Move your store to Formahand from another platform
Bring your products to Formahand from a CSV export: what the import carries, what it leaves behind, and how to keep your old links working.
Moving a store is mostly moving a catalog. Formahand imports your products from a CSV file, the spreadsheet format almost every store platform can export. Redirects then keep your old links working. This guide covers what comes across, what does not, and the steps in order.
What the import brings across
The import reads one CSV file and creates one product for each product in it. For each product it can read:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | Required |
| Price | Required |
| URL handle | The last part of the product's address. Made from the name when the file has none |
| Description | HTML tags are removed, so the text comes across as plain text |
| Compare-at price | The old price shown struck through |
| SKU | Your own stock code |
| Tags | Separated by commas |
| Inventory | Stock on hand |
| Weight | In grams |
| Image URL and image alt text | Up to 8 images a product, from https links |
| Variant image URL | A photo for one variant |
| Status | Active or archived. A draft product comes across as archived |
Options and variants come across too. If your file has Option1 Name and Option1 Value columns (up to three options), they become the product's options, and each variant keeps its own price, SKU, stock, weight and image.
What the import does not bring across
The import screen says it plainly: products only. Customers, orders, discounts and redirects are not imported. Anything else your old store holds, such as reviews, blog posts or customer accounts, is not covered by this guide.
Plan for those before you switch. Keep your old store's exports as your records, and add your discounts and redirects on Formahand by hand, or ask your agent to.
Step 1: export your products
In your old platform, export your products as a CSV file. If you keep your catalog in a spreadsheet instead, save it as CSV. An Excel workbook must be saved as CSV first.
The file can be up to 2 MB. If yours is bigger, split it into parts and import each one.
Step 2: import the file
- In the dashboard, open Home and press Import products (CSV). The same import is under Settings → Store profile → Import.
- Choose file. Pick your CSV. The file is read in your browser, and nothing is saved until you confirm. Check the line under the button that says which currency prices will be read in.
- Match columns. Pick which column of your file fills each field. Name and Price must be matched; leave any other field on Skip. Common column names are matched for you, so check the choices rather than starting from nothing.
- If your file writes one row per variant, turn on Group by handle. Rows that share a URL handle then become one product with its variants.
- Review. You see how many products can be imported, and any row that cannot, with the reason. A product whose URL handle is already used in your store is flagged, so nothing is overwritten by accident.
- Import. Keep the window open while it works. When it is done, you see each product with its new address, and any that failed with the reason. Fix what the message says and press Retry failed.
Step 3: keep your old links working
Your products now live at new addresses on your store. Links people saved, and pages search engines know, still point at your old addresses. A redirect sends each old address to the new one.
- Open Online Store → Pages & blog and the Redirects tab.
- Press Add redirect.
- In From, enter the old path, for example
/old-product-page. In To, enter the new path, such as the product's address on your store. - Leave Kind on Permanent (301) unless the move is only for a while, then press Add redirect to save it.
A store can keep up to 500 redirects. Once you are on Formahand, renaming a product, collection, page or post adds its redirect for you.
Redirects need your old addresses to reach your store, which happens once your domain points at Formahand. Custom domains explains the one record to add.
Doing it with your agent
An agent connected to your store can run the same import. The import_products tool takes the CSV text, up to 2 MB and 500 products a call. With dryRun it reports what each row would do and writes nothing, so ask for a dry run first and read the report. With onExistingHandle set to update, it updates products that are already there instead of skipping them.
It can then add your redirects with set_redirect, one old path at a time. If you have not connected an agent yet, Open an online store with your AI agent shows how.
After the move
- Open a few products and check their photos, prices and variants.
- Pick a look from the themes and publish your storefront.
- Set your search words, following Set up SEO for a new store.
- Point your domain at your store, then open it to shoppers.
The Free plan is enough to import and test your whole catalog; see pricing for what each plan includes.