Manually Import Products: Choose Your Stores, Statuses and Products

Open Products → Import → Manual to choose exactly which connected stores, product statuses, and items to bring into Indexync. Manual import is the fallback to Auto Import for what it doesn't cover: archived, sold-out, or already-imported products, importing from specific channels only, or pulling marketplace-side changes back into an existing product.

Applies to: All plans.

Before you start:

At least one marketplace connected in Settings → Connections. See Connecting Your Marketplaces.
Active or inactive products on the marketplace you want to import from, depending on your scenario.
A sense of which products you want in Indexync. You can filter and de-select during the wizard.

When to use manual import instead of Auto Import

Auto Import only shows products that are new to Indexync and currently active on the marketplace. Manual import is for everything Auto Import skips, plus full control:

Your goal	Use manual import for
Bring in archived, sold-out, or otherwise inactive products	Any scenario below, with the right status filter at Step 1
Import from one store, with full control over the status filter	Scenario 1
Import from several marketplaces at once	Scenario 2
Link a newly connected store's listings to products already in Indexync	Scenario 3
Pull marketplace-side changes back into Indexync	Scenario 4

Example: you connect Shopee and Auto Import brings your live catalog in fast. Later you archive and re-list a few Shopee items. Auto Import skips inactive items, so you switch to manual import to pull those specific products in.

How the manual import wizard works

The manual import wizard lives at Products → Import → Manual (URL /products/import/manual), or click Import Manually on the Auto Import review page. It has the same five steps regardless of scenario. What changes is what you see at Steps 3 and 4.

Step	What happens
1. Select Stores	Pick which connected store(s) to import from. Each store gets its own Normal / Unlisted status filter, so you can skip unlisted items per store.
2. Fetch Products	Indexync pulls your live listings from each store you picked.
3. Select Products	Review the fetched listings, split into New Products (not yet imported from this store) and Exists on Indexync (already imported from this store) tabs. Importing from more than one store adds a row of channel tabs at the top, so you can review and de-select per store.
4. Match Products	Choose Auto or Manual. Auto finds the same products across your stores for you; Manual lets you group products yourself.
5. Import Products	Review and confirm. Indexync creates or updates each product.

Step 1 of the manual import wizard: Select Stores to Import Products From, with both connected Shopee stores (My Shopee SG and My Shopee MY) ticked side by side, each with its own Normal / Unlisted status filter

Scenario 1: Import from one store

Best when you're connecting your first marketplace and want everything in Indexync outside what Auto Import already brought in.

Example: you've just signed up for Indexync and want to bring your Shopee catalog in.

What to expect:

Step 1: Tick the store, and pick a status filter if you want to skip unlisted items.
Step 3: Listings split into a New Products tab (not yet imported) and an Exists on Indexync tab (already imported before). Everything in New Products is pre-selected; untick anything you don't want.
Step 4: On a first-time import, nothing matches yet because nothing is in Indexync. Click Import as New to continue.
Step 5: Review each product's name, description, images, SKUs, and price, then click Confirm & Import.

When the import finishes, your products appear on the Products page. Open one to confirm the marketplace listing shows as Published.

Scenario 2: Import from multiple stores

Best when you already sell on multiple marketplaces and want everything linked in Indexync from day one.

Example: you sell on Lazada and Shopee. You want both catalogs in Indexync, with shared products linked under one Indexync product.

What's different from Scenario 1:

Step 1: Tick every store you want to import from. Each gets its own status filter.
Step 2: Fetching runs once per store, with progress shown for each.
Step 3: A row of channel tabs appears above the product list. Switch tabs to review and de-select per store; each tab keeps its own selection.
Step 4: Choose Auto or Manual. Auto finds the same products across the stores you're importing and groups them, with each group appearing as one product spanning multiple stores. Manual lets you group products by hand.
Step 5: Review counts per store. Each grouped product imports once but creates a listing on every matched store.

Example: you import from Shopee and Lazada together. At Select Products, a Shopee tab and a Lazada tab appear at the top. You click the Lazada tab and untick three discontinued items, then switch to the Shopee tab to review those separately.

Tip: Use the same seller SKU for the same product across marketplaces where you can. Exact seller SKUs give the most reliable match; see the Troubleshooting section below for what to do when a listing you expect to match doesn't.

Step 4 of the manual import wizard: Match products by Auto or Manual, with Auto selected and a matched Classic Cotton T-Shirt group spanning two stores

About source priority and overwrites

When Indexync groups listings from more than one marketplace into one product, you set a source priority at Step 4. Here's what it does, and what it doesn't:

Sets shared inventory. Stock is standardised across every connected store using the priority store's quantity (see How Inventory Sync Works Across Marketplaces for how it stays in sync afterward).
Sets the master values. When you later sync to a new store, Indexync starts from the priority store's name, description, images, and attributes.
Does not overwrite existing store listings. Product name, description, images, category, and attributes stay as-is on stores that already have the listing.
Different values per store are fine. If Lazada has "Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5" and Shopee has "Lenovo Ideapad Thin 5", both survive. Each store keeps its own.
You can edit either side later from the product page without affecting the other.
Re-imports work the same way. For products already in Indexync, Indexync itself is locked as the priority source, so a re-import refreshes that store's listing fields from the marketplace but never touches your master product.

For a Shopify source, the quantity comes from the location you selected when you connected that store, not the total across every location in your Shopify account; see Import Your Existing Products from Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop and Shopify for the full explanation.

The order ranks individual stores, not marketplaces: two stores on the same marketplace each get their own row.

Default Source Priority card, expanded, with My Lazada ID dragged to the top of the ranked list

Scenario 3: Add a new store to existing products

Best when you already have products in Indexync from one marketplace and want a newly connected store's listings linked to them, instead of creating duplicates.

Example: your products are already in Indexync from Lazada. You've just connected Shopee and have the same products listed there. You want the Shopee listings linked to the existing Indexync products, not duplicated.

What's different from Scenario 1:

Before you start: make sure your seller SKUs on the new store match the seller SKUs already in Indexync. Matching seller SKUs is what links the new listing to the existing master product most reliably.
Step 1: Tick only the new store.
Step 3: Listings from the new store all appear under New Products. They're new to that store on Indexync, even if the product already exists.
Step 4: Auto mode compares each new listing against your full Indexync catalog and links what it finds. Unmatched listings can be imported as standalone new products, or paired manually in Manual mode.
Step 5: The summary splits into two counts: products to link versus new products to create. Linked products keep their existing master values, images, and inventory; only a new store listing is added.

Tip: This is the standard flow when you add a new marketplace mid-flight. It's faster than re-importing your full catalog from the new store, because Indexync only adds the new store's listing on top of products it already knows.

Scenario 4: Update existing products via re-import

Best when listings have changed on a connected marketplace (price, description, images, attributes) and you want those changes pulled back into Indexync.

What's different from Scenarios 1 and 2:

Step 1: Tick the store(s) whose listings you want to refresh. The flow is the same whether you pick one store or several.
Step 3: The Exists on Indexync tab is no longer empty. Switch to it to see products already in your catalog. Existing products are not pre-selected: only tick the ones you actually want to refresh, so you don't overwrite Indexync-side edits you want to keep.
Step 4: Matches are found this time. Each existing product shows what will change. Indexync is automatically set as the priority source for matched existing products and can't be changed, so your master product stays protected throughout.
Step 5: The summary distinguishes New vs Updated counts. Updated products keep their Indexync product ID and any cross-store listings; only the store-specific fields you re-imported change.

Example: you renamed twenty products on Lazada and want the new names pulled back into Indexync. Auto Import won't show these, because they're already imported. Open Products → Import → Manual, pick Lazada at Step 1, open the Exists on Indexync tab at Step 3, and select just those twenty.

Important: a re-import replaces that store's listing fields with the live marketplace values, so a store-specific customisation you made in Indexync (a custom Shopee description, say) is overwritten. Your master product is never touched; see About source priority and overwrites.

Tip: For ad-hoc edits to one or two products, edit the product in Indexync directly and it syncs to every store in one operation; that's faster than running a re-import. Re-imports are best when the marketplace has been your source of truth for a batch of changes.

Troubleshooting

Marketplace doesn't appear in Step 1

Open Settings → Connections and check the marketplace's connection status. If it shows as disconnected, click reconnect for that marketplace.

Fetch fails or hangs at Step 2

Check the marketplace seller portal. Extended periods of API downtime on the marketplace side (especially Lazada) cause fetch failures. Wait a few minutes and retry. If the error persists, disconnect and reconnect the marketplace.

Products I expected don't appear in Step 3

Two common causes:

Your status filter skipped them. Untick Unlisted at Step 1 to include unlisted products, or tick it if that's what's missing.
The store has a large catalog. Some marketplaces cap how many listings come back per fetch. If you have hundreds of products, import in batches by category.

A listing that should auto-match doesn't

Standardise your seller SKUs first: matching by SKU is the most reliable path to a clean, automatic match. Common causes a listing doesn't match automatically:

Trailing spaces on one store's seller SKU
Case differences (SKU-001 vs sku-001)
Hidden characters from copy-paste
A different product name or variation structure across stores

If a match still doesn't appear, use Manual mode at Step 4 to pair the listings by hand. Once imported, you can fix a wrong pairing from the Listings page.

Custom store-specific values disappeared after a re-import

That's the expected re-import behavior: store listing fields are refreshed from the marketplace (why). To avoid it next time, update the listing on the marketplace first, or skip that product when re-importing. See Editing & Updating Products & Listings for store-specific overrides.

SKU limit reached

Each plan has a SKU cap, shown in the wizard's Selection Summary. Untick products to fit under the cap, or upgrade your plan in Settings → Billing.

FAQ

Can I import from two stores on the same marketplace?

Yes. Each connected store, not each marketplace, gets its own card at Step 1 and its own row in source priority, so two Shopee stores (for example, one per country) are handled separately.

What if the same item exists in three stores?

Auto mode groups it into one Indexync product with a listing on all three, the same as it would for two. Source priority still ranks individual stores, not marketplaces, so all three get their own place in the order.

Can I re-import after fixing something?

Yes. Fix the listing on the marketplace, then run a manual import again with that store ticked. Open the Exists on Indexync tab at Step 3 and select just the products you fixed; matched products pull in the marketplace-side change without disturbing your master values.

Do imported products overwrite my Indexync data?

Only on a re-import, and only that store's listing fields (price, description, images, attributes). Your master product always stays as you set it.

When should I use Auto Import instead?

For a fresh, active catalog on a store you've just connected. Auto Import surfaces new, active products automatically, with nothing to configure. See Import Your Existing Products from Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop and Shopify.

Need More Help?

If your import isn't working as expected, visit our Feedback page, WhatsApp us, or email hello@indexync.com with:

Which scenario you were running (one store / multiple stores / new store to existing / update)
Which marketplace(s) you were importing from
A screenshot of the error or unexpected state
The approximate number of products in the import