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Your product catalog is the foundation of everything in Closient — search results, Digital Link resolution, certifications, and analytics all build on your product data. This guide covers how to manage products through the Dashboard.

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Adding a Product

Navigate to Products in your Dashboard sidebar and click Add Product.

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Required Fields

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GS1 Data Fields

For GS1-compliant product data, you can also provide:
  • Dimensions: length, width, height, depth (with UN/CEFACT unit codes)
  • Weight: gross and net weight (with unit codes)
  • GPC Classification: Global Product Classification codes (segment, family, class, brick)
  • Structured Net Content: value + unit of measure

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Importing Products

For bulk operations, open Tools > Imports in the Dashboard. Supported sources:
  • File upload — CSV, TSV, or Excel (.xlsx), for products, lots, or serials
  • External APIs — sync from Open Food Facts, USDA FDC, or other data sources
  • POS sync — automatic import from connected Shopify, Square, Clover, or Lightspeed

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Choosing an import type

Pick Products, Lots, or Serials before uploading. Each has its own columns and its own downloadable template: Column names are matched case-insensitively, and common alternatives work (barcode / upc / ean for gtin; lot / batch / lot_number for lot_identifier; serial_number / sn for serial; expiry_date / use_by for expiration_date). Download a starter file from the API — these are public, no sign-in needed:
  • GET /products/api/v1/import/template
  • GET /products/api/v1/import/lots/template
  • GET /products/api/v1/import/serials/template

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Rules that apply to every import

  • Lots and serials attach to products you have already imported. Every row needs a gtin that is in your catalog. An unknown GTIN is reported as a row error — an import never creates a product as a side effect, because a typo’d GTIN would put a nameless product in your catalog.
  • A serial’s lot_identifier must already be registered on that product. It is optional — a serialized unit with no batch is valid, since a unit’s identity is its GTIN + serial — but an import never creates a lot, because a mistyped lot code would split one physical batch into two.
  • Re-uploading is safe. A row for something that already exists updates it, and a row that changes nothing is counted as skipped. Upload the same file twice and the second run reports zero created and zero updated.
  • A blank cell leaves the stored value alone; it does not clear it. So you can upload a file with only the columns you want to change. Clearing a field is an edit you make in the Dashboard.
  • Bad rows are reported, never silently dropped. Each problem comes back with its line number and the column at fault, and the good rows in the same file still import.
  • Limits: 10 MiB and 10,000 data rows per file. A file over the row limit is rejected whole — nothing is imported — so split it and upload the parts.

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File format notes

  • Dates are YYYY-MM-DD (for example 2027-03-31). A date and time is YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.
  • Name a tab-separated file .tsv. The extension picks the parser, so a tab-separated file named .csv is read with a comma delimiter and fails with a missing-column error rather than importing wrong data.
  • In Excel, format identifier columns as Text before typing into them. Excel stores everything else as a number, which strips the leading zeros from a GTIN and can turn a lot code into a date. Only the first worksheet is read.
  • Text files must be UTF-8. Excel’s “CSV UTF-8” export works as-is.

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Exporting Your Catalog

Open Tools → Export jobs in the Dashboard, choose what to export and in what file format, and start the export. The status page shows progress while it runs, then offers the download. Every export can be a CSV, a TSV (tab-separated) or an Excel (.xlsx) file. Google Merchant Center reads tab-separated text and Shopify’s importer reads CSV; pick the format the destination expects.
  • Google Shopping and Shopify files are a starting point, not a finished upload. Closient holds neither prices nor stock, so price and availability (Google) and Price (Shopify) are left empty for you to fill, and Shopify rows are marked draft so nothing goes live unpriced. The Google link column holds the product’s GS1 Digital Link, which resolves through your resolver rules; replace it with your own storefront URL if Merchant Center requires a landing page on your verified domain.
  • Lots and Serials are Closient-format only. Google and Shopify list products, so they have no lot or serial rows.
  • Lots and serials with a discarded state are left out, because an abandoned reservation was never a real lot. Retired ones are included, with their lifecycle_state.
  • A text value that starts with =, +, - or @ is written with a leading apostrophe in CSV and TSV files, so a spreadsheet shows it as text instead of running it as a formula. Numbers, such as a lot quantity, are never prefixed, and Excel files store every value unchanged. If you re-import a CSV or TSV, remove the apostrophe from any text that genuinely starts with one of those characters.
  • Google Shopping and Shopify TSV files have no quoting, and a tab or line break inside a value becomes a space. Google’s tab-delimited format documents no quoting and warns against tabs and line breaks inside a field. Closient-format TSV and every CSV keep standard quoting, so a multi-line description re-imports unchanged.
  • Closient-format files carry each description exactly as it is stored, HTML formatting included, so re-importing the file puts the description back unchanged.
  • Google Shopping’s description is plain text, because Merchant Center expects plain text. Formatting and scripts are removed, and line and paragraph breaks become spaces. Angle-bracket text that names an HTML tag, such as <b>, is removed as if it were markup; other angle-bracket text, such as Size <XL> available, is kept. Only the first 16,384 characters of a description are read.
  • Shopify’s Description keeps its formatting, because Shopify’s column is HTML. Paragraphs, line breaks, lists, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough and links (http, https and mailto only) come through; scripts, every other tag and unsafe links are removed. A description with no formatting has its blank lines written as paragraphs. Angle-bracket text such as Size <XL> available is kept and shows as typed.
  • Limits: a download link works for 7 days and up to 10 downloads, and an Excel sheet holds at most 1,048,575 rows — export a larger catalog as CSV or TSV. You can have three exports running at once.

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Data Quality & Provenance

Every product field tracks where its data came from: Each product has a confidence score (0-1) representing overall data quality, and individual field confidence scores showing how reliable each field is.

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Claiming Products

If a product exists in the catalog but isn’t owned by your organization, you can claim it. Claiming gives your organization control over the product data and enables:
  • Editing all product fields
  • Setting up resolver rules
  • Viewing analytics and scan data
  • Managing certifications
See Claiming Your Brand for the full claiming process.

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Enabling the Resolver

Products with Resolver Enabled get custom Digital Link resolution, analytics, and lot/serial tracking. This is a per-product toggle with billing implications — see your subscription tier for details. To enable: open a product, toggle Resolver Enabled in the settings panel. The product’s GTIN will immediately start resolving through your configured resolution rules.

Claiming Your Brand

Establish brand ownership and data authority over your products.

Setting Up Resolver Rules

Control where your product barcodes direct consumers.