If your import file is in a CSV format and you're planning to use Excel to format it, you need to open your file in a specific way and save your CSV file as XLSX to avoid breaking some of the inventory data it contains.

Open your CSV file in Excel

1. Open Excel.
2. Click File > Import.

   

3. On the Import modal, select your CSV file and click Import.
4. Select your CSV file and click Get Data.
5. Select Delimited and click Next.
6. Under Delimeters, select Tab and Comma.
   Note: If you're using the European version of Excel, please select Tab, Other and enter a semicolon (;) in the Other field instead.
7. Click Next.
8. Select each of the columns listed below one at a time and click Text under Column data format. To confirm the Text data format was applied, Text will appear above the column headers. This step prevents the series of numbers in the columns from being converted to scientific format (e.g. 21+E):
   • UPC
   • EAN
   • Custom SKU
   • Manufacturer SKU
   • System ID (if updating existing items)
   • Any other columns that contain a series of numbers
9. Click Finish.
10. Click OK.

    

Now that you've successfully opened your CSV file in Excel, we recommend saving it as an XLSX right away.

Save your CSV file as XLSX in Excel

1. Click File > Save As.

   

2. Give your file a meaningful file name. We recommend including the date for your records.
3. From the File Format, select Excel Workbook (.xlsx) if it's not already selected by default.
4. Click Save.

You should now be able to format your XLSX file without breaking some of the inventory data it contains.