How to use Bulk Actions to edit Shopify store data

Although Mixtable’s Excel-like spreadsheet interface is a very fast and convenient way to bulk update your Shopify store’s data we can make the process even faster. Mixtable has a number of Bulk Action features that help you with specific bulk edit actions that Shopify store owners frequently have to perform. These Bulk Actions features make bulk changes to the spreadsheet data, so you don’t have to make changes by hand to each cell, and you can then sync the changes to Shopify by clicking on the Sync sheet to Shopify button, as usual.

The Bulk Action features available in Mixtable are: find and replace, bulk number updater, bulk tag addition, and bulk tag removal.

Looking to use the Bulk Action features on a subset of your data? For example, on select products only? Just use the Filter feature to do this. The Bulk Action features will only modify cells/rows that are currently visible in the spreadsheet. So if you have applied a filter to your data, only the data that is visible will be considered.

Find and replace

The Find and Replace feature allows you to find and replace specific text in bulk within a specific column. While you can find and replace text in any column in any worksheet, this feature is particularly useful when you are looking to bulk find and replace a word/phrase in your product descriptions, SEO title, SEO description, and option values. Find and Replace is also a super-fast way to rename a tag.

You activate Find and Replace by clicking on its button in the toolbar. In the dialog that opens you’ll see a few inputs:

• Column Selector - this is how you choose which column in the currently active worksheet the Find and Replace will work on
• Find this - this is where you enter the word(s) that you are looking to replace
• Replace with this - this is where you enter the word(s) you want to replace with
• Case-sensitive match - whether you want to match words in a case sensitive manner. For example, whether a search value of “Organic Apple” should be strict about the capitalization of O and A, or whether it should also match “organic apple” (lowercase)
• Match whole words only - whether you want to only replace whole words that match your “Find this” value, or whether you also want to match parts of words. For example, whether replacing “butter” should only replace the specific word “butter”, or whether it should also replace the “butter” in “butterscotch”
• Preview first 10 rows - if enabled this will preview the Find and Replace action on the first 10 visible rows in the active worksheet. This way you can preview what the output will be before you make it real

Bulk number update

There are cases where you need to make the same bulk change to a series of numbers. For example, you need to decrease price by 10% for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Or you need to add $1.50 to the price of every product due to a corresponding increase in wholesale prices. This is where the Bulk Number updater feature comes in very handy. Note - the Bulk Number updater performs mathematical changes, and so will only update cells that have a number in them. If a column has a mix of numbers and text values, only the cells with number values will be updated.

You activate the Bulk Number updater by clicking on its button in the toolbar. In the dialog that opens you’ll see a few inputs:

• Column Selector - this is how you choose which column in the currently active worksheet the Bulk Number updater will work on

• Select operation - this is where you select what type of mathematical operation will be performed. The options are:

  • Add - Adds the value you’ve given to every number
  • Subtract - Subtracts the value you’ve given from every number
  • Increase by % - Takes each number and increases it by the specified percent
  • Decrease by % - Takes each number and decreases it by the specified percent
  • Multiply - Multiplies each number by the specified value
  • Divide - Divides each number by the specified value

• Value - The actual value you want to use in the mathematical update

• Preview first 10 rows - if enabled this will preview the numerical operation on the first 10 visible rows in the active worksheet. This way you can preview what the output will be before you make it real

Add tags in bulk

Bulk editing tags is fast and convenient by directly modifying cells that display a product, order, or customer’s tags. But if you need to simply add a tag, the fastest way is with the Bulk Add Tags feature. This feature is only available for worksheets that sync product, order, and customer information (as only this data in Shopify has tags). You’ll also need to have the Tags field mapped to a column.

You activate the Bulk Add Tags feature by clicking on its button in the toolbar. In the dialog that opens you’ll see a few inputs:

• Tags operation - this will be set to “Add Tag” by default, but you can change it to “Remove Tag” if you’ve changed your mind
• Tag values - here you enter one or more tags that you want to add. After entering each tag’s value press Enter
• Preview first 10 rows - if enabled this will preview the tag addition on the first 10 visible rows in the active worksheet. This way you can preview what the output will be before you make it real.

Remove tags in bulk

If you need to simply remove a tag, the fastest way is with the Bulk Remove Tags feature. This feature is only available for worksheets that sync product, order, and customer information (as only this data in Shopify has tags). You’ll also need to have the Tags field mapped to a column.

You activate the Bulk Remove Tags feature by clicking on its button in the toolbar. In the dialog that opens you’ll see a few inputs:

• Tags operation - this will be set to “Remove Tag” by default, but you can change it to “Add Tag” if you’ve changed your mind
• Tag values - here you enter one or more tags that you want to remove. After entering each tag’s value press Enter
• Preview first 10 rows - if enabled this will preview the tag removal on the first 10 visible rows in the active worksheet. This way you can preview what the output will be before you make it real.

Add or remove tags with Action columns

Add the Action Columns spreadsheet functionality to an existing product worksheet to edit Shopify tags in bulk.

Note: The worksheet needs to show product information. You can create one using our Basic Product Info template, or add a Products (no variants) worksheet to an existing workbook.

To load new Shopify data, start by selecting an empty column — any column with a non-green header (green headers mean the column is already linked to Shopify data). Then, click the ⚡️ button in the column header to open the selection window to choose the data you want to pull in.

From the Shopify Sync Settings window, choose Action Columns.

You can quickly add or remove tags once you link the Add Tags and/or Remove Tags columns to your products' spreadsheet. Here's how:

• Add a new tag in the Add Tags column
• Add a tag you want to remove in the Remove Tags column
• Click Sync worksheet changes to Shopify
• Allow some time for the changes to take place.

Note: If you have rules for automated collections based on tags, the new tags will add products to automated collections, and correspondingly, the removed tags will remove them from the automated collections.

Find more about Action Columns functionality here.

Add or remove products from collections with Action columns

Add the Action Columns spreadsheet functionality to an existing product worksheet to edit Shopify collections in bulk.

Note: The worksheet needs to show product information. You can create one using our Basic Product Info template, or add a Products (no variants) worksheet to an existing workbook.

To load new Shopify data, start by selecting an empty column — any column with a non-green header (green headers mean the column is already linked to Shopify data). Then, click the ⚡️ button in the column header to open the selection window to choose the data you want to pull in.

You can quickly add or remove products once you link the Add to Collection and/or Remove from Collection columns to your products' spreadsheet. Here's how:

• Click the (+) button and select a new manual collection to which to add the product.
• Click the (+) button and deselect a manual collection from which you want to remove the product.
• You can use filtering and copy-paste to do that to multiple products.
• Click Sync worksheet changes to Shopify.
• Allow some time for the changes to take place.

Find more about Action Columns functionality here.

You're ready!

Mixtable is an online spreadsheet designed to sync data with Shopify. It looks, feels, and behaves like Excel (including formulas), but runs in your browser. With Mixtable you can:

• Bulk add products to collections, edit metafields, add or remove tags;
• Change product prices, including international prices, and review price history;
• Manage customers with a spreadsheet CRM for Shopify;
• Use Excel features like sort ascending or descending, find-replace, filter, and more.

Best of all, you can sync changes back to Shopify with a single click. Find out more about the Mixtable suite of products here.