Import a product catalogue

If you are moving a shop from another platform — Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy — you can bring the whole catalogue across in one go using a CSV file instead of retyping every product.

A CSV file is a spreadsheet saved as plain text. One row per product, one column per detail.

Note

This is for moving an existing catalogue in. It is not the way to update products you already have in your shop — for stock levels, bulk discounts or shipping tweaks on existing items, edit them directly.

The idea behind it

It looks long, but it is one trick repeated:

Import one sample product so the shop knows the shape of your data
Build that one product up until it has every field your real products need — options, variations, categories
Export it. You now have a spreadsheet with exactly the right columns
Fill that spreadsheet with all your products
Import it

You are using one product to generate the correct template, then filling it in.

Part 1 — build your master product

Clear out the samples

Delete the dummy products that came with your shop.

Import the starter file

Download the sample product catalogue CSV, then go to CMS › Project Settings › Shop › Import & Export and click Import File.

Start the import

On the Import Preview screen, click Start Import. Ignore the notes about ignored columns, rows and cells.

When it finishes you will see File Imported.

Add options and variations

Under CMS › All Products, open the imported product and use the Options tab to add every option and variation your real products will need.

Skip this if your products have no options. See Product options.

Add categories

Add your categories under CMS › Products › Categories, then assign the right ones to your master product. Categories can be imported from their own CSV file too.

Part 2 — generate your spreadsheet

Delete everything except the master

Remove every product apart from your master, using the trash icon next to each.

Export

Under CMS › Project Settings › Shop › Import & Export, scroll to Export product catalog and click Export Catalog.

You get a CSV file with exactly the columns your catalogue needs, shaped by whatever you added to the master product.

Part 3 — fill it in

Open the CSV in a spreadsheet program such as Excel and save it as a spreadsheet while you work. CSV files have no column widths or text wrapping, which makes them miserable to edit directly. Save back to CSV at the end.

Add your products row by row.

For options and variations, sort by the product_sku column so your master product’s option rows group together. Copy those rows, paste them at the bottom, and change the SKU to the next product’s. Repeat for each product, adjusting where products differ.

Note

With more than a few hundred products this becomes impractical by hand. A bulk editing tool may be available for your shop — ask your provider.

Part 4 — import it

Tidy the spreadsheet

Two things to remove first:

Delete the product_internal_id column. It is only for updating products that already exist, and you are adding new ones.
Delete every row with category in the first column. You added the categories already.

Test with a few first

Save a copy, cut it down to two or three products, and import that. Check the results look right before committing to the whole thing.

Do the real import

Delete the test products. Then Import File, choose your full CSV, and click Start Import on the preview screen.

File Imported means it is done.

Afterwards

Check a handful of products by hand — prices, images, categories, options. An import that reports success can still put things in the wrong column, and it is far easier to spot now than after your first customer complains.