Send orders by CSV — any channel

Your own shop, eBay, Etsy, a phone call, a wholesale customer, a sample shipment. One file, any mix of channels, as often as you like. Upload it right here, the same way as the Amazon report — or import it in the FFN portal yourself.

Film

Watch it once, then do it

Seventeen minutes on the real screens. Uploading the CSV here works exactly like the Amazon upload, from 5:30, and step 1 (the file check, and the converter for orders in another form) from 6:02. From 12:55 it shows the CSV layout, why a file made from our template is the sure way, and the other way in: importing the file in the FFN portal yourself. The first four minutes cover the two ways orders can reach us, and how to open the free JTL Fulfillment Network account.

Chapters — 0:00 the two routes · 0:54 FFN Connect · 2:13 the free merchant account · 4:33 the Amazon report · 5:30 the upload and the check run · 6:02 step 1: file check & convert · 8:41 your own shipping labels · 10:59 tracking numbers back to Amazon · 12:55 any other channel · 13:44 uploading your CSV here · 14:28 the import template · 15:57 running the import

Every time

Upload your CSV here

Sign in with your StartFill login, drop the file and press Check the file: StartFill shows every order it would create, skip or refuse, and nothing reaches the warehouse until you press the second button. No import template needed, and your own shipping labels can go with it. The layout is below.

What should the CSV contain?

Step 1 checks the file for you. Drop any file: a file in the right layout gets a green line at once. Orders in another form — your own spreadsheet, a PDF, a Word file, a photo of a list — can be converted into the StartFill layout, and you check every line before anything is sent.

One row per product. Repeat the order columns on every row — rows with the same merchant_outbound_number are one parcel.
Required: merchant_outbound_number (your order number), item_merchant_sku (as in your FFN item list), item_quantity, and the address — shipping_address_last_name or _company, _street with the house number, _zip, _city and _country as a two-letter code (DE, AT …).
Optional: external_number, sales_channel, item_name, item_price, item_vat, shipping_address_first_name, _email and _phone. warehouse_id can stay as in the example — it is not read here.
Save it as CSV UTF-8 (comma or semicolon). In Excel, format postcode, phone and number columns as Text, or leading zeros and long numbers are lost.

Download the CSV layout (with three example rows) — replace the example rows with your own and keep the header row exactly as it is.

An order number that is already in the warehouse is recognised and skipped, so the same file can be uploaded twice without creating anything twice.

The layout

Get the CSV layout

Start from the example file and replace the rows with your own. Keep the header row as it is — it is what StartFill reads, and what an FFN import template maps.

CSVOrders to shipThree example lines, showing how a two-product order is written. Start here. CSVInbound deliveriesStock arriving at the warehouse. Lot and best-before go in the note — we read them off the cartons at goods receipt. CSVNew productsCreating items in bulk. Do this before any order that mentions them — and set the lot flags here, not later.

XLSXAll three as one Excel workbookOrders, inbound deliveries and new products on three sheets, with help on every heading. Save the sheet you need as CSV UTF-8 (comma) before you import it.

Four rules and the file will import. Save it as CSV UTF-8 (in Excel: Save as → CSV UTF-8 (comma delimited); semicolons are fine for the upload here, the FFN portal import needs commas). Write one row per product, and repeat the order columns on every row — two rows sharing a merchant_outbound_number are one parcel with two things in it, not two parcels. Every item_merchant_sku must already exist in your FFN item list. And keep the header row exactly as it comes: it is what StartFill reads. Format postcode, phone and number columns as Text in Excel, or leading zeros and long numbers are lost.

Every column, what it means and whether it is mandatory, is set out on the CSV field reference.

The other way · one-time setup

Or: import it in the FFN portal yourself

Only if you would rather import the file in the FFN portal than upload it here. FFN will not read a CSV until you have told it, once, what your columns mean. It takes about five minutes and you never touch it again. Do this in your own FFN merchant account, at fulfillment.jtl-software.com.

The Template overview page in the FFN portal with the Create template button at the bottom right — 1 · Data exchange → Template overview. The page lists your templates grouped by type — item, inbound, sales order, reports. Scroll to the bottom and press Create template.

The Create template form with name, description, template type Sales order, separator comma and character set UTF-8 — 2 · Name it and set the format. Template type Sales order, separator , and character set UTF-8 — the three that must match the file. The field list appears as soon as you pick the type.

The field mapping table: FFN field names on the left, your CSV column names typed into the middle column, default values on the right — 3 · Point each field at your column. Type your CSV heading into Name CSV. Our layout uses the FFN names already, so you copy each one across unchanged. Leave every field you don’t send blank. A * means mandatory. Default value fills something fixed for every row. One is required: set shipping_type to Standard — without it FFN rejects every order with “Shipping Type should not be empty”. status (Pending) and the item type (Product) are already filled in for you.

The Save button at the bottom of the Create template form — 4 · Save, at the very bottom. The list is long — keep scrolling past the package fields. The template then shows up under Sales order on the overview and in the Direct import dropdown.

Adding a column later does nothing on its own. A heading that is not mapped in the template is simply ignored — no warning, no error, the data just never arrives. If you start sending a new field, open the template and map it the same day.

Or hand it to us. Give StartFill short-term access to your FFN merchant account and we will build all three templates, test them against a sample file and tell you it is done — usually the same day. Take the access away again the moment we hand back; nothing we set up depends on it, and the templates stay yours.

Open the FFN portal Ask us to set it up Get the CSV layout

FFN portal · every time

Running the import in the FFN portal

Template saved, file ready — this is the bit you repeat. Four screens, about a minute once you have done it once. It is the same four whether the CSV came from us with a check run or you wrote it yourself.

The FFN portal with Data exchange in the top menu and the Import card below — 1 · Data exchange → Import. Top menu of the FFN portal, then the middle card.

The Import schedules screen with the Direct import button highlighted — 2 · Direct import. Ignore the schedules — you want the one-off import in the middle.

The Direct import dialog: choose the import template, then browse for the file, then Start import — 3 · Template first, then the file. Pick the template that matches what you are importing — sales orders, inbound deliveries or products — then Browse and Start import.

The processing reports table showing a Complete import, with the refresh button and the History button marked — 4 · Check it landed. Refresh the processing reports. Complete is what you want; History tells you what a failed run tripped over.

Picking the wrong template is the usual mistake. An inbound file imported against the sales-order template does not fail loudly — it fails in the report. If the status comes back Failed, open History before trying again: it names the row and the column.

On the real screens: the film The FFN portal, explained walks through Data exchange — templates, import and the processing report — from 10:34.

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Last updated 29 September 2026

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