The Pickler Product Data Template is designed to help you create new products, update existing ones, and manage product data in bulk. It complements the Product Form inside Pickler and the Pickler API, and contains the full dataset of all primary product data you can supply.
Because the template includes all available data fields, it can look extensive. This guide explains how it works, what every tab means, and how to use color coding to focus only on what matters most.
What to use the template for
1. Creating New Products
Always add new products in the Product General Data tab.
Formulas automatically pull products into the other tabs.To create a product in Pickler, an ID is mandatory.
By default, the template provides 1000 rows to add new products. Best practice is to stick to this. If you want to upload more, please split your upload into multiple batches.
2. Editing and deleting data in Existing Products
You may freely edit existing products — except the ID, which cannot be changed. If you do, after upload it will be detected as a new product (it the ID is not known in Pickler)
Best practice: do not delete data, but enter new values to overwrite.
For components: Deleting values here will remove that data in Pickler during import. This is because component data is interconnected and cannot be partially deleted.
For example: If you delete the material weight in your sheet, the weight will also be deleted from your product data in Pickler when you upload.
For other tabs: You can delete values. Deleted fields will simply not be overwritten during upload.
For example: If you delete the pallet width in your sheet, Pickler will keep the existing width in your account.
3. Deleting Products
Deleting products is not possible through the template.
Delete products directly from your Pickler account instead.
Do not delete rows in the template—just leave unwanted products untouched. Importing them won’t change anything unless you edit data.
4. Deleting Tabs
Not recommended, but allowed.
Tabs you delete simply won’t import, and your existing products stay unchanged.
It’s usually easier to ignore the tabs you don’t need rather than removing them.
Uploading Your File Into Pickler
Log in to Pickler.
Ensure you have Manager or Owner permissions.
Navigate to the Import Page.
Upload your completed Excel file.
Pickler will detect errors, which will be displayed if there is an error found. If it's unclear what the error means, please contact us via chat or [email protected].
Understanding the Color Codes for Footprint Data Entry
Every column header in the template includes a color code to guide you:
Red — Mandatory
Required to create a product and provide minimal footprint data.Yellow — Important primary data
Strongly improves footprint accuracy, but can be temporarily replaced with Pickler’s conservative default values.No color — Additional primary data
Not required for a footprint calculation, but improves representativeness and data quality.
Tip: Start with red and yellow columns. You can always enrich your dataset later.
Tab-by-Tab Explanation & Best Practices
1. Product General Data
This is the core of your product information.
Text and number fields
ID - Required to create a product
Name
Description
Image url
Category
GTIN-13 (EAN)
2. GTIN-13 (EAN)
GTIN-14 (EAN)
Supplier article ID
Supplier name
Product setup fields:
Status: Draft or verified
Default values: when Yes, Pickler will use conservative values to fill your data gaps. These are the yellow fields.
Product ID (mandatory to create products)
Product status (draft/live)
Scenarios (e.g., dummy products)
Default values
Whether to automatically fill data gaps with Pickler default values
Best practice:
Start here every time. New products must always be added in this tab.
2. Product Components (1–6)
A component is a part of your product manufactured or processed independently at a unique location—for example, a separate lid.
Data fields with required data
For the first component, at least 1 material and its weight are required. This is indicated as red in the column header.
Data fields for additional data
You can add more data to your calculations. You can leave fields empty that are marked in Yellow. These fields are required for calculations, but can be replaced by Pickler's defaults, so a calculations is still possible.
These fields inculde
Processing details (location and method)
Additional primary data on energy mix and energy use
Printing
Best practice:
Use components only when your product truly consists of different parts from different production steps.
For most packaging products, components are not needed.
3. Pack, Case, and Pallet
These tabs describe secondary and tertiary packaging used to distribute your product, such as:
Polybags
Transport cases
Pallets and pallet wrap
They work the same way as materials and processing tabs.
Difference with product component tabs: the first material and weights can also be replaced by defaults.
Data fields in pack, case and pallet tabs
Products per pack, case or pallet
This is marked as red, but if you decide not to use the pack, case or pallet layer, you can still leave it empty. It will then be skipped.
Once you do enter a number, Pickler will apply the layer in the calculation and the fields marked as yellow will be used for calculations. When you leave them empty, Pickler will use defaults.
Best practice:
Go for a simple description of the main materials.
The impact of additional packaging is often negligible compared to the main product, so investing time in precise details usually isn’t necessary.
4. Transport Legs
Transport legs describe the distance between production steps and the final destination.
Transport data fields
There are no required data fields in transport. Every field in yellow will be used for calculations, but can be replaced by defaults if you don't have the data.
For footprint calculations, the total distance per transport method is what matters.
Distance travelled
Transport method
For traceability and automatic transport calculation, you can also add the from and to fields
Transport calculation
By default, this is set to manual but can be changed to automatic:
Automatic distance calculation (Pickler suggests the distance—validation recommended)
Manual entry (you enter the distance yourself)
Other fields that can be replaced with defaults
Pallet width, length, height, and gross weight
→ These allow Pickler to determine whether your shipment is weight-based or volume-based.
5. End of Life
Defines how your product is discarded, including:
End-of-life region
Percentage of your product that ends up in this region
Additional fields: custom end of life
Enable custom end-of-life scenarios only with verified data.
Assumptions such as “recyclable” without evidence of real recycling can be considered greenwashing.
6. Compliance data
This is data that is not needed for calculations, but can be added to increase compliance with PPWR and DPP. This data will also show in Pickler's Product Passport.
How compliance fields work in general:
Select "yes" when a field applies to your product
In the second field, add the right value
In the third field, include your evidence. This is a free text field.
You don't upload a file here, but this field indicates that evidence is available to support your claim.
