From the moment you have a large number of products to add or modify on your Shopify store , it is no longer conceivable to add them manually one by one. To solve this problem, you can use the built-in product import feature in Shopify.
Thanks to a spreadsheet file in .csv format, you will be able to add a large number of products to your Shopify store in a short time without having to perform many manual actions.
In the same way, you can export the products of your Shopify store to create backups of your product catalog or to then import your product catalog to another store.
In this article, you’ll learn how to import and export your Shopify store’s product catalog to make it easier to add or save your products.
Import product catalog from Shopify
To import a product catalog into a Shopify store, you must prepare a CSV file, respecting a structure given by Shopify, containing all the products to be imported into the store.
Shopify provides documentation to properly structure the CSV file that will be used to import products to a store.
This documentation, accessible here , gives an example of a CSV file and explanations of the columns of the CSV file to help you understand the structure of the CSV file.
Once your CSV file is ready to be imported, all you have to do is go to the “All products” products (1) of your Shopify store and click on the “Import” button (2).
A window will then open with an area where you can drag and drop the CSV file you prepared beforehand.
Drag the CSV file into the box or click the “Add File” button (3) to select the CSV file from your computer.
If you wish, with this import file, to modify existing products on your store, you will then have to check the box “Replace all current products with the same anchor. The existing values will be used for all the missing columns » (1) so that the products are not created in duplicate, but those already present are modified.
Click the “Upload and continue” button (2) when your CSV file is successfully added and you are ready to import the products from the file to your Shopify store.
Before importing all of your products, Shopify will offer you a preview of the import (1) of your first product to confirm that the import is right for you.
If the import of the product suits you, you can continue importing the other products by clicking on “Import products” (2) otherwise modify your CSV import file then start importing the products again.
Wait a few moments for the import to finish, the more products you have to import, the longer the waiting time will be, then check in your product catalog that the products to be imported have been imported.
Export product catalog from Shopify
Exporting the product catalog from Shopify is easily done with Shopify’s built-in export system. To export the products, go to “All products” (1) of your shop then select the products to export (2).If you want to export your entire product catalog, it is not necessary to select all the products.
Then click on the “Export” button (3) to open the product export window. In this window, you have the possibility to choose to export the current page, all the products of the shop, the selected products or those corresponding to a search (4).
Finally, click on “Export products” (5) to download the export file containing the selected products.
Conclusion
Shopify offers import and export functions directly integrated into your store, which greatly facilitates the addition, modification or backup of the Shopify product catalog when a large number of products are impacted.
