The purpose of this NAMM Product Essentials Excel document is to create a standardized format for suppliers, distributors, third-party software vendors, and retailers to disseminate and consume product price lists, sometimes called "Build Sheets".
Suppliers and their resale partners can improve efficiency by having a single standardized document that multiple downstream distributors and retailers can programmatically consume into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and retail Point Of Sale (POS) systems. The NAMM Product Essentials document is a simplified product price list and product information exchange method that most resellers can use. For other automated ways of transporting product data via APIs, please visit https://www.namm.org/standards.
In addition to these instructions, this Excel document contains three tabs.
Data Definitions: Contains acceptable values that can be used on the Essentials Template tab. We recommend that you review the Data Definitions tab before creating your own file.
Required fields are the minimum values that resellers need to onboard supplier products. Required cells are highlighted in GREEN in this doc. An invalid value in a required field prevents resellers from adding your products to their systems.
Optional fields provide product information that is helpful, but not critical. Optional fields are highlighted in BLUE in this doc. We recommend that you provide as much optional information as possible for your products, as it can greatly improve resellers' ability to merchandise and promote your products.
Examples: The tab where actual products are added and stored. This is the only tab that must be provided to resale partners; the other tabs need not accompany the final output. The Examples tab shows how to enter product information. Note: The product information on the template is for reference only; please remove examples before providing data to resale partners.
Essentials Template: The tab where you enter product information. For best results, please include as much optional data as possible. If you are not providing data for a particular non-required field, leave the cell blank. Feel free to add color, bold, borders, and other formatting (but not additional text) to the template if it is helpful to you. We recommend that you not include ASCII special characters such as ® and ©. Also, please avoid HTML tags, as they are not supported by this process.
When you have finished entering your product data into the Template tab, you can save the entire workbook as an Excel (.xlsx) file or you can save the Template tab only as a text/tab-delimited (.txt) file. We recommend that you not save as a comma-separated values (.csv) file, as your product data may include delimiters (such as commas) that can cause problems.
From time to time, NAMM will update this document, including fields, rules, explanatory text, and requirements.
If you have read the Instructions and Data Definitions tabs of this file and still have questions, please email us at standards@namm.org.