A guide for consignment and resale shops
How to move your consignor list from a spreadsheet to Shopify
Most consignment shops start with a spreadsheet: a row per consignor, a split, a balance, and notes in the margin. It works until the list gets long or two people edit it at once. This guide covers which columns to keep, how to clean up numbers and balances before you move, what plain Shopify can and cannot hold, and why a dry run comes first. The last part shows how Still Works Consignment imports the list.
1. The columns worth keeping
| Column | Why keep it |
|---|---|
| Consignor number | It is already on their tags and in your SKUs. Keep it as it is. |
| Name | One column for the full name, or first and last. |
| For statements, receipts and store credit. | |
| Phone | For pickups and questions. |
| Split | Their share, written the same way on every row, like 60 or 60%. |
| Balance owed today | What you owe them as of the day you move. Not their whole history. |
| Active | Yes or no. People who stopped consigning stay on the list as no. |
| Usually paid by | Cash, check, store credit, or other. |
| Notes | Anything staff should see. |
Leave the old sales history behind in the spreadsheet, and keep the file as your archive. What moves is who each consignor is and what you owe them today.
2. Clean up consignor numbers
- One number per person, never reused, even for someone who left years ago.
- If the same person is on the list twice, merge the rows and add the balances.
- If two different people share a name, make sure each has their own email or number.
- If your old numbers have letters in them, decide now whether to keep them in a note and give everyone a plain number.
3. Pick a cutover day and check the balances
Choose a day to switch. Record every sale and payout up to that day in the old sheet, then freeze it. Total the balance column and compare it with what your books say you owe consignors. A balance below zero (someone who owes the shop) should be written as a minus amount, not left blank.
4. What plain Shopify can hold
Shopify's Customers page has an Import button that takes a CSV of names, emails and phone numbers, and you can add the consignor number as a tag. That gives each consignor a customer record, which you need anyway for store credit.
Customer records are built for buyers, though. There is no place for a split or a balance, so after the import your spreadsheet is still the record of what you owe. Shopify's import can also update customers who already exist with the same email or phone, so read the options on the import screen before you confirm.
5. Run it dry first
Whatever you move the list into, try it with a copy before the real thing. Look at what happens to every row, not just the totals: who would be added, who would be skipped and why, and which rows could not be read. Fix the file, run it again, and only then commit. A list with a hidden duplicate is much easier to fix before it is saved than after.
The same steps in Still Works Consignment
In the app, the Consignors page links to Import your consignors from a CSV. Choose the file or paste it in. The app reads name (or first name and last name), email, phone, default split, starting balance owed, active, and consignor number, plus how they are usually paid and notes. Every column but the name is optional, common names for each column are recognized, and any other column is left alone. Download a sample shows the layout.
A split can be written as 60, 60% or 0.6. A balance can carry a dollar sign and commas, and a minus sign or parentheses means the consignor owes the shop. Your consignor numbers are kept. Anyone without one gets the next free number, and an old id that is not a plain number goes into their notes.
The first run is a Dry run: it lists every row and what would happen to it, and nothing is added until you confirm. A row is skipped if its email or number is already in the shop, or if it has only a name that is already there. You can download the whole report as a CSV. The Free plan covers up to 15 active consignors, and inactive ones do not count, so a past consignor marked no costs nothing.
When you confirm, everyone is added at once, with the numbers shown. Each starting balance goes into that consignor's history as "Starting balance", dated the day of the import, and is paid out like any sale. Nobody is emailed. Running the same file again adds nobody twice, and if the file changed after the dry run, the app asks you to run it again first. Items are not part of the import; take each one in at Intake. It is on the Shopify App Store.
Related guides
Where to go from here
The Still Works Consignment page has the plain description of what the app does and does not do. If something here does not match what you see, email the studio and it gets fixed the same business day.