How Our Tools Work

Almost every tool in YourStoreTools follows the same pattern. Read this once and the individual tool guides will make sense quickly — they only document what is specific to that tool.

Where you find tools

Tools appear as cards on your dashboard. Each card shows the tool’s name, a one-line description, and a button to open it. You only see the tools that apply to your store’s platform (BigCommerce or Shopify) and that are included in your plan.

• A tool you’re subscribed to opens directly.
• A tool that isn’t included in your plan shows “Subscribe To Tool” or “Click to Upgrade Plan” instead. Some tools are available on the free plan.

Running a tool

Because work runs in the background, large imports and exports keep running even if you close the browser. You can check progress at any time from the tool’s History (see below).

Imports (uploading data)

Import tools update your store from a file you provide.

• Your file’s first row must be the column headers. The tool reads those headers so it can match each column to a store field.
• Most imports match existing records by a unique key (commonly SKU) and update them.
• Supported file types are typically CSV and Excel (.xlsx). You can upload a file or, on most imports, import from a URL (a public CSV link or a Google Sheet shared as “Anyone with the link can view”).

Matching your file’s columns

After you upload (or fetch) your file, the Match your file’s columns screen lists every column in your file, one row each, so you only deal with the columns you actually have:

• Column in your file shows the column’s header and a sample value from your first data row (e.g. “e.g. 39.99”), so you can tell what the column holds.
• Import into is the store field the column will update. Click it to open a searchable list of store fields, grouped into sections (for example Basics, Pricing & Tax, Inventory). Pick Don’t import this column to skip a column.
• Status shows Auto-matched (we matched it for you), Matched (you picked the field), or Not imported.

Columns are matched automatically when the header matches a store field. Matching ignores capitals, spaces, underscores and dashes, so “Sale Price”, “sale_price” and “sale-price” all match the Sale Price field. When a column almost matches, you’ll see a suggestion such as Use “Inventory Level” — click it to accept.

A few more things to know:

• The bar at the top shows how many of your columns will be imported (e.g. “11 of 14 columns will be imported”). Use the All / Not imported / Imported tabs to focus on what’s left.
• Each store field can only be used by one column. A field that’s already in use is greyed out in the list and shows which column is using it. (A few fields, such as Shopify collection metafields, accept several columns.)
• Required fields (such as SKU) must be matched before you can continue; a red message tells you which one is missing.

Exports (downloading data)

Export tools pull data out of your store into a file.

Choosing your file’s columns

The Choose your file’s columns screen groups the available fields into sections (for example Basics, Identifiers, Pricing & Tax, Inventory & Purchasing, SEO):

• Search for a field by name (e.g. “price”, “weight”, “meta”) to jump straight to it.
• Open or close a section with its arrow. Each section shows how many of its fields you’ve picked (e.g. “3 of 9”), and its checkbox selects or clears the whole section.
• Select all and Clear work across every section.
• On product exports, images are one control instead of a checkbox per image: set Product images per row (up to 10) and choose which parts to include — ID, File URL and/or Alt text on BigCommerce, or Image URL and/or Alt text on Shopify.
• The Selected panel lists every column in your file. Click the × on one to remove it. Fields marked required (such as SKU on product exports) are always included.
• The bar at the top shows how many columns you’ve selected out of everything available.

Your file’s columns always come out in the same order, whatever order you tick them in, so exported files stay consistent from one run to the next.

Per-tool actions

Open a tool’s menu (the icons / “⋯” on the card) for these common actions:

Action	What it does
Favorite	Pin the tool to the top of your dashboard.
Schedule	Run the tool automatically on a recurring schedule. (Available if your plan includes scheduling.)
History	See past runs of this tool, their status, and download links.
Help	Open the help article for this tool.

Email delivery

Tools can email you when a job finishes, and the default depends on the type of tool. For export-type tools, email delivery is on by default — the email carries a download link to your results. For import and update tools it’s off by default, since the email is just a completion confirmation; turn it on with the Yes/No choice on the final step of the wizard for any run you’d like to be notified about. Either way your account email address is prefilled, so you don’t need to type anything (though you can change the recipient), and export files can also always be downloaded from the tool once the job finishes.

Plans, free tools, and limits

• Your available tools and how often you can run them depend on your plan.
• Some tools are free; others require a paid plan or a per-tool subscription.
• A few tools are usage-limited (consumable). When you hit the limit you’ll be prompted to upgrade.

See your plan and billing details under Billing in your interface.

Common problems

• No email arrived — check spam, confirm the recipient address on the final wizard step, and check the tool’s History to see whether the job finished or failed.
• Import did nothing / wrong rows changed — re-check that your first row is headers and that your unique key column (e.g. SKU) is mapped correctly.

Still stuck? Use the in-app help/chat (the Beacon widget), or the Contact Us / support link in your interface.