Creating Products Using a File

1. The File Structure

With a product data file, you can send product information for several items in one go.

To do this, create an Excel table in a spreadsheet and save it as a CSV (Comma delimited) file (see: The Right File Type)

The product data on an item page on Kaufland.de is divided into attributes. These attributes may include the title, description, color, and weight, for example. The individual attributes must each be entered in a separate column in the product data file. Your various items must in turn each be entered in a separate row. In the top row, write the header with the technical names of the attributes. For further information, see: The Right Attributes

Your product file could look like this (this is only an example and provided for illustrative purposes).

Further examples of files are provided here: Product File Templates

Please note that each attribute must have a separate column. If you wish to enter more than one value for an attribute, these must also each be entered in a separate column with the same header.
Example:

2. The Right File Type

The product files must always be saved as a CSV (Comma delimited) file to ensure that the files are imported without any problems. Other formats will be automatically rejected by our system and cannot be processed properly.

Please note that a CSV file may only contain one spreadsheet and all other spreadsheets will be deleted.

3. The Right EAN Format

When uploading your product files, please also make sure that the EAN column is formatted correctly. To do this, select the “ean” column in your CSV file. Right-click to open an editing window where you can “Format Cells...”. Select the “Number” tab and the category “Number” in this window and enter “0” for the decimal places.

4. The Right Attributes

An overview of all attributes that are available in our system, as well as short descriptions and possible values, is available here: Article Attributes

As we want to ensure that we offer our customers the highest-quality product information and there are legal requirements pertaining to the minimum information provided, we have set certain attributes as mandatory attributes. These mandatory attributes must be provided at a minimum.

(more detailed information is provided in our Product Data Guidelines.

• ean
• category
• title
• description
• manufacturer
• picture

Depending on the category to which the product is assigned, there may also be additional mandatory attributes. Further information is available here: Mandatory Attributes

You are, of course, welcome to provide further information in addition to these mandatory attributes in the category-specific attributes. Doing so makes it easier for your products to be found in the shop via our navigation function, therefore also boosting your sales.

If you are not sure which attributes are available in the relevant categories, you can create a template file for the category concerned at the following link: Product Data Quality Export

To do this, enter the relevant category in the search field toward the bottom of the page (in this example, “Sneaker”) and select “CSV erstellen” (Create CSV).

A window with a list of the available attributes opens. The technical name that you should use as the header in your product data file is provided in parentheses. You can then click on “CSV erstellen” (Create CSV) to create a template file.

5. Product Data File Templates

General Template

In our product data template, you will find the most important attributes and their correct spelling Product Data Template

6. Manual Product Data Upload

To send us your completed product file, please log into your Kaufland.de seller account and go to “Produktdaten verwalten” (Manage product data) on the left-hand side under “Meine Angebote” (My offers) (see no. 2 in image). Then go to “Produktdatendatei hochladen” (Upload product data file) (no. 3). Here, you can select and upload your product data file.

7. Automatic Product Data Upload

If you want to regularly send a product data file to us at a fixed time, you can do this automatically by setting up an automatic product data upload. To do this, you must store the file on a server so that we can retrieve it via a static URL. Please enter this URL in your seller account under “Produktdaten verwalten – Automatischer Produktdatenupload” (Manage product data – Automatic product data upload) (see image) and select the day and time of retrieval there. We will then retrieve your product data file automatically at the specified time.

8. Processing Your Data

Once you have submitted your product file to us, we will import and check the file.

If you want to check the current status of your file, you can do so under “Angebote per Datei verwalten” (Manage offers via file) in the “Übersicht” (Overview) (see image). Your last ten files are listed here.

As well as checking the status, you can also see how many rows in your file have been recognized by our system and when you started the upload.

Your product file has only been accepted and released for processing once the status has changed to “In Verarbeitung – Import completed“ (Processing – Import completed). Our system will now prepare the new products you have created and, where applicable, will add your product data to existing product pages. When the status changes to “Fertig” (Finished), processing is complete and your changes are visible.

9. Product-Related Review and Product Data Feedback

When your file reaches the status “Fertig – Import completed” (Finished – Import completed) and we have successfully imported your data, the system checks each individual product again to analyze the quality of the product data entered.

First, it checks whether your product is valid. A product is only valid if all mandatory attributes have been completed (see The Right Attributes). A product can only be offered and sold if it is valid. If it is invalid, it will not be created and therefore cannot be sold.

If your product is valid, the individual attributes will be checked. Our system works according to the principle that a product can contain data from different sources (sellers, suppliers, etc.). The system decides which of this data is then visible to the customer based on certain rules that assess the quality of the individual values. This means that, in certain circumstances, your data may be successfully imported by our system but not visible on the product information page because there is already higher-quality data available from another source.

In your product data feedback, you can see if values have been declined or modified. Further information is available here: Product Data Feedback