Getting Started with Shopify Import Export

Do you own an eCommerce business and are planning to migrate to Shopify? Or are you looking for import and export of Shopify data? In either case, you’ve come to the right place.

Most eCommerce store owners will, at some point, look to migrate to a new platform to grow their business. Yes, eCommerce re-platforming is an undeniable reality and is essential for many businesses to thrive and succeed in the long run.

In this article, we will explain everything you need to know about import and export in Shopify. Some of you may still not understand what Shopify import export is, so let’s address the obvious first.

Shopify import and export features allow store owners to move data between their Shopify store and external files or systems. Importing refers to bringing data into Shopify, while exporting means downloading data from Shopify. These processes are essential for managing large catalogs, making bulk updates, migrating stores, and creating backups without manual effort.

What Import and Export Mean in Shopify

• Import: Uploading data into Shopify, such as adding new products, updating existing listings, or importing customer information using a file.
• Export: Downloading store data from Shopify into a file for reporting, analysis, backups, or sharing with other tools and teams.

By using import/export, store owners can manage store data efficiently without editing each item individually in the admin dashboard.

Types of Data You Can Import/Export

Before you start importing or exporting data in Shopify, it’s important to understand what types of data you can actually work with. Shopify stores information in different data types, and each one plays a specific role in how your store operates.

Shopify supports import and export for several key data types:

1. Products

Products are the core of any Shopify store. When you import or export products, you’re usually working with details like product names, descriptions, prices, images, SKUs, and categories. Product imports are commonly used when setting up a new store, adding products in bulk, or updating existing product information.

2. Product Variants

Variants are the different versions of a product, such as size, color, or material. Each variant can have its own price, SKU, inventory level, and weight. Importing and exporting variants is especially helpful for stores with large catalogs, as it allows you to manage complex product options without manual edits.

3. Customers

Customer data includes names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses, and order history (in some cases). Importing customers is useful when migrating from another platform or setting up a store with an existing customer base. Exporting customer data helps with email marketing, analytics, and customer relationship management.

4. Orders

Orders contain information about purchases made in your store, including products ordered, customer details, payment status, and fulfillment status. Exporting orders is commonly used for accounting, reporting, or sharing data with third-party systems. Importing orders is more limited in Shopify, but may be supported through apps for migration or record-keeping purposes.

5. Inventory

Inventory data tracks stock levels for each product and variant. Importing inventory helps you update stock in bulk, especially when syncing data from suppliers or warehouses. Exporting inventory is useful for monitoring stock levels, planning reorders, and keeping multiple sales channels aligned.

6. Collections

Collections help organize products in your store and improve product discovery for customers. You can import or export collections to quickly assign products to categories, create seasonal groupings, or manage large catalogs more efficiently.

7. Discounts & Metafields

Discounts control special pricing rules, such as percentage-off, fixed-discount, or free-shipping offers. While Shopify has some limitations here, certain apps allow you to export and manage discount-related data.

Metafields are custom fields used to store extra information that doesn’t fit into Shopify’s default structure, such as product specifications, custom labels, or integration-specific data. Managing metafields through import and export is especially useful for advanced stores and integrations.

Supported File Formats

Shopify primarily uses CSV (Comma-Separated Values) files for both imports and exports. CSV files are widely supported and can be edited using tools like Excel, Google Sheets, or spreadsheet software. Shopify’s CSV structure follows specific formatting rules, making it essential to maintain correct column names and data structure when preparing files for import.

You might wonder why importing or exporting data is necessary in Shopify. Just like a brick-and-mortar store requires regular maintenance and sometimes even relocation to a better location, your ecommerce store also needs ongoing updates, optimization, and flexibility to stay competitive.

With eCommerce competition fiercer than ever and global ecommerce sales projected to reach $8.1 trillion by 2026, store owners must continuously adapt to rising customer expectations. To improve sales, streamline operations, and enhance user experience, many businesses rely on import and export processes to manage their store data efficiently.

One common scenario is store migration: moving data from one store to another, or switching platforms, such as migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify. Import and export tools make these transitions faster, safer, and more accurate.

When Do You Need to Import Data into Shopify?

Importing data into Shopify typically falls into one of the following scenarios:

• Add new data to Shopify: Upload new products, customers, or inventory in bulk without manual entry.
• Migrate from another platform to Shopify: Move data from platforms like WooCommerce or Magento while preserving product and customer details.
• Bulk edit existing Shopify data: Update prices, stock levels, descriptions, or tags efficiently using CSV files.

When Do You Need to Export Data from Shopify?

Exporting data from Shopify is equally important and usually serves these purposes:

• Create backups of store data: Safeguard your products, orders, and customers against accidental changes or data loss.
• Transfer data to other platforms or tools: Share data with accounting systems, marketing tools, or migrate to another ecommerce platform.
• Bulk edit data in Shopify: Export data, make changes in a spreadsheet, and re-import it to apply updates quickly.

Shopify lets you import and export various data from and within your website. The following are the different types of import and export of data in Shopify.

• Product Import Export
• Inventory Import Export
• Order Import Export
• Customer/User Import Export
• Discounts Import Export

Shopify has some default tools for importing and exporting data. You can easily import and export product data from Shopify stores using the default product import export tool.

Apart from this, there are a vast number of apps in the Shopify app store for various import and export functionalities.

Still, having doubts about whether you need to import or export data from Shopify? Following are some use cases where you need to import or export data.

Data Type	Import Use Cases	Export Use Cases
Products & Variants	Add new products, bulk price updates, and migrate from another platform	Backups, marketplace feeds, bulk edits
Inventory	Update stock levels, migrate inventory data	Inventory audits, stock backups
Orders	Import offline orders, migrate limited order data	Reporting, warehouse sharing, backups
Customers	Migrate users, bulk update customer data	Email marketing, CRM integration
Discounts & Gift Cards	Migrate coupons, bulk update discount rules	Campaign analysis, backups

Product Import & Export in Shopify

Product import and export in Shopify allows store owners to manage large volumes of product data efficiently using CSV files, rather than editing each product manually through the Shopify admin dashboard. This includes core product details such as titles, descriptions, prices, inventory levels, images, SKUs, and variant attributes like size or color. By working with structured files, store owners can make consistent updates across their entire catalog in a fraction of the time.

Common Use Cases

Importing and exporting product data is a common requirement in many eCommerce stores. There are different scenarios in which store owners are looking to import or export product data in Shopify.

The following are some of the major reasons:

• Bulk Update of Product Data: Let’s say you have thousands of products in your Shopify store and want to increase their prices globally by 5%. In that case, you can export the existing products from your Shopify store, modify the price fields by 5% across all products, and then import the file to Shopify. This will update the product prices across your store. Otherwise, you may need to manually edit the product price for all products one by one, which can be tedious for you.
• Share Product Data with the Warehouse: You may need to share certain product information with the warehouse team from time to time. Product name, SKU, shipping method, shipping fees, etc, are some of the product data that you may want to export from your store and share with the warehouse team. This helps build a good relationship with the warehouse and manage the shipping process more efficiently.
• Create a Product Catalog for a Marketplace: Your business is going well, and you need to expand into new marketplaces like Amazon, Facebook Store, etc. In that case, you can bulk-export product data from your store, which you can use to create a product catalog for the marketplace you are looking for. If you have fewer than 10 products, you may add them manually, but when you have hundreds or even thousands of products, adding them manually is not an option.
• Migrate Product Data From Another Platform: Let’s say you want to migrate products from WooCommerce, Magento, or any other eCommerce platform. You can export products from the source store and import them to your Shopify store.

Inventory Import & Export in Shopify

Inventory import and export in Shopify allow store owners to manage product stock levels in bulk using CSV files, rather than updating inventory one product at a time in the admin dashboard. This includes inventory quantities, stock availability, and location-based inventory data.

Accurate inventory management is critical to avoid overselling, stockouts, and fulfillment delays. As your store grows and inventory is managed across multiple products, locations, or warehouses, manual updates become inefficient and error-prone. Inventory import/export enables fast bulk updates, improves data accuracy, and ensures your stock information stays aligned with real-world inventory, especially during high-volume sales or restocking periods.

Common Use Cases

• Migrate Product Inventory: If you plan to launch a new eCommerce website and want to migrate the product inventory from your current site, you can export the inventory data from your source site and import it into the destination.
• Keep a Backup Log of Your Inventory Data: It is good to keep a weekly backup of your store’s inventory data to easily manage the stock and inventory in your store. You can bulk export the inventory data from your Shopify store and keep it as a backup.
• Bulk Update Product Inventory: Import and export of inventory data can also be used for bulk editing or updating the product inventory for your Shopify store.

Order Import & Export in Shopify

Order import and export in Shopify allows store owners to transfer order data between Shopify and external files or systems using CSV files. Exporting orders includes details such as order IDs, customer information, purchased products, order totals, payment status, shipping details, and fulfillment status. Importing orders, while more limited in Shopify, is typically used to add offline or historical orders for record-keeping and reporting purposes.

The following are some of the use cases for importing and exporting orders in Shopify.

Common Use Cases

• Send Order Details to the Warehouse: If you don’t have an in-house warehouse management system or direct communication with the warehouse, you may want to share order details with the warehouse regularly. You can transcribe the order data, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors. So you can export the order details to a CSV file and share it with the warehouse.
• Export Order Data for Analysis: Sometimes your product marketing team wants to know which products perform best in your store, in terms of sales and clicks. Or you may want to see the order details of a specific product from a particular region. In either case, you can export the order data to make an informed decision for your business.
• Import Offline Orders to Shopify: You may accept orders offline via phone, email, or another channel. In such cases, you may want to bulk-import order data into your store to update offline orders.
• Keep a Backup of Order Data: You can back up your order data for your Shopify store by exporting the order data file. Even if you periodically delete order data from your store site, you can view the old data at any time from the backup.

Customer Import & Export in Shopify

Customer import and export in Shopify allows store owners to manage customer data in bulk using CSV files. This includes details such as customer names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping and billing addresses, tags, and marketing preferences. Importing customers helps populate or update your customer database, while exporting customers allows you to analyze or reuse customer data outside of Shopify.

There are different cases in which you may want to import or export user/customer data from your Shopify store.

Common Use Cases

• Bulk Update Existing Users: Import and export user data allows you to update or edit existing records in your database. You can add any additional fields or update any existing information on your store site.
• Export a Specific Field: When you have a strong customer base, you can leverage it for marketing. You can recommend cross-sells, up-sells, and related products to your customers via email. With the user export option in Shopify, you can custom export fields like user name, email, contact number, etc.
• Add Customers from Other Platforms: When migrating to Shopify from an old website or another eCommerce platform, you may want to import existing user data to your new website. Import and export of users may come in handy in those situations.

Discount Import & Export in Shopify

Discount import and export in Shopify allows store owners to manage discount codes and promotional rules in bulk using CSV files or app-based tools. Exporting discounts includes data such as discount codes, discount type, value, usage limits, validity dates, and usage counts. Importing discounts is more limited in Shopify’s native setup and often requires third-party apps or API-based solutions.

Common Use Cases

Let’s see some of the use cases in which you may want to import and export discounts and coupons in Shopify.

• Bulk Update Coupon Data: If you want to update the coupon data in your Shopify store, export the coupon data, make the necessary changes, and then import it back to your store. This will facilitate easy updates of existing coupon data in Shopify.
• Migrate Coupons from a Different Platform: When migrating to Shopify from another platform, you can import all your old coupons into your new store using the import/export functionality.
• Export Coupon Usage Data: Your marketing team can analyze the usage and impact of coupons by exporting the coupon data from your store.
• Save Existing Coupon Discounts: With the coupon export option for Shopify, you can save the existing coupon discounts on your store site for future use. So if you delete coupon data from your store site, you will still be able to import the old coupons using the backup file.

You can import or export products in Shopify using the default import export tool. However, there are plenty of apps in the Shopify marketplace to make the process a lot easier. In this article, we will be using the StoreRobo Product Import Export app. It features a three-step process for the import and export of store data in Shopify.

You can download the app for free from the Shopify marketplace. After downloading the app to your Shopify admin panel, go to Apps and then select StoreRobo Product Import Export.

From there, you can choose whether you want to import or export data from your store and select the specific data type you want to work with, such as products, customers, orders, or inventory. For this guide, we’ll be using products as an example, but the same steps apply to all other supported data types as well.

Follow the steps below to export products from the Shopify store.

Step 1: Choose an Export Template

From your Shopify dashboard, go to the StoreRobo app.

• Under the Export Products option, choose Shopify CSV as the export template.

Then click on Proceed to continue.

Step 2: Choose the Data Type to Export

Next, decide what kind of data you want to export – products, customers, orders, or another supported data type. Shopify treats each data type differently, so selecting the right one ensures your data is processed correctly.

Under Columns, choose the specific product data fields you want to include in the export.

Step 3: Select the Export Filters

To narrow down the export data, go to Filters and click Add new filter. Here you have some filters to exclude products from the export file.

After choosing the necessary filters, click on Export to initiate the export process.

Shopify will process your file and begin adding or updating records in your store. Your products will be exported to a CSV file within a few minutes (depending on the number of products in your store).

Click on the Download file button to download the CSV file.

Step 4: Review Results & Fix Errors

After the import finishes, review the results carefully. Check for any errors or skipped records and fix them as needed. Small adjustments to your data file and re-importing can usually resolve most issues.

Follow the steps below to import products to Shopify.

Step 1: Prepare Your Data File

Start by preparing your data file in the correct format, most commonly a CSV file. Make sure your file includes all required fields, such as product titles, SKUs, prices, or customer emails, depending on what you’re importing.

Keeping your data clean and well-organized at this stage helps avoid errors later.

Step 2: Choose Import Source

From the StoreRobo home page, go to the Import section.

Choose one of the supported import locations based on where your file is stored:

• Local storage – Upload the data file directly from your computer.
• URL – Provide the link to a file hosted online.
• FTP/SFTP server – Enter the FTP or SFTP details to import a file from a remote server.
• WooCommerce API – Import data directly from an existing WooCommerce store.

Once the import source is selected, proceed to the next step to configure the import settings.

Step 3: Select Data Type

In the Select data type section, choose the type of data you want to import or export.

Select the required data type from the available options (such as products, orders, customers, discounts, etc.)

Then click on Upload to upload the CSV file.

Step 4: Select Import Template

The import template will be detected automatically. Check if the selected template is correct.

If not, choose the correct option from the drop-down:

• Shopify CSV
• WooCommerce CSV
• Custom CSV

Step 5: Choose Import Options

StoreRobo will automatically identify the fields in the import file. If you see any ignored fields, just leave them as it is. Now, choose the different import options.

• Ignore ID: Enable this option to create new items instead of matching existing ones by ID.
• Update if data already exists in the store: Turn this on to update existing records when matching data is found.
• Skip import of new data: Enable this option if you want to update only existing records and avoid adding new ones.
• Publish new data: Choose this option to automatically publish newly imported items instead of saving them as drafts.

Then click on Import to initiate the import process.

Depending on the number of products in the import file, the import process will take some time.

Once the products are imported you can see the import status as completed. You can view the import-export log history from the Log History page.

Following a few best practices can help you avoid errors, save time, and keep your store data accurate when importing or exporting data in Shopify.

Always Test with a Small Sample

Before running a full import or export, start with a small sample of data. This helps you confirm that your file format, field mapping, and settings are correct without risking large-scale issues. A quick test run can prevent hours of cleanup later.

Backup Before Bulk Updates

Always export and save a backup of your store data before making bulk changes. If something goes wrong during the import, having a backup allows you to restore your data quickly and with confidence.

Maintain Consistent SKUs

SKUs are often used to match and update existing products or variants. Keeping SKUs consistent across your store, supplier files, and external platforms helps ensure data updates correctly and prevents duplicate or mismatched records.

Use Staging Stores Where Possible

If you’re making major changes, such as large imports, migrations, or structure updates, use a staging or test store first. This lets you validate the process in a safe environment before applying changes to your live store.

Schedule Exports During Low-Traffic Hours

For large exports or automated tasks, schedule them during low-traffic hours. This helps reduce any potential impact on store performance and ensures smoother data processing.

The import-export process in Shopify lets you easily transfer data from one store to another. It can also be helpful when migrating from a different platform to Shopify. With the Shopify import-export, you can back up products, inventories, orders, coupons, customers, etc.

The purpose of this article was to inform you about the import and export of eCommerce data in Shopify. We hope this detailed guide gave you an insight into Shopify import-export.

What are your thoughts on this article? Let us know in the comments.