General notes you should be aware of when importing customer records from a CSV file. Review if your import is not successful.
Troubleshoot common issues when importing customers from a CSV file.
This article includes troubleshooting steps for issues related to importing customers via a CSV file as well as some useful tips to help ensure importing your customer records goes smoothly. Expand a section title in the list below to view the reason the issue occurs and the action, if any, to take to resolve the issue.
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Use the provided
CustomerImportSample.csvfile: Create your customer import CSV file using the provided ShipStation CSV template. This ensures that the file is formatted correctly and that it contains all of the required information. -
Do not change the headers: Do not make any changes to the text or change the order of the columns in the header row (row 1) of the pre-formatted CSV template. Doing so will cause the product import to fail.
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Required fields: These fields are required and must be included in the CSV import file.
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Username
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Address Line 1
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City
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State
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Postal Code
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Country Code
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And at least one of the following: Full Name, First Name, Last Name, or Company Name.
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The Issue
After importing customer records from a CSV file, some of the customer information is missing. The fields are blank.
The Cause
Data in ShipStation is overwritten by the data imported from a CSV file.
When importing a CSV, blank fields in the CSV file will cause the corresponding field to be blank in ShipStation.
The Fix
Ensure that all of the fields in the CSV file are filled in for the customers being imported.
The Issue
After importing customer records from a CSV, some of the details for customer records already in ShipStation are now incorrect.
The Cause
Data in ShipStation is overwritten by the data imported from a CSV file.
Customer CSV files imported into ShipStation that contain the same Username as a customer record already in ShipStation will update the existing customer information.
The Fix
Ensure that the customer CSV file being imported into ShipStation includes only the customer information you wish to be added or updated.
The Issue
The customer records associated with my online marketplace were not updated by the successful customer CSV import.
The Reason
Customer records created or updated via CSV import will be associated with the manual ShipStation marketplace.
Customer records created from online marketplace imports cannot be updated via CSV import. Customer records from an online marketplace will only be updated if a new order for the same customer imports from the store with the updated address.
The Issue
The customer addresses on orders do not match the addresses in the imported customer CSV file.
The Reason
ShipStation does not use the address stored in the Customers tab to override or update order addresses imported from an online marketplace or from an Order CSV.
Order addresses needing to be updated should be done so at the order level, not in the customer record.
However, manual orders created in ShipStation using the New Order button found on the Customers tab does use the address information from the customer record.