Before a developer writes a line of code for your online store, you should have one spreadsheet that lists every product you plan to sell at launch, with one row per variant, a final title, a price, a weight, a GST rate and an HSN code. You should also have a folder of photographs named to match that spreadsheet, and a written list of the categories and filters customers will use. If those three things exist, the build moves. If they don't, the store waits.
Most store projects that stall are not stuck on design or code. They are stuck because the catalogue arrives in pieces: prices in one WhatsApp message, photos on a salesperson's phone, sizes in someone's head. You can avoid most of that by doing the work below first, while the agency is still preparing the quote.
The spreadsheet columns your store needs
Every platform, whether Shopify, WooCommerce or a custom build, imports products from a CSV file. The exact column names differ, but the information is the same. Build your sheet with these columns and you can map it to any platform later.
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| SKU | A unique code for each variant, for example KUR-COT-BLU-M. Never reuse one. |
| Parent SKU or handle | The shared code that groups variants of the same product together. |
| Title | The name a customer sees. Write it the way people search: "Cotton Straight Kurta, Indigo", not "Item 4471". |
| Option 1, Option 2 | Variant names and values, such as Size: M and Colour: Indigo. Keep spellings identical across rows. |
| Description | Fabric, dimensions, care instructions, what's in the box. Plain text is fine. |
| MRP and selling price | Both, as numbers only, with no ₹ symbol and no commas. |
| GST rate | The applicable rate for that product. |
| HSN code | The code your accountant uses on invoices. Ask your CA whether you need 4 or 6 digits for your turnover. |
| Weight and dimensions | Packed weight in grams, and packed length, breadth and height in centimetres. |
| Stock quantity | Opening stock per variant. |
| Barcode | EAN or GTIN if you have one. Leave it blank if you don't. |
| Category and attributes | Where the product sits and the filter values it carries (more on this below). |
| Image file names | The exact file names of that variant's photos. |
Two columns cause the most trouble. The first is weight. Use the packed weight, not the product weight, because couriers charge on whichever is higher: actual weight or volumetric weight. Many Indian couriers calculate volumetric weight as L × B × H in centimetres divided by 5,000, but confirm the divisor with yours. As an example, a box measuring 40 × 30 × 20 cm gives 24,000 ÷ 5,000 = 4.8 kg, even if the product inside weighs 2 kg. If your sheet says 2 kg, every order of that item loses you money on shipping.
The second is HSN. Your store will generate GST invoices, and the HSN code needs to be right on each one. Get the list from your accountant, not from a supplier's catalogue.
The state of this sheet also changes what you pay. A clean file can be imported in an afternoon. A messy one turns into billable data-entry hours. If you're working out a budget, our guide to e-commerce website cost in India explains how catalogue size and condition feed into the quote.
Product photographs: sizes, backgrounds and naming
Agree on one photo standard before anyone picks up a camera, and stick to it for every product.
- Shape: Square works on almost every theme and on marketplaces. Shoot so the product fits a square crop with some space around it.
- Size: Keep originals large, around 2,000 pixels on each side. The developer can compress them for the web. They can't add detail that was never captured.
- Background: Use plain white or a very light grey for the main image. Amazon requires a pure white main image, so shooting this way once saves a reshoot if you list there later. Put lifestyle shots in as second or third images.
- Consistency: Use the same angle, lighting and distance for products in the same category. A category page where every kurta is shot differently looks like a marketplace reseller.
- Variants: If colours differ, photograph every colour. Customers return products when the photo didn't match.
Name files so they can be matched to the spreadsheet without anyone opening them: KUR-COT-BLU-M-01.jpg, KUR-COT-BLU-M-02.jpg. Use lowercase or uppercase consistently, with no spaces and no names like "final final 2.jpg". Put everything in one shared folder, organised by parent SKU. Photos sent over WhatsApp lose quality, so don't use it for this.
Decide categories and filters before the design starts
Your designer will lay out menus, category pages and filter panels. If the categories aren't settled, they guess, and those guesses get rebuilt later.
Start from how customers shop, not how your warehouse is arranged. A customer looks for "Women > Kurtas", not "Supplier B stock". Keep the menu to two levels where you can. Three is the most most people will click through.
Then list the filters for each category and the exact values each one can take:
- Kurtas: Size (XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL), Fabric (Cotton, Rayon, Silk), Colour, Sleeve (Full, Three-quarter, Sleeveless), Price
- Bedsheets: Size (Single, Double, King), Thread count, Material, Colour, Price
Every value then becomes a column in your spreadsheet. A filter only works if every product carries the value. If half your kurtas have no fabric listed, the Fabric filter will hide them. Fixed value lists also stop "Navy", "navy blue" and "Dark Blue" from showing up as three separate options.
A product can sit in more than one category, for example "Kurtas" and "Festive Edit". Decide those overlaps now as well.
Who should own the catalogue after launch
One named person in your business should own product data after launch. It shouldn't be the agency or "the team". The tasks are routine but constant: adding new arrivals, marking items out of stock, changing prices for a sale, removing discontinued lines, and fixing the description a customer complained about.
That person needs to know how to edit products in the admin panel, how to bulk-import a CSV, and where the photo standard and category list are written down. Ask your agency to train them during handover and to leave a short written guide covering your setup. If your inventory lives in Tally, Zoho or an ERP, decide who controls price and stock. Either the store updates from the ERP or someone updates both, but don't leave both editable with nobody in charge.
Paying an agency to maintain the catalogue makes sense only if you change hundreds of products a month and have no one in-house to do it. For most retailers, a trained staff member with two hours a week does the job better, because they know the products.
Practical advice before you brief an agency
- Launch with the products you can document properly, not your full range. Thirty clean listings beat three hundred half-filled ones, and you can add the rest after launch.
- If you have a few dozen products and simple variants, a hosted platform with a standard theme and its built-in filters is usually enough. You don't need custom development to sell well.
- Phone photos on a white sheet near a window, shot consistently, are fine for a first version. Hire a photographer when you know which products sell.
- Don't pay anyone to type in data you could fill in yourself. Pay for the import and the checking.
- Have your CA check the GST and HSN columns before import. Correcting them later means fixing invoices that have already gone out.
Once your sheet is ready, you can get a rough figure from the pricing calculator, or contact us and we'll review the file with you.
