How to Import AliExpress Products to Shopify

Dropshippers pulling products from AliExpress — whether through a scraper, a supplier sheet, or a plugin export — almost always hit Shopify import errors. AliExpress data uses generic column names, prices in multiple currencies, comma-decimal formats, and multi-image cells that Shopify's strict importer won't accept as-is. The result is rejected rows, missing handles, and zero-price variants.

Why AliExpress exports don't work in Shopify

Shopify's importer expects exact column names and a specific row structure. AliExpress exports use names like "Product Title", "Sale Price", and "Main Image" that Shopify ignores, and frequently pack several image URLs into one cell — which Shopify can't split on its own.

Beyond column names, there are the structural problems Shopify cares about:

• No Handle column — Shopify requires a unique slug per product
• Prices may use comma decimals (12,99) or non-USD currencies that Shopify rejects
• Multiple image URLs are crammed into one cell — Shopify needs one image per row
• Availability is often 1 / 0, not TRUE / FALSE
• Titles contain keyword-stuffed text and emojis that should be cleaned before publishing

AliExpress vs Shopify: column name differences

Every column in a AliExpress export needs to be renamed before Shopify will recognise it.

Manual fix: step by step

If you want to fix the CSV yourself, here's the full process in Google Sheets or Excel:

1. Consolidate your export into one sheet — scrapers often produce several files. Open in Google Sheets specifying UTF-8 if characters look garbled.
2. Rename headers using the table above, respecting Shopify's exact casing.
3. Generate Handles with =LOWER(REGEXREPLACE(B2,"[^a-zA-Z0-9]+","-")), then de-duplicate.
4. Split image cells. Move each gallery image to its own row that repeats the Handle and leaves other fields blank.
5. Normalise prices. Convert comma decimals to dots, strip currency symbols, and convert to your store currency. Format as plain numbers with 2 decimals.
6. Fix booleans. Replace 1/0 with TRUE/FALSE (match entire cell only).
7. Clean titles. Trim keyword spam and emojis, and add required variant columns (Variant Inventory Policy = deny, Variant Fulfillment Service = manual).
8. Export as CSV UTF-8 and test-import 5–10 products first.

For a few hundred dropshipping products with image galleries and multiple variations, expect 1–3 hours of manual cleanup — the image-splitting step is the most error-prone.

Automatic fix: upload to EcomCSVFix

EcomCSVFix handles all of the above automatically in a single pass. Upload your raw AliExpress export and the tool will:

• ✓Rename all column headers to Shopify's exact format
• ✓Generate a unique Handle for every product
• ✓Convert 1/0 and Yes/No to TRUE/FALSE across all boolean columns
• ✓Strip currency symbols and normalise prices to 2 decimal places
• ✓Fix encoding issues if the file was saved from Excel
• ✓Flag any rows it couldn't fix automatically with a warning

You get a full cleaning report showing every change made, then a download link for the fixed file. The whole process takes under 30 seconds.

Frequently asked questions