Edit Products in Bulk: Quick, Easy, Right in your Control Panel

14 min read

An online seller’s routine is the definition of “always busy.” You just received a new batch of products — time to update stock levels in your online store. And don’t forget to update your prices in several categories — you have a sale starting tomorrow!

With Ecwid E-commerce, you can do quick and effortless updates with our new tool, Bulk Product Editor. Edit several products at once right from your Control Panel. See for yourself:

Now you can quickly edit anything you need in a spreadsheet

A clear and convenient spreadsheet allows you to change product details for dozens of items. It looks just like Excel or Google Sheet, but lives conveniently in your Control Panel.

No need to open a product details page, make changes, save them, then open another product page and repeat the same process over and over again. Save time and precious energy on updates—energy that you can channel into finding the right stock, or upping your marketing game!

If you’re used to editing products in bulk via exporting and importing CSV files, switch to this new tool. You’ll appreciate how much faster you can get the work done.

Read on to find out the specifics of how Bulk Product Editor works, and check out other ways to edit products with Ecwid.

When You Should Use Bulk Product Editor

This new tool is a lifesaver when you need to update lots of products as quickly as possible. For example:

Reduce prices for a sale
Tomorrow, you’re launching a sale on all the items in your spring collection. Select these products to set up new prices for all of them. Or add “Compare to” prices (“was X”) so that customers see how much they’ll save shopping your sale.
Update product stock levels
A new batch of in-demand items is ready to be sold. It’s time to update product stock information in your online store. And you’d better hurry, because you don’t want customers to see a sad “Out of stock” label and leave without a purchase.
Plus, you can use Bulk Product Editor to quickly check how many products are in stock — handy for stores with a large inventory.
Assign categories to products
It takes just four clicks to move all products from your “Winter collection” to your “Sale” category. Yep, just four. We counted.
Make product names consistent
Your store grows, new products are going to be added all the time. As a result, some older product names might be a bit out of date. Say, you used to name all hats just “Hat.” Now you want to make your product names more descriptive — “Red Wool Hat” so it’s easier for customers to find what they’re looking for in your store. Now you can quickly update product names in a convenient spreadsheet.
Highlight items with product ribbons
Draw attention to products on sale with product ribbons. For example, add one that says “50% off,” “Gift idea,” or “Bestseller.” Your store will be ready for a sale in sixty seconds or less!

You can do all of the above without opening any product details pages. Read on to learn how.

Bulk Edit Products in a Spreadsheet

Bulk Product Editor is already available for all Ecwid stores. You can even use this tool to edit just one product, but you’ll especially appreciate its convenience if you have an extensive product catalog.

To edit several products at once, go to Catalog → Products. Choose the products you want to edit — use filters for easier navigation. For example, you can select:

products from the same or several categories
products with the same name (by searching for the product name)
out-of-stock products.

You can also use filters you’ve saved previously.

Mark products you want to edit with a checkmark. Choose Bulk Update → Edit Selected above the product list. (Or don’t mark any products and simply click Bulk Update → Edit All. That’ll work as well.)

Click “Bulk Update” to edit items in bulk. Choose “Edit Selected” to update products in a spreadsheet.

You will see the products you selected listed in a table. You can edit each cell. Use your mouse or keyboard to navigate the table.

Choose the properties you want to edit in the Columns menu on the left to add the corresponding columns to the spreadsheet. For example, if you need to update the stock levels only, select just one column — Stock. This way, you won’t get distracted by other product properties.

Click the column’s name to sort products by individual properties.

On the left, choose which product properties to display in the table

Here are the product properties you can edit in your table:

Name
SKU
Availability (simply check the box if the product is available)
Price
“Compare at” price
Stock (how many products are available for purchase)
Product quantity when the low stock notification is sent
Whether the product requires shipping or pickup (if it does, check the box)
Weight
Dimensions (when that property is selected, there are three columns in the table: length, width, and height)
And more! See the full list of product properties you can update with Bulk Product Editor.

You can still also edit all those properties on the product details page (if you like doing things the old-fashioned way).

One day, you’ll be able to edit more product properties in Bulk Product Editor — we’re already working on additions to this feature! Feel free to share in the comments which product details you’d like to be able to edit in the spreadsheet.

That’s not all, folks: you can edit product variations in the table too! If you have product variations in your store, you’ll see them under the product’s name:

Product variations are highlighted in grey

You can edit any property of product variations, except for Availability. If a product is available on the storefront, that means its variations are also visible to customers.

When you edit 30, 50, or 100 items at once, it’s hard to remember which properties are already updated. But no worries, you won’t get confused — each updated product is marked with a dot at the beginning of the row:

The dots disappear after you save the changes

You’ll be notified if you make an incorrect change by accident. For example, this notification is displayed when a person assigns an existing SKU to a product variation:

We’ll warn you if there are any errors in the table

These boxes are displayed when changes conflict with the store’s settings or if they may confuse you.

Say you’ve chosen to hide out-of-stock products in your storefront. If you check the Availability box for an out-of-stock item in the table, you’ll see this pop-up:

Click the triangle to see a notification

The product is out-of-stock, so it won’t be displayed on the storefront. The clue will notify you about that.

You can edit up to 100 products at the same time in your spreadsheet, no more. This way, we can ensure that the Bulk Product Editor loads consistently fast.

If you have more than 100 items in your store, group them using filters before editing. Or follow these steps: edit the first 100 items in the table, save changes, go back to the product list, go to the next page of the list, and edit products listed there.

You can use both your mouse and keyboard when working with the Bulk Product Editor. The latter can be faster and more convenient when you get the hang of it. Use Tab, Enter, Esc, arrow, and space keys to move around the table and make changes in the cells. Here’s a detailed how-to.

Mass Update Products in a Click

Editing products in the spreadsheet saves a tremendous amount of time, but there’s a way to update products even faster. You can apply some changes in a click: enable or disable items on the storefront, change product ribbons, or manage categories.

To do that, go to Catalog → Products, select the products you want to update, click Bulk Update and choose a quick action:

Quick actions that you can apply to several products

Enable or disable several products

For example, if you need to hide an old collection in your store. Or enable all hidden out-of-stock products once you restock them.

Enable several items in a click

Add or remove ribbons from selected items

Product ribbons are available on all paid pricing plans. If your store is on the Free plan, you won’t be able to mass update ribbons. Upgrade to the Venture plan or higher to use product ribbons and other Ecwid tools.

Say, you added ribbons to items some time ago, and now you need to highlight other products. You can remove all old ribbons at once and add new ones in just a few clicks.

Filter products by old ribbons and mass delete them. Then, add new ribbons:

Choose the items you want to add a ribbon to

In the window that appears, click “Add Ribbons to Selected,” enter ribbon text and choose its color. That’s it! It’s the fastest way to let your customers know about a sale or new arrivals.

The “Sale” ribbon will be added to all selected products

Product with the “Sale” ribbon on the storefront

Manage product categories

You can assign or remove categories in bulk for selected products. For example, you can move items from one category to another. Using filters, choose products from the category you need and click “Assign or remove categories.” Remove an old category and assign a new one at once.

Assign a new category to the selected categories

Or, you might need to move discounted products from different categories to the “Sale” category:

Moving products from different categories (they are marked with minuses) to the “Sale” category

To mass update categories, you need to create at least one category in your store (apart from the default “Store front page” category.)

Learn more about our Bulk Product Editor in the Help Center. Still have questions? Let’s hear them in the comments section, or reach out to our Customer Care team. We’re always happy to help!

Other Ways to Bulk Edit Products in Ecwid Stores

We designed the Bulk Product Editor so that you can edit lots of products at once, quickly and effortlessly. But we’re not going to stop there — stay tuned for new features of Bulk Product Editor! And if you’ve already thought of some ideas for giving this tool an upgrade, feel free to share them in the comments section.

Of course, you can still make changes on a product details page. And here are two more options for editing products in bulk:

Export and import files
If you edit lots of products every day, that’s your option. Export the products you want to edit. You’ll download a CSV file where you can edit any product properties. After you make changes, import the file to your store.
The Bulk Product Editor app
Paid plans users can install the Bulk Product Editor app from the Ecwid App Market. It’s similar to the built-in Bulk Product Editor, but it also allows you to add or delete product options and change their properties.

Bulk Product Editor is available on all pricing plans. Give it a try — we can’t wait to hear your feedback!