Shopify inventory shows a dash instead of a number after import — product not selling
Instead of a quantity, the Inventory column just shows a dash. That's not a display bug — it means Shopify stopped tracking stock for that variant during the import. Here's the column that controls it, and why "not selling" and "dash" are usually two separate problems.
What the dash actually means
In the Shopify admin, a product or variant's Inventory column normally shows a number — how many units are on hand. A dash (—) replaces that number when Shopify has no quantity to report at all, because the variant isn't being tracked. It is a different state from "0 in stock": zero means Shopify is watching the count and it happens to be empty; a dash means Shopify isn't watching the count in the first place.
The column that controls tracking
Whether a variant is tracked comes from the Variant Inventory Tracker column in Shopify's inventory or product CSV. The only value that turns tracking on is the exact string shopify. If that cell is blank, contains a different value (some exports use "manual" or leave it for third-party fulfillment), or the column is missing entirely from a partial re-upload, Shopify treats the variant as untracked — even if it was tracked before the import ran.
This is easy to trigger by accident: deleting a column you thought was unused before re-saving a spreadsheet, or uploading a CSV that only has SKU and price columns because it came from a different report, will silently drop tracking for every row it touches.
Why "not selling" is probably a separate issue
Untracked variants don't block sales — Shopify treats them as infinitely available, since there's no count to check against. So if the product is genuinely failing to sell, the dash is unlikely to be the cause. Check the variant's Price (blank or zero prices block checkout) and the product's Published / status field (a product stuck as "draft" won't appear on the storefront regardless of its inventory state) before assuming the two symptoms are connected.
How to fix it
Re-open your import file and confirm the Variant Inventory Tracker column contains exactly shopify, in lowercase, for every row that should be tracked — watch for trailing spaces, which look identical in a spreadsheet cell but don't match on import. Upload the corrected file below to check before it reaches your store.