Try it on a real price list, free
Upload two pages of any supplier file and see the product table before deciding anything. Plans are on the pricing page; questions, email contact@microcitylabs.com.
Shopify CSV template: fill it from any supplier price list
Shopify's product CSV template has dozens of columns, but a new product needs only one: Title. The real work is mapping the supplier price list onto the rest. The part number goes into SKU, the price into Price, the brand into Vendor, and every size or colour gets its own row. Below is the mapping, and the one-step way to get the filled CSV from the supplier file.
What the template needs
- Required columns: Title for a new product, plus URL handle when the product has variants. To update products you already have: URL handle and Title.
- One row per variant: the rows of one product share its URL handle, and Option1 name and Option1 value carry the size or colour. Extra pictures sit on rows that hold only the handle and the image address.
- Re-imports: tick “Overwrite products with matching handles” and a matching handle updates the product. Without it, Shopify ignores the rows whose handle already exists.
- Careful with variants: when you update SKU or another variant column, keep Option1 name and Option1 value in the file. Leave them out and Shopify replaces the variants with one default variant.
- The file: a UTF-8 CSV. Shopify's sample CSV is the starting template, and the older column names (Handle, Variant SKU, Variant Price) are still accepted.
How a supplier price list maps onto it
- Part number → SKU (Variant SKU).
- Price → Price (Variant Price), as a plain number: no currency sign, no “from”, no thousands separator.
- Brand or manufacturer → Vendor.
- The supplier's section or category → Type, or Tags.
- Description and specs → Description (Body (HTML)).
- Size, length or colour → Option1 name and Option1 value, one row each.
- A handle that never changes per product, so next month's list updates the same products instead of adding copies.
The template is the easy part. The hard part is getting the supplier file into rows: a 40-page PDF with section banners and one description shared by five sizes does not paste into columns. The steps for a PDF are on the supplier PDF to Shopify CSV guide.
The fast way: the filled CSV from the supplier file
The MicroCity engine reads the supplier file as it arrives, PDF, Excel, scan or photo, and builds one product table: brand, product name, part number, category, key specs, price. You check the table, then export it as a Shopify CSV with the classic column names (Handle, Title, Body (HTML), Vendor, Type, Tags, Option1 Name, Option1 Value, Variant SKU, Variant Price, Image Src and the inventory columns). From one real supplier PDF it returned 89 products with codes, categories and prices. Anything the engine can't read properly is flagged, not guessed.
Honest limit: the CSV creates or updates the products once. Stock and prices are not kept in sync afterwards, and orders are not handled. Next month's price list is a new file and a new import.
Also on the Shopify App Store: Anything to Database. Connect your store once, upload the supplier file, and the products arrive in your store as drafts.