What product file formats and size are accepted?

Summary

Supplier Data Manager (SDM) supports multiple file formats to accommodate different use cases and data sources. This article details the accepted formats and limits for file uploads into Supplier Data Manager.

Input files

Input files are loaded into Supplier Data Manager for processing. They may originate from suppliers or other systems such as Product Information Management (PIM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.

Supported formats

  • Excel formats:

    • .xlsx
    • .xlsm
    • .xls
    • .xlsb
    • Text format:

    • .csv

    • Markup and data interchange formats:

    • .xml (including BMEcat and GS1 files — see important considerations below)

    • .json

Important considerations

  • Single-tab files: SDM can read single-tab files, provided they meet certain conditions.
  • Multi-tab files: SDM can also process multi-tab files, but specific conditions must be met.
  • XML input formats:

    • Adding a custom input format for your expected XML files is mandatory to upload XML files. See XML Custom Input Formats for details.
    • XML data extraction focuses on repeating elements at a single structural level. Cross-referencing data from parent elements, sibling nodes, or different document sections is not currently supported.
    • File size limit (applying to all types of files): The maximum file size for manual imports is 50 MB.
    • Data volume limit (applying to all types of files): SDM can process up to 800,000 data cells (rows × columns).

    • Example: 20 attributes × 40,000 products = 800,000 cells

    • Example: 904 attributes × 885 products = 800,000 cells
    • Empty cells count toward this limit.

If your file exceeds these limits, consider splitting larger files into smaller segments or optimizing the file to meet requirements.

These limits apply to all supported file formats, including non-tabular ones such as .xml or .json, because all data are internally converted to a tabular structure during processing.

See Specifications for input files for details on single-tab and multi-tab conditions that must be met.

Unsupported formats

The following file types are not supported as input product files in Supplier Data Manager:

  • .doc (Word documents)
  • .jpeg (image files)
  • .pdf

PDF, doc(x), and image files can be added as attachments.