Importing & Exporting Products
Products in your Reflow store can be imported and exported using standard CSV files.
Importing can be used for migrating to Reflow from another service or for moving your products to another Reflow store.
Exporting products is useful when you need to keep a backup of your products' data, or when you need to import them into things like accounting and inventory software.
Products CSV Format
The CSV format Reflow uses contains most of the properties and settings associated with your products, including prices, variants and media. You can download an example CSV file to use as a template.
The first line of the CSV file must contain the column headers as they are shown in the table below. Each line after that represents either a new product, variant or image/video.
| Column Header | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Product ID | always required | A unique identifier for this product. Can be a numeric ID ( |
| Product Name | always required | A string indicating the name of the product. |
| Product Type | always required | A string indicating the product type. |
| Description (HTML) | optional | The product description as a valid HTML string. |
| Excerpt | optional | A shorter version of the description in plaintext. Cannot include HTML tags, images or video. |
| Show In Store | optional | Indicates whether or not the product is shown in your store. |
| Categories | optional | A string of comma-separated category names for this product. |
| Custom Sort | optional | An integer indicating the custom sort placement for this product. |
| Media Src | optional | A link to a an image or YouTube video for the product's gallery. |
| Variants Option Name | required for products with variants | The option name for the variants this product will have (e.g. Size, Color, Material). |
| Variants Name | required for variants | The name of the product variant. |
| Variants Image Index | optional | The image/video with this index in the product's media items will be associated with this variant. |
| Price | required for products and variants | The price of the product or variant. Should not include any currency symbols (e.g. 19.99 - valid, $19.99 - invalid). The currency for your products is instead determined by your store settings. |
| Original Price | optional | For products and variants that are discounted, shows the original price for the item when not on sale. Must be greater than the Price column. Should not include any currency symbols. |
| SKU | optional | The SKU (stock keeping unit) identifier for this product or variant. |
| Shipping Weight | optional | A number indicating the weight of the product or variant. Should not include any measurement units like kg or lbs. Instead, the measurement units are determined by your store settings. |
| In Stock | optional | When this column is filled the product has |
| Stock Quantity | optional | When this column is filled the product has advanced inventory (inventory docs). The number of available units for this product or variant. When this is set to 0 the product/variant is considered out of stock. |
Sorting the CSV file by any column other than Product ID may cause it to become invalid for importing back into Reflow. This is because the table rows for product variants and images/videos need to always come after the product defining row and have the same Product ID.
How to Import Products
Importing into Reflow is done using CSV files. There are two sources that we currently support, each requiring a specific format of the imported CSV file:
- Reflow - When importing from a Reflow store, make sure the CSV file follows our CSV products format.
- Shopify - When importing products from Shopify, verify that the provided CSV file matches the Shopify CSV format.
When you have your file ready, go to the products page and click the import button. This will open a dialog where you can select the platform you're importing from and upload the CSV file.
On Duplicate ID Behavior
The On Duplicate ID option configures what happens when a product in your import CSV has an ID/handle that is already taken by an existing product in your store. There are two options:
- Create New Product - When this option is selected a new ID will be generated and a new product will be added to the store.
- Update Existing Product - If this is selected the existing product with the matching ID will be updated. All data from the import CSV will override the existing product settings. For any missing columns in the CSV the product will keep its original settings.
When the Import button is pressed, the CSV file will be validated and if everything is ok the import process will begin.
Depending on the number of products imported and how many product images need to be downloaded, the importing may take a while to complete. You can follow the progress from the products page. We will also send you an email once importing is finished.
How to Export Products
To export the products of your store, go to the products page and click the export button. This will open a dialog with several options for selecting which products to export.
Here is what each option does:
- All products - Export all the products of your store.
- Filtered products - Export only products matching the currently applied search and filtering from the products page.
- Selected products - Export products which are currently marked for bulk editing (the checkboxes on the left of the products table).
- Products on current page - Exports only the products on the page currently being viewed.
Clicking the Export button will generate a CSV file with your products and start a download.