Documentation

Guide

Every column, every command, and every measured BigCommerce behaviour that shapes them. Written from a live store rather than from the API reference, so where the two disagree, this says which one is true.

These pages are the reference the app itself uses. Nothing here is aspirational: each behaviour was measured against a real BigCommerce store, and where the platform does something surprising — a category delete taking its children with it, a product update appending images instead of replacing them, a blog post refusing anything but RFC 2822 dates — it is written down with the response that proved it.

If you are new, read the dry run first. It is the one feature worth understanding before you write anything to a store you care about.

Getting started

Connecting your storeHow to create a BigCommerce API token, which scopes each feature needs, and the difference between disconnecting, rotating and revoking it. The dry runEvery import can be previewed without writing anything. The dry run is not a simulation of the importer — it is the importer, with the writes intercepted. Results and historyHow to read what a run actually did — the status, the badges, the per-row log, and the results file that lets you fix failed rows and re-import the same sheet.

Import types

ProductsEvery column the product importer reads, how rows are matched to existing products, and what BigCommerce does with variants, images, videos, modifiers and metafields that its own documentation does not mention. CategoriesBuilding and moving a BigCommerce category tree from a spreadsheet — path-based hierarchy, renames, moves, and why a DELETE takes the whole subtree with it unless you say otherwise. Web pagesImporting BigCommerce storefront pages from a spreadsheet — the four writable page types, resolving a parent by name, and the Blog index page that refuses its own type back. Blog postsImporting BigCommerce blog posts from a spreadsheet — the one date format the platform accepts, why there is no Summary column, and what happens when two posts share a title. RedirectsBulk-importing 301 redirects into BigCommerce from a spreadsheet — the destination types, why there is no "custom" type, and why the site id should be left blank. BrandsEditing BigCommerce brands in bulk — the SEO fields, the exact-match name filter that keeps "H&M" and "H & M" apart, and why an imported brand image comes back with a different URL. CustomersImporting BigCommerce customers, their addresses and custom attributes from a spreadsheet — identified by email, and with the one column that emails them called out. Customer groupsCreating BigCommerce customer groups from a spreadsheet — discount rules, category access, and why one row describes one discount.

Editing and export

Catalog and bulk editBrowsing a BigCommerce catalog and changing one field across every product a filter matches — why a bulk edit is an ordinary product import, and why there is no "select all". Product editorsEditing one BigCommerce product in the browser — variants, option swatches, image order, metafields and custom fields, and the refusals that exist because the platform would otherwise lose data. ExportExporting BigCommerce products, categories, pages, blog posts, redirects, brands and customers as CSV or Excel — with the same column names the importer reads, so the file goes straight back in.