Shopify CSV header names: what quietly breaks an import

Shopify matches your CSV columns by their header text. Unexpected whitespace can make a header fail to match even when it looks right in a spreadsheet.

1. Invisible whitespace

"Variant SKU " is not "Variant SKU". A trailing space usually arrives from a copy-paste, a concatenated formula, or an export from another platform. Compare the header against your Shopify export or the official column reference. Do not assume an unrecognised column will be imported; check Shopify’s import preview.

2. The byte-order mark

Many spreadsheet tools write a UTF-8 byte-order mark (BOM) at the very start of the file. A BOM is an encoding marker, not product data. Some parsers handle it automatically; others expose it in the first header. CSV Spruce handles a leading UTF-8 BOM without changing your first product value.

Both of these are the only header changes CSV Spruce makes, and only when the trimmed name is an exact Shopify header and no other column claims the same name.

3. Two columns that mean the same thing

If your file has both Title and "Title ", there is no safe automatic answer: choosing one silently discards the other column's data. We stop and tell you, rather than guess.

4. Older header spellings

Shopify supports older column names alongside its current template. Examples include Handle / URL handle, Body (HTML) / Description, and Variant SKU / SKU. CSV Spruce recognises supported pairs and preserves the spelling in your file.

5. Unknown columns

Internal notes, supplier codes and app-specific columns are common. We keep them exactly as they are and flag them. We cannot tell you whether your Shopify import will ignore or reject them.

A repair you can inspect

This synthetic example has whitespace around Title. The value 000101 is an identifier and must keep its leading zeros.

Before:  Title ,SKU
TEST Mug,000101

After: Title,SKU
TEST Mug,000101

If two headers would become the same field after trimming, choose which column is correct yourself. CSV Spruce blocks that repair instead of discarding data.

Official documentation

• Shopify Help Center: using CSV files to import and export products
• Shopify Help Center: importing products with a CSV file

TRUE/FALSE troubleshooting · Variant rows explained

Check your own file for these problems — the report is free.