Importing and exporting customer lists

If you have a customer list that you want to use in Shopify, then you can enter it into a customer CSV file, and then import the CSV file into your Shopify admin. You can also use the customer CSV template to build a new customer list.

Note

Importing customers into Shopify doesn't import existing customer passwords because these are encrypted outside of Shopify. Your customers need to be invited to register their accounts using the email addresses that you imported.

Learn how to open and edit a CSV file.

If you want to edit multiple customer profiles that already exist in your customer list, then you might find it easier to use bulk editing instead.

You can only import customer CSV files that are 15 MB or smaller. To get around this restriction, you can use multiple CSV files to import your customer profiles.

Caution

Only send marketing emails to customers who have opted in to receive email marketing from your business. Buying a list of email addresses and adding them to your subscriber list can damage your reputation and have a negative impact on your email deliverability. When you email people from a list of unsolicited email addresses that you bought, you run the risk of decreasing your open rate and being flagged as spam.

Customer CSV template

Shopify provides a template file that you can use as a guide to create your own customer list to import into your store. You can download and view the customer CSV template. For more information, refer to the description of the customer CSV file.

If you import the customer CSV template without adding any new customer profiles to it, then two default customer profiles are added in your store:

• Jane Doe is an example of a customer with an email address and a phone number.
• John Doe is an example of a customer with an email address and a shipping address.

Import existing customer profiles using the customer CSV

You can add customer profiles to the customer CSV template or build your own CSV file, and then import it to your Shopify admin.

You can only import customer CSV files that are 15 MB or smaller. To get around this restriction, you can use multiple CSV files to import your customer profiles.

When you use CSV files to import customer accounts from another online store, you need to invite your customers to create new passwords. Otherwise, customers on the list can't register accounts using those emails. Because passwords are encrypted, you can't migrate customer passwords from another online store. Overwriting existing customer accounts with a CSV file import won’t require those accounts to be created again.

You can use an app to send your customers bulk invitations to create new passwords. Find an app in the Shopify app store.

Shopify Plus

Stores that are on the Shopify Plus plan can use the Bulk Account Inviter App to send customer account invitations to their customers in bulk. Contact Shopify Plus Support to install the Bulk Account Inviter App. This app isn’t available from the Shopify app store.

Some of your customers' information can't be transferred between platforms. Shopify only tracks what customers order and spend on your online store. It isn't possible to import customer data for orders placed and money spent on another store or ecommerce platform. You can’t edit the Total Spent and Total Orders columns because they represent what that customer has spent and ordered from your online store.

When you import a CSV file, you have the option to tag the customers from the CSV and create a customer segment based on those tags. If you overwrite existing customers with the same email address or phone number, then all of your customer data is replaced, including the import tags.

Caution

When you import customers using a CSV file, a customer profile is created for each email address in the file. Any customers with duplicate email addresses or phone numbers are skipped during an import and aren't tagged. Only the last profile with the duplicated email address or phone number is imported into the customer list in your Shopify admin.

If you need to import a file that contains duplicate email addresses or phone numbers, then you should delete all the email addresses and phone numbers from the CSV file before importing it. You can add the email addresses or phone numbers to the customer profiles later or merge the customer profiles.

To access a formatted version of your CSV file, you can import it into Google Sheets.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Customers.

2. Click Import.

3. Click Add file, and then select your customer CSV file.

4. Optional: To update any existing customer profiles, check Overwrite existing customers that have the same email or phone number.

5. Optional: To create a segment and tag the customers from your CSV list, check Add tags to customers in this csv and use these tags to create a segment.

6. Click Import customers.

Export existing customer profiles to a CSV file

You can export a CSV file of your store's customers and their details.

Exported CSV files can be opened in a spreadsheet application like Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets, or used to connect your Shopify store with a third-party Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

Exported CSV files are limited to 15 MB in size.

If you export up to 50 customers, then the CSV file is downloaded by your browser. If you export more than 50 customers, then the CSV file is emailed to you. If you aren't the store owner, then the file is also sent to the store owner's email address.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Customers.

2. Click Export.

3. Select one of the following export options:

   • Current page to export the customers showing in your store admin.
   • All customers to export all your store's customers.
   • Selected customer to export customers you have selected.
   • # customers matching your filters to export a customer segment.

4. Do either of the following:

   • To use a spreadsheet program to view and edit your customer CSV file, select CSV for Excel, Numbers, and other spreadsheet programs.
   • To use a plain-text editor to view and edit your customer CSV file, select Plain CSV file.

5. Click Export customers.

Description of the customer CSV file

Review the following considerations for the customer CSV file:

• The first line of your customer CSV must include the column headers. You can use the customer CSV template to help you to create your CSV file.
• The Email column is required and must be present, but the value can be blank. If this column is missing, then you receive an error when you import your CSV file.
• CSV file headers are case sensitive. Their capitalization must match the examples that appear in the following table.
• The Total Spent and Total Orders columns are not imported with customer details.

The customer CSV file columns and their descriptions.

Column	Description
First Name	The first name of the customer.
Last Name	The last name of the customer.
Email	The email address of the customer. This column is required, but the value can be blank.
Company	The name of the company that the customer uses, if applicable.
Address1	The first line of the customer's address.
Address2	The second line of the customer's address, if necessary.
City	The city the customer lives in.
Province	The province or state the customer lives in. If you enter information into this column, then you must also enter the information for the Province Code.
Province Code	The province or state ISO code.
Country	The country the customer lives in.
Country Code	The country ISO code.
Zip	The postal or zip code for the customer's address.
Phone	The customer's phone number.
Accepts Email Marketing	Sets whether or not the customer agrees to subscribe to email marketing, such as a newsletter. Valid entries are yes or no.
Accepts SMS Marketing	Sets whether or not the customer agrees to subscribe to SMS marketing, such as discount offers. Valid entries are yes or no.
Total Spent	The customer's total amount spent. Valid entries must not have a currency symbol included. This column is not imported with customer details.
Total Orders	The customer's total number of orders. This column is not imported with customer details.
Tags	A comma-separated list of tags used to tag the customer (for example, tag1,tag2,tag3). Tags are not case sensitive.
Note	Additional information about the customer.
Tax Exempt	Indicates whether the customer is tax exempt. Valid entries are yes or no.

Note

You can only import the customer information using a customer CSV file. Order information can't be imported using a customer CSV file.

When you import customer profiles, your CSV file must be in UTF-8 format. Most spreadsheet applications can save CSV files in UTF-8 format with the Save As or Export command, depending on the program.

Use a text editor to edit your customer CSV file

If you don't have a spreadsheet program, then you can edit CSV files using a text editor.

Caution

You should only use a text editor as a last resort. For example, use a text editor if there are formatting errors in your CSV file and you cannot open it in a spreadsheet program.

Most computers have text editors that can open CSV files. You can also use a program like Visual Studio Code or Sublime Text to edit and debug your CSV file.

Note

A CSV file with UTF-8 encoding is the only file format that can be used to import to or export from Shopify.

When you format your CSV file in a text editor, observe the following considerations:

• Column headers must be separated by commas (for example, First Name,Last Name,Email,Company,Address1).
• The list of tags must be wrapped in quotation marks (for example, "tag1,tag2,tag3").
• Tags are not case sensitive.
• Different records must be separated by line breaks.

Importing contacts from Gmail

You can export your Gmail contacts to a CSV file to import as customers to your Shopify store. Before you export your Gmail contacts, review and delete contacts that you don’t want to import to your Shopify store. Consider removing role-based email addresses, such as emails that begin with admin@, support@, or info@, and check for any typos that would prevent email messages from being delivered.