deleting products

[luckystars62]

Is there a way to delete all products from the storebuilder other than deleting 100 at a time? I update my product feed from my wholesaler once a week, and some products are no longer on the product feed. With 5000 items, there's no way to know which are no longer on the new list without going thru it one by one, and that's too time consuming. I can go thru and delete products 100 at a time, but it would be nice if there was a way to delete all at once.
Customer service told me to export and then import again, but exporting doesn't delete the products. It only makes a "copy" of all products in my storebuilder. It's really time consuming to delete only 100 at a time, so I can start over with the new list.

[taxthis]

Does importing a new file wipe out the current product feed? I'm not going to try it in my account, but this is in the help file:

If, in the file you are attempting to import, you have not made any changes to products already stored in the Store Builder (that is, if you only added products and did not modify or remove any of the products you exported), then you may check the "Skip products if they already exist" checkbox to speed the import process. If you check this box, the Store Builder will not import any products whose item numbers match those already in its database.
If the file you are attempting to import does contain changes to the products already listed in the Store Builder, do not check the box. The Store Builder will then replace the products in its database with the products you import that have a matching item number.

If so, my idea would be to import a 1 line product feed that overwrites the current data. Put a space or some character in each required cell.

I'm afraid if you import the same feed with similar product numbers, the storebuilder only updates, which is why I am suggesting a clean import of a dummy product list. If some products are deleted from the wholesaler's listing, they won't be deleted in a single import because it won't need to update them.

If that overwrites the old products, then get the wholesalers new product feed with current products and import that once again.

In the end, you'll be doing 2 imports my way. One is one-line file and the second is the updated product listing. See if that works out.

[luckystars62]

Your suggestion got me thinking, and I think I'll try this next time I update. Using the same idea you had, I'll export products, and change them to "N" under "available" and import that. Then, I'll import the new datafeed, and any products with the same item number will update with the new information, but if they're not on the new list, then they'll be listed as "not available".

Thanks!! This will be much faster than going thru 100 at a time and deleting them, and will accomplish the task.

[Lissa Nixon]

It frightens me thinking of deleting all products.
Anyway suggestion. Export to Excel. (Make a backup copy in case you need it again.) Delete the whole lot leaving the headings and one record. Import it back to the store.

Lissa

[luckystars62]

Lissa -- exporting doesn't delete products. It makes a "copy" of your products. The import only affects items with the same item number, so if I were to import a new list with only 1 product, then all the other 4999 would remain in the product list, unchanged.
that's why I figured if I import a list with all as "unavailable", and the new datafeed doesn't have a certain item number anymore, then it'll just stay in the product list as unavailable, until that item eventually comes back up on a new product list. Then the new info will update that item number.

[Lissa Nixon]

We have been told we can add more products through excel as long as we have one existing product in the product list already. So, I thought it is logical to think that we can delete products as well just like we can add them. I haven't tried it before anyway.

Lissa