Creating sales demos : Cloudshelf

This article will explain how you can create a demo using your client's own data and branding, regardless of their E-commerce backend by scraping data and adding it to a Shopify dev account.

(If you want a quick generic demo, you can use the instant demo feature by going to https://cloudshelf.ai/demo and choosing to display either an interactive or display only demo)

Set up the Shopify environment

Register as a Shopify partner (https://accounts.shopify.com/signup) so that you can open as many dev stores as you want; or login to your existing partner account (https://partners.shopify.com)
Create a Shopify dev store for a given client demo (free)
Chose to create a store for a client and fill in basic info

(NB: if you just want to test Cloudshelf you can choose to 'Create a store to test and build' and get Shopify to populate it with dummy data)

Adding your customer's data

Choose a set of product groups / collections to scrape
Work out that you think will best illustrate the solution to your client. You should aim to have 6-12 product groups, each with 10-50 products.
Scrape the website data into the Shopify CSV import format. You can see an example sheet here: https://help.shopify.com/csv/product_template.csv

A few notes on the format:
- each product has a unique handle and is on its own row
- each subsequent variant is on a subsequent row, and starts with the product's unique handle
- each additional image is on a subsequent row
- set column Q (inventory tracker) to 'Shopify' and add a dummy quantity in column R (Variant Inventory Qty')
- for the demo, ignore all the Google Shopping categories as they will break the import unless they follow the correct syntax (not needed for the demo)
- add a final column called 'Collection' to the CSV and put the collection or product group name you wish to use in the Cloudshelf demo
In the Shopify store admin panel, go the Products menu on the left, and click on the 'Import' button top right