Product catalog template: ready-to-use Excel model

A good product catalog template is not just a list of columns. It is the backbone of your e-commerce: it determines the quality of your listings, your ability to launch promotions in bulk, and how fast you can plug in a new marketplace.

This guide gives an operational template — structure, columns, examples — and explains why, past a certain threshold, staying on Excel becomes the actual bottleneck.

The ideal structure of a product catalog template

Whatever the target CMS (Shopify, PrestaShop, WooCommerce), the logic stays the same: separate parent products from variants, isolate custom metafields, keep a single source of truth for images.

Sheet 1: Parent products

One row per parent product. Mandatory columns:

• parent_sku — unique parent product identifier, never reused
• title — 60 to 70 characters, brand + type + key attribute
• description_html — long description in HTML or rich text
• vendor / brand — brand or supplier
• category_path — internal taxonomy (e.g. Fashion > Women > Dresses)
• google_product_category — Google Shopping official taxonomy
• tags — comma-separated, for Shopify automatic collections
• status — active, draft, archived

Sheet 2: Variants

One row per variant. Mandatory columns:

• parent_sku — join key with the parents sheet
• variant_sku — unique variant identifier
• option_1_name / option_1_value — e.g. Size / M
• option_2_name / option_2_value — e.g. Color / Black
• option_3_name / option_3_value — optional
• price / compare_at_price — retail price and strikethrough price
• cost — cost price (for margin calculation)
• stock — available quantity
• gtin (EAN/UPC) — required for Google Shopping and Amazon
• mpn — manufacturer reference if no GTIN
• barcode — internal barcode
• weight_grams — weight in grams

Sheet 3: Images

One row per image, linked to parent_sku or variant_sku. The position column determines the main image (position 1).

• sku — product or variant concerned
• image_url — publicly accessible URL
• position — display order
• alt_text — accessible and SEO-friendly description

The 5 mistakes that break a catalog template

1. Non-unique SKUs — Shopify accepts, PrestaShop rejects. Either way, your stock levels become inconsistent.
2. Prices in text format — 19.90 € won't read as a number. Use numeric format, dot separator, no symbol in the cell.
3. Descriptions pasted from Word — invisible tags, broken smart quotes, malformed lists. Paste as plain text then format.
4. No GTIN for Google Shopping — without GTIN or MPN, your ads get penalized. The template includes a dedicated column with validation.
5. Images stored in the parents tab — past 5 images per product, it overflows. Keep a dedicated images sheet.

From Excel template to Shopify catalog: three paths

1. Native Shopify CSV import

The simplest. Export your template as CSV, go to Products > Import, map columns. Works up to about 5,000 products. Past that, timeouts become common and silent errors multiply.

2. Matrixify or Shopify Bulk Operations

More robust for large catalogs. Matrixify starts at $20/month and supports Excel directly (no CSV step). Shopify Bulk Operations is more technical but free.

3. Seegea — inline editing without CSV roundtrip

Past a certain volume, the Excel → CSV → Shopify roundtrip becomes the actual cost. Seegea removes that step: you edit in a tabular grid, like in Excel, but every change is pushed immediately to Shopify or PrestaShop. No CSV, no export, no reimport. The Excel template becomes your starting point, not your daily tool.

How Seegea complements your catalog template

Seegea's approach starts from a simple premise: an Excel template remains the best format to think through the structure of a catalog, but it's the worst format to maintain that catalog over time. No automatic push, no rollback, no image optimization, no contextualized AI.

The combo that works for most of our clients: they use the Excel template for initial scaffolding (bulk import of the first 2,000 products) then switch to Seegea for daily maintenance. Excel stays as a backup and scripting tool, Seegea becomes the working interface.

Created in France between Annecy and Chantilly, Seegea is designed for European e-commerce teams who know Excel better than their tool vendors. We do not ask you to unlearn — we give you a tool that extends Excel where Excel stops.