Knowledge Base

You need to use a CSV (comma-separated values) file to:

• import products into your store
• export products from your store.

CSV files

CSV stands for Comma Separated Values, and it's a file format (.csv) for spreadsheets. Shopify accepts the import and export of CSV files for the Products, Customers, Orders (export only), and Discounts (export only) of your store.

CSV files might seem intimidating at first, but when you understand what the text and characters represent in a spreadsheet, you might use it for some bigger tasks (such as bulk editing products and customers).

In a CSV file, each entry represents a cell in a spreadsheet, each line represents a new row, and each comma indicates where one entry ends and another one begins.

For example, the entries in this customer CSV file: 

look like this in a spreadsheet program: 

Shopify recommends using Google Sheets to view a formatted version of your CSV files. To use Google Sheets, you must import the CSV file into the program, then export it as a .csv file to your computer. CSVs are useful for stores that:

• are switching to Shopify from another ecommerce platform
• have a list of Customer Accounts
• prefer to upload Products using a spreadsheet
• temporarily have limited internet connectivity.

Import CSV files into Google Sheets

When you export a CSV file from your Shopify admin, it opens as a .csv file in your computer's native text editor. You can also use an alternative text editor, but it's recommended that you use a spreadsheet program to view and edit your CSV files instead.

To import a CSV in to Google Sheets:

1. Log in to your Google account.

2. On the Google Sheets page, click Blank in the Start a new spreadsheet section: 

   

3. From the Untitled Spreadsheet page, go to File > Import...: 

   

   Note

   A CSV file with UTF-8 encoding is the only file format that can be used to import to or export from Shopify.

4. Locate and select the CSV file that you want to edit.

5. In the Import file dialog, select your preferred options under the Import action, Separator character, and Convert text to numbers and dates sections.

6. Click Import: 

   

Your CSV will look something like this after you've uploaded it: 

From here you can edit your CSV. When you are done, you can export it from Google Sheets as a .csv file.

Export CSV files using Google Sheets

When you are done viewing or editing your CSV file in Google Sheets, you can export it as a .csv file to your computer.

To export your CSV file:

From your CSV spreadsheet page, go to File > Download as > Comma-separated values (.csv, current sheet): 

You CSV file will appear in your downloads folder.

Get a sample .csv file

You can download and view a sample product CSV file to use as a template for creating your own.

Product CSV file format

The first line of your product CSV has to include the field headers described below, in the same order, with each separated by a comma. Subsequent lines in the file should contain data for your product using those same fields in that exact same order. Here's a description of each field:

Metafields

The Collection column exception 

To organize your products into collections during the CSV upload, you can add a new column anywhere in your CSV file with the header name Collection. This is the only column you can add to the CSV that will not break the format. Therefore:

• Collection (must create a new column, can be left blank)

Enter the name of the collection you want to add this product to. If the collection does not already exist, one will be created for you. You can only add a product to one collection using this method.

Create your product CSV file

For each product, you'll need to decide if it is a simple product or one with variants:

• Simple Product (Does Not Contain Variants)

  If you are uploading a product that does not have variants, then enter all the fields (as described above) for the product on the first line along with the URL for the first image. On the following lines, enter just the handle and the URL for each additional additional image.

• Product With Variants

  If you are uploading a product that has variants, then enter all the fields (as described above) for the product on the first line along with the URL for the first image. On the following lines, enter the handle. Then, skip the Title, Body (HTML), Vendor, and Tags. Fill out the rest of the variants details and each image URL.

Once you've added all your products and images, save your CSV file in UTF-8 format using LF-style linefeeds. If you are not familiar with encodings, please see your spreadsheet or text editor program's documentation.

To view an example CSV file, click Import on the Products page and click the sample CSV templatelink.

Prepare your images

A CSV file can only contain text. So you'll need to make sure all product images are on an existing website. Those image URLs will only be used during the CSV importing process (in other words, you can delete them when your import is done).

• If the files are on your computer only, you must upload them to your Shopify store or another image hosting service to link to their URL.

• If you are switching to Shopify from another platform, you're all set: just copy the current image URLs and use them in the CSV file.

• If the product CSV file was produced by exporting your products from Shopify then you don't need to do anything since your images are already on your website.

When you have URLs for each product image, you can start building your CSV file.

Add multiple product images in a CSV file

You can add more product images to your CSV by uploading more images to your Shopify admin. If you're building your store with a CSV file, then the process is a little different. Here's what you need to know:

• You'll need to be able to edit a CSV file. Shopify recommends using Google Sheets to view a formatted version of your CSV files.

• Your product images must be uploaded to a publicly accessible URL. That is, they should be behind an https:// protocol with no password protection. The best way to do this is to upload images to the Files Page of the Shopify admin. We'll generate the URLs for you automatically.

After clicking Upload files you can select up to a couple hundred images to upload in bulk. Selecting too many files (usually over ~ 300) can cause the upload to fail.

To add multiple images you need to:

1. Insert new rows (one per picture).
2. Copy + paste the "handle".
3. Copy + paste the image URLs.

Insert new rows (one per picture)

1. Open your CSV file in your spreadsheet software of choice. Shopify recommends using Google Sheets: 

   

2. Locate the product(s) you want to add images to. In this example that will be the "Black and White Bracelet Pack"

3. On the next row click and drag on the row numbers to select multiple rows. Select the same number of rows as the number of additional images you will add.

   

4. While those rows are highlighted, right click anywhere in the highlighted area, and choose Insert X rows above

   

   This will create three empty rows below the product you want to add additional images to.

Copy + Paste the "Handle"

Copy and paste the "Handle" of the desired product into column A for your new rows.

Copy + Paste the Image URLs

1. Upload your images to Shopify on the Files Page

2. Then highlight + copy one image URL at a time.

   

3. Return to your spreadsheet software and scroll sideways to the final columns of the CSV file.

4. In the column "Image Src" (short for "Image Source") paste one image URL into each line.

   

5. Repeat steps 2 - 4 for all images of this product

6. (Optional): Fill out the fields under the next column "Image Alt Text" to boost your SEO. Click here to learn more about Image alt text.

You can then save the file and import it to Shopify.