Excel is where catalogs usually start; CSV is where they need to end up for import. The conversion itself is one menu option, but the details — encoding, number formats, leading zeros — decide whether the import works. This guide covers the safe conversion path and what to do after the file is converted.
The basic conversion
- Open the workbook and select the sheet with the products.
- Choose File → Save As (Excel) or File → Download (Google Sheets).
- Pick CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) — not the plain CSV option, which can break special characters.
- Save. Only the active sheet converts — if your catalog spans multiple sheets, each must be converted separately.
What goes wrong in conversion
The conversion writes values as text. Three kinds of damage are common:
- Leading zeros lost — SKU
00123becomes123because Excel treated it as a number. Fix by formatting the SKU column as text before saving. This also applies to phone numbers, barcodes and anything else that starts with zero. - Numbers reformatted —
₹1,299.00in Excel becomes1299or1,299.00depending on locale. Keep price columns plain numbers with two decimals, and remove currency symbols before saving. - Special characters garbled — accents and symbols break when the encoding is wrong. The UTF-8 option fixes this; the legacy CSV option causes it.
- Formulas become values — usually what you want, but verify a few calculated cells after export.
From converted CSV to Hyperzod format
A clean Excel export is still an Excel-shaped CSV, not a Hyperzod-shaped one. The Hyperzod import expects PRODUCT.* columns and option groups; an Excel sheet with "Name, Price, Category" columns will not match.
This is where CSV Pilot fits. Upload the converted CSV into the tool, then either:
- Edit it into shape — rename and map columns by describing the change, or
- Regenerate it — paste the list into the chat and ask the agent to rebuild it as a Hyperzod catalog with the right columns, variants and validation.
The second path is usually faster: the agent maps your columns to the Hyperzod structure, adds missing required fields, and validates the result before export.
A quick checklist after converting
- Correct sheet was active.
- CSV UTF-8 option chosen.
- SKU column formatted as text beforehand.
- Prices contain plain numbers only.
- Open the file in CSV Pilot's preview and confirm it parses correctly before importing into Hyperzod.
Why the round-trip is dangerous
The most common workflow is: export a CSV, open it in Excel to check it, re-save it — and break it. Excel quietly reformats values on open and save: SKUs lose leading zeros, dates get rewritten to your locale's format, long numbers become scientific notation. If you must inspect a CSV in Excel, treat it as read-only and keep a copy of the original. CSV Pilot's preview is a safer inspector: it parses the file as data, shows exactly what the importer will see, and never reformats your values.
Excel is for working; CSV is for exchanging. Convert carefully, then let CSV Pilot reshape the file into the structure Hyperzod expects.