diff --git a/pos/blueprints/inventory_bp.py b/pos/blueprints/inventory_bp.py
index 7d0e48e..881a5a8 100644
--- a/pos/blueprints/inventory_bp.py
+++ b/pos/blueprints/inventory_bp.py
@@ -450,8 +450,17 @@ def bulk_import_items():
         try:
             ext = os.path.splitext(file.filename)[1].lower()
             if ext == '.csv':
-                stream = io.TextIOWrapper(file.stream, encoding='utf-8-sig')
-                reader = csv.DictReader(stream)
+                raw = file.stream.read()
+                decoded = None
+                for enc in ('utf-8-sig', 'cp1252', 'latin-1'):
+                    try:
+                        decoded = raw.decode(enc)
+                        break
+                    except UnicodeDecodeError:
+                        continue
+                if decoded is None:
+                    return jsonify({'error': 'Unable to detect CSV encoding. Please save the file as UTF-8.'}), 400
+                reader = csv.DictReader(io.StringIO(decoded))
                 rows = list(reader)
             elif ext in ('.xls', '.xlsx', '.xlsm'):
                 try: