Need Help, can this be done??

[rhondamorin]

HI,

I am an out of the box cell 1 plus cell 2 equals cell 3 kinda person. I know that Excel is terribly powerful because I have seen it and I have read some posts here that scare me to death.

I need help and I am more than willing to pay for this help, but here is what I need. I am an internet/affiliate marketer (sell other people's products on my websites for a commission) and I currently receive datafeeds from merchants with lists of their products with product id numbers, product name, image locations, descriptions, prices and their categories. I have my own list of customzied categories and subcategories I would like to use for all the datafeeds.

The datafeeds come as CSV and I open them in Excel, add a row to give me the column titles and I work with and manipulate the data from there. Some datafeeds come with 14,000+ products. I don't even know if this can be done but I need a way to search either one or two fields for certain keywords. If those words are there, then a subcategory I have outlined would be entered into a new field. Based on that result or what that category word is, a main category name would be entered into another field. Here is how it would lay out:

Headings:
ProductID, Name, MerchantNo, MerchantName, BuyLink, SmallImage, LargeImage, Price, CompareRetail, MainCategory, Category, Description, 2ndImage, SubCategory, RelatedProduct, Lastupdated (not all merchants provide all these fields, most are product id, name, description, and price)

Datafeed:
453381601, Cherry Finish Swivel Bar Stool, 6066, Buying Bar Stools, http://www.shareasale.com/m-pr.cfm?merchantID=6066&userID=YOURUSERID&productID=453381601 , http://www.buying-bar-stools.com/images/products/barstools-cherry-thumb1.jpg , http://www.buying-bar-stools.com/images/products/barstools-cherry.jpg, 150, 250, Home/Family, Furniture, FREE SHIPPING on this item! The Cherry Finish Bar Stool from Homestyles features solid wood construction, antique brass plated footrail, and a padded black vinyl cushioned swivel seat., http://www.buying-bar-stools.com/images/products/barstools-cherry-thumb2.jpg, Bar stools, http://www.buying-bar-stools.com/home-bars-569999.html?CID=SASFeed, 26:07.4

I want to query the fields Name and Description for words like bar stool and seat and would then like the subcategory to be Bar Stools and the main category to be Furniture.

Ultimately I would like to create the list of categories and subcategories in advance. For main categories I would like to use words like this:

Furniture
Slipcovers
Area Rugs
Lighting & Lamps
Blinds
Window Treatments/Curtains
Accessories
Artwork
Wall Decor
Bedding
Wallpaper

As an example, under the main category of Furniture I would like to use the subcategories as follows:

Living Room & Family Room
Sofa, Loveseats & Sleepers
Leather Furniture
Wicker & Rattan
Recliners
Chairs
Chaise Lounge Chairs
Benches and Ottomans
Armoires
Entertainment Centers
Accent
Console Tables
Coffee Tables & Side Tables
Storage Furniture
TV Stands

Dining Room & Kitchen
Dining Room
Buffets and Hutches
Corner Buffets
Stools & Chairs
Bakers Racks

Kitchen
Kitchen Carts & Islands
Kitchen Storage
Wine Racks

Bedroom
Bedroom
Beds
Headboards
Daybeds
Mattresses
Futons
Futon Mattresses

Bars, Pub and Game Tables

CD & Media Storage

Is this doable at all????? If so, what would it cost to get it done and how difficult would it be? Can it be customized for other sites with different main categories and subcategories?

My email address is rhonda.morin@gmail.com or you can post here as I will watch pretty closely to see if I get a response. I really am not very good with excel, basic stuff is fine but anything else it's a no go. A cut and paste kind of solution would be best.

Thank you for listening and helping out if you can.

Gratefully yours,
Rhonda Morin

 

[brian.wethington]

Welcome to the board!

I am sure we would be glad to help out where we can if we understand your problem (it may just be me but I don't quite understand what you are looking for). However, you may be better served using the Mr. Excel Consulting Team, since you are willing to pay. There is a link at the bottom of the page.

 

[zacemmel]

Hi Rhonda,

Yes, this can definitely be done I've done quite a bit of work for e-commerce sites that deal with CSV, XML feeds that needed this type of customized categorization.

However, instead of using Excel, we used customized applications that seemed to work much better. It allowed us to easily do things like have "automated mappings" - so, for example, if your feed provider maps something to "small chairs", you could have your application automatically categorize that as "bar stools" (that way you don't have to do the manual mapping every time) - or even have automated category mapping based on product descriptions etc...

If you're interested in going the customized application route, just shoot me an email - zseml@hotmail.com

Regards,
Zac