Unless you plan on having regular large uploads of new products, another way is to use the BULK INSERT command.
There are a couple of steps you will need to take before doing this.
1. Download Sql Server Management Studio. This will give you an easy IDE to work with your db. Navicat is a good one as well though it is not free.
2. Choose an easy table to practice on like categories.
3. Understand each data type for each column in the db table.
4. Format and clean up your data in Excel to match what the db table is expecting. Practice with only 2 or 3 rows of data to start.
5. Save your file as a comma delimited text file.
6. Using the query editor in sql management studio, execute the following sql command. You can also create a stored procedure for this and then execute the command using raw sql from the admin side (this is another tutorial though).
Script
BEGIN TRANSACTION //You can also add TRUNCATE TABLE if you want to quickly remove all old data.
BULK INSERT MyTableName
FROM 'C:\MyFolder\MyFile.txt' //Test this on your local machine first for practice. You will struggle a bit trying to navigate your hosts folder structure.
WITH (FIELDTERMINATOR = ',', ROWTERMINATOR = '\n')
COMMIT
Thats it. Much faster than using the import tool. Again SSIS packages encapsulate everything nicely but if you are just starting out it may be a steep learning curve.