Export Products

Export Products dialog

The Export feature allows you to export products to various formats for backup, analysis, or use in other systems.

Opening Export

Open using one of these methods:

  • Toolbar: Import/Export dropdown > Export Products (N)

The number in parentheses shows how many products are selected.

What Gets Exported

The export scope controls which products are included:

Scope Description
Selected Only the products you have highlighted in the grid. The toolbar shows the count in parentheses, e.g., "Export Products (12)".
All Every product currently loaded in the grid, regardless of selection or filters.
Filtered Only products that match the currently active filter. This is useful when you have applied an advanced filter or search and want to export just the matching results without manually selecting them.

Tip: If you need to export a specific subset, apply a filter first (e.g., by collection, vendor, or status), then choose the Filtered scope to capture exactly those products.

Supported Formats

Format Extension Use Case
CSV .csv Universal compatibility
Excel .xlsx Spreadsheet analysis
TSV .tsv Tab-delimited data
Google Shopping .xml Product feeds

Export Options

Format Selection

Choose your output format from the dropdown.

Variant Mode

How to export products with multiple variants:

Mode Description Use Case
One row per product Product fields only, first variant Product-level analysis
One row per variant Separate row for each variant Full variant data
Summary Product with variant count Quick overview

Column Selection

Choose which fields to include. Columns are organized into groups:

Product Fields

  • Title, Handle, Description (Body HTML)
  • Vendor, Product Type, Tags
  • Status, Template Suffix
  • Category Name, Category GID
  • Collection Names
  • Product ID, Product GID
  • Variant Count, Image Count
  • Gift Card
  • Published Scope (legacy compatibility)

Publication Channels

  • Published: Online Store
  • Published: Point of Sale
  • Published: Instagram
  • Published: Facebook
  • Published: TikTok
  • Published: Google

Each publication column exports TRUE or FALSE indicating whether the product is published to that sales channel.

Variant Fields

  • Price, Compare At Price, Cost
  • SKU, Barcode
  • Weight, Weight Unit, Grams (legacy compatibility)
  • Inventory Tracked, Inventory Policy, Inventory Management
  • Taxable, Requires Shipping, Tax Code
  • Country of Origin, Province of Origin, HS Code
  • Fulfillment Service, Variant Position, Variant Title
  • Variant ID, Variant GID, Inventory Item ID

Options

  • Option 1 Name, Option 1 Value
  • Option 2 Name, Option 2 Value
  • Option 3 Name, Option 3 Value

Option Names contain the option label (e.g., "Size", "Color") and Option Values contain the variant's selected value (e.g., "Large", "Red").

SEO Fields

  • SEO Title, SEO Description

Image Fields

  • Image Source URL, Image Alt Text, Image Position

Timestamps

  • Created At, Updated At, Published At (product level)
  • Variant Created At, Variant Updated At

All timestamps are exported in ISO 8601 format (e.g., 2026-03-15T10:30:00Z).

Metafields (Product)

Product metafield columns are loaded from your store's metafield definitions. Each column is named using the format Metafield.[namespace].[key] (e.g., Metafield.custom.material).

Any unstructured metafields (metafields that exist on products but have no formal definition) are also detected and included as additional columns so no data is silently dropped from the export.

Metafields (Variant)

Variant metafield columns work the same way as product metafields but use the format Variant Metafield.[namespace].[key] (e.g., Variant Metafield.custom.color_code). These columns export metafield values attached to individual variants rather than the product itself.

Variant metafield columns are only meaningful in One row per variant mode, since each row corresponds to a specific variant. Both defined and unstructured variant metafields are included.

Tip: When using variant metafields, choose "One row per variant" mode so each variant's metafield values appear on their own row.

Inventory Per Location

When your store has multiple warehouse or fulfillment locations, the export dialog automatically detects them and adds dynamic inventory columns. These appear in a separate Inventory column group with one column per location, named "Inventory: [Location Name]".

For example, if your store has locations named "Main Warehouse" and "Retail Store", you will see:

Column Content
Inventory: Main Warehouse Stock quantity at Main Warehouse
Inventory: Retail Store Stock quantity at Retail Store

These columns are selected by default. Each column shows the available inventory quantity for that variant at that specific location.

How it works:

  • Location columns load automatically when the Export dialog opens
  • Inventory data is fetched from Shopify during export, batched in groups of 200 variants to stay within API limits
  • Every active location in your store gets its own column
  • Data is per-variant: in "One row per variant" mode, each row shows stock at that location for that specific variant

Use cases:

  • Multi-warehouse stocktake -- Export inventory across all locations to compare stock levels
  • Location rebalancing -- Identify which locations are overstocked or understocked
  • Reporting -- Create location-specific inventory reports in Excel

If inventory locations cannot be loaded (for example, due to a network issue), the export continues without those columns and a status message is shown.

Content Toggles

These options control how certain content types are handled during export:

Toggle Default Description
Strip HTML from Descriptions Off Removes HTML tags from the Description field, exporting plain text instead of raw HTML. Useful when the export is for data analysis or systems that do not support HTML.
Include Metafields Off When enabled, selects all product metafield columns. When disabled, deselects them. You can still individually select or deselect specific metafield columns after toggling.
Include Images On Controls whether image columns (Image URL, Image Alt, Image Position) are included in the export.

Note: The "Strip HTML" option applies to all formats including Google Shopping XML, where it controls whether the <description> element contains raw HTML or plain text.

Select All / Deselect All

Quickly toggle all columns on or off. You can also expand/collapse column groups and select individual columns within a group.

Mapping Profile

Apply a mapping profile to:

  • Rename columns for compatibility
  • Reorder columns
  • Apply transformations

Built-in Profiles

Profile Description
Shopify CSV Standard Shopify export format
Google Shopping Google Merchant Center feed
Custom Your saved profiles

Export Process

  1. Select products to export
  2. Choose format and options
  3. Click Export
  4. Choose save location
  5. Wait for completion

Progress

  • Progress bar shows completion
  • Cancel available for large exports
  • Success message with file location

File Output

CSV/TSV Format

  • Header row with column names
  • UTF-8 encoding with BOM
  • Properly escaped special characters
  • Quoted fields containing delimiters

Excel Format

The Excel exporter uses the Syncfusion XlsIO engine and offers several formatting options:

Option Default Description
Sheet Name "Products" Name of the worksheet tab
Auto-Fit Columns On Automatically sizes columns to fit their content
Apply Formatting On Bolds the header row for visual distinction

Output characteristics:

  • Single worksheet with the configured sheet name
  • Numeric fields stored as numbers (not text)
  • UTF-8 encoding
  • .xlsx format (Excel 2007+)

Tip: If you plan to re-import the exported file, keep Auto-Fit Columns enabled so column headers are fully visible during mapping.

Google Shopping XML

The Google Shopping format produces an RSS 2.0 feed ready for upload to Google Merchant Center. The following options control how the feed is generated:

Option Default Description
Store Name (empty) Appears as the feed <title> element
Store URL (empty) Used for product links (<link>) and as the feed <link>
Currency USD ISO currency code appended to prices (e.g., "29.99 USD")
Default Condition new Value for <g:condition> -- typically "new", "refurbished", or "used"
Default Availability in_stock Fallback availability -- overridden to "out_of_stock" for tracked variants with zero inventory

The feed automatically maps:

  • g:id -- Variant SKU (falls back to product handle)
  • g:price -- Variant price with currency
  • g:availability -- Computed from inventory tracking status
  • g:brand -- Product vendor
  • g:gtin -- Variant barcode
  • g:mpn -- Variant SKU
  • g:product_type -- Product type
  • g:image_link -- First product image URL
  • g:sale_price -- Included when Compare At Price is higher than the selling price

Each variant produces a separate <item> entry in the feed, so multi-variant products generate multiple items.

Column Customization

Reordering Columns

  1. Click Customize Columns
  2. Drag columns to reorder
  3. Changes apply to current export

Renaming Columns

  1. Select a column
  2. Enter custom header name
  3. Original data is preserved

Common Export Scenarios

Backup All Products

  1. Clear all filters
  2. Import/Export dropdown > Export Products
  3. Choose Excel format
  4. Select all columns
  5. Use "One row per variant" mode
  6. Save with date in filename

Price List Export

  1. Select products for price list
  2. Export to CSV
  3. Select: Title, SKU, Price, Compare At
  4. "One row per variant" mode

Google Shopping Feed

  1. Export all active products
  2. Choose Google Shopping XML format
  3. Google Shopping profile auto-applies
  4. Upload to Merchant Center

Inventory Report

  1. Export with Inventory column
  2. Include: Title, SKU, Inventory
  3. "One row per variant" mode
  4. Use for stocktake

Re-importing Exports

Exports can be re-imported:

  1. Make changes in Excel/CSV
  2. Import back to HF Product Manager
  3. Use same mapping profile
  4. Choose "Update Only" mode

This enables bulk editing in spreadsheet software.

Performance

Large Exports

For exports with many products:

  • Excel format is fastest
  • Progress updates in real-time
  • Memory usage increases with size
  • Consider exporting in batches for very large catalogs

Estimated Times

Products CSV Excel
100 Seconds Seconds
1,000 ~10 sec ~5 sec
10,000 ~1 min ~30 sec

Troubleshooting

"No products to export"

  • Select products in the grid
  • Clear filters if needed
  • Verify products are loaded

"Export failed"

  • Check available disk space
  • Verify write permissions to save location
  • Try a different format

"File won't open in Excel"

  • Check file encoding (UTF-8)
  • Try importing as text with delimiter
  • Use .xlsx format instead of CSV

"Special characters corrupted"

  • Ensure UTF-8 encoding
  • Excel may need "Import from Text" for CSV
  • Use Excel format for best compatibility

"Google Shopping validation errors"

  • Check required fields are included
  • Verify data format (prices, availability)
  • Review Google Merchant Center requirements

Best Practices

  1. Regular backups - Export all products weekly
  2. Use Excel - Best compatibility for editing
  3. Include SKU - Enables re-import matching
  4. Date filenames - products_2026-02-08.xlsx
  5. Test re-import - Verify export is importable

See Also