How to convert a supplier spreadsheet into a Shopify product CSV

Suppliers rarely send product data in Shopify's format. A typical price list uses its own column names. It often has prices with commas as decimal points, weights in kilograms, one image link per column, and one row per variant with no handle. Here is how to turn it into a file Shopify will import.

1. Start from a clean copy

Keep the supplier's original file. Work on a copy, and save your result as CSV UTF-8. If the file opens with garbled characters, such as "Café", or everything sits in one column, see the formatting checker. It tells you the file's encoding and separator.

2. Map the supplier's columns to Shopify's

These are typical matches:

Supplier column	Shopify column
Product Name, Item Name, Bezeichnung	Title
Long Description, Details	Description
Brand, Manufacturer	Vendor
Category, Product Group	Type (free text) or Product category (Shopify taxonomy)
Item Code, Article Number, Artikelnummer	SKU
EAN, UPC, GTIN	Barcode column
RRP, Retail Price, Selling Price	Price
Was Price, Original Price	Compare-at price
Wholesale, Cost Price, Trade Price	Cost per item
Stock, Qty Available	Inventory quantity
Weight (kg)	Weight value (grams) — after converting
Image 1, Image 2, Main Image	Product image URL
Colour, Size, Material	Option name + Option value
Parent SKU, Style Code	Not a Shopify column. Use it to group variants

Columns with no Shopify equivalent, such as internal notes, HS codes or lead times, should be left out. Shopify's help page says Collection is the only extra column you can add without breaking the format, apart from metafield and market columns written in Shopify's own patterns.

"RRP" and "Price" can mean different things to different suppliers. When a supplier sends both a wholesale and a retail figure, decide which one is your selling price before importing.

The Supplier CSV Column Mapper for Shopify suggests these matches automatically, with a confidence score for each, and asks you to confirm the ones it isn't sure about.

3. Group variant rows into products

If the supplier lists one row per variant, rows of the same product need the same URL handle. The product details (title, description, vendor, tags and option names) go on the first row only. A parent-SKU or style-code column makes grouping easy. Without one, rows with an identical product name usually belong together. See how to fix missing product handles and how to correct variant rows.

4. Convert prices and weights

• Prices: numbers only. Remove currency symbols and thousands separators, and use a dot for decimals: 1.234,50 € becomes 1234.50. Be careful with values like 1,299. Depending on the supplier's country, that could mean 1299 or 1.299.
• Weights: Shopify's weight column takes whole grams. Multiply kilograms by 1,000: 0.18 kg becomes 180. Pounds and ounces need converting too.
• Stock: whole numbers only. "n/a" or "in stock" can't be imported as a quantity. Ask the supplier, or leave the cell blank.

5. Images

Each image needs a public https:// link on its own row. If the supplier puts several links in one cell, or uses Image 1, Image 2 and Image 3 columns, they need to become separate rows under the same handle. Local file names like IMG_0042.jpg won't work. Upload those images to Shopify Files or another host first.

6. Barcodes

Spreadsheets damage barcodes in two ways. They show long numbers in scientific notation, such as 8.71234E+12, and they drop leading zeros from UPCs. The real digits are lost in the first case, so the barcodes have to be re-exported from the source with the column formatted as text.

7. Check, then import a few products first

Run the finished file through the CSV Validator for Shopify. Import a handful of products, check them in your Shopify admin, and only then import the rest.

The CatalogPilot repair tool does steps 2 to 6 for you in your browser. It maps the columns, groups the variants, converts prices and weights, splits the images, and checks the barcodes. It lists every change it made in a downloadable report. It never fills in data the supplier didn't provide.