Backing up your product data
Why is it important to have a back-up of your product data?
You have a lot of products listed on eBay and Amazon, let’s say hundreds or even thousands. Have you ever wondered what happens with those products if eBay decide to take them down one day, for whatever reason? They will be gone, together with hundreds of hours of work on your end. Everything from the product description, to the item specifics, variations and even photos – all gone.
But why do listings get taken down by eBay or Amazon? Usually, it’s a policy violation that you didn’t notice you were breaking. Or they were simply encountering some server issues and some listings got deleted. Anything can happen, and you must be prepared for it.
This is why it is extremely important to always have a back-up of your products. Having a centralized system that keeps and manages your products is imperative for your business. There have been many cases where sellers had their products deleted off eBay due to various reasons, and since they also had those products on a different e-commerce platform, they wanted to copy over the products from an e-commerce platform to another – but that’s easier said than done.
Nothing is better than a good old-fashioned back-up. Knowing that you have a hard copy stored somewhere will give you confidence, and more importantly, peace of mind. Keep in mind that your entire business as a seller revolves around your products, so if you lose them, you basically lose your business.
What would be the best way to back up my data?
We would recommend using a centralized system to manage and back up your products. There are many great options to pick from, but our choice would be Ad-Lister. By having all of your products in the software itself, even if these listings get taken down on eBay or Amazon, you will still have them in Ad-Lister. As such, the advantage here is that if something happens to your products, you can just re-list them from Ad-Lister, simple.
Or if for some reason you want a .csv copy of all of your product data – that can be done as well. Simply select all of your products and download them to your computer. This is another safety net, as if something happens to both your eBay account and your listing software, you will still have your product data backed up locally on your computer. It would also be recommended to have your product data stored elsewhere, on a server or a cloud service for example.
Backups are also crucial in the event of a catastrophe, like server failure — which is highly unlikely, but not impossible — or the accidental deletion of some of your files (admit it, we’ve all done this one). Having a backup ready means you can restore your products and get back to work.
You might be able to back up your Shopify products, for example. This can be done directly from your Shopify store. The same goes with Amazon, you could back up your products directly from their interface. But in case of an issue, how would you restore an Amazon back-up onto Shopify, or vice-versa? These back-ups are more than likely not compatible. But by having a centralized back-up, such as a back-up from a listing tool, you can simply restore the file into said listing tool, and have those products pushed back to your preferred e-commerce platform in no time.
Conclusion
The conclusion is simple – you have to have a back-up of your product data. There are many ways to back up your data, but the easiest way will always be a third-party listing tool, such as Ad-Lister. You don’t even have to back-up your data manually, as it is already backed up simply by being on Ad-Lister. This is where our listing tool shines, it gives you the ability to easily list, manage and add a design to your listings, while also automatically storing a back-up of said listings. It is very easy nowadays to have your data backed up, so don’t miss out, who knows what could happen?
At the end of the day, it’s your hard work, your time and your business – don’t take any chances on them. Trust us, it’s a good feeling to know that your work is backed up.
