How to Merge Product Info from Multiple Sheets

In the fast-paced world of ecommerce, managing product data efficiently can make or break your operations. Whether you’re onboarding new SKUs, collaborating with suppliers, or managing seasonal catalogs, it’s common to have product information scattered across multiple Excel or Google Sheets.

But scattered data is risky: it causes inconsistencies, duplication, and delays in publishing. That’s why learning how to merge product data properly is crucial for teams aiming to scale efficiently.

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Why Merging Product Data Matters

Before diving into spreadsheets and functions, let’s understand why merging product data is so essential:

Multiple sources, one destination: Vendors, suppliers, internal teams, and channels all manage data separately. Merging creates a single source of truth.
Faster product onboarding: Consolidated data speeds up the publishing process across channels like Shopify, Amazon, or WooCommerce.
Improved accuracy: Merging allows for better data deduplication and cleansing, removing conflicting or outdated information.
Scalability: As your catalog grows from hundreds to thousands of SKUs, managing from one sheet is no longer sustainable. You need a clean, unified format.

Common Use Cases for Merging Product Spreadsheets

If you’ve worked with product data, these scenarios may feel familiar:

You receive one spreadsheet from the marketing team with descriptions, and another from the supplier with pricing and dimensions.
You’re migrating product info from multiple departments into a centralized catalog.
You export product listings from Amazon, Walmart, and your ERP—and now need to merge them.

Whatever your situation, the goal remains the same: combine product spreadsheets without losing data integrity.

Step 1: Prepare and Standardize All Sheets

Before merging anything, preparation is critical.

✅ Best Practices for Spreadsheet Prep:

Use consistent headers: Column names must match across all sheets (e.g., “SKU”, not “Sku” or “Product Code”).
Check data formats: Make sure pricing, dates, stock quantities, and other numeric fields follow the same format.
Remove blank rows/columns: Clean structure = cleaner merges.
Review encoding: Always work with UTF-8 to avoid character corruption.
Normalize attribute values: e.g., use “Red” in all sheets instead of “red”, “RED”, or “R”.

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Step 2: Identify Your Unique Identifier (Usually SKU)

Many industrial brands and mid-sized manufacturers either don’t use PLM at all or use it improperly. But there’s a price for ignoring it. When PLM practices are fragmented, manual, or team-specific, it affects your entire product ecosystem.

This can lead to fragmented product knowledge, launch delays and bottlenecks, compliance issues, increased return rates, and agitated personnel in the real world.

To consolidate SKU data, you need a consistent and unique key across sheets. This is almost always your SKU (Stock Keeping Unit).

Make sure:

SKUs are spelled consistently (no hidden characters or spacing).
Variant SKUs are distinct and properly matched to parent products (if applicable).
There’s no duplication within each sheet.

If SKUs are inconsistent across sheets, fix them first—either manually or with data cleansing formulas.

Step 3: Use Excel Merge Techniques to Combine Sheets

Now that your sheets are prepped, here are the most effective ways to merge product data in Excel.

🔄 Option 1: VLOOKUP or XLOOKUP

Use when you’re merging two spreadsheets that share a common key (SKU).

Example:

Let’s say:

Sheet A has SKUs and product names.
Sheet B has SKUs and prices.

In Sheet A, use:

excel

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=VLOOKUP([@SKU], SheetB!A:B, 2, FALSE)

Or with XLOOKUP (for newer Excel versions):

excel

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=XLOOKUP([@SKU], SheetB!A:A, SheetB!B:B, “Not found”)

This pulls the price from Sheet B into Sheet A by matching SKUs.

🔄 Option 2: Power Query (Best for Large Data Sets)

Power Query is a built-in Excel feature perfect for data consolidation and repeatable workflows.

Steps:

Go to Data > Get & Transform > Get Data > From Workbook.
Load all relevant sheets into Power Query.
Use the Merge Queries feature to combine sheets based on the SKU column.
Clean, filter, and shape the data.
Click “Close & Load” to output the merged table to a new sheet.

Power Query is especially powerful when merging multiple sheets and performing transformations—like removing duplicates or filtering missing values.

🔄 Option 3: Append Data (Vertical Merge)

Use when you’re stacking rows from multiple sheets (e.g., regional catalogs with different SKUs).

Copy and paste all product rows into one sheet.
Add a column for “Source” (to identify the origin of each row).
Use Excel’s Remove Duplicates function on the SKU field to clean up overlaps.

Or use =UNIQUE() in Google Sheets for deduplication.

Step 4: Clean and Deduplicate the Merged Data

Now that your product sheets are combined, it’s time for data deduplication and cleanup.

Tools & Techniques:

Conditional formatting: Highlight duplicate SKUs or mismatched fields.
Remove Duplicates: Use Excel’s built-in tool (Data > Remove Duplicates).
Data Validation: Add dropdowns or data rules for fields like category, size, or status.
Custom Scripts: Use Google Apps Script or VBA for advanced cleansing.

Watch Out For:

Incomplete rows
Conflicting product attributes (e.g., same SKU with different colors)
Missing media links or image paths
Discrepancies between parent and variant SKUs

Step 5: Create a Master Product Sheet

Once cleaned, create a new master spreadsheet. This will serve as your single source of truth until you transition into a centralized system like Catsy PIM.

Your master sheet should:

Contain all merged fields (from all input sources)
Include a “Last Updated” column for tracking
Be protected or locked for key columns (like SKU)
Be backed up regularly
Be version-controlled if shared with multiple teams

Step 6: Use the Consolidated Sheet for Ecommerce or PIM Imports

Your unified sheet can now be used for:

WooCommerce or Shopify CSV imports
Amazon flat-file uploads
Print or digital catalog generation
Importing into a Product Information Management (PIM) platform like Catsy

If you’re using Catsy:

You can map your columns to the Catsy data model.
Automatically publish your product content to ecommerce channels.
Manage digital assets and product metadata from one place.

No more juggling multiple sheets.

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Automating the Process: When Manual Merging Isn’t Enough

If you’re doing this weekly or monthly, the manual merging process will slow you down. Consider automation with:

✅ Google Sheets:

Use IMPORTRANGE() to pull live data across sheets.
Combine with ARRAYFORMULA() for dynamic updates.

✅ Excel:

Set up Power Query refreshes with each file update.
Use macros or VBA to script repeatable processes.

✅ PIM Systems (e.g., Catsy):

Create field mappings once
Set up automatic SKU imports from vendors
Enforce attribute standardization and media requirements
Avoid human error entirely

When to Graduate from Spreadsheets to a PIM

Merging spreadsheets is a great starting point—but when your SKU count crosses into the hundreds or thousands, it’s time to move up.

Challenge	PIM Advantage
Manual deduplication	Automatic duplicate detection
Conflicting attribute values	Controlled vocabularies
Image links stored separately	Built-in DAM (Digital Asset Management)
Import/export complexity	Channel syndication
Human error	Role-based access and approval workflows

Catsy PIM helps you scale product operations without the spreadsheet struggle. It allows you to centralize, standardize, and distribute product content effortlessly.

Real Example: Merging Supplier Data with Internal Sheets

A health and beauty brand receives weekly spreadsheets from five suppliers. Each sheet includes SKUs, pricing, and limited descriptions.

Before using Catsy, the ecommerce team:

Manually merged the data into one master file
Spent hours resolving conflicts and removing duplicates
Often published products with missing or inaccurate data

With Catsy:

Each supplier sheet is imported into a standardized template
SKUs are validated against existing records
Conflicts are flagged before publication
The PIM pushes clean data to Shopify, Amazon, and the print catalog

Final Thoughts: Merging Product Data = Clean, Centralized Control

Spreadsheets aren’t going away anytime soon—but without a strategy, they can easily become chaotic. Learning how to merge product data from multiple sheets is essential for teams managing product catalogs, especially in ecommerce and retail.

From Excel merge techniques to data cleansing and SKU consolidation, this guide offers a blueprint for building a centralized foundation—whether you stay in spreadsheets or level up with Catsy PIM.

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