Importier's 8 Export Presets: Which Format Your Store Needs

A merchant running a monthly meta-description review across a 340-product catalogue opens Importier's export section and downloads the Full Shopify CSV. The file opens with 22 columns. They spend two minutes scrolling right, hunting for the seoTitle and seoDescription columns buried between handle, body, vendor, product type, tags, and a dozen image fields they do not need for this task. The review has not started, and the friction has already begun.

The same merchant, on the next review, selects the SEO Audit importier export preset instead. The file contains four columns: product title, SEO title, meta description, and primary keyword. They paste a =LEN() formula in the meta description column, filter for anything below 120 or above 155 characters, and the audit is done in four minutes.

The difference is not the data. It is choosing the right importier export preset for the task.

What Importier Export Presets Do#

Every importier export preset produces a CSV file. The format is identical across all 8 options. What changes is which columns are included. A preset is a named column filter, saved so you do not have to reconfigure it each time.

The column scope also affects file size. A 1,000-product export as Full Shopify CSV may run to several hundred kilobytes and open slowly in Excel. The same catalogue as a Pricing export (four columns) opens instantly and requires no column hiding before use.

Most merchants default to Full Shopify CSV for every export because it is the first option in the list. For most tasks, it is the wrong choice.

Importier's 8 Export Presets#

Full Shopify CSV is the complete export. It includes every data field: handle, title, description, vendor, product type, tags, status, price, compare-at price, cost, barcode, weight, all variant fields, all image URLs with alt text, all metafields, and SEO fields. Use it when migrating to another platform, creating a data backup, or passing the full product record to an external system.

On Growth, Scale, and Enterprise plans, the Full Shopify CSV is Matrixify-compatible. The column structure matches what Matrixify expects, so merchants who use both tools can pass the Full Shopify CSV directly to Matrixify without reformatting.

Descriptions Only exports the product handle and the generated description HTML. Nothing else. This is the preset for merchants who want to take AI-generated descriptions through a copyediting pass before finalising them. Export, edit the description column in the file, save, then reimport. The Descriptions Only column structure is designed to match the reimport format, so edited descriptions map back to the right products without additional field configuration.

Inventory exports handle, SKU, barcode, weight, and quantity. Use it to send stock data to a third-party logistics provider, compare quantities against a supplier count sheet, or give a warehouse team a current product list without exposing pricing or description data.

SEO Audit exports product title, SEO title, meta description, and primary keyword. This is the preset for content and SEO reviews. Checking SEO fields product by product in Shopify admin is not realistic at 200 or more products. The SEO Audit export puts the four fields into a spreadsheet where you can apply length formulas, scan for missing values, and sort by character count to find the outliers. The Shopify product SEO audit workflow covers this process step by step.

According to Shopify's export documentation, the standard Shopify export includes all product fields in one CSV without task-specific filtering. The SEO Audit preset provides the filtered view that the native export does not.

Pricing exports handle, title, price, compare-at price, and cost per item. Use it when reconciling Shopify prices against a new supplier price list, preparing bulk compare-at changes before a sale event, or handing pricing data to a buyer or analyst who should not have access to descriptions, images, or the full product record.

Images exports handle, title, and all image URLs with their alt text values. Use it to audit image alt text across the catalogue, or to give a photographer or designer a list of current product images to compare against their deliverables.

Metafields exports the product handle and all metafield data: category taxonomy values, variant metafields, and any custom metafields populated during import. Use it to audit category metafield coverage across the catalogue, or to pass structured attribute data to a theme developer or a third-party tool that reads taxonomy fields.

Tags exports handle and the tags string. Use it to audit tag consistency across the catalogue, check for duplicates or inconsistent capitalisation in tag values, or extract tags for use in a marketing segmentation or analytics tool.

1. 01
   Step 1

   Open the Export section in Importier. Apply a collection or vendor filter if you want to scope the export to a specific group of products, for example one supplier's products before a price review, or a seasonal collection before a description audit.
2. 02
   Step 2

   Select the preset that matches your task. For meta-description reviews, SEO Audit. For copyediting workflows, Descriptions Only. For stock reconciliation, Inventory. For pricing comparisons, Pricing.
3. 03
   Step 3

   Open the export in a spreadsheet. For SEO Audit exports, paste a LEN() formula in the meta description column to count character lengths. Filter for values below 120 or above 155 characters to identify the products that need attention.
4. 04
   Step 4

   Act on the flagged rows. For small numbers of fixes, open each product in Shopify admin and update directly. For 20 or more changes, edit the exported file and reimport via the Descriptions Only or SEO Audit column format to push the updates in bulk.

Choosing the Right Importier Export Preset#

The right preset for a task is the narrowest one that contains the data you need. A narrower export opens faster, requires no column hiding, and reduces the risk of accidentally overwriting data if the file is used in a reimport.

A useful mental model: if the task is a review or audit, there is almost certainly a preset narrower than Full Shopify CSV that serves it. Full Shopify CSV is for migrations and backups.

“The Full Shopify CSV is the right export for migrations and backups. For audits, reviews, and targeted edits, a narrower preset is faster and carries less risk.

Presets and the Collection Filter#

Every preset combines with Importier's collection and vendor filters. A merchant with a 900-product catalogue can export the Pricing preset filtered to one supplier's products only. The file contains only that supplier's handles, titles, and prices, which is the exact format needed to compare against a new price list without loading unrelated data.

Filters also make presets useful for staged work. Instead of auditing meta descriptions across 900 products at once, a merchant can run the SEO Audit preset filtered by collection, complete that collection's fixes, then move to the next. Each export is a manageable scope rather than a catalogue-wide review.

For merchants using the bulk meta description workflow, the SEO Audit and Descriptions Only presets work in sequence: SEO Audit identifies which products need new or corrected meta descriptions; Descriptions Only provides the format for sending descriptions to a copywriter or importing edited versions back to the store.

According to Google Merchant Centre's product data guidance, optimised product titles and descriptive meta descriptions improve Shopping tab and AI shopping channel performance. The SEO Audit preset gives merchants a direct path to the four fields that affect that performance without loading the 18 other fields that do not.

The Full Shopify CSV: When It Is the Right Choice#

Despite being the wrong default for most tasks, the Full Shopify CSV is correct in specific situations.

Platform migration. If you are moving from Shopify to another platform, or providing a full data handoff to an agency, the Full Shopify CSV contains every field a receiving system needs in one file.

Point-in-time backup before a bulk edit. Before running a large change across the catalogue, export the Full Shopify CSV as a snapshot. If the bulk edit produces unexpected results, the snapshot provides a complete reference.

Matrixify workflows (Growth, Scale, and Enterprise plans). Merchants who use Matrixify for advanced bulk editing can import the Full Shopify CSV directly into Matrixify, because the column structure matches Matrixify's expected format. The export and reimport workflow covers this approach in detail.

Handoff to a new developer or agency. A developer building theme customisations or a new Shopify setup sometimes needs a complete product record to test against. The Full Shopify CSV is the appropriate format for that handoff.

Importier Export Presets: Key Takeaways#

The 8 importier export presets each serve a distinct task. Matching the preset to the task reduces file size, removes unnecessary columns, and lowers the risk of an unintended overwrite if the file is used in a reimport.

• Full Shopify CSV: migrations, backups, Matrixify workflows (Growth+ plans), and developer handoffs. All 22+ columns.
• Descriptions Only: copyediting workflows and description reimports. Matches the reimport column structure.
• Inventory: stock reconciliation, 3PL data, and warehouse count comparisons.
• SEO Audit: meta description and SEO title reviews. Four columns with a LEN() formula identifies every out-of-spec value across the catalogue in minutes.
• Pricing: supplier price reconciliation, sale event preparation, and analyst handoffs.
• Images: alt text audits and image deliverable comparisons.
• Metafields: category taxonomy coverage audits and metafield data handoffs.
• Tags: tag consistency review and marketing segmentation exports.

The collection and vendor filter applies to every preset, so each export can be scoped to a specific supplier, collection, or product status group rather than the full catalogue.

Export your products in the right format at importier.app. All 8 export presets are available on every Importier plan, including Explore.