Catching wrong weights and dimensions in a product CSV

Weight and size fields are easy to get wrong and rarely checked. Here are checks you can do by hand or with a spreadsheet.

1. Confirm the unit

Shopify's product CSV, for example, uses a column named “Weight value (grams)”, so a value of 0.5 there means half a gram, not half a kilogram. Other platforms and spreadsheets differ; check the header and sample a few rows against the physical product.

2. Look for zeros and blanks

A weight or dimension of 0 usually means “not entered”. Sort the column and read both ends.

3. Look for one value repeated on many products

If a large share of unrelated products has the identical weight (say 500), it is likely a placeholder default. Count the most common value.

4. Compare weight with size within a category

Within a group of similar products, weight usually tracks volume. A product whose weight is wildly out of line with others of similar dimensions is worth checking; it might be a typo, a unit slip or a genuinely dense item.

5. Remember what matters downstream

Carriers may bill by dimensional (volumetric) weight as well as actual weight, using their own formulas, so wrong dimensions can matter as much as wrong weights. Check your carrier's current rules.

The free tool runs checks 2–4 in your browser without uploading the file. Results are candidates to check, not confirmed errors.