Turning a Supplier Web Table Into a Clean CSV
Copying a rendered table into Excel loses the structure that made the page readable in the first place.
Why it happens
- The page uses rowspan or colspan, so one cell visually covers several rows that the clipboard receives as blank.
- Flattening the sheet in Excel pushes every later column one step right.
- Two-row headers collapse into a single label, so the importer cannot tell which column is which.
Fix it in four steps
- Copy the table structure, not the rendered result, and expand every merged cell into complete rows.
- Join the two header rows into one name per column (Variant_Color, Variant_Size).
- Check one known product by hand before trusting the rest of the file.
- Keep the mapping per supplier so the next catalog reuses it.
Questions people ask
Why does "copy table from website to csv" happen in the first place?
The page uses rowspan or colspan, so one cell visually covers several rows that the clipboard receives as blank.
Can I fix it inside Shopify?
The importer validates the file; it does not repair it. The fix always happens in the spreadsheet or before the export.
How do I stop it happening again?
Keep the mapping per supplier so the next catalog reuses it.