How to Migrate from Spreadsheets to a PIM

Before you start: get your house in order

You don't need a pristine spreadsheet to migrate. You just need a rough sense of what you're working with. Run through this quick checklist:

• Identify your "master" spreadsheet — the one that's most current and most complete. If you have several, pick the one your team actually uses day to day.
• List your product types — T-shirts, electronics, candles, whatever you sell. Different types often need different attributes, and it helps to know this upfront.
• Note your sales channels and their field requirements — Shopify needs certain fields, Amazon needs others, your wholesale customers want something else entirely.
• Don't over-clean — resist the urge to spend days tidying your spreadsheet before importing. Import what you have and use the PIM's tools to clean it. That's what they're for.

Step 1: Export your spreadsheet as a CSV

Simple. Open your master spreadsheet and export it as a CSV file. The key requirements:

• One row per product (or one row per variant if you manage variants)
• Column headers that describe each field — "Product Name", "Description", "Price", "Weight", "Material", etc.
• No merged cells, no colour-coded data, no formulas that need to resolve

If your spreadsheet is in Google Sheets, use File → Download → CSV. In Excel, Save As → CSV. That's it.

Step 2: Set up your PIM structure

Before importing, spend a few minutes setting up categories and attributes in your PIM. This doesn't need to be exhaustive on day one — you can always add more later.

Step 3: Import and map your data

Upload your CSV and map your spreadsheet columns to PIM attributes. This is where the magic happens — and it takes about 5–10 minutes.

Your PIM will show you each column header from your CSV and ask where it should go. "Product Name" maps to Title. "Desc" maps to Description. "RRP" maps to Price. Visual drag-and-drop, no code required.

If your CSV has columns the PIM doesn't have attributes for yet, you can create new attributes on the fly during import.

Step 4: Review and clean

This is where most people have their first revelation. Once your data is in a PIM, you can see its quality clearly — often for the first time.

Completeness scores show you exactly which products are missing data and what's missing. It can be eye-opening to see that 40% of your products have no description, or that half your catalogue is missing weight data.

• Fix obvious errors — wrong prices, duplicate entries, clearly outdated descriptions
• Don't aim for perfection yet — get the data in, then improve it over time
• Use completeness scores to prioritise — fix your best-sellers first

Step 5: Set up channel mappings

This is the step that replaces manual copy-paste forever. Define which PIM attributes map to which fields on each sales channel.

For example, your PIM "Description" field might map to Shopify's "Body HTML" and Amazon's "Product Description". Your PIM "Bullet Points" field maps to Amazon's "Key Product Features" but doesn't exist on Shopify at all.

Set this up once, test with a small set of products, and then every future update flows automatically.

Step 6: Bring your team on board

A PIM only works if your team uses it. The good news: a lightweight PIM shouldn't need formal training.

• Set up accounts and permissions — give each team member access to the categories and functions they need
• Establish the new workflow — the PIM is now the single source of truth. Product changes happen here first, then push to channels.
• Let them explore — if your PIM needs a training programme, it might be the wrong PIM. People should be able to find their way around within minutes.

The reality: it's not as hard as you think

Here's a realistic timeline for migrating a catalogue of a few hundred products:

The biggest time investment isn't the migration itself — it's the ongoing enrichment of your data. But that's work you'd be doing anyway, and a PIM makes it dramatically more efficient.

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