Products

In the products area you turn supplier files and manufacturer texts into new shop products. plinth first creates drafts, helps you complete them (brands, numbers, images, texts), creates them in Shopware as inactive products and makes them visible only after a yes/no review. You can also improve products that are already in the shop and maintain cross-selling.

The short way: create new products

1. Open Products > Products and click Import products.
2. Drag the supplier's file into File (CSV, TSV, Excel). Under Images for the products add the images right away: Choose images, Choose folder or Choose ZIP.
3. Click Analyze file, look at the Column mapping and the result, and click Create drafts.
4. Work through the card Import steps in order. Continue: ... always opens the next open step: Assign images, Brands, Numbers, Texts, Review, Publish.
5. After Publish the products are in Shopware, inactive. Review them under Products > Product review and activate them.

Until the step Publish the new products exist only in plinth. The full guide starts under How do I import new products from a supplier file?, the single steps are under How do I work through the import steps?.

Where to find it

• Products > Products: the drafts, with the tabs Drafts, Review, Workbenches, Rework existing, Brand profiles and Exports.
• Products > Product review: the yes/no review of new products.
• Products > Related products: cross-selling suggestions.
• On the Drafts tab, the buttons at the top right open Import products, New product, Next product and EAN to SKU. The Settings button is in the box below the brand filter.

What you need

Permissions are assigned under Access.

• The shop must be connected, see Onboarding.
• To write anything to Shopware the shop must not be read-only. In a read-only shop you see This shop is read-only. Changes are refused.
• AI texts and AI suggestions need an AI key and the switched-on AI features, see AI. Everything else works without AI.

Note: Editing and approving are separate permissions on purpose. One person prepares a product, another person can approve it.

What is written to Shopware, and when?

Every write runs as a job, see Jobs. A draft moves through these statuses: Suggestion, Confirmed, In review, Activated. Rejected drafts are not created.

Brands are never created by a product. A brand that the shop does not have must be added first, see Brands. New property values are created only if you ticked create as new value for them.

How do I import new products from a supplier file?

You need the permission Edit and create products and the supplier's file: one row per product or per size, with a header row. Useful columns are product number, EAN, name, brand, colour, size, retail price, RRP and purchase price.

1. Open Products > Products and click Import products.
2. On the tab Supplier file, drag the file into File (CSV, TSV, Excel). Allowed are CSV, TSV and .xlsx files up to 30 MB. Save old .xls files as .xlsx first.
3. Optional: under Images for the products choose the images of the new products, see Uploading the images with the file.
4. Leave Mapping profile on Detect automatically, or pick a saved profile. If the file has no brand column, fill in Brand for rows without a brand.
5. Click Analyze file. The images are uploaded now; nothing is created yet.
6. Check the Column mapping: each column of the file is assigned to a field such as Product number, EAN, Name, Brand, Size, Colour, Price (gross retail), RRP or Purchase price. Correct wrong assignments and click Analyze again.
7. Check the result. The tiles show New, Already in the shop, Unclear, Rows with errors, Duplicates and With variants. Details are in the table Products in the file and under Row errors and notices.
8. Decide on the two checkboxes:
   • Pass prices of existing products to Prices: price columns of products that already exist go to the prices area as a proposal, see Prices. Nothing is changed here.
   • Fill texts automatically (AI): see How do the automatic AI texts work?.
9. Click Create drafts. Every new product becomes a draft. Products that are already in the shop are skipped.

After that plinth shows the card Import steps of this file, see How do I work through the import steps?.

Uploading the images with the file

Under Images for the products on the import page you choose the images that belong to the file:

• Choose images: single image files.
• Choose folder: a folder with sub folders.
• Choose ZIP: a ZIP archive with the images.
• Clear selection discards the selection.

Allowed are JPG, PNG, WEBP and GIF, at most 40 MB per image and 200 MB per ZIP. The upload starts with Analyze file. When the drafts are created, plinth assigns the images to the new products by name, model, supplier number and colour in the folder or file name.

Tip: The safest layout is one folder per product and colour, named like "Model - Colour", or file names with model and colour. You can also upload images later in the step Assign images.

Saving the mapping as a profile

Click Save as profile and give it a name, for example the supplier. plinth applies the profile automatically to the next file with the same columns. Saved profiles are listed under Settings > Mapping profiles, where you can delete them.

Number format and size table

Under Number format and size table (rarely needed) you can set how numbers are read (Reading numbers) and enter a Size table of this supplier, one line per size in the form old = new, for example 2XL = XXL. Both are saved with the profile.

Importing from a manufacturer text

1. On the import page open the tab Manufacturer text.
2. Enter the Brand and paste an email, HTML or a table into Manufacturer text, or choose a file (.eml, .html, .csv, .xlsx).
3. Click Analyze text, tick the products that should become drafts and click Create drafts.

Creating a single product

Click New product, enter the Brand and A few words about the product, optionally Product number, Sizes and Price (gross), and click Generate suggestion. plinth opens the new draft.

How do I work through the import steps?

Every import is one batch. The card Import steps shows seven steps with their state: Done, Needs attention, Running or Skipped. Below each step you read what is open, for example 3 products without images.

• The button Continue: ... at the top right always leads to the next open step.
• A click on the name of a step opens the place where it is done.
• You find open imports again under Continue an import on the Drafts tab and on the import page. You can stop at any time and continue later.
• When everything is done the button reads All steps done: to approval and opens the product review.

1. File and images

This step is done as soon as you clicked Create drafts on the import page, see How do I import new products from a supplier file?. Below the step you read how many drafts were created and how many images were uploaded. If it says No images uploaded with the file, upload the images in the next step.

2. Assign images

The step opens the card Assign images on the import page. plinth has already assigned the uploaded images to the new products. You only confirm what is unsure.

1. Read the counters at the top: images uploaded, products sure, unsure, without an image, and images without a product.
2. The column Assignment shows the state of each product:
   • sure: the images are on the product already.
   • unsure: a proposal is waiting for you. The images are not on the product yet. Click Accept or Reject in the row.
   • no images: nothing matched this product.
3. If the proposals are right, click Accept all ... unsure assignments at the top.
4. Under images without a product you find the images plinth could not assign, with the reason. Click the right product next to Fits best:, or drag the images onto a product row.
5. To move images, tick them, choose the product under Move to … and click Move. Take off the product removes images from the product, Remove from the import removes them from this import.
6. If images are missing, upload them under Upload more images (Choose images, Choose folder, Choose ZIP). Match again assigns the images without a product once more, for example after you corrected a product name.

The first image of a product is the Cover. The column Warnings tells you what to check, for example a folder that matches several products or a folder that names no colour.

Below the list are two optional helpers:

• Infos from images: Suggest infos lets the AI propose details such as the colour from the cover images. This costs AI credit; you see the estimate before it starts. You confirm each proposal with Accept or decline it with Reject.
• Comparison with Google: Compare with Google shows which products of this import Google Merchant Center already knows. Nothing is changed at Google.

The images belong to the draft. They reach the shop only in the step Publish. More about images is under Images.

Adjust the white margin of the images to the shop

In the step Assign images, plinth compares every image with the image margin of the shop (see Images). Above the list you see the margin that is compared with and the link Change the image margin.

• An image with a differing margin carries a warning mark. The column with the notes gives the reason, for example margin top and bottom 18 % instead of 6 %. The filter Margin differs shows only these products.
• See before and after in the row shows the image as it is and as it will look after the adjustment.
• Adjust margin in the row adjusts the marked images of this product, Adjust margin (… pictures) above the list all marked images. The subject is centred, the margin is cropped or added, aspect ratio and size follow the shop images. Nothing is ever enlarged.
• The original stays stored: Restore original in the row or Take the adjustment back above the list puts it back.
• Images without a white background are not changed. The note names them; remove their background first, see Remove background.

If the shop's image margin is not set yet, the line above the list says so, with the link Learn the image margin from the shop pictures.

3. Brands

The step is open when the file names brands that the shop does not have as manufacturers. A product never creates a brand by itself.

1. Open the step. The import page shows the notice Unknown brands with the names.
2. Click Look up and add all. plinth looks up every brand in the background: website, logo, manufacturer, address and, if your shop uses SKU codes, a free SKU code.
3. Check the proposals in the dialog. For each brand you tick or untick the box, change values with Edit and pick a logo. Look closely at values marked please check.
4. Click Add selected. Only now are the brands created in the shop.

You need the permission to edit brands. Details on the dialog, the SKU code and undoing are under Looking up and adding a brand.

Note: The SKU code of the brand is the start of your own product numbers. Check it here before you go to the step Numbers, see How do new products get their own product numbers?.

4. Numbers

The step is open when rows have an EAN but no SKU yet. It opens EAN to SKU with the drafts of this import, see How do I assign article numbers from EANs (EAN to SKU)?. If the import has no EANs, it says No EANs in this import and the step counts as done.

5. Texts

The step counts how many drafts have a name and a description.

• While the AI is still writing, it says Running.
• If AI texts are waiting for you, Accept ... AI texts takes them all at once. In a draft you decide one by one with Apply or Discard.
• Without AI the texts come from the file, or you enter them in the draft.

See How do the automatic AI texts work?.

6. Review

The step opens the drafts with open points one after the other. In each draft Still open lists what blocks the product, for example a missing price. See How do I check and complete a draft?.

7. Publish

The step shows Ready to publish and blocked. Click Publish ... ready products. plinth creates all ready drafts in Shopware as a job, inactive, with variants, images, categories and properties. Customers do not see them yet. Blocked drafts stay until their open points are done.

After that you continue in the product review, see How do I review and activate new products?.

Skipping a step

You can skip the steps Assign images, Brands, Numbers and Texts with Skip. plinth asks for a reason, for example that the images are not there yet. The step stays visible as skipped, with your reason. Take up again reopens it. File and images, Review and Publish cannot be skipped.

How do new products get their own product numbers?

Many shops use their own product numbers instead of the supplier's numbers. If a brand rule is set up for your shop, plinth assigns them during the import.

1. Give every brand a SKU code, for example when you add the brand in the step Brands or on the brands page, see Brands.
2. Import the file. If the supplier's product number does not fit the number scheme of your shop, the draft gets the next free own number from the SKU code of its brand as its Model number.
3. In the draft, Tips from rules says what happened. These notes are written in German, for example Eigene Nummer ... vergeben (Kürzel ...) (own number assigned, with the code used). The supplier's number is kept on the draft and helps with assigning the images.
4. Check the Model number in the draft.

An own number is never handed out twice: plinth takes the products in the shop, the open drafts and the numbers assigned with EAN to SKU into account.

Without a brand rule plinth takes the supplier's number and marks it review. You then assign numbers for products with an EAN with EAN to SKU.

How do the automatic AI texts work?

With Fill texts automatically (AI) ticked, the AI writes title, description, SEO texts and search words for every new product, as suggestions.

1. When you click Create drafts, plinth shows the estimated cost once: The AI texts cost about € .... Confirm with Import and write texts. If you cancel, the drafts are created without AI texts.
2. The AI writes in the background. A banner shows the progress, for example Texts: 12 of 40 written.
3. When the texts are ready, a banner tells you how many suggestions wait for review. Click Accept all AI texts, or open a draft and decide per field with Apply or Discard.
4. Accepted AI texts carry the badge AI. You can still edit them.

Nothing is applied before a person accepts it. The cost goes to the AI budget of the shop. Only product data is sent to the AI provider, never prices, EANs, stock, customers or orders.

• Without the permission Start AI runs the texts wait for a person who has it.
• If a banner says AI texts are not running, follow Open AI settings, see AI.
• If a banner says Automatic AI texts are off, switch on Fill texts automatically after an import (when AI is set up) in the settings.
• Get AI suggestions (... open) on the Drafts tab starts the AI for fields that the rules could not decide, such as category or properties. It also shows the cost first.

How do I set the text style and the AI prompts?

Open Products > Products, click Settings and go to Text style or AI prompts. You need Product settings.

Text style

The Style brief describes how your product texts should sound: tone, form of address, length, words to use or avoid. It may have up to 4,000 characters and must not contain personal data. You can add an Example text (optional) or Product numbers as examples (optional), up to 3 examples in total. Click Save.

The brief is added to every AI text request, for new products and for Improve with AI on existing ones.

AI prompts

This section shows what plinth tells the AI for each feature: Product texts (new products), Rework existing products, Category suggestions and Property suggestions.

• Base prompt (fixed) cannot be changed.
• Extra instructions (optional): your own additions per feature, up to 2000 characters.
• Data sent to the AI provider lists which product data is sent.
• Preview the full prompt: enter a draft id, a draft number or a product number and see exactly what would be sent for this product.
• The checkbox Fill texts automatically after an import (when AI is set up) sets whether the import ticks the AI texts by default.

You can also reach this section from the import page with the button AI prompts.

How do I assign article numbers from EANs (EAN to SKU)?

The tool gives every EAN a SKU (the model number of the draft) that never changes afterwards. Open it with EAN to SKU on the Drafts tab, on the import page, in a draft, or through the step Numbers.

1. 1. List: click Load drafts to read the EANs of all open drafts. Or paste a list and click Read list, or choose a CSV or XLSX file and click Read file. Leading zeros of the EAN are kept.
2. 2. Where does the SKU come from? Put the sources in order with Move up and Move down. The first source that gives a SKU wins:
   • Import: the supplier's own article number from the import file.
   • Brand rule: the SKU code of the brand and the next free number of the shop. This source exists only if a brand rule is set up for your shop. The SKU code is maintained on the Brands page, see Brands.
   • Fallback pattern: a pattern such as {PREFIX}-{EAN6}. You can save it per brand with Save pattern of the brand or for all brands with Save pattern above as default.
3. Click Compute preview. 3. Preview shows the SKU, its source and the findings for every row. You can type a different SKU into a row.
4. Tick the rows, or click Accept all, then Apply and confirm.

Applying stores the assignment and writes the model number into the drafts. Existing shop products are never changed. EANs that already have a SKU keep it. A model is only applied as a whole.

Under Export for the ERP you download a CSV with EAN, SKU and name, either of the preview or of all SKUs assigned so far.

Note: Depending on your setup, plinth also checks new product numbers against the numbering scheme of your shop and proposes the next free number. If there is an extra page for product numbers and prefixes in your menu, it belongs to this setup.

How do I add images later or one by one?

The usual way is to upload the images with the import and use the step Assign images, see 2. Assign images. There are two more ways.

One folder for many drafts

1. Open the folder upload in the images area and set Target to New products (drafts).
2. Upload a folder or a ZIP with one sub folder per product, for example "Product name - Colour". Use Choose folder or Choose ZIP or images.
3. plinth matches the folders to the open drafts. Correct wrong matches in the table.
4. Click Assign.

Details are on the page Images.

Images in a single draft

In the draft, drag the images into Images, fill in the Alt text and click Save images. The order follows the file names (front, model, back, detail); the first image is the cover image. If the automatic check flags an image as too small or blurry, remove it or approve it with Yes, OK and a short note.

The images reach the shop only when the product is created.

How do I check and complete a draft?

1. On the Drafts tab click a row, or click Next product to open the draft with the most urgent open points.
2. Every field has a mark: ok (sure), review (unsure, please look at it) or new (the value does not exist in the shop).
3. Change the fields. They save themselves. Sizes are the exception: change them under Variants and click Save sizes.
4. For a value that does not exist in the shop, click one of the proposed replacements or tick create as new value.
5. Decide on suggestions with Apply or Discard.
6. The banner Still open lists what blocks the product, for example a missing price or model number.
7. The right side shows the Product page preview.

When nothing is open, the draft is Ready.

• Skip opens the next draft without changing anything.
• Reject rejects the draft with a reason. It will not be created.
• Delete removes a draft for good. This works only for drafts that were not written to Shopware.
• While another person is editing a draft, you see a notice with their name. Wait until they are done.

Finding drafts

The tiles Suggestions, New values, To review, Ready, In review and Errors filter the list. So do the tags Category, Text, Images, Price and AI suggestions and the brand filter. The search field finds name, brand and product number. The search in the top bar finds drafts from every page; they are listed under New products (drafts).

Changing many drafts at once

On the tab Workbenches, pick a task, select the drafts, choose a field (for example Category, Brand or Price (gross)), enter the value and click Apply to selection.

How do I create the products in Shopware?

1. In a draft, click Preview to check what would be written. Nothing is changed.
2. Click Create inactive. The button is disabled as long as Still open lists points.
3. To create many at once, click Create all ready products as inactive on the Drafts tab, or Publish ... ready products in the import steps.

The product is now in Shopware, inactive, and has the status In review. After the job a message offers Undo.

If your role needs an approval for this kind of change, you see Waiting for approval. A second person must approve the job, see Workflow. Nothing is written until then.

How do I review and activate new products?

1. Open Products > Product review. You need Approve and activate products; without it the page is View only.
2. For every product you see the preview, open points and the comparison Shop now and draft.
3. Decide: Accept (key Y), Reject (key N) or Skip (key S) to look at it later. Reject needs a reason. The product then stays inactive.
4. The arrow button (key U) takes back the last decision.
5. When you are through, click Activate ... approved, type the number of products to confirm and click Activate.

The products become active and appear in the shop at once.

How do I improve existing products?

1. Open the tab Rework existing. The tiles filter by issue: No description, No SEO title, No SEO description, No category, No picture, Inactive, Material/care in the text.
2. Click the products you want to select (100 at most).
3. Click Calculate suggestions for rule-based suggestions without AI, or Improve with AI.
4. Under Suggestions, each row shows the old and the new value with the badge Rule or AI. Tick what should be applied. A field is taken from the rule or from the AI, never from both.
5. Click Preview to check without writing, then Apply. For several products, type the number of products to confirm.

The products are changed in place. Nothing is created, and nothing is removed unless you tick it explicitly. After the job a message offers Undo.

Improve with AI

Improve with AI asks the AI for a better title, description, SEO texts, category and properties. plinth shows the cost first (The AI run costs about € ...) and you confirm with Start. The answers are only suggestions in the table. Improve all matching with AI (up to ...) does the same for all products of the current filter, in the background.

Sent to the AI provider are name, brand, description, SEO texts, categories and properties of each product, plus the category and property options of the shop. No customer, order or price data. The line Text style: ... above the list shows the brief in use.

Brand profiles

On the tab Brand profiles, select a brand and click Learn profile. plinth reads the brand's own products in the shop and derives facts such as material, care and origin. Unconfirmed facts are orange; Confirm confirms them. Confirmed facts prefill new products of this brand.

How do I maintain related products (cross-selling)?

Open Products > Related products. The suggestions come from shared baskets: products that were often ordered together. The data is collected overnight from the orders.

One product

1. In the list Top products by revenue, click a product.
2. Cross-selling in the shop shows the current groups in Shopware. Suggestions from shared baskets lists the suggestions with orders together, confidence, lift and stock.
3. Tick the suggestions and click Preview, then Add to "...".

Many products at once

1. Under Bulk action for the top products, set Top products (count) and Suggestions per product.
2. Click Preview. It shows per product what is in the group now and what will be added.
3. Untick the products you do not want and click Add for ... products.

plinth only adds to one cross-selling group of the type product list and creates the group if the product does not have it yet. Groups that come from a product stream are not written. After the job a message offers Undo.

Under Settings at the bottom of the list (permission Write related products) you set the Group name, the thresholds (Minimum confidence (%), Minimum lift, Minimum orders together), Maximum products in the group, Minimum stock and whether only products of the same brand are suggested.

How do I export article lists?

On the Exports tab under Products > Products you create CSV or Excel files with product data from the shop, for example an article list for a supplier or a price list. You need the permission Export drafts.

1. Open the Exports tab.
2. Under Starter templates choose a template and click Use template: Article list with sizes, Price list, Stock list or Master data per main product. New template starts empty.
3. Give the template a name (Template name) and choose under What is a row? Every variant, Every main product or Main product and variants.
4. Set the columns and their order under Columns. You can name the heading of every column freely. Add column adds a field. The tick in front of a column switches it off without removing it; in Article list with sizes the description is prepared like this.
5. Narrow down what goes into the file under Filters: Active products only, In stock only, Manufacturers, Categories, Product number starts with or Only these product numbers. Without filters the file contains all products of the shop.
6. Under File choose the File format: CSV (for Excel, UTF-8) or Excel (.xlsx), for CSV also Separator and Numbers. In Excel files EANs and leading zeros are kept safely.
7. Check the preview with your shop's data and click Save.
8. Click Export. The file is created as a job from the current shop data and is then ready for download.

The template stays saved under Export templates. You create the same export again later with one click on Export. Duplicate copies a template, Delete removes it. Every export and every download is in the audit log.

Good to know:

• A variant takes the name, description, manufacturer, price and category of its main product when it has no own value. The EAN is never taken from the main product: a variant without EAN gets an empty cell.
• With Every main product the stock is the sum of the variants.
• In a CSV file a text that starts with = + - or @ gets an apostrophe in front, so Excel does not run it as a formula. Numbers such as price and stock stay unchanged. Write values unchanged (no formula guard) switches this off for files a program reads.
• Only one export runs per shop at a time. If an export fails, the reason is shown under Exports of this template.

How do I undo something?

• After every job that wrote to Shopware a message appears with Undo. You also find the job later under Jobs.
• Undoing a creation removes the created products again, together with the images and new values it created, as long as no other product uses them.
• Undoing an activation makes the products inactive again. This needs Approve and activate products.
• Undoing a rework restores the previous texts, categories and properties.
• In the review, key U takes back your last decision.
• A draft that was never written needs no undo in Shopware. You can reject or delete it.

Warning: If someone has changed the same products since the job, plinth refuses the undo with Someone else has changed these products since the job. Check the products before you go on.

Common errors and fixes

See also

• Brands: add brands, SKU codes, brand texts
• Images: image checks and the folder upload
• Properties: tidy up property values
• Prices: prices of existing products
• Quality: find defects in existing products
• Workflow: approvals by a second person
• AI: AI key, features, budget
• Jobs: progress and undo of background work
• Access: roles and permissions
• Glossary