Importing NCR Product Descriptions and Specs into Magento Without Losing Data

When NCR announced that Retail Online was being discontinued, many Australian retailers faced the reality of moving years of carefully written product copy and technical specifications onto a new platform. Magento and WooCommerce both handle complex catalogues well, but the quality of what arrives on the new storefront depends almost entirely on how the data is prepared before the first import runs. Rushed migrations tend to strip formatting, merge descriptions into single paragraphs, or lose the structured spec fields that customers rely on when comparing products.

A clean import is less about software wizardry and more about discipline. It involves understanding exactly what NCR stored, deciding which fields matter, and configuring Magento so that descriptions, specifications, and variant information land in the right places. Australian sellers also have to keep local realities in mind, from GST-accurate pricing displays to compliance with the Australian Consumer Law when describing product safety or warranty terms.

Understanding the Data Stored in NCR Retail Online

NCR Retail Online pulled product information from Counterpoint, which meant most records contained a combination of structured and free-text fields. Common items included a short marketing description, a longer detailed description, manufacturer part numbers, UPC codes, weight, dimensions, and category-specific specs such as fabric content for apparel or wattage for electronics. Each of these fields had a specific purpose, and the first step in any migration is to inventory them before exporting anything.

Retailers in Melbourne and Sydney who ran hybrid stores often had hundreds or thousands of SKUs with layered specifications. Apparel shops needed size and colour matrices, while electronics sellers in Brisbane maintained voltage and plug-type data that matters for compliance with Australian standards. Going through a sample of fifty products and listing every distinct field used across the catalogue gives a realistic picture of what needs to come across. Skipping this step usually means discovering missing data weeks after the new site goes live, when customers are already searching for specifications that never made it into Magento.

Exporting Data in a Format Magento Can Read

Once the field inventory is complete, the next task is getting the data out of NCR in a clean, structured format. Counterpoint supports several export options, and CSV remains the most reliable choice for Magento because the platform's built-in importer expects comma-delimited files with a header row. UTF-8 encoding is essential, especially for store names with characters common in Australian suburbs such as Coffs Harbour or Noosa, and for any accented brand names in the catalogue.

Before running the export, it helps to clean up obvious issues: trailing spaces, duplicate entries, and inconsistent units of measurement. Australian retailers should standardise weights in kilograms and dimensions in millimetres, since Magento's default attribute options assume metric measurements. Removing HTML from description fields at this stage prevents broken tags later, though some formatting will need to be re-applied once the data lands in Magento's WYSIWYG editor. Saving a copy of the original export as a backup means the migration can be repeated if the first attempt produces unexpected results.

Preparing Magento Attributes Before the Import

Magento treats product specifications as attributes, and these must exist before any import can succeed. Logging into the Magento admin and creating an attribute set that mirrors the NCR structure saves significant time. Common attributes include short_description, description, manufacturer, and category-specific fields such as material or battery_life. Each attribute needs a defined input type: text field, textarea, dropdown, or multi-select, depending on how the data was stored in NCR.

For Australian stores, a few attributes deserve particular attention. Price fields should be configured to display GST-inclusive values by default, since that is what shoppers expect to see on product pages. Warranty information is another area where the Australian Consumer Law imposes specific obligations, so a dedicated warranty attribute makes it easier to keep that copy consistent and visible. Attributes used for filtering on the layered navigation should be marked as searchable and filterable, but only if the data is clean enough to support a good customer experience.

Mapping Descriptions to the Correct Magento Fields

A common mistake during NCR to Magento migrations is assuming that one description field maps cleanly to another. In practice, the detailed description often contains multiple paragraphs covering features, dimensions, and care instructions, all of which may need to be split into separate attributes for better search and filtering. A short_description works well for the opening summary that appears in category listings, while the full description belongs in the main product description field.

Practical mapping tips for a smoother import:

• Keep SEO meta titles and meta descriptions in separate columns, even if NCR did not use them.
• Map size and colour fields to Magento's configurable product attributes rather than text fields.
• Reserve a column for manufacturer part numbers to support warranty lookups.
• Use a dedicated column for Australian compliance marks such as RCM or water efficiency ratings.

A spreadsheet acts as the translation layer between the two systems. Column headers in the CSV must match Magento's internal attribute codes exactly, including underscores and lowercase letters. Spending an hour getting this right prevents hours of troubleshooting once the import job begins.

Importing Specifications Without Losing Structure

Technical specifications present a particular challenge because they often exist as semi-structured text in NCR, with line breaks or tab-separated values that do not translate well to a flat CSV. The most reliable approach is to treat each specification as its own attribute, even if that means creating dozens of attributes for a single product type. Magento handles this well, and the resulting structured data supports much richer filtering and comparison features.

Retailers selling electronics or appliances in Perth or Adelaide often have products that carry Australian-specific certification data, such as the Regulatory Compliance Mark for electrical safety or star ratings for energy efficiency. These belong as dedicated attributes so they can be displayed prominently and updated independently when standards change. Where a specification genuinely cannot be split, storing it as a single textarea with consistent formatting allows Magento to display it as a definition list using a small template adjustment.

Validating the Import and Cleaning Up the Catalogue

After the import completes, validation is non-negotiable. Spot-checking fifty random products across different categories reveals whether descriptions retained their formatting, whether specifications landed in the right attributes, and whether images and videos are linked correctly. Australian shoppers browsing on mobile devices are particularly sensitive to broken layouts, so testing on a phone before launch is just as important as desktop checks.

Common issues to look for after the import runs:

• Descriptions showing raw HTML tags instead of formatted text.
• Specifications appearing in the short description field.
• Prices displaying without GST or with the wrong currency symbol.
• Images pointing to old NCR URLs that no longer resolve.

Fixing these issues before the site goes live protects both customer experience and search engine rankings. Magento's mass action tools can correct many problems in bulk, but manual review is still required for anything involving brand voice or compliance language.

Ongoing Maintenance After the Migration

A migration is not a one-off event. Product catalogues evolve, new specifications get added, and Australian regulations occasionally shift. Setting up a schedule to review and update product data keeps the Magento store healthy and ensures that descriptions and specs remain accurate over time. Store owners juggling both a physical shopfront in Sydney and an online channel often find that a quarterly review of the top-selling categories catches most issues before they affect customers.

For businesses that handled complex trade relationships through NCR, the move to Magento also opens opportunities to manage B2B accounts more efficiently than before. The combination of structured attributes, custom price lists, and customer groups makes Magento particularly well suited to trade pricing and account-specific catalogues, which many Australian wholesalers have been waiting to implement properly.

The transition away from NCR Retail Online does require effort, but a careful import of descriptions and specifications protects years of product knowledge. Australian retailers who treat the data migration as a chance to clean, restructure, and localise their catalogue end up with a stronger Magento store than the one they left behind.