Importing: the Command column and previews

An import file is a normal spreadsheet with one extra idea: the Command column, which says what should happen to each row.

Commands

• MERGE — update the record if it exists, create it if it doesn't. The safe default.
• NEW — always create a new record.
• UPDATE — only touch records that already exist; skip anything unknown.
• REPLACE — overwrite the record's child rows (variants, line items) rather than merging them.
• DELETE — remove the record. Used deliberately, never by accident.
• IGNORE — skip the row entirely, handy while you're testing.

How rows are matched

Products match on Handle, customers on Email, orders on Order Name. If the identifier is missing the row can only be created, never matched — which is why a MERGE import with an empty Handle column creates duplicates. The preview will tell you before that happens.

Update only what you touched

You do not need to import every column you exported. Delete the columns you didn't change and only the remaining fields are written. A price update can be a two-column file: Handle and Price.

The preview

Every import is analysed before it runs: how many rows parsed, how many are valid, and the split between create, update, delete and skip. Nothing reaches your store until you confirm.

The results file

When a job finishes you get a results workbook — your original rows plus what happened to each one, with the reason for any failure. Fix those rows and re-import just that file.

Test on a handful of rows first. Export 5 products, change them, import them back, and confirm the result before running the same file over 5,000.