How to import products in bulk on Meku with CSV

Adding products one by one is fine for your first ten. For your first two hundred, it takes too long. The Meku CSV import lets you bring your product list from a spreadsheet, such as Excel, Google Sheets, or a notebook that someone typed once, and create all the products with one upload.

What you need before you start

Your product list with names and prices (this is the minimum)
A plan that allows the number of products you are importing (Free allows 10, and the paid plans go up to unlimited)
Five minutes to prepare the spreadsheet

Step 1: Download the template

Go to Inventory and tap Import. Tap Download template and you get a CSV file with the correct columns and three example rows. Open it in Excel or Google Sheets.

The columns are:

name (required), for example “Sukari ya Kawaida 1kg”
price (required): a whole number in TZS, with no commas and no decimals, such as 2500
sku: the product code, if you have one. Meku creates one if you leave it empty
stock_quantity: how many are on the shelf now
description: a short text
category: one of your categories. Small and capital letters do not matter. If it does not match, the product is imported without a category, and Meku tells you which rows
tags: separated by commas. If there are several, put them in quotes: "sweet, snack"
low_stock_threshold: the number that starts the warning before the stock finishes
expiry_date: in the format DD-MM-YYYY (for example 31-12-2026). Leave it empty if the product does not expire
variant_name, variant_price, variant_stock: for a product with sizes or colours, use one row for each size or colour

Step 2: Fill in your products

Paste your list into the template, one product on each row. Do not add columns that Meku does not know, because they are ignored. Do not leave the name or price column empty, because those rows will not be imported.

If you are not sure about a category, leave it empty. You can add categories later from Inventory.

Tip: Put your tags in quotes. Without quotes, breakfast, local becomes two separate columns when Excel saves the CSV. With quotes, "breakfast, local" stays in one tags column. The template shows this.

Step 3: Upload and check

Choose your file, and Meku shows you the first rows. Check them. Does the name look correct? Is the price a plain number, not “TZS 2,500”? If something looks wrong, correct the spreadsheet and upload it again.

Step 4: Import

Tap Import products. Meku shows you three numbers:

Created: new products added
Updated: products you already had (matched by product code)
Failed: rows that could not be imported, each with its reason

A wrong row does not stop the correct rows. If row 47 has a wrong price, rows 46 and 48 are still imported.

Step 5: Correct the failed rows

If some rows failed, look at the list of errors. Each one shows the row number, the column, and what was wrong, such as “Price must be a non-negative number”, “The date is not valid. Use DD-MM-YYYY.” or “Product limit reached”. Correct those rows in the spreadsheet and import only the corrected rows.

Common questions

Can I include photos? Not with CSV. Photos are added one at a time on the product form. Use the CSV for the product list, and add photos later.

What happens if I import the same file again? The stock in the file is added to the stock you already have. If you import the same file twice, the stock is counted twice. To correct stock counts, use Stock taking instead of importing again.

Can I import more than 500 rows at once? No. One upload can have at most 500 rows. If you have more, split your list into several files.