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Adding Products to Your Portfolio

Matt Stramel
Updated

Not every product in your catalog will be pre-discovered by WISEcode. Some brands land in Portfolio and see 0 of 0 products — nothing discovered yet, everything needs to be added from scratch. Others discover most of their catalog but find a few missing SKUs that need to be filled in manually. This article covers both scenarios: how to add products when yours aren’t already in Portfolio.

When you’ll need to add products

Two common scenarios:

  • Starting from scratch. You log in and your portfolio is empty (0 of 0). WISEcode hasn’t discovered any of your brand’s products yet. This is normal for smaller brands, new launches, or brands not yet in the public retailer feeds WISEcode uses for discovery.
  • Filling gaps. WISEcode has discovered most of your catalog, but a few products are missing — a new launch, a private-label item, a regional-only SKU, or something that just hasn’t made it into the discovery pipeline yet.

In both cases, the fix is the same: add the missing products manually through the data ingestion chat or batch upload. Any product you add is automatically claimed by your brand as soon as it’s saved.

What you’ll need per product

To add a product, gather the following information from the label:

  • UPC — the exact 12-digit UPC code. Every UPC is a distinct product, so multiple package sizes with different UPCs must each be added separately (see “Using the Data Ingestion Chat” for details).
  • Product name — as it appears on the front of pack
  • Ingredient list — copied verbatim from the label, including parentheses, commas, and asterisks. Don’t reformat.
  • Nutrition Facts Panel — serving size, servings per container, calories, and all nutrients as listed

Recommended but not required:

  • Front-of-pack imagery — a product image isn’t required to reach Claimed status, qualify for Non-UPF Shield Verification, or appear in reports. But it is how your product is represented in the WISEcode consumer app, so brands with clean product photography show up better to shoppers. Worth adding when you have it.
  • Allergen statements, claims (Organic, Kosher, etc.), and any certifications on-pack

Note on variety packs: WISEcode doesn’t support variety packs yet — a single UPC containing multiple different flavors or products in one box. Support is planned for a future release. For now, add the individual flavors as their own products and reach out to your account team for guidance on representing the variety pack itself.

Note on Nutrition Facts exemptions: Some categories are exempt from carrying a full Nutrition Facts panel under FDA 21 CFR 101.9(j) — for example, plain coffee, plain tea, single-ingredient spices and herbs, flavor extracts, and food colors. Infant and toddler foods use a modified panel. If your product falls into one of these categories, WISEcode doesn’t require the full nutrient set to reach Claimed status. WISEcode doesn’t verify exemption eligibility — that determination is yours.

How to add a single product

If you have one or a small number of products to add:

  1. Open the data ingestion chat from the portfolio overview
  2. Tell the chat to add a product. Example prompt: “Add a new product to our portfolio: UPC 012345678910, Product Name: [name], Ingredients: [paste list], NFP: [paste values]”
  3. Attach the front-of-pack image if you have one. Drag it into the chat, or upload the spec sheet PDF and let the chat OCR it. This step is optional
  4. Review what the chat extracted. The chat summarizes what it understood
  5. Confirm to save. The product is added to your portfolio, automatically claimed, and enters the ingredient verification flow

Once saved, the product moves into the same ingredient verification workflow as any other product — matching each label ingredient against WISEcode’s canonical database. See “Verifying Your Ingredients” for what happens next.

How to add many products at once (batch upload)

If you have 10 or more products to add, the batch upload tool is faster:

  1. Open the batch upload tool (linked from the chat header in the data ingestion chat)
  2. Download the CSV template. The template has columns for UPC, product name, ingredients, and NFP fields. The image URL column is optional
  3. Fill in one row per product. Each UPC gets its own row, even if formulations are identical across package sizes
  4. Upload the completed CSV. WISEcode parses it and shows you a summary of what was ingested
  5. Review any warnings. Rows with issues are flagged so you can correct them
  6. Commit the batch. All products are added, claimed, and enter ingredient verification

Batch upload is the fastest path to a fully populated portfolio when you’re starting from scratch.

What blocks a batch upload

For most brands, nothing does. If your account is set up with a single brand, there are no blocking conditions — rows with issues are flagged for correction, but the file still processes.

The one exception: if your account is an organization with multiple brands and the file references a brand that isn’t registered to your organization, the upload will stop. Confirm the brand names in your file match the brands registered to your org and re-upload.

The 0-of-0 starting-from-scratch flow

If your portfolio is empty on first login:

  1. Gather your catalog. Pull together UPCs, ingredients, and NFPs for every product you want in Portfolio. A spreadsheet works well here.
  2. Decide chat vs batch. Fewer than 10 products, use the chat. More than 10, use batch upload.
  3. Add your top products first. If your portfolio is large, prioritize your highest-volume or highest-strategic-value products so reports get valuable fast.
  4. Verify ingredients as you go. Ingredient verification is where you catch data issues. Handle yellow (fuzzy) matches inline — don’t leave them for later. See “Verifying Your Ingredients.”
  5. Once products are Claimed, unlock the shield path. Claimed products that also meet the Non-UPF standard automatically become Pre-Qualified for Non-UPF Shield Verification.

There’s no minimum portfolio size to start pulling reports — even a single product added to a from-scratch portfolio unlocks all product-level reporting for that product.

What happens after you add a product

When you save a new product:

  • The product is automatically claimed by your brand (no separate claim step)
  • It enters the ingredient verification flow — WISEcode matches every ingredient against its canonical database
  • The Product Details Report generates immediately with all the info you provided
  • Once all ingredients are verified, the product moves from In Progress to Claimed status
  • All product-level reports (UPF, Ingredient Quality, GRAS, Insights) run once the product is Claimed
  • If the product meets the Non-UPF standard, it appears in your Pre-Qualified list for Non-UPF Shield Verification
  • The product appears in the WISEcode consumer app within 24 hours

Common questions

How do I know if a product is missing from Portfolio? Compare your Portfolio product count to your actual catalog. If Portfolio shows fewer products than you sell, some are missing. Search by UPC or name — if there’s no match, the product needs to be added.

Do I have to add discontinued or private-label products? No — add only the products you want tracked, reported on, and represented in the consumer app.

Can WISEcode discover missing products automatically over time? Yes. WISEcode’s discovery pipeline runs on public retailer feeds, packaging scans, and UPC catalogs. If your product enters those feeds, it’ll be discovered on the next pipeline run. But if you don’t want to wait, adding manually is always the fastest path.

What if I don’t have the ingredient list handy for every product? Add the products you have complete data for first. Products can be saved with incomplete data (they’ll show as In Progress), then finished later when you have the missing fields.

Can I bulk-add products from my e-commerce backend or ERP? Yes — the batch upload CSV format is designed to be exported from most product-data systems. If your system exports a different format, ask about supported connectors.

What if the batch upload flags many of my products as having issues? Common issues: malformed UPCs, empty required fields, or ingredient text that includes hidden characters from Excel. Fix the flagged rows in the CSV and re-upload — the tool handles re-uploads gracefully without creating duplicates.

My whole file was rejected. Why? The only condition that stops an entire file is an unregistered brand in a multi-brand organization account. If your org has multiple brands and the file references a brand that isn’t registered to the org, the upload stops. Single-brand accounts don’t hit this — individual row issues get flagged without blocking the file.

Do I need product images in my batch upload? No. The image URL column is optional. Images don’t affect Claimed status, Non-UPF Shield Verification eligibility, or reports — they only affect how your product looks in the WISEcode consumer app.

Can I add a variety pack? Not yet. WISEcode doesn’t support variety packs (one UPC containing multiple different products) today — that’s planned for a future release. Add the individual flavors as separate products for now.

Next steps

Need help?

For toolkit access, asset specifications, or shield usage questions, submit a request and a member of the WISEcode team will get back to you.

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