How to import products into specific Shopify Shipping Profiles

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Sept, 29, 2025

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Managing shipping on Shopify can be confusing—especially if your store sells products with different shipping needs. Shopify lets you create multiple shipping profiles so you can charge custom rates for heavy, fragile, or express eligible items if needed. 

But here’s the catch: when you bulk import products via CSV, Shopify doesn’t let you assign shipping profiles. All imported products automatically go into the General Shipping Profile, which means you need to reassign them manually.

For small stores, this isn’t a big deal. But if you’re importing hundreds of products, it’s frustrating and time-consuming.

The good news? There’s a workaround using product tags that makes assigning products to shipping profiles much easier.

The problem: Shopify CSV imports and Shipping Profiles

By default, Shopify CSV imports don’t support shipping profile assignment.

• You can’t select a profile in the CSV file.
  
  
• Every product goes into the General Shipping Profile.
  
  
• You’re forced to manually move products into the correct profiles later.
  
  

This limitation slows down store setup and daily operations for merchants with large catalogs.

The workaround: use Product Tags for Shipping Profiles

While Shopify doesn’t allow shipping profile assignment in CSV files, you can add unique product tags during import. Once the products are in Shopify, you can filter by these tags and quickly assign them to the correct shipping profile.

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Add Tags to your CSV

Before importing, edit your CSV file. In the Tags column, add a tag that identifies which shipping profile the product belongs to.

Examples:

• heavy → assign to “Heavy Items” profile
  
  
• express → assign to “Express Shipping” profile
  
  
• standard → assign to “Standard Shipping” profile
  
  

Pro tip: Keep tags short and unique so they don’t overlap with product names or descriptions. You can use any word as a tag, as long as it’s not already used for another purpose. The examples above are only suggestions.

Step 2: Import the CSV

Upload your CSV file into Shopify. All your products will now have the tags you added.

Step 3: Assign tagged products to the right Shipping Profile

Now you can quickly filter and move products into the correct profiles:

1. Go to Settings > Shipping and Delivery > Shipping Profiles
   
   
2. Select the profile you want (e.g., “Heavy Items”).
   
   
3. Click Manage Products.
   
   
4. Use the search bar to filter by tag (e.g., heavy).
   
   
5. Select all products and add them to that profile.
   
   

Repeat this for each profile.

Step 4: Automate the process (optional)

If you frequently add new products, you can save even more time with automation:

• Shopify Flow (Shopify Plus only) can automatically assign tagged products.
  
  
• The Shopify API allows developers to create custom automation for this process.
  
  

Conclusion

Shopify doesn’t let you assign shipping profiles during CSV imports—but with tags and filtering, you can speed up the process and keep shipping rates accurate.

Quick recap:

• Add unique tags to your CSV before import
  
  
• Import products as usual
  
  
• Use tags to filter and assign products to the right profiles
  
  
• Automate if needed with Shopify Flow or API
  
  

This method can save hours of manual work and make your shipping setup more efficient.

Are Shopify’s limitations slowing you down? I help businesses optimize their Shopify stores with automation and efficient processes. Let’s simplify your shipping setup—get in touch today by filling out our contact form!