Sometimes, you might need to update the status of products in your store all at once. For example, you could switch many items from Draft to Active when they’re ready and should be up for sale on your online store. Or maybe you want to make seasonal changes, like marking products as Active for the current season or event while moving off-season items to Archived or Draft. Anyway, there are times when you want to update Shopify products’ status in bulk.
Although Shopify offers options to adjust product statuses, it may not be the most efficient method for updating statuses in bulk. With the StoreRobo Import Export Suite by WebToffee, you can swiftly and efficiently update the statuses of multiple products.
Use case
Following the winter sale, we are updating the status of our winter clothing items from active to archive. Additionally, we are transitioning our new products from draft to active to prepare them for launch.
Step 1: Export Shopify products to update stock status
To export the necessary products,
- Head to StoreRobo Import/Export Suite.
- Click on Proceed under Export.
- Under Select data, choose Products.
- Expand the data type and select Basic Columns.
You can utilize the filter feature to select specific products. In this scenario, we will focus on selecting products categorized under the collection name Winter Collection and marked with the status Active. We will update the status of these products to Archive.
We will also initialize a second export to get the product data in the draft state so that we can set them as Active. For more information on Export filters and how to use them, refer to StoreRobo Export Filters for Shopify Product Data.
- Keep other options unchanged and click on Export.
- Once the export is done, Download the CSV file.
Step 2: Update products as out of stock
Once the CSV file is downloaded,
- Open both the downloaded CSV file.
- Remove unnecessary columns, retaining ID, Handle, and Status.
- Merge the data into a single file, as shown below. You can also keep them in different files, in which case you will have to perform two different imports.
- If any products should remain unchanged, remove them from the file by deleting the corresponding row.
- Adjust the Product status accordingly. In this scenario, we will update the status of all products marked as active to archived, while products in draft status will be changed to active.
- Now save the file in CSV format.
Step 3: Import the CSV file back into the store
Once you have successfully modified and saved the CSV file,
- Head back to StoreRobo Import/Export Suite.
- Under Import, select the updated file from the saved location.
- Choose a delimiter as the one you set while saving the file. (comma is the default one). To know more about delimiters, refer to the article, Uncovering Delimiters: Crucial Data Organization Techniques.
- You can use the preview option to verify the data.
- Under Select data type, select Products.
- Click on Proceed.
- Under options, select Update if products already exist in the store.
- Finally, click on Import to update the data.
On successful import, the status will change to completed, and you will be notified by mail.
Once the import is completed, the status of the selected products will be updated as configured. The example below displays shows the winter collection before and after the update.