Product catalog (SKU) with CSV Reconcile
Two catalog exports with the columns sku, title, price, stock and status are loaded here. One SKU is new, one has disappeared, and four have a changed price, stock level or status. The Columns tab shows how many rows changed per column and the sum of the numeric differences.
- Export the catalog from your shop or ERP twice, for example weekly, as CSV.
- Load the older export in the first box and the newer one in the second.
- Keep sku as the key. If the export has a variant ID, use that instead.
- Press Compare. Check the Added tab for new SKUs and Removed for SKUs that disappeared.
- Open Columns for the totals, and download all differences as CSV for the buyer or merchandiser.
What to know
Catalog exports drift in three ways: items appear, items vanish and attributes move. They need different handling. A SKU in the second file only is a new listing to check for missing images and categories. A SKU in the first file only was delisted, or it was dropped by a filter on the export, which is worth confirming before anyone assumes it was discontinued. A SKU in both with a different price or stock is a change to approve or investigate.
In this pair, TS-1001 rose from 14.00 to 15.00 and its stock fell from 120 to 96. TS-1003 went from 0 to 40 units, so it is back in stock. TS-1004 changed status from active to discontinued, and TS-1006 from draft to active. TS-1005 is only in last week's file and TS-1007 only in this week's. Across the compared columns, stock changed in two rows by +16 in total and price in one row by +1.00.
Currency symbols, thousands separators and trailing zeros do not hide real changes here: numbers are compared as numbers, so 14 and 14.00 are the same value, while 14.00 and 14.50 are not. If a price feed rounds to the cent and you only care about moves larger than that, set an allowed difference under Comparison rules. Columns that exist in only one export, such as a new weight field, are listed in a note and left out of the comparison.
Updated · Cosmovex
Questions
Should the key be SKU or product ID?
Use whichever is unique per row in both exports and does not change between them. For a catalog with variants, the variant SKU is usually unique while the parent product ID repeats.
Why is a product in Removed when it was not deleted?
Removed means the key is in the first file and not in the second. A filter on the export, such as only active products or only one collection, has the same effect as a deletion, so check the export settings of both files.
Can I ignore a last-modified column?
Yes. Open Ignore columns and select it. A timestamp that changes on every row would otherwise mark every product as changed.
Does it handle prices with currency signs?
Yes, when numbers are compared as numbers (the default) values such as $1,200.00 and 1200 are equal. Turn that rule off to compare the exact text.
Can I save these settings for next week?
Pro can save the key, ignored columns, column matches and rules as a profile in your browser, so a recurring export takes one click to set up.
The free plan covers everything on this page. CSV Reconcile Pro ($29, paid once) is described on the CSV Reconcile page.
