Import shipments from an Excel or CSV file

Purpose#

Import adds many parcels at once from an Excel or CSV file instead of entering them one by one. Each row goes through the same path as a manually created parcel, so the fee is calculated and deducted from your balance in the same way, and coverage rules and plan limits apply.

Who can use it#

Merchant accounts. A platform merchant's plan must include the Import parcels from Excel feature; this is checked only while the platform has active merchant plans, and a merchant who belongs to a delivery company is not limited by plan features. If the feature is not included, you are redirected to the plans page with: "Feature «Import parcels from Excel» is not included in your current plan — upgrade your plan from the subscription page."; with no active subscription the message is: "You do not have an active merchant plan subscription — subscribe to use «Import parcels from Excel»." Older plans whose features were never configured allow everything.

What you need#

• A xlsx, xls or csv file of at most 5 MB, with at most 300 parcels.
• At least one pickup location and a delivery company available to you.
• A balance that covers all the parcels, because each row is processed separately.

Steps#

1. Open the import page

   Press Import from Excel in the merchant menu. The page title is "Import parcels from Excel".

2. Download the template

   Press File template to download parcels-template.csv (UTF-8) with the eight headers and two sample rows. The first row holds the headers, every row after it is a parcel, and column order does not matter.

3. Fill in the parcels

   Use the columns below. The three required columns (recipient name, mobile, address) must exist in the header row, otherwise the whole file is rejected.

   Field	Status	Accepted headers (any one)
   Recipient name	Required	customer_name, name, اسم المستلم,‎ المستلم,‎ الاسم
   Mobile	Required	customer_phone, phone, mobile, الموبايل,‎ موبايل المستلم,‎ رقم الموبايل,‎ الهاتف,‎ رقم الهاتف
   Address	Required	customer_address, address, العنوان,‎ عنوان المستلم
   Governorate	By company	governorate, city, المحافظة,‎ المدينة
   COD amount	Optional	cod_amount, cod, cash_collection, مبلغ التحصيل,‎ التحصيل,‎ المبلغ
   Weight	Optional	weight, الوزن,‎ الوزن (كغ)
   Order number	Optional	invoice_no, invoice, order, رقم الفاتورة,‎ رقم الطلب
   Note	Optional	note, notes, ملاحظة,‎ ملاحظات

   Mobile numbers are cleaned to digits and + only, and Arabic-Indic digits (٠ to ٩) are converted to Latin digits (0–9). In amounts, the separators , and ٬ are removed and ٫ is treated as the decimal point. The COD amount is in your account's currency (US dollars by default); empty or 0 means prepaid. The default weight is 1. Empty rows are skipped. For CSV the delimiter (,, ; or Tab) is detected; for Excel only the active sheet is read.

4. Upload the file

   Drag the file onto the box or click to choose it, pick the Delivery company and the Pickup location, then press Import parcels.

5. Review the result

   Import result: shows the counts "added" and "not added" and a table with Row, Recipient and Result. A successful row shows Done with the tracking number; a failed one shows Error with the reason. A Print labels for new parcels button appears when at least one parcel was added. The result is shown once only, so keep it.

1234

1. Download the file template first
2. Drop the filled file here
3. Choose the pickup place
4. Start the import

Expected result#

Successful parcels are created immediately with the same status and the same tracking number format as a manual parcel, and appear in My parcels. The row number in the result is the line number in your file (the first line is the header).

Common mistakes#

• Unrecognised headers. The message above means a required column is missing or is not written with an accepted name. An unrecognised optional header (for example the COD amount) causes no message: that column is simply ignored.
• More than 300 parcels. "Maximum 300 parcels per file (your file has N). Split it into multiple files."
• Large or unsupported file. "File size exceeds 5 MB." or "File type must be xlsx, xls, or csv."
• Partial success. Rows are processed one by one, and rows added before a failed row are not rolled back. The failure reasons are the same as for manual entry: insufficient balance, a governorate outside coverage, or the plan limit. Fix the failed rows and delete the successful ones from the file before uploading again, so they are not duplicated.
• A company that prices by distance. The file carries no recipient map location, so rows fail with "The delivery company prices by distance: set the recipient location on the map." If the chosen pickup location itself has no map position, they fail instead with a message asking you to set its location from the pickup locations page. Add those parcels with the manual form.
• Missing governorate. If the company prices by governorate and it cannot be deduced from the column or the address, write the governorate in its column.

Limits and permissions#

• The feature depends on the Import parcels from Excel feature of the merchant plan, which the super admin configures; it does not apply to a merchant who belongs to a delivery company.
• File uploads are limited to 10 per minute.
• A company's merchant imports through that company only.
• The old import page redirects to this page.