How to Import Customer Orders from Excel or CSV into PrestaShop

Many B2B customers prepare purchase orders in Excel or export them from their internal inventory systems as CSV files.

The files are usually simple: one column contains product codes and another contains quantities. However, converting that spreadsheet into a PrestaShop order can require an employee to search for every product and enter every quantity manually.

This may take only a few minutes for a small order. For orders containing dozens or hundreds of products, it becomes a repetitive and error-prone task.

A better approach is to let customers submit their Excel or CSV purchase lists through a dedicated PrestaShop order page.

Why B2B customers use spreadsheets for ordering

Professional buyers rarely start every purchase from an empty shopping cart.

They may already maintain:

• A list of products regularly purchased from each supplier.
• Internal SKU or supplier codes.
• Minimum required stock levels.
• Quantities calculated by an inventory system.
• Purchase-order templates used by several employees.
• Exports from accounting or ERP software.

Asking these customers to abandon their existing purchasing process and browse an online catalog product by product creates unnecessary friction.

Instead, the PrestaShop store can accept the product list they have already prepared.

The traditional manual process

A typical email-based order process looks like this:

1. The customer prepares a purchase list in Excel.
2. The file is sent to the supplier by email.
3. An employee opens the spreadsheet.
4. Each product code is searched for in PrestaShop.
5. Quantities are entered manually.
6. Missing products and stock problems are checked.
7. The employee contacts the customer if corrections are required.
8. The final order is created or confirmed.

This process duplicates information that the customer has already entered.

It can also create several types of mistakes:

• A product code is copied incorrectly.
• The wrong product combination is selected.
• A quantity is entered in the wrong row.
• An unavailable item is included.
• An old price is used.
• A line from the spreadsheet is accidentally skipped.

The larger the order, the more opportunities there are for errors.

Can PrestaShop create an order directly from Excel?

PrestaShop does not normally provide customers with a storefront interface for pasting an Excel purchase list and turning it into a shopping cart.

However, this workflow can be added with a B2B quick order module.

The customer does not need to import the entire Excel workbook. In most cases, only two columns are required:

The customer copies these cells and pastes them into the quick order page. The module identifies the rows, finds the corresponding products and prepares the order.

This is different from importing products into the PrestaShop catalog. The products already exist in the store; the spreadsheet is used only to create the customer’s shopping cart.

How an Excel-to-PrestaShop ordering workflow works

A practical workflow consists of five steps.

1. The customer prepares the list

The customer uses an existing spreadsheet or creates a simple list containing product identifiers and quantities.

The product identifier may be:

• Product reference.
• Supplier reference.
• EAN or GTIN.
• UPC.
• MPN.
• ISBN.
• Another code stored in the PrestaShop catalog.

2. The data is pasted into the order page

The customer selects the relevant cells in Excel and pastes them into the quick order form.

There is no need to upload the complete spreadsheet when copy-and-paste is sufficient.

3. Products are validated

Before anything is added to the cart, the system checks the submitted rows.

It can show:

• Successfully matched products.
• Product names and combinations.
• Current customer prices.
• Available quantities.
• Invalid or unknown product codes.
• Products that are currently out of stock.

This is important because the customer can correct the order before checkout instead of resolving problems later by email.

4. Quantities are reviewed

The buyer can change quantities directly in the order table. Products that are no longer required can be removed.

The completed list provides a single overview of the entire purchase.

5. Products are added to the cart

After validation, all valid products and quantities are added to the normal PrestaShop cart.

The customer can then use the store’s existing:

• Customer-specific prices.
• Discounts.
• Tax rules.
• Shipping methods.
• Payment methods.
• Checkout process.

The quick order page changes how the cart is created; it does not need to replace the rest of the PrestaShop ordering process.

Using a CSV file instead of copy-and-paste

CSV is useful when the customer’s purchasing or inventory system automatically exports order files.

A typical file may look like this:

sku,quantity
PART-001,5
PART-002,12
PART-003,20

The customer uploads the file, reviews the detected products and adds them to the cart.

For the best customer experience, the store should provide:

• A downloadable CSV template.
• Clear column names.
• An example product row.
• Instructions about supported product identifiers.
• Helpful messages when a row cannot be processed.

The file format should remain as simple as possible. Requiring many technical columns will discourage customers from using it.

What happens when a product code is invalid?

Invalid product codes should not cause the entire order to fail.

A good order-import interface clearly separates:

• Valid and available products.
• Valid but unavailable products.
• Codes that cannot be found.
• Rows with missing or incorrect quantities.

The buyer should be able to correct the affected rows while keeping the rest of the order.

This is one of the main advantages of customer-side validation. Problems are discovered while the person who prepared the order is still working on it.

Excel ordering is especially useful for large catalogs

This workflow is most valuable when:

• Customers place repeat orders.
• A typical order contains many different products.
• Products are commonly identified by SKU.
• The catalog contains hundreds or thousands of items.
• The merchant receives orders by email.
• Employees manually re-enter customer purchase orders.
• Different customers have negotiated prices.
• Access should be limited to approved B2B accounts.

Common examples include spare-parts stores, industrial suppliers, wholesalers, food distributors, booksellers, medical suppliers and electronics distributors.

Saved lists can make recurring orders even faster

Not every order needs to begin with a new spreadsheet.

After importing a purchase list, customers can save the selected products for future use. During the next visit, they load the saved list, update the quantities and proceed to checkout.

Another option is to load products from an earlier PrestaShop order.

Combining Excel or CSV ordering with saved lists gives buyers several ways to work:

• Import a completely new purchase list.
• Reuse a frequently purchased product list.
• Repeat a previous order.
• Search for a small number of additional products manually.

Import Excel and CSV orders with OrderPad

OrderPad adds a dedicated B2B quick order page to PrestaShop.

Wholesale customers can paste two columns from Excel—product code and quantity—or upload a CSV file. Submitted products are validated against the current PrestaShop catalog before they are added to the cart.

The module also supports:

• Multiple product identifiers.
• Price and stock display.
• Invalid product-code detection.
• Inline quantity editing.
• Saved purchasing lists.
• Previous-order reordering.
• Access restrictions based on customer groups.
• OrderPad usage statistics for the store administrator.

This helps move recurring B2B orders away from email and manual data entry without requiring customers to abandon their existing spreadsheet-based purchasing workflow.

See how OrderPad imports Excel and CSV purchase lists into PrestaShop.