Adding 100 products to your online store without spending 3 weeks on it

Adding one product by hand takes about a quarter of an hour, so close to 25 hours for 100 products. To go faster, import names, prices, variants and stock from a CSV or Excel file, let AI draft the descriptions, fix things in bulk with bulk edit, and keep your time for the photos. Or hand over the whole catalogue.

In short: the time does not go into creating the account, it goes into the catalogue. Prepare your products in batches (all the photos, then all the text), import the table of products and variants in one go, add photos and descriptions, then check everything with bulk edit. Launch with 15 complete products rather than 100 half-finished ones.

How long does it take to add one product?

Platforms promise “a store in 5 minutes”. That is true for the account, not for the catalogue. Here is where the time goes on a product page built by hand. These are estimates: time your first five products to get your own numbers.

Step	By hand, per product	What speeds it up
Take the photos (plain background, daylight)	2 to 3 min	Shoot the whole stock in one session
Crop, retouch, export	3 to 5 min	Same settings for the whole series
Write title, description, price	3 to 5 min	Price in the import file, AI description then review
Category, variants (size, colour)	2 to 3 min	Variants and categories in the import file
Publish and check the display	1 to 2 min	Check in a table with bulk edit
Total	11 to 18 min, about 15

At 15 minutes per product, 100 products take 25 hours. At two hours a day between customers, that is almost three weeks. That is the real reason many stores stay empty: not the technology, the time.

What are the ways to add your products?

Method	Best for	What to prepare	Limit
One product at a time	Under 30 products, or a new product now and then	Photos, text, price	Slowest
CSV or Excel import	A catalogue with many variants, stock already in a spreadsheet	A table: name, price, category, options, quantity	Adds no photos or descriptions
Bulk edit	Fixing or updating dozens of products	Nothing, it all happens in the table	Long texts are edited on the product page
Lancement Pro (we do it for you)	A well-stocked shop and no time to spare	Your photos on WhatsApp, your prices	Up to 100 products, quote beyond that

The combination that works best for most sellers: import the file, then photos and descriptions product by product, then a final check in bulk edit.

How do you import products from a CSV or Excel file?

1. Create your categories first in the store. The file refers to a category by its exact name; an unknown name leaves the product without a category.
2. In Products, click Import, then CSV or Excel file, and download the template. It contains the expected columns, three example rows and a sheet explaining each column. Headers in French, English or Arabic are recognised.
3. Fill in one row per variant. Rows carrying the same product name become variants of that product.
4. Drop the file (.xlsx, .xls or .csv). A preview shows, row by row, what will be created, updated or rejected, before anything is saved.
5. Run the import. If a SKU already exists, the row updates its stock instead of creating a product, so the same file also works after a stock count.
6. Complete the product pages: photos, video, description. Until they are ready, hide the products with bulk edit, because an imported product is visible straight away.

Example file for a T-shirt in two colours and a pair of jeans:

Product name	Price (millimes)	Category	SKU	Option 1 Name	Option 1 Value	Option 2 Name	Option 2 Value	Quantity	Safety stock
Classic T-shirt	25000	Clothing	TSH-BL-M	Colour	Blue	Size	M	50	5
Classic T-shirt	25000	Clothing	TSH-RG-L	Colour	Red	Size	L	30	5
Straight jeans	45000	Clothing		Size	42			20	3

The price is written in thousandths of the currency, with no decimal point: 25000 for 25.000 TND. The file takes up to three options per product. Safety stock is the threshold below which the dashboard warns you about low stock.

How do you add photos, video and descriptions faster?

Photos. Do one photo session for the whole stock, with the same background and light, then add them product by product (JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 5 MB per image). For variants, one image can be applied in one go to every variant of the same colour.

Video. Each product page accepts one short video (MP4 or WebM, up to 15 MB, about 15 to 30 seconds) shown in the product gallery. Useful for a fabric, a mechanism or anything people handle.

Descriptions. On the product page, AI writes a first draft from the name, photos, price, category and brand, in French, English, Arabic or all three. Nothing is saved until you save the product, and proofreading is a must: check the material, the sizes and anything AI cannot see. The number of generations per day is capped. If the button is greyed out, AI is not turned on for your store yet: ask support.

Search and link previews. The title and description used by Google and link previews (WhatsApp, Facebook) fill in automatically from the name and short description when you leave them empty.

How do you edit dozens of products at once?

Bulk edit, opened from the product list, shows the catalogue as a table. Without opening each product, you can change:

• price and compare-at price;
• quantity and availability;
• category, brand and SKU;
• visibility, featured status and the best-seller badge;
• photos and variants, from the product’s row.

On a product with many variants, select several to change their price, stock, alert threshold or visibility at once. And exporting the product list gives you a spreadsheet to review the catalogue offline.

What about importing from photos?

Yalla Souk also offers import from photos, turned on store by store on request: you photograph your products with their price tag, AI detects each product and its price, matches it to your existing products, and you review each row before saving it (price update or a new draft). Expect about 10 seconds of analysis per photo, up to 30 photos per batch. It suits a shop whose prices are already on tags; ask support if the option does not appear.

Do it yourself or hand it over?

Do the maths with your own numbers: hours needed × what an hour of your time is worth.

Situation	Recommended method
Under 30 products, few variants	One at a time, over one or two evenings
Stock already in a spreadsheet, many sizes and colours	CSV or Excel import, then photos and descriptions
An employee or relative free for a few days	You import the file, they do photos and product pages, final check in bulk edit
Lots of stock, no time at all	Lancement Pro

With Lancement Pro, you send your photos on WhatsApp, even phone shots. The team cleans up and improves the photos, adds up to 100 products, organises categories, brands and variants, and customises logo, colours and banner. The price is a custom, one-time quote based on your catalogue; the quote is free and without commitment, and states the lead time. After that, the store stays free and you only pay per order received, as if you had set it up yourself. Details are on the pricing page.

What mistake should you avoid?

The classic one: starting one product at a time, stopping at 15, picking it up a week later, and six months on still having a half-empty store nobody visits.

Set a concrete launch date (in one week, not “soon”). Launch with 10 to 15 complete products, your best sellers, then add the rest in batches. Our 10 tips for ecommerce success in Tunisia explain why a short, complete catalogue sells better, and the margin calculator helps you set prices before you type them in. If your store does not exist yet, start with our guide to creating an online store in Tunisia.