How to ship Shopify orders from a spreadsheet

Before you start

• Staff access to Orders in the Shopify admin
• A Shopify orders CSV with the billing columns removed
• Packed boxes with a weight for each one
• Time at the end for the tracking numbers to go back by hand

Steps

1. Export the batch

   In your Shopify admin, go to Orders, filter to the orders you are shipping, select Export, then choose Selected orders.

   You should see a CSV in your browser for up to 50 orders, or an email for a larger batch.

2. Trim the file to what a label needs

   In your spreadsheet app, keep the Name column and the 10 Shipping columns, drop the Billing columns, and remove rows where Lineitem requires shipping is FALSE.

   You should see one address row per order, with no billing address anywhere in the file.

3. Bring the rows into a batch

   In The Workbench, start a batch from a file and choose your trimmed CSV. A short list can be pasted instead.

   You should see your orders as rows in the grid, with any warnings such as duplicate recipients shown before you price anything.

4. Set the weights

   In the batch, set each parcel's weight from your saved product presets or by typing it once.

   You should see every row carrying a weight, because a Shopify export does not include one.

5. Rate and buy the batch

   In the batch, price USPS and UPS across the rows, then buy the labels you want.

   You should see the full price of each label before you commit, and one merged PDF to print.

6. Put the tracking back on each order

   In your Shopify admin, open each order and fulfil it with its tracking number and carrier.

   You should see the order moving to Fulfilled and Shopify sending its own notification to the buyer.

If it goes wrong

Step 6 is the whole cost of this route

A file based batch has no way back into Shopify, so every tracking number is typed into an order by hand. At 30 orders that is the longest part of the afternoon, and it is where transposed digits get in. Our guide on marking a Shopify order fulfilled with tracking covers which notification each route sends.

The file aged while you packed

Orders cancelled or edited after the export are still rows in your sheet. Re-check anything unusual in the admin before buying, because a label bought against a cancelled order is money spent on a parcel nobody expects.

The addresses were never validated

A CSV carries whatever the buyer typed. Validate addresses in the batch before buying, or expect the carrier to make its own correction and bill for it later.

Pick lists and packing slips are missing

Rows imported from a file cannot produce pick lists or packing slips. Those stay on orders that came from a connected store, so a spreadsheet batch prints labels only.

What happens next

This route costs 2 extra passes every day: one to export and trim, one to type tracking numbers back. A connected store removes both, because paid orders arrive on a 10 to 15 minute sync and the fulfilment is written back against the order's fulfillment order with the tracking number and carrier, which is what triggers Shopify's own email to the buyer. The Shopify connection is in early access, so the CSV route is what to use until your store is in.