When moving from another platform to Lightspeed eCom, consider adding your customers by importing. It is faster than manually entering your customers one by one.

Also when managing your eCom store, use the import tool to make bulk edits to your customers.

Having all your customers in Lightspeed eCom assists your:

• Employees by making it easier to create quotes, add customers to customer groups, and notify customers.
• Customers by entering their billing, shipping, and company information for them. However, your customer will still have to reset their password in order to access their customer account. For more information on how to communicate this to your customers, click here.

Instructions

A successful import depends on the quality of your data. That's why most of the steps you need to follow when importing to eCom revolve around your worksheet. For more information on why a worksheet is important, click here.

Use the following instructions to begin:

1. Creating a data backup
2. Preparing your worksheet
3. Importing your worksheet
4. Verifying your worksheet

1. Creating a data backup

Skip this step if you're importing new customers to Lightspeed eCom.

In order to begin editing your customer details and importing the changes, create a data backup of the current customer data you have in Lightspeed eCom. If you have customer data from another platform, create a safe backup.

1. On the left menu of the Back Office, click Tools.
2. Click Exports.
3. At the top right-hand side of the page, click New Export.
4. Next to Choose what you want to export, click Products to view the dropdown list.
5. Click Customers.
6. Click Export.
7. In the Status column see that the status is PROCESSING. When the status becomes FINISHED, processing is complete. On the right-hand side of the screen, click Download.
8. Locate a location on your computer that is easy to locate and click Save. In this example, we are naming the file Backup Customer Data File and will be saving it on the desktop.
   
   

2. Preparing your worksheet

In order to create new customers or edit existing ones, these steps instruct you to create a new table that will become your worksheet.

1. Click here to log in to your Google account and open Google Sheets.
2. Create a new blank sheet by clicking +. This will be used as your worksheet.
3. In column A, row 1: Copy the following required column titles and paste them in your worksheet:
   

   Firstname

   Lastname

   E-mail

   
4. Access your customer data. In these instructions, the customer data is located in the Backup Customer Data File we saved to our desktop in  1. Creating a data backup. Open it using Google sheets by following these directions:
   1. To go back to the Sheets Home, in the top left-hand corner of the screen, click the Sheets icon while pressing command (Mac) or CTRL (PC) on your keyboard. This should open the link in a second tab.
   2. Create a new blank sheet by clicking +.
   3. Click File > Open.
   4. Click Upload.
   5. Click Select a file from your computer.
   6. Locate and select your backup file and click Open.
5. Highlight all the first names and copy them.
6. Open the first tab in your browser to access your worksheet and in column A, row 2, paste the first names into the Firstname column.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for your customer's last name and email.
8. In column D, row 1 of your worksheet, paste the optional column titles you require. To see the optional column titles, click here. In this example, the Confirmed column title from the Account details column title group was pasted.
   
9. Select the second tab to access your data backup and copy the customer data applicable to the optional columns. In this example, the data in the Confirmed column is being copied:
   
10. Open the first tab to paste the customer data into the corresponding columns.
11. To prevent any unintended edits from occurring, sort your data and delete any rows your not planning on editing. In this example, the customers that have already been confirmed were deleted from the worksheet by sorting by the Confirmed column:
    
    
    Then delete any rows with Yes in the Confirmed column:
    
12. Confirm the format for the contents of each column by searching the Column group or column title in the table located here. Then enter your edits into your worksheet. In this example, research has determined the format to Confirm customers in the Confirmed column is Yes. So, Yes is entered into each column:
13. When all your edits are complete in your worksheet, save it to your computer in CSV format. This can be done by clicking File > Download As > Comma separated values (.CSV).

3. Import your data file

Now that you've prepared your data file and have it saved to your computer, you can now upload the file to eCom through the Import tool.

1. Login to your eCom store's Back Office and click Tools.
2. Click New Import.
3. Click Browse computer.
4. Locate your worksheet and click Open.
5. Click Choose what you want to import and select Customers.
6. The page will continue automatically.
7. The fields in the section SET FIELD TYPES will be automatically mapped to the correct fields as long as the column headers were not modified in your worksheet. If some columns are not mapped, refer to this article to find the appropriate matches. On the top right-hand side of the screen, click Continue.
8. Click Start the import. The import tool will begin processing your import. You do not have to remain on the page and may come back to it later.

4. Verify your changes

It is necessary to verify if your edits were successful after starting an import. After checking the import tool for errors, it is important to test some customers from your worksheet at random and confirming your edits took place.

Confirm no errors occurred during the import:

1. Log in to your eCom store's Back Office and click Tools.
2. Locate your import by the date or the filename and click View report next to the status.
3. If any errors are visible, make corrections to your worksheet and import your edits again. To see frequently asked questions and ask your own questions about errors, visit the Lightspeed Community article, here.

Confirm the edits took place

1. In Google Sheets, open the worksheet that you uploaded to Lightspeed eCom.
2. Select any row at random and copy the customer's email.
3. Login to your eCom store's Back Office and select Customers.
4. Paste your customer's email in the search bar.
5. Search for your customer's name by pressing Enter on your keyboard.
6. Click on your customer's name.
7. Click edit to view all your customer's editable information.
8. Compare the customer's editable information with your worksheet to ensure the changes you made are reflected correctly.
9. Repeat steps 1-8 for a couple customers until you're certain all your changes have been correctly imported.

Reference

Review the following information to assist you with importing customers.

Communicating to customers they need to reset their password

If you're importing your customers, you will need to explain to them to reset their password if you want them to use the account you're creating for them. You can use one of two methods: Using Lightspeed or Using an external mailing platform.