One common question we often get asked by our website maintenance customers is - how do I bulk update a product attribute? Does it need an extension? The simple answer is no, with the 'update attributes' action in Magento you can quickly and easily edit and manage product attributes in bulk.
There are lots of extensions out there which offer more advanced bulk update functionality, but if you're looking to work with your catalog's core product attributes, Magento's bulk update functionality is likely to be enough.
Updating Magento's Product Attributes in Bulk
Magento is driven by attributes and so it's easy for store owners to update these in bulk should they wish to do so.
Whether it's for 10 or 1000 products, follow this step by step guide on how to apply bulk attribute changes to your Magento products..
Step 1
The first thing you'll need to do is go to your admin panel, hover over catalog and from the drop down menu, click on 'Manage Products'.
Step 2
From here, you will have a complete list of your products in Magento. To the left of each product name there will be a tick box. Tick the products that you want to include in your product update
Step 3
Once you've selected all the products you want to update, look towards the top right of the product listing and you will see a drop-down menu labelled 'Actions'. Select 'Update Attributes' and click the submit button.
Step 4
There are 3 different tabs that you can use, that all enable you to apply different types of bulk product updates.
Update Attributes Tab
The first is the update attributes tab, here you can browse all of the product attributes associated with the products that you've previously selected, from the brand to the VAT class.
For example, you may want to update the visibility of your product selection from not 'not visible individually' to visible in 'catalog and search'. This is easy using 'update attributes'
It's possible to change any attributes associated with your products, just make sure you want to apply the same bulk update to all the products you selected. Once you find the attribute you want to change, remember to check the 'change' box underneath the attribute.
If you've entered multiple changes and realised you've made a few mistakes, there's a handy refresh button at the top right that you can use to get rid of all the current changes you've made before you hit save.
Inventory Tab
The next tab down the left-hand side of the page is the inventory tab. This tab will allow you to perform multiple changes in terms of your general inventory.
For example, you can bulk change stock levels, so if you do an inventory check and realise a few products have a different stock-level to when you last checked, you can bulk update this. You can also bulk update whether products are 'in-stock' or 'out-of-stock' should you wish manually do so.
Websites Tab
The final tab is the websites tab. If you run multiple ecommerce websites from one Magento instance, you can use this tab to remove products or assign products to a website or store view in bulk.
Next, we would suggest to go back and check all of your changes, including making sure you have ticked all the 'change' boxes that you need.
Finally, after you've checked all of your changes and are happy with them. Click the save button.
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