Import reviews via CSV mapping

To streamline the process of uploading customer reviews for your products, you can utilize a CSV file to map a product to their respective reviews. This method allows for bulk uploads, ensuring your reviews are efficiently associated with the relevant products. The review data specified in the CSV file will be automatically ingested and linked to the corresponding product(s) on the alby platform.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have set up an SFTP connection with alby. See this article.

After successfully establishing an SFTP connection, verify that a folder named reviews exists. If it does not exist, create the folder with the exact naming. You must place the CSV file in this folder for the review import process to activate.

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To ensure a smooth and efficient review import process, we recommend the following submission schedule:

Incremental Reviews: Send newly collected reviews twice a week to keep your product reviews up to date.

Historical Reviews: Submit a one-time upload of past reviews to establish a comprehensive review history, limited to the last 18 months. Older reviews should be excluded.

File Structure

Example Filename

Brand_Reviews_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.csv

Although the filename can be flexible, alby recommends starting it with the brand name and ending it with the export date. Any CSV file format is acceptable. Only alphanumeric characters and underscores are allowed; please avoid using special characters such as colons, spaces, etc. alby will attempt to auto-detect and use the appropriate delimiter, it is advisable to use the standard comma delimiter.

CSV File Requirements

alby will attempt to auto-detect and use the appropriate delimiter, it is advisable to use the standard comma delimiter. To ensure complete and accurate ingestion into the alby platform, all submitted CSV files must adhere to the following requirements:

Format: Files must be in a flat file CSV format (Excel XLSX files are not supported).
Encoding: All files must be UTF-8 compliant.
Header Row: Files must contain a header row that defines the columns.

CSV Format

The required CSV format for importing reviews consists of nine columns, listed in the following order:

Column Name	Description	Required
submission_date	The date the review was submitted (formatted as YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS).	Yes
review_id	Unique identifier for the review.	Yes
product_id	Product ID relevant to the review. This should refer to the parent-level SKU.	Yes
star_rating	The number star rating given by the reviewer.	No
reviewer_name	The name of the reviewer.	No
review_text	The text content of the review.	No
is_verified_purchaser	Indicates if the reviewer is a verified purchaser (1 for true, 0 for false).	No
negative_votes	The number of negative votes the review received.	No
positive_votes	The number of positive votes the review received.	No

Example CSV File

Below is an example of the required CSV format:

submission_date	review_id	product_id	star_rating	reviewer_name	review_text	is_verified_purchaser	negative_votes	positive_votes
2018-11-29T00:28:58	r39827yr8932	CLRBd939	2	Jennifer	I love this product!	1	0	0

By following these guidelines, you can ensure that your reviews is correctly uploaded and associated with the appropriate products on the alby platform.