Getting Started

Portaim turns a messy supplier CSV or Excel file into Shopify-ready products in four steps: upload → map → fix → export. Here's how.

1. Create your account

Go to app.portaim.com/register and sign up with your email. No credit card required — you get every feature on the free plan straight away.

2. Upload your file

From the dashboard, click Upload File and drop in your CSV, XLSX, or XLS. If your spreadsheet has multiple sheets you can choose which one to import, and you can tell Portaim which row holds the column headers if it isn't the first.

You can also import from a link: open the menu next to Upload File, choose "From a link", and paste a Google Drive share, a Google Sheet, a Dropbox link, or any public file URL. Portaim fetches the file for you; a Google Sheet arrives as a workbook, so multi-tab sheets go through the same sheet picker.

A WooCommerce product export is recognised and converted to Shopify's format before mapping. The mapping step shows what changed — how variations became variants, which attributes became options, what landed in tags — and you can switch back to the original file at any time.

As soon as the file is read, Portaim's AI starts mapping your columns to Shopify fields in the background. A file that is already in Shopify's format — an export, a filled-in template — is mapped column for column without any guessing. Non-English supplier files are detected and mapped just as cleanly.

3. Map your columns to Shopify

Portaim reads your headers and your sample data, then proposes how each Shopify field should be built. You land on the mapping editor — one card per Shopify field, each showing a live preview of what it produces on your first rows.

• Click any field to edit how it's built, switch its source column, or change the rule.
• The source-columns sidebar shows which of your columns are already used and which still need attention — click an unmapped column to map or skip it.
• When everything looks right, click Confirm mapping to move on.

Variants are handled for you. If your file lists the same product in several sizes or colors (rows that share a style or parent code), Portaim groups them into one product with variants — you don't lay this out by hand.

Most files map automatically. If the AI ever can't place your columns, you'll see a clear notice with a one-click Try again — and you can always map by hand. Importing from the same supplier often? Save the mapping as a template and reuse it next time.

How mapping works

Real supplier files rarely line up one-to-one with Shopify. A Shopify row is really a product + variant + image, so Portaim can reshape your columns to fit. Each field card uses one of these rules — usually picked automatically:

Transforms

A rule can also tidy each value as it goes through. Common transforms:

4. Product categories

Supplier category text almost never matches Shopify's product taxonomy word-for-word. Portaim finds the closest match (and suggests alternatives in the fix step), so your products land in a real Shopify category. On direct export, the category even adapts to your store's taxonomy version — if your store doesn't have a specific sub-category yet, Portaim uses the nearest one it does, rather than dropping the category. The supplier categories guide walks through the matching and the review step.

5. Review and fix issues

Portaim runs 40+ Shopify-specific checks against your data and groups what it finds by severity:

• Errors — must be fixed before export (e.g. missing required fields, invalid status values).
• Warnings — recommended but won't block export (e.g. a missing SEO description).

You're never left to fix things by hand alone. Portaim offers, in order:

• Auto-fix — one-click fixes for common problems (formatting, casing, trimming) applied first.
• Value mapping — bulk-replace a messy value everywhere it appears (e.g. "enabled" → "active"), reviewed before you apply it.
• AI suggestions — generate or improve fields like titles, descriptions, and SEO with AI, including filling fields your file doesn't have.
• Manual editing — edit any cell directly, with undo.

Nothing is changed without your confirmation — every fix is something you apply, never a silent edit.

6. Export your products

Once all errors are resolved, you have two options:

• Download CSV — a clean, Shopify-formatted CSV to import manually via Shopify Admin.
• Export to Shopify — push products straight to your connected store. It runs in the background, handles Shopify's rate limits, and can be cancelled anytime — anything already sent stays in your store.
• Import as Draft — switch it on and every product is created unpublished, on both paths, so you can review them in Shopify before they go live. Turn it off and your file's own status values are used again.

Ask Sidekick about your imports

If you use Portaim inside the Shopify admin, Sidekick can answer questions about your imports. Sidekick asks for your permission before it uses an app, and the approval lasts for the current conversation: type @, pick Portaim, approve the prompt, then ask, for example:

• "What's the status of my product imports?" — which files are waiting for you, which are being processed, which are done, with a link to the right step.
• "Why did my last import have errors?" — the check results grouped by field, how many rows each problem affects, and which ones Portaim fixes in one click.
• "What did Portaim change in my store?" — what the last export created, updated or could not create, product by product.

Sidekick only reads. Mapping columns, fixing rows and exporting happen in Portaim, and every answer links there. The longer version, with what Sidekick can and cannot do with a supplier spreadsheet on its own, is in the Sidekick and product imports guide.

Plan & limits

The free plan covers up to 10 imports and 1,500 processed rows per month. Limits reset at the start of each month.

Uploading a big file? If it's larger than the rows you have left this month, Portaim doesn't reject it — it imports the rows that fit and shows you a clear note (a banner on the mapping page and a chip in your imports list) telling you exactly how many were processed and how many were skipped. If you've used your whole monthly allowance, the upload is held with a short message instead. Either way, nothing breaks silently.

Portaim is free — there are no paid plans, trials, or charges.

Connect your Shopify store

Installed Portaim from the Shopify App Store? Your store is connected already, and Portaim opens from the admin's Apps menu. Otherwise, to use direct export, connect your store:

1. Go to Settings in the app.
2. Enter your store's .myshopify.com domain.
3. Click Connect Store and authorize on Shopify's confirmation page.
4. You'll be redirected back to Portaim with the connection active.

You can disconnect anytime from Settings. Portaim requests only the permissions it needs: product read/write, inventory management, and file uploads.