How to Add Products to Shopify: Manually, via CSV & Troubleshooting

You've set up your store and now want to add products to Shopify, but the video skipped exactly this part? Or you have 300 items and don't feel like typing in each one individually? This article shows you the manual route, the CSV import, bulk editing and the fix when a product doesn't appear in the store despite being "Active". Plus the special case of a catalog without prices. It's part of our overview Shopify products: finding, adding, selling.

Add products to Shopify one at a time: step by step

The manual route is the right one for your first products, because you consciously fill in every field once. According to the Shopify Help Center, here's how it works:

1. In the Shopify admin, open Products and click Add product.
2. Enter the title and description, for example "Linen cushion cover 50 × 50 cm, sage green" instead of "Cushion 3".
3. Upload your images under Media. You can add more at any time, such as an image with dimensions, by opening the product again and dragging more files into the media section.
4. Enter the price, inventory and weight. If your product has sizes or colors, create variants. How to do that properly is explained in Creating Shopify variants.
5. On the right, set the status to Active and check in the Publishing section that the Online Store is selected.
6. Click Save.

It works the same way in the Shopify app on your phone: the Products icon, then "+" and "Add product". What works well on your phone and what doesn't is shown in The Shopify app on your phone.

Which fields you really need

Technically, only the title is required. For a store in Germany, though, you should maintain these fields:

What is the SKU?

The SKU (stock keeping unit) is your own item number, such as "CUSH-LIN-50-GRN", not the quantity in stock. Shopify itself doesn't require a SKU. The error message "SKU can't be blank" usually appears when an app, a fulfillment service or a required-field setting expects a SKU. According to the Help Center, the message "Update the invalid values" in bulk editing is also often caused by a missing SKU. In that case, assign a unique number to every variant.

Why does "Vendor" show my company name?

The Vendor field is meant for the brand or manufacturer and is prefilled with your store name for new products. For other brands, enter the brand there, because Google Shopping and filters read this field. The product name belongs in the title.

Many products: duplicate, bulk edit, CSV

"Do I have to do this again for every product?" No. Depending on the quantity, there are three shortcuts:

• Duplicate (up to approx. 20 similar products): Create one product perfectly and click Duplicate. Shopify copies variants, type, tags and settings, and you only change the title, images and price. When duplicating, you choose whether the copy is created as a draft, active or unlisted.
• Bulk editing (changing many products): Check the products in the list and click Bulk edit. You get a table, similar to Excel, in which you change prices, SKUs, compare-at prices and other columns directly. Via "Columns", you show additional fields. For status, tags or collections, there are bulk actions above the list as soon as you've selected products.
• CSV import (adding many products): From a few dozen products upward, the fastest route. You fill in a spreadsheet and upload it.

For very large quantities, Shopify recommends the CSV route anyway, according to the Help Center on bulk editing. Products from dropshipping or print-on-demand apps are created by the app itself.

How many products can I upload?

As many as you like: according to the Shopify pricing page, unlimited products are included on all plans. So 300 books, e-books and audiobooks on the Basic plan are no problem. There are limits per product: up to 3 options, up to 2,048 variants, up to 250 images and 250 tags. For creating variants via APIs, Shopify specifies a daily limit: from 500,000 variants in the store, only 10,000 new ones can be created via the API per day, with Shopify Plus exempt (Shopify developer docs, as of October 2026). If you hit a limit with just a few thousand products, first check the limits of the import app you're using.

CSV import step by step

A CSV file is a spreadsheet as a text file: each row is a product or a variant, each column a field. Here's how to proceed:

1. Get a template: Create one product with all fields and variants by hand and export it via Export. This file is your template, with exactly the column names Shopify expects. Alternatively, Shopify offers a sample CSV in the Help Center.
2. Fill in the spreadsheet: For new products, only the Title column is required. Variants of a product go in separate rows with the same handle. You specify images as a publicly accessible image URL, and Shopify downloads them during the import.
3. Save correctly: The file must be saved in UTF-8, otherwise umlauts turn into garbled characters. Google Sheets exports CSV in UTF-8 automatically. In Excel, choose "CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited)" when saving. Don't translate column names and don't write them in lowercase.
4. Test: First import a file with two or three products.
5. Import: Products > Import > Add file. If you want to update existing products, choose "Overwrite products with matching handles". Then click "Upload and continue" and "Import products".

According to the Help Center on importing, a file can be at most 15 MB. You split larger catalogs into several files. An import in progress can't be canceled, so export a backup of your products beforehand.

The most common CSV errors

Important when overwriting: empty cells in columns that exist in the file overwrite existing values with "empty". Columns you leave out entirely stay unchanged. You can't delete products via CSV, only in the product list.

Moving products from Etsy, WooCommerce & co.

You already have 200 products on Etsy or in another store platform and don't want to create everything from scratch? There are two ways to do this:

• Migration app: In its Help Center on store migration, Shopify refers to the "Store Migration" app and separate guides, including for Etsy, WooCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, Amazon and eBay.
• Export and CSV: You export the products from the old system and rebuild the file to match the columns of the Shopify template.

After every migration, check prices, weights, inventory and variants sample by sample. Shopify itself points out that hidden products are imported but only become visible after being made available in the sales channel, and that products with missing variant options aren't imported. If you're switching from an existing store, set up redirects for the old URLs so you don't lose your Google ranking. How that works is explained in Shopify SEO 2026.

Product isn't showing: the causes

"The product is active, but I can't see it in the store" is one of the most common questions on this topic. Go through this list in order:

The classic is row five: the homepage shows only one collection with a single product. The other products are in the store, just not where you're looking. Search the store for the product name or open the "All" collection (/collections/all), and you'll see whether it's a display problem. How to structure collections and the menu so new products automatically land in the right place is covered in Shopify collections and menu. Whether your store is already public, you can check with the checklist Launching your Shopify store.

If you sell to several countries, a product can be excluded in one market. This only affects stores with multiple markets, see Setting up Shopify Markets.

Catalog without prices: inquiry instead of purchase

With custom-made products or wholesale, customers often should inquire instead of buying. Shopify has no "store without buying" switch, but there are three ways:

• Customize the theme: In current themes, product pages consist of blocks. In the theme editor, you can remove the price and buy blocks in a separate product template and add a button to the contact form or a form instead. You assign this template only to the inquiry products. Also check collection pages and search.
• Inquiry app: In the Shopify App Store, under "Request a quote" or "Hide price", you'll find apps that hide prices, offer an inquiry cart and manage quotes.
• B2B features: If you're targeting business customers, prices and the option to buy can be visible only to logged-in business customers. According to the Help Center, up to three active B2B catalogs are possible for this on Basic, Grow and Advanced.

An honest assessment: if you don't want to sell anything online at all, you're paying a store plan at Shopify for a catalog website. That's worthwhile if you want to switch on online sales later anyway. For a pure catalog in the long run, a website builder is often enough. Legally: you need an imprint (Impressum) and a privacy policy (Datenschutzerklärung) in any case. As soon as you state prices to consumers, the rules of the German Price Indication Ordinance (Preisangabenverordnung) apply, i.e. total price including VAT. Clarify the details with your legal texts provider.

FAQ

Can I add images to a product later?

Yes. Open the product under "Products" and drag the new files into the "Media" section or click Upload there. You change the order by drag and drop; the first image is the featured image. Don't forget to save, or the changes will be lost.

How do I delete a product in Shopify?

Open the product and click "Delete product" at the very bottom, or select several products in the list and delete them together. Deleted products disappear from the store immediately and can't be restored. If you only want to remove a product temporarily, archive it instead. If the page had visitors, redirect the old URL to a similar product.

Can I create products as drafts first?

Yes, that's actually a good idea. With the status "Draft", the product is fully editable in the admin but invisible to customers. Only when images, texts, prices and mandatory information are correct do you set it to "Active". With a CSV import, you set the status via the Status column. This way you avoid half-finished products in the live store.

Why can't I see my products on the homepage?

Because the homepage doesn't automatically show all products, only the sections you've created in the theme editor. Usually that's a featured collection section set to a specific collection and a fixed number of products. Choose the right collection there and increase the number, or link to your collection pages in the menu.

As of: October 2026. Labels and limits in the Shopify admin change regularly; the Shopify Help Center is authoritative. This article is not legal advice.