Getting Started

Import Flow: All 12 Steps Explained

When you import products, Importier walks you through up to 12 steps. Each step is optional and can be skipped if it does not apply to your data.

Your progress is saved as you go. If the page or your Shopify admin refreshes part way through an import, Importier restores where you were, including the current step, your products, variants, mappings, tax and currency settings, options and selections. The saved progress is per browser tab and clears once the import finishes or you upload a new file.

1. Upload

Get your source data into Importier in whatever format you have.

  • Drag and drop a CSV, Excel (.xlsx/.xls), TSV, or PDF invoice, or click to browse.
  • Marketplace imports: paste product URLs from Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Walmart, or Etsy instead of uploading a file.
  • Manual entry: type product details directly into a form.

Tip: save CSVs as UTF-8 for best results. Excel files with multiple sheets use the first sheet by default.

2. Header Select

Tell Importier which row contains your column headings when your file has metadata rows on top (supplier info, invoice dates, company addresses).

  • A preview table shows the first several rows so you can visually pick the correct header row.
  • Everything above the chosen row is ignored.
  • Files with standard headers in row 1 skip this step automatically.

Most useful for: supplier invoices that include company details and payment terms above the product data.

3. Column Mapping

Confirm which CSV columns map to which Shopify fields.

  • Importier auto-detects common headers: Title, SKU, Price, Cost, Description, Barcode, Weight, Image URL, Tags, Vendor, Type, Category, HS Code, Country of Origin.
  • Maps to 40+ Shopify fields, including variant-specific fields like Option 1/2/3 Name and Value.
  • Columns set to "Skip / Do Not Import" are ignored entirely.
  • Country names are automatically converted to 2-letter ISO codes.
  • Embedded weight units like "0.5 kg" or "500g" are parsed into number and unit automatically.

Always map at least: Title and Variant SKU.

4. Variants

Group CSV rows into single Shopify products with proper variants.

  • AI scans titles using 150+ regex patterns across 30+ industries to detect size, colour, material, capacity, voltage, flavour and more.
  • Each grouping comes with a confidence score: high-confidence groupings are pre-selected, low-confidence ones are shown but not pre-selected.
  • Manually group or ungroup, change option names, and edit option values inline.
  • Unicode characters like the multiplication sign are normalised; short acronyms like ZT, ED, HD and USB keep their original case.
  • Variant Descriptions (Scale or Enterprise plans): enable here to give each variant its own AI-generated description.

5. Tax

Adjust product costs based on whether your supplier prices include or exclude tax, and convert from a foreign currency before tax if needed.

  • Country presets: 15+ options including Australia (10% GST), New Zealand (15% GST), United Kingdom (20% VAT), Canada (5% GST), Singapore (9% GST), India (18% GST), and EU countries (19-25% VAT).
  • Custom rate: enter your own for countries not in the preset list.
  • Live preview: table shows original and adjusted costs side by side.
  • Currency Conversion: when supplier prices are in another currency, the step converts cost, price and compare-at into your store currency before tax is applied. See Currency Conversion Before Tax.

Skip Pricing: if you need no price changes, click Skip Pricing to move straight on. Costs, prices and compare-at prices carry through exactly as they entered this step, and any currency conversion you had applied is reverted first. Continue still applies the tax settings you configured.

6. Barcode Lookup

Find missing UPC/EAN/GTIN barcodes and pull in manufacturer data and images.

  • Dashboard shows how many products already have barcodes and how many are missing.
  • Three search strategies run in parallel:
    • Route A: look up existing barcodes to retrieve manufacturer data and images.
    • Route B: AI product info search for products without barcodes.
    • Route C: search for barcodes by product title, useful for variants.
  • Found barcodes are filled in alongside weight, category, material, dimensions and images.
  • Click Approve All Found to accept everything at once.
  • Skip Barcode Search: always available. Click it to move on without running the search, keeping each product's existing barcode from your file.

Tip: products with brand names in the title produce significantly better search results.

7. AI Descriptions

Generate unique, SEO-optimised HTML descriptions for every product using your chosen style, persona and tone.

  • You need a saved preset before generating.
  • Each description includes headings, bullet points, a specs table and FAQ.
  • SEO title and meta description are also generated if enabled.
  • Generate per product or as a batch.
  • View in HTML source or rendered Preview.
  • With Variant Descriptions on: each variant gets its own description from its specific barcode data, SKU and option values. Use Approve All Variants at the page level.
  • Skip Descriptions: always available. Click it to move on without generating, keeping each product's existing description, title and meta description from your file.

Tip: if your supplier titles are messy, clean them up first with Bulk Title Editing Tools. Better titles produce better descriptions.

8. Data Enrichment

Fill in missing weight, product type, category, HS code and country of origin.

  • Dashboard shows how many products are missing each field.
  • Filter to view all products, only products with generated enrichment data, or only products still missing data.
  • Provide an enrichment context hint for ambiguous products.
  • All weights use your master weight unit.
  • Every change creates a snapshot: revert individual products or revert all enrichment changes at once.

Always review enriched data before importing, especially shipping-critical fields like weight, since values are estimated from typical values for the category.

9. Category Metafields

Match products to Shopify taxonomy attributes like Colour, Material, Size and Age Group.

  • Requires: Industry Packs installed in Settings, plus a category ID on each product.
  • Phase 1: text matching against title, description, tags and variant options.
  • Phase 2: AI matching for attributes that did not match via text. AI picks only from valid taxonomy values.
  • Review the assigned metafields per product after matching.
  • Override in the Review step: category metafield columns have dropdowns of all valid taxonomy values.

10. Import Options

Configure how the products land in Shopify.

  • Pricing strategy: Importier imports variant prices from your file by default.
  • Product status: Active, Draft, or Archived. Each product stores its own status, so the choice here is just the default.
  • Inventory tracking: on or off.
  • Stock locations: assign to all locations or pick specific ones.
  • Sales channels: publish to all channels or select specific ones.
  • Theme template: choose which product page template the imported products use. See Choose a Theme Template for Imported Products.

11. Review

Final bulk editor before import, every field editable.

  • Full-screen table with every product field as a column.
  • All cells editable, including variant-level SKU, Cost, Price, Compare At, Barcode, Quantity, Weight, Options.
  • Description, Meta Description and Variant Description cells open a rich text editor: Bold, Italic, Underline, Link, Image, Emoji, Table, Lists, HTML source toggle. Formatting applies to your highlighted text.
  • Sort by SKU or Title using the column header arrows.
  • Category metafield columns show dropdowns of valid values.
  • Specification columns appear when manual or AI specification assignment is enabled. See Manual Specification Assignment.
  • Theme Template column lets you override the template per product.
  • Untick checkboxes to deselect products you want to exclude from import.
  • Export CSV saves a backup that includes the new Theme Template and Specification columns.

12. Confirm

Final summary, then push to Shopify.

  • Summary shows product count, variant count, status, sales channels and any warnings.
  • Warnings surfaced: products without weight, products without descriptions, duplicate SKUs, and a variant throttle warning when your store nears Shopify's 50,000 variant threshold.
  • Click Import to Shopify to push products.
  • After import you see success count, error count with detailed messages, View Product links that open directly in your Shopify admin, and a Download Import Report button for XLSX/CSV results.
  • An import snapshot is created automatically so you can undo the whole batch.
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