Guide · Product inspector
The product inspector
Opening a product from the Catalog shows everything BigCommerce reports for it, grouped by the thing it belongs to. One tab writes. The rest are there to be read before you build an import file, and each one links straight to the same product in BigCommerce.
What it edits, and what it does not
| Tab | Shows | Can edit |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ID, SKU, brand, visibility | no |
| Variants | Every real variant with its options, price, stock and codes | no |
| Options | Each option, its type and its values with swatch colours | no |
| Images | Every picture with its position and thumbnail flag | no |
| Metafields | Shared and ad-hoc metafields | yes |
| Custom fields | Name and value | yes |
| Pricing & modifiers | Quantity breaks and modifiers | no |
Changing many products at once
This screen is for looking at one product. Changing hundreds is what the rest of the app is for:
- Bulk edit from the Catalog page — prices by percentage, visibility, categories, brand, metafields, scoped by a filter.
- Export → edit → re-import a product CSV for anything a bulk operation does not cover. The file carries variants, images, options, metafields, custom fields, modifiers and quantity breaks.
Metafields and custom fields
Both tabs send the complete set the product should end up with, written as REPLACE. That shape is forced by the file format rather than chosen: a file carries one command per field type, so "set these and delete those" cannot go in one file while the whole desired set can.
- A metafield is identified by
namespace+key; a duplicate pair is a 409 on BigCommerce, so writing one upserts. - Two custom fields with the same name are refused. BigCommerce allows them, but only the first could ever be addressed by a column, so the second would be left behind invisibly. Remove the duplicate in the BigCommerce admin first.
- Removing the last field of a type is a DELETE naming it, not an empty REPLACE — an empty set is a no-op to the importer.
- A shared metafield gets the input its definition describes: a colour picker, a date, a dropdown, a search box over your own products. See shared metafields.