Bulk Image Uploader for BigCommerce

🔧 Quick Info: Bulk-upload product images to your store from a single ZIP file paired with a spreadsheet.

What it does

This tool lets you add images to many products at once instead of uploading them one product at a time inside BigCommerce. You provide a ZIP file containing your image files and a small spreadsheet (CSV) that tells the tool which image belongs to which product, what its alt text should be, and whether it should be the main (thumbnail) image.

The tool matches each image to a product (or product variant) by SKU, then uploads the image to that product in your store.

The work runs in the background. You can leave the page once it starts, and the tool can email you a confirmation when it finishes if you turn email delivery on. If any images could not be uploaded, you get an error report so you can see exactly what went wrong and why.

When to use it

You are migrating or refreshing a catalog and have a folder of new product photos to add.
You have many products that need additional images and don’t want to attach them by hand.
You want to set alt text and choose the main image for products in bulk.

Before you start

Confirm the Image Uploader add-on is active for your store. This is a paid tool.
Gather your images into a single ZIP file.
- The ZIP file can be up to 250 MB.
- Each individual image inside the ZIP must be under 8 MB.
Prepare your supplemental CSV (see the File / field reference below). It must list every image you want uploaded.
Make sure each product (or variant) you’re adding images to already exists in your store and has the SKU you reference in the CSV.

Step-by-step

1 Open the Upload Images tool from your BigCommerce tools dashboard.

2 Upload your ZIP file in the “Zip File” area. This is the archive that holds your actual image files.

3 Upload your supplemental CSV in the “Supplemental CSV” area. Once it uploads, you’ll be asked to confirm which spreadsheet column maps to each required field (SKU, image name, alt, thumbnail).

4 On the Match your file’s columns screen, pick the field for each column so the tool knows where to find each piece of information.

5 Continue to Notification Settings and choose whether you’d like a completion notice by email. (Delivery is off by default; your account email is prefilled if you turn it on.)

6 Submit. You’ll see a confirmation that the upload has started, and the rest happens in the background.

7 If you turned email delivery on, watch for the completion email. If there were any problems, an error spreadsheet is attached/linked so you can review and re-try the affected rows.

File / field reference

You upload two files: a ZIP of images and a supplemental CSV that describes them.

The ZIP file

A standard .zip archive containing your image files.
Up to 250 MB total; each image under 8 MB.
Files added by macOS (the hidden __MACOSX folder) are ignored automatically.

The supplemental CSV — one row per image, with these columns:

Column	Required	What it does
`sku`	Yes	The SKU of the product (or variant) the image belongs to. This is how the image is matched to a product in your store.
`image_name`	Yes	The exact file name of the image inside your ZIP (for example `widget-front.jpg`). The tool looks this name up in the ZIP.
`alt`	Yes	The alt text / description saved on the image.
`thumbnail`	Yes	Whether this image should be the product’s main (thumbnail) image.

How matching works:

Each CSV row’s image_name is found in the ZIP, and its sku is looked up in your store.
If the SKU matches a product, the image is added to that product.
If the SKU matches a variant, the image is added to that variant.
If a row’s image name isn’t found in the ZIP, or its SKU isn’t found in your store, that row is reported in the error file and skipped.

Troubleshooting / FAQ

“Image not found in zip file.”

— The image_name in your CSV doesn’t exactly match a file inside the ZIP. Check spelling, file extension, and capitalization.

“Image was not processed, as sku was not found in the store.”

— The SKU in that row doesn’t exist on any product or variant in your store. Confirm the product exists and the SKU matches exactly.

Some images uploaded, some didn’t.

— That’s normal when only certain rows have problems. The completion email includes an error report listing each failed row and the reason.

The ZIP won’t upload.

— Make sure it’s a true .zip file, under 250 MB, with each image under 8 MB.

Where did my completion notice go?

— Make sure email delivery was set to “Yes” on the Notification Settings step, then check the email address shown there, and your spam folder.