How To Clean Up Product Data (With A Free Cleanup Tool)

A messy catalog doesn’t look like a problem until it costs you something. A feed gets disapproved, a product won’t show up in search, or an import overwrites the wrong item. Most of the time, the cause is the same handful of data problems repeated across hundreds of rows.

This guide covers the six most common problems, the order to fix them in and how to keep your catalog clean afterward. You can also run your CSV through the free product data cleanup tool to find every problem in one pass.

Why Clean Product Data Matters

Your product data feeds everything else. Search engines read it to decide when to show your products. Google Shopping and Amazon check it before they approve a listing. Shoppers use it to compare sizes, specs and prices. When the data is incomplete or inconsistent, every one of those steps gets harder.

Clean data also saves time. Fixing a catalog once is faster than fixing the same feed errors every month.

The Six Most Common Product Data Problems

• Missing data. Blank brands, descriptions, categories and GTINs are the most common gaps. Google Shopping and Amazon expect a brand and GTIN for most products, and listings without them can be limited or rejected.
• Duplicate SKUs and titles. Two rows with the same SKU can overwrite each other on import or confuse inventory and order systems. Two products with the same title are hard for shoppers to tell apart.
• Units written five different ways. One supplier writes 1/2″, another writes 1/2 in. and a third writes 1/2 inch. Shoppers can’t filter by size, and your listings look inconsistent.
• Titles that are too short, too long or in all caps. A title like “Gauge” doesn’t tell anyone what you sell. Google Shopping cuts titles at 150 characters. All-caps titles are harder to read.
• Broken barcodes. Every UPC and GTIN ends in a check digit that has to match the rest of the number. Barcodes that fail that check get rejected.
• Small formatting errors. Extra spaces, prices with text in them and image links without http:// or https:// can all cause failed imports.

Watch Out For The Excel Barcode Problem

Spreadsheets cause a lot of barcode errors. When you open a CSV in Excel, it treats a 12-digit UPC as a number. It may show the barcode in scientific notation, like 8.12345E+11, and it drops any leading zeros. If you save the file in that state, the CSV keeps the broken values.

To avoid it in Excel, use Data > From Text/CSV to open the file and set your barcode columns to Text before you load the data. In Google Sheets, turn off the option to convert text to numbers when you import the file.

How To Clean Up Your Product Data, Step By Step

1. Export your catalog as a CSV. Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy and Amazon all have a product export.
2. Save a backup copy. Keep the original file untouched so you can go back if an import goes wrong.
3. Find the problems. Run the file through a cleanup tool, or sort each column in a spreadsheet to spot blanks and duplicates.
4. Fix duplicates first. Decide which row to keep before you fill in anything else, so you don’t fix the same product twice.
5. Fill in missing data. Start with the fields your sales channels require, like brand, GTIN and price.
6. Standardize your formatting. Pick one way to write each unit and use it everywhere. Trim extra spaces and fix your titles.
7. Test before you import everything. Import a small batch of products first and check them in your store before you update the whole catalog.

How To Keep Your Catalog Clean

Cleanup sticks when you set a few rules and follow them for every new product.

• Write down your unit style, like “in” for inches and “lb” for pounds, and use it in every title and description.
• Use one title formula for every product, such as Brand + Product + Key Spec + Size.
• Keep a list of required fields, and don’t publish a product until they’re filled in.
• Check your catalog before every feed upload or supplier import.

Try The Free Product Data Cleanup Tool

The product data cleanup tool checks your whole catalog in one pass. Drop in a CSV and it gives your catalog a health score out of 100. It flags missing data, duplicates, formatting problems and unit spellings, then hands you a cleaned file and a list of fixes. It’s free and runs in your browser, so your file is never uploaded.