Making a move to Big Cartel from Etsy, Squarespace, or Shopify? 🚚 We've got you covered with our Product Import feature. You can export your products from an existing Etsy, Squarespace, or Shopify account and import them into your Big Cartel shop to get up and running on our platform in no time.
Note: All imported products will be set to Hidden in your shop when they're initially added, so they won't be automatically visible in your store. You're in control of when and how they become available.
Note: You'll need a Google account to open and copy the import template. Reach out to our support team here if you don't have access to a Google account and we can help!
If you are migrating from a different platform, you may still be able to import your products by manually editing the .csv export of your products using our import template here. You'll make a copy of the import template, follow the instructions in the Instructions tab and then use the Products tab to enter the product details from your export file.
Every ecommerce platform treats product listings a bit differently, so there are a few things you'll want to keep in mind as you prepare to import products to your new Big Cartel shop.
First, it's essential that you keep your existing shop on your current platform open so we can get your products' images. So don't close your Etsy, Squarespace, or Shopify store just yet. All Big Cartel paid plans support up to twenty-five product images for each product listing. Any images beyond twenty-five will not be imported to your Big Cartel products. It’s important to note that while twenty-five images are supported, the number of images displayed in your store is based on your plan. Our free Gold store supports one image per product, Platinum supports five images per product, and Diamond will have access to all twenty-five images.
You'll also want to make sure that the Big Cartel plan you've chosen allows for as many products as you'll be importing. Any listings beyond that plan limit won't be imported.
After importing your products, you'll receive an email report letting you know how your import went. The email will let you know if everything worked great, if one or more products need review, or if any were unable to be imported at all due to errors.
If you get your email report, and you're not sure what the heck it means, we've got more info below:
The following issues will trigger a "needs review" warning on your product(s). These issues do not prevent the product from being imported, but may have resulted in some minor changes to your listing.
Your product names exceeded 100 characters: We limit product names to 100 characters. You'll get this error if you imported a product with a name that exceeds that limit (common with Etsy exports especially). We truncated your product name to meet the limit, which also impacts your product url. The original title was placed at the top of your description. You may wish to further edit the title, url, and/or description.
Your product had the same name as an existing product: All products in your shop need unique names. You'll get this warning if an existing product in your shop and an imported product, or two products being imported, have the same product name. We added a random number to the end of the duplicate product's title and url and placed the original title in the description. You may wish to further edit the title, url, and/or description.
Your description exceeded 65,535 characters: We (generously) limit product descriptions to 65,535 characters. You'll get this warning if you imported a product with a description that exceeds that limit. We truncated your product description to meet the limit.
Your product had a price less than $0.01: We do not currently support free products. You'll get this warning if you attempted to import a product with a price of $0.00 (or no price). We set your product price to $0.01.
Didn't import all images: You'll see this error if you've exceeded your plan's product image limit (five images for paid plans, and one for our free plan), if your image files are too large, or if your images are in an unsupported file type. Additionally, if your images are no longer available on the source location (such as inactive Etsy listings) we will not be able to import them. In this situation, you can manually add images to your product listings, or move the images to an accessible location, update your import file with the new urls, and re-import. Don't forget to delete duplicates before re-importing.
Didn't import product variants: Our variant feature supports 150 unique product variants for each individual product in your shop. You’ll get this error if an imported product exceeds that limit. Variants over the limit will not import.
Converted variant groups to individual variants: We support up to three variant groups(size, color, length, etc.) per product. If your imported product has more than three variant groups, the variants will not be imported into our Variant Groups feature, instead they will be imported as a single variant menu with a forward slash separating individual variants instead, for example, Red / Small / Crew. You can then decide which three variants you want to keep, and use the Convert existing products tool found under the action menu on a product listing to switch over from a single menu to multiple menus using the variant groups feature.
Imported quantities but inventory tracking disabled: You're on a paid plan and your products' stock quantities were imported, but your shop does not have inventory tracking enabled currently. You can enable inventory tracking in your admin on the Account page in the Preferences section. Once inventory tracking is enabled, your products' quantities will appear.
Imported quantities but plan doesn’t support inventory tracking: You're on our free Gold plan, which does not support inventory tracking. You'll need to upgrade your plan to enable inventory tracking in your shop. Once you upgrade your imported quantities will appear.
Quantity set to 100,000: Some of your imported products were set to unlimited inventory quantities. We don't have an unlimited inventory setting for individual products when you have inventory management enabled, so these products' quantities were set to 100,000 instead.
The following issues will trigger a "not imported" warning on your product(s). These issues prevent the product from being imported, and either must be corrected and re-imported or added manually in the product dashboard.
You hit the limit of products allowed: You've exceeded your plan's product limit. Our free Gold plan supports up to 5 products, our Platinum plan supports 50 products, our Diamond plan supports up to 500 products. We will import up to your plan limit, but product over the limit will not be imported. If you upgrade your plan, you can re-run the import with the additional products. But be sure to remove the imported products from your file to prevent duplicates!
Your products had invalid formatting: This error can be triggered by many different issues. For example, you may see this warning if your CSV's column titles are in a non-English language, or the product price is $1 million or higher, or if there are non-numbers in your price column.
Heads up! The steps below are for stores without any existing products. If you already have existing products in your shop you can head to the Products page in your admin and click the three-dot action menu in the upper right hand corner to begin your product import.
Log in at my.bigcartel.com.
Go to Products.
Click the Import products link (Reminder: this may also be located in the three-dot menu if you already have products in your shop).
Upload the CSV file of your products.
Once the upload is completed, look for the email summary of your import in your email inbox.
Our support team is available Monday - Friday from 8am-6pm EST.