Shopify CSV template for products, customers and inventory.

How to use it

Get a working Shopify import file in three steps.

1. Pick the template above. For products, choose how many options your products have: none for single items, or up to three such as Size, Color and Material. Leave the example rows on the first time, so you can see how variant rows are laid out, then switch them off for a clean file.

2. Open the file in Google Sheets, Excel or Numbers and replace the example rows with your products. Keep the header row exactly as it is, and save the file as CSV with UTF-8 encoding.

3. Upload the finished file under Check my CSV. The checker reads it in your browser and lists every row and column Shopify would reject, with the reason. When it reports no problems, import the file in the Shopify admin under Products, then Import.

Product columns

What goes in each product column.

Shopify renamed several product columns in its current template, for example Handle became URL handle, Body (HTML) became Description and Variant Price became Price. The importer still accepts the old names, but mixing old and new names in one file causes confusion, so these templates use the current names throughout. Only Title is required for new products, and URL handle is needed as soon as a product has variants.

Variants

How variants and extra images are laid out.

Shopify reads one row per variant. The first row of a product carries the title, description, vendor, tags and the option names; each following row repeats only the URL handle and fills in that variant's option values, SKU, price and stock. Extra images work the same way: each additional image gets its own row with the URL handle, the image URL and its position. A product with two sizes in two colours therefore needs four variant rows, which is exactly what the two-option template shows.

Shopify allows three options per product and up to 2,048 variants. If your old platform had more attributes, combine two of them into one option or use metafields for details that don't change the price or stock.

Customers and inventory

Customer and inventory templates.

The customer template needs the Email column, even if some cells are empty, or the whole import fails. Marketing consent and tax exemption columns accept only yes or no, and the address uses two-letter country codes such as US or GB with state or province codes. Passwords and order history can't be imported by CSV; customers set a new password through an account invite.

The inventory template updates stock per location. Each variant needs one row per location, the location name must match Shopify exactly, and the new quantity goes in On hand (new) as a whole number. Columns marked not editable are ignored on import. Customer and inventory files must be 15 MB or smaller, so split larger files.

Common errors

The import errors this checker catches.

Most failed Shopify imports come from a short list of mistakes: a currency symbol in a price, a weight with decimals in the grams column, yes instead of true, a status such as live instead of active, a handle with spaces, an SEO title that is too long, an image file name containing _thumb or _small, a file with both a Barcode and a Barcodes column, or the same variant listed twice. The checker flags each one with its line number, so you can fix the file before Shopify rejects it.

If you're moving a whole store rather than one spreadsheet, the CSV is only part of the work. My WooCommerce to Shopify migration service moves products, variants, customers, orders, blog posts and redirects for a fixed price after a free audit.