Major Feature Announcement: Bulk Order Importer
We are excited to present Propago’s newest major feature, the front end Bulk Order Importer. Give your clients the power to submit whole lists of orders at once with complete freedom to finely tune products and recipients each order.
The front end Bulk Order Importer is an alternative to using the back end Task Manager for bulk order imports. The main advantage of this new bulk order importer is that it doesn’t require the setup and use of FTP folders or any coordination or passing of files between you and your client. It’s a fully self-service front end feature.
This bulk ordering tool is also distinct from the Bulk Checkout function, which enables users to send an order to a list of addresses, either via an upload or by choosing from the Address Book. Bulk Checkout is a great tool for sending one order to many addresses. The Bulk Order Importer goes further by allowing front end admins to place any number of orders and designate different SKUs, quantities, and addresses for each.
Using the Bulk Order Importer is as simple as downloading the data sheet template, filling out the order information, and uploading the data sheet. If errors appear in the bulk order file, clients can download the error report to see and fix the errors keeping the file from processing.
In addition, clients can add information such as order comments, custom fields, company names, and PO orders to orders in their bulk order files.
This tool expands the list of bulk import tools your clients can use to speed up their workflows that includes:
- Bulk Address Book Import
- Bulk Accounting Unit Import
- Bulk User Import
- Bulk Coop Import
Empower your clients with the ability to push a pre-determined set of orders through the system with the self-service Bulk Order Importer.
New Portal-Level Setting: Allow Order Import Aggs.
In addition to the front end Bulk Order Importer, we have also released a new optional portal-level setting that will apply pricing aggregates to ALL bulk ordering workflows: the new Bulk Order Importer, back end Task Manager imports, and Bulk Checkout orders.
This means that if you have, for example, an aggregate setup for a collection of promo items, you can toggle the Allow Order Import Aggs. setting to choose whether you want those items to have their quantities counted together for calculating pricing discounts in Bulk Checkout orders and Bulk Order imports.
This setting can be found in the back end by going to Portals / select a customer / Settings, in the Order Settings section.
Learn more about Aggregates.
Benefits to the Client
- Place orders in bulk without the use of FTP folders, all on the front end.
- Designate SKUs, quantities, addresses, and other info per order line in a spreadsheet and import the orders for processing all at once.
- Two data sheet template options, the Standard template and the Pivot template, allow clients to choose the format that best suits their uses and workflow.
How It Works
The front end Bulk Order Importer works by uploading an order import file that is then processed by the system. Front end admins can access the Bulk Order Importer via the Admin / Orders page. Then they can download a template for the bulk import file and fill it out with order information.
NOTE: The Bulk Order Importer has two file format options: Standard and Pivot. The key difference between these formats is that the Standard format will have a line per order line and the Pivot format will have a line per order.
Standard: The order_key column is used to identify which lines are part of the same order. You can use any string of numbers in the order_key column as long as each order has a distinct string. Each line in the file will correspond to an order line. Each grouping of lines with the same order_key will correspond to an order.
Pivot: Each SKU to be ordered must be given its own column and in those columns clients will list the quantity for each, per order. Each line in the file will correspond to an order.
Front end admins can use the Bulk Order Importer by doing the following:
- Go to Admin / Orders.
- Click on Import Orders in the top-right corner.
- Download either the Standard or Pivot template.
- Fill out the template with information per order line for at least the required columns.
- Select or drag and drop the bulk order import file.
- The system will check for errors in the file. If errors are found, a pop-up will indicate how many lines have errors and you will be able to download an error report file.
- If no errors are detected, a pop-up will display how many orders and order lines are ready for import.
- Click Continue to import the orders.
- On the next page, you will be able to see information regarding the orders and their processing status.
The Bulk Order Importer template contains the following required columns:
- SKU (for Standard)
- Quantity (for Standard)
- Shipto_name
- Shipto_address
- Shipto_city
- Shipto_state
- Shipto_zip
- Shipto_country
If using the Standard template, you will also be required to fill out the order_key column.
If using the Pivot template, you will need to create a column per SKU and the quantity information will be filled provided in each SKU column.
The Bulk Order Importer template contains the following optional columns:
- Shipto_company
- Shipto_address2
- Shipto_address3
- Shipto_email
- Shipto_phone
- Custom01
- Custom02
- Custom03
- Custom04
- Custom05
- PO_number
- Order_comments
