Formatting a spreadsheet for import

If you've got a lot of stores to add to your store locator, you can save some typing by importing them from a spreadsheet. The guidelines here will help ensure everything goes smoothly.

Overview

In order to bulk import stores to Stockist, you'll need a spreadsheet containing at minimum two columns: one containing store names, and one (or more) containing the street address of the store. Each row in the spreadsheet will be imported as a single store location in Stockist.

Address format

We can import store addresses in two formats, depending on what you have available:

  • Separate columns - If you have separate columns for different parts of each address (line 1, line 2, city, postal code, etc.), we support importing each column as a separate field.
  • Single column - If your file has full addresses in a single column (e.g. "767 5th Avenue, New York, NY"), we support importing this format as well. Optionally, if you'd like to format your addresses onto multiple lines, you can add line breaks within each address cell. In Excel you can add a line break with Alt+Enter (Windows) or Control+Option+Enter (Mac).

Template files

To ensure a smooth import, we suggest copying your store data into one of the our import templates. Please use the template file that corresponds to the address format you have in your spreadsheet (described above):

Using a template isn't required, since the importer will give you the chance to choose what data is in each column of your spreadsheet. However, the templates will ensure your data is in the right format, and also help the importer automatically detect what type of information is in each column.

Already have something similar?

If you already have a spreadsheet that's similar to one of the templates above but has different column names or ordering, this isn't a problem. During the import process, you'll be asked to choose which piece of information is in each column of the file, so it's not strictly necessary to re-format your file to match the template exactly. Just be sure to check out the Export as CSV section below to ensure your spreadsheet is readable by Stockist.

Additional columns

Our templates contain columns for the most common fields (name, address, phone, etc), but you might have additional fields to import. In this case, you can modify the template to add additional columns:

Importing search filters

If you need to apply search filters to your locations (e.g. for specific products carried), just add an additional column to the template for each filter you've created in your account. In each row, type  Yes in the filter column if the filter applies to that store, otherwise leave the filter column blank (adding "No" is also fine).

For example, if you had filters for "Open 24 Hours" and "Free WiFi", your file might look like this:

Please be sure to create the filters in your account before starting the import process.

Importing custom fields

To import custom fields like "Hours" or "Fax number", just add an additional column to your spreadsheet for each custom field, then enter the appropriate value in each row.

For example, if you had custom fields for "Hours" and "Fax number", your file might look like this:

Please be sure to  create the custom fields in your account before starting the import process.

Specifying GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) (optional)

It's not necessary to include GPS coordinates for each store: if your file doesn't have coordinates, Stockist will automatically look up the map pin position for each store based on the street address.
However, if you already know the coordinates for each store, you can specify the latitude and longitude for each store in separate columns. This will skip the address lookup process, so the import will run faster, and you'll be sure the store pins end up exactly where you want. Any stores with missing or invalid coordinates will still go through the address lookup process, so it’s fine to leave the coordinate columns blank for some locations.
Here’s an example of specifying coordinates:

Importing other fields

For other less common fields (like Logo URL), just add an additional column, then enter the appropriate value in each row.

What not to include

When importing your file, please be sure not to include the following

  • Section headers - We recommend adding a single header row at the top with a name for each column, but please don't add extra section headers within the spreadsheet to group your stores (e.g. "USA", "International", etc). The importer can't tell header rows apart from actual stores, and will try to import the text in the header as a store.
  • Online stores - we recommend not adding online stores to your locator, so that your visitors aren't confused about which places can be visited in person. For more details, please see our article on online stores.

Export as CSV

Once your spreadsheet is all ready to go, see our help page on  converting a spreadsheet to CSV to ensure you've got the correct format to import. It's especially important to follow our instructions if your file contains any accented or non-English characters.

Other formats

Are your locations not in a spreadsheet? We may be able to help - feel free to shoot us an email and we'll see what we can do. We've helped import stores from:

  • KML files (although Google Maps' KML export in particular usually omits important details)
  • WordPress post export XML files
  • Various other formats