CSV import

The fastest way to change a thousand products, and the fastest way to ruin them.

How Shopify matches rows

On the handle. A row whose handle already exists updates that product. A row whose handle does not creates a new one.

That is the whole matching rule, and it is why a typo in one cell creates a duplicate product rather than raising an error.

Blank does not mean leave alone

An empty cell in a column you included is an instruction to empty that field. Export, edit only what you meant to change, and delete the columns you are not touching before you upload.

This is how stores lose every barcode in an afternoon.

Excel eats numbers

Open a CSV in Excel and a barcode becomes a number. Leading zeros vanish, long codes turn into scientific notation, and nothing warns you.

Import the column as text, or work in a tool that leaves it alone.

Where it goes wrong

Quantities are imported for variants with inventory tracking turned off. The upload reports success and changes nothing.

The other one is no backup. Export the products first, every time. It takes a minute, and it is the only undo this feature has.