How do I bulk allocate products to multiple categories?

Onsight allows you to assign a product to multiple product categories. You can do this when you are adding a new product or updating an existing product. The product will then appear inside the product catalogue multiple times in different categories.

Our web console provides an easy way to upload many products to multiple categories in one go. Before you use this tool, it is best to test this process for one product by adding it to an additional category so that you understand how it will display in your product catalogue. Here are the instructions for how to allocate a single product to multiple categories.

To access the bulk upload tool for multiple categories:

  • Log in to the Onsight web console at https://web.onsightapp.com.
  • Click on ‘Catalogue’ from the left-hand side menu.
  • Click on the ‘Manage Products’ menu item.
  • Click on the ‘Action’ button at the top of the screen and then click on ‘Import Product Hierarchy’.
  • This will open up the 4-step bulk upload tool.

Step 1: Download the product hierarchy data sheet

The excel sheet displays all your products in alphabetical order and displays the category tree that they fall within. Product Category 1 displays the top category, and Product Categories 2 to 10 are for any sub-categories that the product falls within.

Step 2: Edit the datasheet

Create a duplicate record for each item that you want to display in an additional category. You will have two lines/records of the same item on the sheet. The first line/record represents the existing item on your account. The second record/line is the newly created items that will be placed into an additional category.

For the second record, insert ‘No’ in the ‘Is Primary’ column and insert the additional category name in the Product Category 1 column. Here is an example of how it should display before importing the excel sheet to the account:

Multiple categories

In the example above, you have one product ‘Wild bilberry marmalade – 370g’ that now falls into two categories; ‘Marmalades’ and ‘New arrivals’. If you want the product to display in a third product category, then you simply repeat the process of adding another line/record to the datasheet.

If you want to remove a product from an additional category, you must keep the row that says ‘Is Primary’ is ‘Yes’ and then remove the row where ‘Is Primary’ is ‘No’. This will remove that product from the additional category. You can remove as many additional categories (rows) as you wish. However, if you remove all the rows relating to this product, nothing will change. You must keep the main row where ‘Is Primary’ is ‘Yes’ for the deletions to be processed.

Step 3: Upload the data sheet

Save your file. Then select its location on your computer, and upload it to Onsight for processing.

Step 4: Import the data

Once you click the “Import” button your spreadsheet will be analysed and validated.

If your spreadsheet passes validation you will be shown a list of updates that will happen once you approve the import job, and you will be able to approve it so that the datasheet is actually processed and your product information imported. If the spreadsheet fails, you will be shown a list of errors to rectify before uploading it all again. If everything is OK – hit “Approve Job” and all your information will be imported into the database.

Check on your import jobs

To see the status of all your import jobs, go to Setup > Import Jobs and you will see them all listed.

 

 

 
Related articles:
How to add a single product to multiple categories.