Import Products Tool for Shopify

What it does

Import Products reads a CSV or Excel file with one row per variant. Each row is matched to a variant by its Variant SKU, and that row updates two things:

• the variant — price, compare-at price, cost, barcode, weight, taxable, shipping, inventory;
• the variant’s product — title, description, vendor, type, tags, status, SEO, collections.

This is the tool’s whole point: Shopify’s built-in product importer matches rows by handle and can’t update by SKU. If your source of truth (ERP, supplier feed, warehouse system) speaks SKU, this tool takes that file directly.

With Create New Products & Variants turned on, rows whose SKU doesn’t exist create something new. When the row’s Handle (or Title, if you don’t use handles) matches an existing product, the row is added to that product as a new variant; otherwise the rows become a new product — complete with options, variants, images, inventory, and collections.

The file format is what Export Products produces, so the easiest workflow is: export, edit the file, re-import. The import runs in the background and, if you turn email delivery on, emails you when it finishes; rows that fail come back in an error file you can fix and re-upload.

When to use it

• Your ERP or supplier feed is SKU-based and you want to sync product data into Shopify without mapping everything to handles first.
• You exported your products, bulk-edited them in a spreadsheet, and want to push the changes back.
• You’re doing a bulk content pass — titles, descriptions, SEO fields, vendors, types, or tags across many products.
• You’re creating many products at once, including multi-variant products with options.
• You’re adding new variants to products you already have — a new size, flavor, or pack count.
• You want to add products to collections in bulk using a Collections column.
• For price-only or stock-only jobs, the dedicated Price Updater and Inventory Updater are simpler.

Before you start

• Your Shopify store must be connected to your account.
• Your file needs a header row. Only the columns you want to import need to be present.
• Updates are matched by Variant SKU. SKUs should be unique in your store — a SKU that exists on more than one variant is reported as an error rather than guessed at. A row with no SKU can still update product fields if its Handle matches an existing product.
• Product columns can repeat on every row. When several rows belong to the same product, the first filled-in value per column is used.
• A non-blank Tags cell replaces all of the product’s tags. Include the full tag list, not just the new ones.
• Image columns add images — they never remove or replace any. Cells containing Shopify CDN links (cdn.shopify.com — which is what an export contains) are skipped, so re-importing an exported file never duplicates images. Paste an image’s own web address into an image column to add it. For zip-file uploads, the Bulk Image Uploader is the dedicated tool.
• If you’re importing an Inventory Qty column, pick the Inventory Location it should apply to (it defaults to your store’s primary location).

Step-by-step

File / field reference

The columns match Export Products. The rules below are specific to importing.

What happens to each row

Row	What happens
SKU exists on one variant	Updates that variant, and its product from the product-level columns.
SKU exists on several variants	Error — there’s no safe way to know which one you meant. Make the SKU unique in Shopify first.
SKU doesn’t exist	Error — unless Create New Products & Variants is on. Then, if the row’s Handle (or Title, with no handle) matches an existing product, the row becomes a new variant of it; otherwise it becomes part of a new product.
No SKU, Handle matches a product	Updates just that product’s product-level fields.
No SKU, no Handle, Title matches a product	With Create New Products & Variants on, updates that product’s product-level fields. Otherwise an error.

Creating new variants on existing products

• A row with a new SKU joins the product its Handle points at — or, with no handle, the product whose Title matches exactly.
• The row’s Option Name / Option Value columns must name an option the product already has (e.g. Size / XL on a product with a Size option). A new option value is fine; a brand-new option can’t be added by import — add the option in the Shopify admin first.
• Variant Inventory Qty is set at creation (at the selected Inventory Location), and a Variant Image web address is added and assigned like on updates.
• Watch your SKUs: with the toggle on, a typo’d SKU on a row whose handle/title matches a product creates an extra variant instead of updating the one you meant.

Creating new products

• Rows that belong to the same new product are grouped by Handle — or by Title if you don’t use a Handle column — and must be next to each other in the file. A new product is only created when that handle/title doesn’t already exist on the store — otherwise the rows become new variants of the existing product (see above).
• Title is required for a new product. A Handle is optional: when it’s blank, Shopify builds one from the title (e.g. “Black Sunglasses” → black-sunglasses).
• Multi-variant products need Option Name / Option Value columns so each row describes a distinct variant (e.g. Size / Small). Up to 100 variant rows per new product.

Product-level columns

Read from any row of the product — the first filled-in value wins.

Column	Notes
Handle	Optional. Groups rows when creating; also lets a no-SKU row update a product’s fields.
Title	The product name. Required when creating.
Body (HTML)	The product description (HTML).
Vendor / Type	The product’s vendor and product type.
Tags	Comma separated. Replaces the product’s full tag list.
Status	active, draft, or archived.
SEO Title / SEO Description	The search engine listing fields.
Collections	Comma separated collection titles. Products are added to these collections — never removed from any. A title that doesn’t exist on the store is reported as an error.
Image Src – 1…5 / Image Alt Text – 1…5	Product images by web address. New addresses are added to the product’s images; Shopify CDN links are skipped and nothing is ever removed.

Variant columns

Column	Notes
Variant SKU	Matches the variant to update. Also written to the variant on creates.
Option1–3 Name / Value	The product’s options. Used when creating products and variants; existing variants aren’t re-optioned.
Variant Price / Variant Compare At Price	Prices.
Cost per item	The variant’s unit cost.
Variant Barcode	The barcode (ISBN, UPC, GTIN).
Variant Weight / Variant Weight Unit	Weight with g, kg, lb, or oz (defaults to lb if a weight is given without a unit).
Variant Taxable / Variant Requires Shipping	TRUE / FALSE (yes/no also works).
Variant Inventory Tracked	TRUE / FALSE — whether Shopify tracks this variant’s stock.
Variant Inventory Qty	Sets the quantity at the selected Inventory Location. If the variant isn’t tracked yet, tracking is turned on automatically.
Variant Image	The variant’s image by web address. A new address is added and assigned to the variant; Shopify CDN links are skipped.

Troubleshooting / FAQ