How to import a supplier price list into Shopify

Short version: A supplier price list should change your costs, not your stock. Match the list to your products by barcode or SKU, convert case prices to unit costs, compare old and new costs, then update Cost per item with the bulk editor or a product CSV. Review price rises before you apply them, because they change your margins.

Suppliers send new price lists every season, after currency moves, or whenever their own costs rise. If your Shopify costs don't follow, your profit reports overstate your margin and you may be selling some products for less than you think. Here's how to bring a price list into Shopify properly.

Price lists vs invoices

An invoice tells you what arrived and what you paid. A price list tells you what you will pay from a given date. That difference matters:

Importing a price list should never add stock.
A price list usually covers far more products than you stock. You only want the lines that match your catalogue.
Price lists often show case or pack prices, and sometimes tiered prices by quantity. Decide which price you actually pay.
Check the effective date. If you still have stock bought at the old price, you might wait until it's sold or average the two.

Step 1: Get the list into a spreadsheet

If the supplier sends CSV or Excel, you're halfway there. If it's a PDF catalogue, see getting data out of PDFs. Keep only the columns you need: supplier code, barcode (EAN/UPC), description, pack size and price.

Step 2: Match to your products

Export your products from Products › Export, or just the variants you buy from this supplier (filter by vendor first).
Match on barcode where both files have it. It's the most reliable identifier because it's printed on the product.
Then match on SKU. If you use the supplier's codes as your SKUs, this is direct. If not, keep a mapping column with the supplier's code next to your SKU and reuse it every time.
In Excel or Google Sheets, XLOOKUP (or VLOOKUP) on the barcode or code column pulls the supplier price next to each of your variants.
Review anything unmatched by hand. Don't match on description alone: "Mug slate 350" and "Mug slate 250" look alike.

Step 3: Convert to unit costs

Divide case prices by units per case. A case of 12 at 54.00 is 4.50 per unit. Watch for lists that mix units: some lines per piece, some per case, some per kilo. Our pack pricing guide has more examples.

Step 4: Compare and review

Add columns for the old cost (from your export), the new unit cost, the change in percent, your selling price, and the margin before and after:

SKU	Price	Old cost	New cost	Change	Margin before	Margin after
CF-ETH-250	14.50	6.40	6.95	+8.6%	55.9%	52.1%
TE-SEN-100	12.90	5.75	6.60	+14.8%	55.4%	48.8%
EQ-FIL-100	5.50	2.10	2.10	0%	61.8%	61.8%

Margin is (price − cost) ÷ price. Sort by change and look hard at the biggest rises: some will be real, some will be pack-size mistakes. Then decide what to reprice (see spotting supplier price increases).

Step 5: Update Cost per item

Shopify gives you two native ways:

Bulk editor: select the products in Products, click Bulk edit, add the cost column via Columns, paste or type the new costs and click Save. Best for up to a few dozen products.
Product CSV: edit the Cost per item column in your export and import it with Overwrite products with matching handles. Best for hundreds. Be careful: in an overwrite import, a blank cell in an included column clears that field, and leaving out the option columns can replace your variants. Our bulk cost guide covers how to do this safely.

Changing cost per item doesn't change past orders. Shopify records the cost at the time each order is placed, so new costs only affect future profit reports.

Common mistakes

Including VAT in cost when you reclaim it. Use net prices if you're VAT-registered (see currency and VAT).
Mixing currencies: a EUR price list in a GBP store needs converting first.
Applying list price when you get a discount: use the price you actually pay.
Forgetting variants: each size or colour has its own cost per item.

Where Box to Shelf helps

Box to Shelf reads price lists as well as invoices: CSV and Excel files, PDF catalogues (including long, two-column ones), scans and photos. When it recognises a price list, it proposes cost changes only, with stock quantities left at zero. Every matched line shows old and new unit cost with the margin change, pack prices are converted, and rises above your chosen threshold are flagged. You apply the costs you agree with and skip the rest.

Questions

Does importing a price list change my stock?

It shouldn't. A price list tells you costs, not what arrived, so only cost per item should change.

How do I match a supplier's codes to my products?

Match on barcode (EAN/UPC) when both sides have it, then on SKU. If your SKUs differ from the supplier's, keep a mapping column of supplier codes.

Sources

Shopify changes its admin often. Steps were checked against the Shopify Help Center in November 2026; if a menu has moved, the help center links above have the current version.