Importing Products to a New Site

Hi everyone. I have a question about product importing on a new site. I have a client who is sitting on a bespoke CMS for his online business and has been left in the lurch by his previous developer. I've recommended he migrates to a better supported platform that can be managed and maintained by him or any Squarespace developer.

However, he has 100's of products that would need to be migrated. I've managed to get in to the MySQL database where his products are listed and assume I can export that as a CSV. I also see that I can Import a CSV to an existing product page in Squarespace. If that product Page is blank, can I simply import the exported CSV. I'm assuming I would need to change the column headings of the exported CSV to match the Squarespace headings. But what if there were blank fields, such as SKU. If anyone has any advice on this or has experience of doing similar it would be great to hear from you. I appreciate I don't think images come over as part of any import do that may need to be manual.

Thanks in advance.

1 hour ago, noblescott said:

he has 100's of products that would need to be migrated. I've managed to get in to the MySQL database where his products are listed and assume I can export that as a CSV.

There are specific import options from Shopify, Etsy, and Big Cartel but if the platform is bespoke you can use a .csv file to import upto 200 products at a time. There's a support guide that explains the CSV import process in detail: Importing products from a .csv.

Once you've converted your SQL export into a .csv, you'll inevitably need to do some data manipulation to get the data into the format that Squarespace expects. This will include reordering and renaming the 'columns' of data. If you have more than 200 products to import, you'll need to split them into batches of upto 200 products (the limit for a products page).

1 hour ago, noblescott said:

I appreciate I don't think images come over as part of any import

If the .csv file contains valid urls for the product images, the images will be imported into Squarespace and, once imported, they'll be hosted on Squarespace. However, you may need to set the thumbnail image for each product after the import. You cannot place image files into the .csv file; they must be links to the image files that are hosted on the old site. Ensure the url ends in an image file extension such as  .jpg, .gif, or .png; a link to the page containing the image will not work.

One quick cautionary tale. Check that the client is aware of the current limitations of Squarespace Commerce before you start the build. You're a regular around here @noblescott so you've probably read them already, but I mention it for the benefit of everyone else.

Squarespace a great platform but there are still some very real limitations for stores who have specific sales tax, shipment, payment option, internationalisation, discount or product customisation [eg engraving] requirements. A store with "100s of products" is likely to be one of those stores. It's often a good idea to add a few products manually and then implement the payment/checkout/shipping/discount code options and then let the client test the workflow. That way you'll identify any issues upfront.

Many thanks for the detailed response @paul2009. Really useful and thanks for pointing me to your (updated) limitation page. I've just taken this client on after his previous "agency" vanished. His products are very niche, albeit there are loads of them and he sells worldwide so I may look and see if another E-commerce platform would be more suitable. I need it to be easy to use by him but also give him the comfort that it's a robust, well supported platform that he's moving over to. My preference is to try and keep his site similarly designed as is which I'm confident I can do in Squarespace, other platform not so.

Thanks for the input though.

Scott