Supplier template
A supplier template is a spreadsheet you ask suppliers to fill in using your columns, units and category names before they send you product data.
- Product data template
- Supplier data template
What it means
A template sets out the minimum you need from a supplier: which columns, in which units, using which category names. When a supplier fills it in properly, it saves real time.
In practice, templates often come back partly filled, weeks late or not at all. A supplier with 10,000 products has little reason to retype them into your columns when their own system already exports a file.
Even a completed template needs checking. The columns get filled, but with N/A, a width in centimetres where you asked for millimetres, or a colour that matches none of your filter values. A template can set the minimum, but it cannot make what arrives correct.
Think of it like this
It is like the form a builder sends before quoting. It helps, but the builder still comes round to measure, because what is written on a form and what is actually there are not always the same.
For example
Your template asks for Width (mm). One supplier writes 60cm in it, another types N/A, and a third ignores the template and sends their own export. All three files still need mapping and cleaning before they can be imported.
Why it matters
Waiting on templates holds up a launch while suppliers get round to retyping. Ask instead for their native export, with codes and barcodes in separate columns and images at full size. That gets you a usable file sooner, and the column mapping is done once, on your side.
Not to be confused with
Sources
- Shopify Help Center. Sample product CSV file (product_template.csv).