Beyond that it's another €150 for each further 50, or part of 50 — so 60 products is €300, 120 products is €450, and so on.
I create the listings from scratch — €15 per product I write the descriptions, prepare the images and set up the options. Worth it if you've a small number of products, or if writing isn't your thing.
You can mix the two. Some people send me a spreadsheet for the straightforward products and ask me to write the tricky ones.
Part 1: The spreadsheet
One row per product. Any spreadsheet is fine — Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers, or a CSV.
What each column needs
| Column | Required? | What to put in it |
|---|---|---|
| Product name | Yes | What you'd call it on the shelf. "Handmade Beeswax Candle — Large" |
| Description | Yes | A few sentences. What it is, what it's made of, why someone would want it. Plain English is fine |
| Price | Yes | In euro, numbers only. 24.95 not €24.95
|
| Was price | No | Only if it's on sale. This is the crossed-out price customers see beside the new one |
| Product code | No | Your own reference or SKU, if you use one. Helps you match up orders later |
| Stock quantity | Yes | How many you have. Put 0 if it's out of stock but you want it listed |
| Options | No | Sizes, colours, flavours. See below |
| Weight | If posting | In grams, packed and ready to send. Needed to work out postage |
| Category | Yes | How you'd group it in the shop. "Candles", "Gift sets", "Accessories" |
| Photo file names | Yes | The names of the image files for this product, separated by commas |
If a product comes in different sizes or colours
Don't make a separate row for each one. Put them in the Options column like this:
Size: Small, Medium, Large
Or if there's more than one kind of option:
Size: Small, Medium, Large
Colour: Red, Blue, Black
You can have up to three types of option per product.
If the price differs by option — say the large costs more than the small — tell me in the description column and I'll set it up. Same if some combinations don't exist, or if each one has its own stock count.
If a product has more than 100 combinations in total, have a word with me first.
Part 2: The photos
Naming them
This is the part that matters most. Name each file after the product, exactly as it appears in your spreadsheet, so I can match them up.
handmade-beeswax-candle-large-1.jpg
handmade-beeswax-candle-large-2.jpg
handmade-beeswax-candle-large-3.jpg
The number on the end sets the order they appear. The -1 photo becomes the main image customers see in the shop.
Don't send me IMG_4471.jpg. If files are named like that, matching 50 products to 150 photos is a job in itself, and I'll have to price it as such.
What makes a good product photo
- Square, or close to it. Product images are displayed square, anything else gets cropped
- At least 1000 pixels wide, ideally around 2000. Photos from any phone made in the last few years are fine
- JPG or PNG, under 20MB each
- Plain, uncluttered background. A white wall, a sheet of paper, a clean worktop
- Good light. Daylight near a window beats any indoor bulb. Avoid direct sun and harsh shadows
- Two or three per product if you can — one straight-on, one from an angle, one showing detail or scale
You don't need a photographer. A phone, a windowsill and a white sheet of paper will do a better job than most people expect.
A worked example
| Product name | Description | Price | Stock | Options | Category | Photo file names |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Handmade Beeswax Candle — Large | Hand-poured in Cork from 100% Irish beeswax. Burns for around 40 hours with a natural honey scent. Cotton wick, no additives. | 24.95 | 18 | Candles | beeswax-candle-large-1.jpg, beeswax-candle-large-2.jpg | |
| Lambswool Scarf | Woven from soft Donegal lambswool. Generous length, finished with a hand-knotted fringe. | 45.00 | 12 | Colour: Charcoal, Navy, Oatmeal | Accessories | lambswool-scarf-1.jpg, lambswool-scarf-2.jpg |
That's the level of detail I'm after. Nothing fancy.
The things that slow this down
Worth knowing in advance, because these are what turn a two-day job into a two-week one:
-
Photos named
IMG_1234with no way of telling which product is which -
Prices written as text —
€24.95or24,95instead of24.95 - Descriptions copied from a supplier's website. Google penalises duplicated text, and it may not be yours to use
- One photo for twelve different products. Each needs its own
- Options mentioned nowhere. If a jumper comes in four sizes and the spreadsheet doesn't say, it goes in as one size
- Screenshots of products instead of the actual image files
Sending it to me
Photos are usually too big to email. Use whichever of these suits you:
- Google Drive or Dropbox — put everything in one folder and share the link
- WeTransfer — free, no account needed, handles large batches
- A USB stick — perfectly fine, drop it in or post it
Put the spreadsheet in the same place as the photos so it all arrives together.
What happens next
- I check everything's there and come back to you with any gaps
- I load it all into your shop
- I send you a link to look through before anything goes live
- You tell me what needs changing, I fix it
- It goes live
For 50 products, allow about a week from the day everything arrives, and roughly another week for each further 50. Missing photos or unclear options are the usual reason it takes longer.
If any of this is putting you off
Tell me. This guide exists to make things cheaper for you, not to hand you homework you don't want.
If the spreadsheet feels like more trouble than it's worth, I'll create the listings myself at €15 per product. Plenty of people take that option and there's nothing wrong with it.
If you've a lot of products — a few hundred or more — talk to me before you start. There's usually a quicker route, and I'd rather find it than have you filling in rows for a fortnight.
Either way, ask me before you spend a weekend on it. A ten-minute conversation up front usually saves a lot of work.