Shopify inventory column names — why does capitalisation matter?
Your inventory file looks right, the column is clearly there, and Shopify still isn't reading it — or it throws a "missing header" error for a field you can plainly see in the file. Shopify's CSV importer matches header names against a fixed, case-sensitive list, so "Variant SKU" and "variant sku" are treated as two different fields. Drop your file into the free checker below to confirm your headers match exactly.
What you'll see
Either the import completes but the data in that column seems to have been ignored — quantities didn't change, or a field stayed at its default — or Shopify's importer stops you with an error saying a required header is missing, even though you can see a column with what looks like the right name sitting right there in row 1.
The root cause: header matching is case-sensitive and exact
Shopify's CSV importer works by scanning the header row of your file and matching each header string against a fixed, known list of field names it expects — things like Variant SKU, Variant Inventory Qty, and the per-location quantity columns. That match is a literal string comparison, not a fuzzy or case-insensitive one. Variant SKU matches the field Shopify is looking for; variant sku, Variant sku, or VARIANT SKU do not, even though a person reading the file would say they obviously mean the same thing.
How a header's capitalization gets changed by accident
- Retyping a header row by hand instead of copying it from a fresh export, and typing a slightly different case.
- Running a find-and-replace or a text-cleanup formula across an entire header row, which can catch header cells along with data cells.
- Autocapitalize or autocorrect features in a spreadsheet tool changing the first letter of a header when the file is saved or reopened.
- Copying headers forward from an older export or a different template that used slightly different capitalization than Shopify's current expected field names.
How to check / fix it
Never hand-retype a header row. Copy headers verbatim from a fresh Shopify export, or from Shopify's current documented column list for the inventory CSV, and paste them in rather than typing them out. If an import behaves as though a column is missing or ignored, check that specific header's spelling and capitalization character-by-character before assuming the data itself is wrong — the checker above will flag headers that don't match an expected field name exactly.