Knowledge Base

Retail Express

Data Concierge (DIY option)

Retail Express offers a service to assist customers in getting their data into Retail Express in an easy, stress-free and efficient way.

Using the Data Concierge DIY Template you can enter your data onto a spreadsheet, and either send it to us to review, or upload it straight into Retail Express yourself! Everything you need to know about the template is included below for you, and if you want to send us the form, click on the "Send us your data" section to access the upload form.

📋 Note: We might be able to do it all for you! Click to view details on the Data Concierge service to see if we can help.

Download Template

Using the data concierge template

📋 Note: You may be prompted to click Enable Content to enable the automated functionality within the spreadsheet.

The file contains 3 tabs (Customers, Products, Suppliers). Within each tab you can find the following information:

Mandatory fields	Each column has been colour-coded to indicate if the data is mandatory or not. Red - mandatory Green - optional
Field name	The data required in that column e.g. Supplier SKU
Character limit/type	The number of characters or type of data required by the field e.g. True/False, 255 characters etc.
Field description	By hovering over the column name you will can view detailed information about the column. The descriptions are only visible when you have scrolled to the top of the spreadsheet due to the Excel "Freeze Panes" functionality.

To add your data:

Open the file
Click on the required tab e.g. Products
Begin adding your data by adding one entity per row e.g. one product per row
Save the file frequently
When complete, use the form in Send us your data below to forward the file to your Project Manager

Note: If you want to upload the data straight into Retail Express, use the button at the top of the spreadsheet to automatically transform your data into an upload spreadsheet. Follow the instructions on either the Customer, Product or Supplier upload articles for step-by-step information on uploading the each file.

Data Requirements

During the Data Concierge process there's only 3 pieces of data we work with:

Products
Suppliers
Customers (optional)

Click on the headings below to review the minimum data requirements for each area.

Sending us your Customer data is optional, however if you choose to do so, there's specific data requirements on what we need in order to upload the data for you.

Tip: you can send additional information on any of these areas if available; we'll do our best to fit this into the system where possible. Your Retail Express Implementation Manager will be able to discuss this with you once they review your data.

Customers

There is only one mandatory field for a customer, however as a minimum we recommend you provide the following:

Field	Details
First Name*	The first name of the customer
Last Name	The last name of the customer
Custom Reference	Used if the customer is part of a loyalty group or have a unique reference e.g. X783SL778-2
Email	Required if using an eCommerce integration, the email address is typically used as the customer's login
ReceiveEmail	If the customer has subscribed to any newsletter mailing lists or any other communication channels

* Mandatory field

Products

As a minimum we need the following information about products to be able to import these into Retail Express:

Field	Details
Product Name	Used for the "Short Description" in Retail Express, this will appear in most places around the system and within POS
Supplier SKU	Commonly referred to as SKU or Barcode. This is the unique code for each individual product.
Product Type	The category of the product e.g. Clothing, Clothing - Mens
Supplier	The supplier of the product, can be either a full name or unique code
Buy Price (ex. tax)	Commonly referred to as the Cost Price; how much you purchase the product for from your supplier
POS Price (inc. tax)	The price you sell your product to your customers

Any other additional information is welcome for import, however without any of the above fields your products won't be able to loaded into the system.

Suppliers

There is only one mandatory field for a Supplier, however as a minimum we recommend you provide the following:

Field	Details
Supplier	The name of the Supplier
Supplier Code	A code used to identify the supplier easily (typically used in Filters within the system)
Contact Phone	The phone number for the supplier
Contact Email	The email address used to contact the supplier

Data Import Examples

Below are some examples of how data can be corrected into a more suitable format.

Mismatched/inconsistent data format

Retail Express has two default size and colour attribute fields making it easy to identify similar products from one another, for example two shirts of the same style but one that's black and one that's white.

📋 Note: As well as the other default attributes (Season, Brand) you can also create custom attributes within the system for any other information you want to track. See the Product Attributes article for more information.

A common situation is to have the colour and/or as part of the product name.

Correct import

Product example: "Stealth Shirt - Black - 10"

In the example the format of the product name is Name - Colour - Size. This makes it easy to extract the information and separate it into three different fields for import, since each attribute is separated by a dash.

datascenario-coloursizeformatcorrect-imported (1).png

Incorrect import

Product example: "Stealth Shirt - 10 - Black" and "Stealth Shirt - Red - 10"

If the product names aren't consistent it can potentially result in the data being imported incorrectly (noting the different order of the size and colour attributes in the name of the products in the example):

datascenario-coloursizeformatcorrect-notimported (1).png

Note: Our Implementation team reviews the data prior to import and will do their best to identify any issues, however we cannot guarantee the accuracy. You should review this data carefully before import if uploading the data yourself.

Recommendations:

Review your data before sending it to your Retail Express Implementation Manager
Update the data to be consistent
Ideally separate the data into Size/Colour columns prior to sending it to your Implementation Manager

Import file missing mandatory information

If the import file is missing mandatory data we won't be able to upload it into your system. Instead, your Implementation Manager will contact you and ask you to complete the information. This will cost valuable time and mean that you'll have to work on the data twice.

📋 Note: Mandatory fields are highlighted on the spreadsheet in red.

Send us your data

Use the form below to send us your data; you can send a maximum of 5 files at one time.

Important:PDF files will not be accepted.