Guide · Brands import

Brands

You can already create a brand just by naming it on a product row. This is for editing the brand's own fields: its SEO title, meta, search keywords, image and URL.

Commands

Command	Description	Behaviour
NEW	Create a new brand.	Fails if a brand with the same name already exists.
UPDATE	Update an existing brand.	Uses `Brand ID` if given, otherwise finds the brand by name. Fails if there is none.
MERGE	Create or update.	The default. Updates the brand if the name exists, creates it otherwise.
DELETE	Delete a brand.	Uses `Brand ID` if given, otherwise finds it by name.
REPLACE	Refused for brands.	Fails the row. Re-creating a brand would give it a new id, leaving every product that used the old one with no brand. Use UPDATE.
IGNORE	Skip this row.	Does nothing, and is recorded as skipped rather than as a success.

Columns

CSV column	BigCommerce field	Required	Description
`Command`	—	Optional	NEW \| MERGE \| UPDATE \| DELETE \| IGNORE. Default MERGE.
`Brand ID`	`id`	Optional	BigCommerce brand id. Give it for UPDATE or DELETE and no lookup is needed.
`Brand Name`	`name`	Required	The brand name. BigCommerce keeps it unique, which is why a brand can be found by name alone. Not required if you give a `Brand ID`.
`Page Title`	`page_title`	Optional	SEO title for the brand page.
`Meta Keywords`	`meta_keywords`	Optional	Comma-separated, e.g. "shoes,running".
`Meta Description`	`meta_description`	Optional	SEO meta description.
`Search Keywords`	`search_keywords`	Optional	Extra words that should find this brand in store search.
`Image URL`	`image_url`	Optional	A publicly reachable image. BigCommerce downloads it and re-hosts it, so what comes back is its own URL, not yours.
`Custom URL`	`custom_url`	Optional	Storefront path. The leading and trailing slashes are added for you.

Example file

Command,Brand ID,Brand Name,Page Title,Meta Keywords,Meta Description,Search Keywords,Image URL,Custom URL
MERGE,,Sagaform,Sagaform,"glass,nordic",Nordic glassware,sagaform,https://example.com/sagaform.jpg,sagaform
MERGE,,Common Good,Common Good,,Natural cleaning products,,,common-good
UPDATE,35,,Sagaform — Official,,,,,
DELETE,,Discontinued Brand,,,,,,

Things worth knowing

The name filter is exact. Searching brands by name matches the whole name, not part of it — so "H&M" and "H & M" are two different brands, exactly as they are in the BigCommerce admin.
Images come back different. BigCommerce downloads the image you give and serves its own copy, so an export shows its URL rather than the one you imported. Re-importing that is harmless; it just will not match your original.
Deleting a brand does not delete its products. They are left without a brand.
Blank cells never overwrite. A column you leave out, or leave empty, is not sent; a cell holding only spaces counts as empty.
A brand created mid-import is recovered, not failed. With several workers on one file, two rows can try to create the same new brand at once. BigCommerce refuses the second, and rather than failing that product row the app looks the name up instead — which also covers someone adding the brand in the admin while an import is running.
Check before you run. The file check flags any column that would be ignored, and a dry run previews every row without writing anything.