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Import file formats

Plan: every plan, including Free. List names in a file are kept as named lists on Pro.

The importer works out the format from the file’s header row. Header names are matched loosely: case, spaces and punctuation are ignored, so User Email, useremail and USER_EMAIL are the same column. Columns Cove doesn’t use (product titles, for example) are ignored.

Swym Wishlist Plus’s “Shoppers” report. Recognised when the header has both UserEmail and ProductId.

Column Used for
UserEmail Finding the customer
ProductId The product
VariantID The variant
SKU The product, when the IDs don’t match
PageURL The product, from its /products/… link
ListName The list name (kept on Pro)
CreatedDate When the item was saved

The layout Swym uses for its own imports. Recognised when the header has email and empi or epi.

Column Used for
email Finding the customer
empi Product ID
epi Variant ID
du Product link
hashtag List name (kept on Pro)
cts When the item was saved (or CreatedDate)

Any file with an email column and at least one product column. Each field accepts these header names:

Field Header names accepted Required
Email email, email address, customer email, user email Yes
Product ID product id, product One product column
Variant ID variant id, variant One product column
SKU sku, variant sku One product column
Handle handle, product handle One product column
Product link url, product url, page url One product column
List name list name, list, wishlist, wishlist name No (kept on Pro)
Saved date added at, created at, created date, date No

If the header row matches none of the three formats, the upload stops with a message saying which columns are needed.

  • Emails are trimmed and lower-cased. A row without a valid email is skipped as “No email”.
  • Product and variant IDs can be plain numbers (7981234567890), Shopify GIDs (gid://shopify/Product/7981234567890) or the 7981234567890.0 Excel sometimes writes.
  • Product links can be any URL containing /products/<handle>, on any domain or language path; Cove takes the handle from it.
  • Dates can be ISO dates (2026-08-14), date and time (2026-08-14 09:12:00) or Unix timestamps in seconds or milliseconds. An empty date, a date in the future or one before 2010 is replaced by the time of the import.
  • List names are cleaned of control characters and cut to 60 characters.

Products are matched by product ID first, then variant ID, then SKU, then handle or product link, so you only need one of them per row.

The importer reads files the way spreadsheets actually save them:

  • UTF-8, with or without a byte order mark, and UTF-16 (“Unicode text” in Excel).
  • Comma, semicolon (European Excel) or tab separators, detected from the header row. Excel’s sep=; first line is understood and skipped.
  • Quoted fields, including doubled quotes and line breaks inside quotes; Windows or Unix line endings.
  • Blank lines are skipped.

Line numbers in the skip report count the lines in your file with the header as line 1, so they match what you see in a text editor.

A Swym Shoppers report. Replace each REPLACE_… value with a real product or variant ID from your store before you try it; the rows without IDs show matching by SKU and product link, and the last rows show skips (a duplicate, an unknown customer, a missing product, a blank email and a row with no product column).

UserEmail,ProductId,VariantID,SKU,PageURL,ListName,CreatedDate,Product Title
shopper1@example.com,REPLACE_PRODUCT_ID_THROW,REPLACE_VARIANT_ID_THROW_OAT,COVE-THROW-OAT,https://demo.example/products/alpine-wool-throw,My wishlist,2026-08-14 09:12:00,Alpine Wool Throw
shopper1@example.com,REPLACE_PRODUCT_ID_CUSHION,REPLACE_VARIANT_ID_CUSHION,COVE-CUSHION-SAND,https://demo.example/products/linen-cushion-cover,My wishlist,2026-08-14 09:15:00,Linen Cushion Cover
shopper1@example.com,REPLACE_PRODUCT_ID_POUROVER,REPLACE_VARIANT_ID_POUROVER,COVE-POUR-SET,https://demo.example/products/ceramic-pour-over-set,Birthday ideas,2026-09-02 18:40:00,Ceramic Pour-Over Set
shopper1@example.com,,,,https://demo.example/products/brass-candle-holder,Birthday ideas,2026-09-02 18:44:00,Brass Candle Holder
shopper2@example.com,REPLACE_PRODUCT_ID_BOARD,REPLACE_VARIANT_ID_BOARD,COVE-BOARD-OAK,https://demo.example/products/oak-serving-board,My wishlist,2026-07-21 12:05:00,Oak Serving Board
shopper2@example.com,,,COVE-MUG-SET,,For the new flat,2026-07-21 12:09:00,Stoneware Mug Set
shopper2@example.com,,,,https://demo.example/products/glass-carafe,For the new flat,2026-07-22 08:30:00,Glass Carafe
shopper3@example.com,REPLACE_PRODUCT_ID_SLIPPERS,REPLACE_VARIANT_ID_SLIPPERS_M,COVE-SLIP-M,https://demo.example/products/wool-felt-slippers,My wishlist,2026-10-01 20:15:00,Wool Felt Slippers
shopper3@example.com,,,COVE-BAG-CANVAS,,My wishlist,2026-10-01 20:18:00,Canvas Weekender Bag
shopper1@example.com,REPLACE_PRODUCT_ID_THROW,REPLACE_VARIANT_ID_THROW_OAT,COVE-THROW-OAT,https://demo.example/products/alpine-wool-throw,My wishlist,2026-09-30 10:00:00,Alpine Wool Throw
nobody@example.com,,,COVE-BASKET,https://demo.example/products/woven-storage-basket,My wishlist,2026-09-11 15:00:00,Woven Storage Basket
shopper2@example.com,,,,https://demo.example/products/discontinued-ceramic-vase,My wishlist,2026-06-03 11:11:00,Discontinued Ceramic Vase
,,,COVE-TOWEL-SET,https://demo.example/products/cotton-bath-towel-set,My wishlist,2026-09-18 13:20:00,Cotton Bath Towel Set
shopper3@example.com,,,,,My wishlist,2026-09-19 09:00:00,Unknown Item

A generic CSV matching by handle and SKU:

email,handle,sku,list_name,added_at
shopper1@example.com,alpine-wool-throw,COVE-THROW-OAT,My wishlist,2026-08-14
shopper1@example.com,linen-cushion-cover,COVE-CUSHION-SAND,My wishlist,2026-08-14
shopper1@example.com,ceramic-pour-over-set,COVE-POUR-SET,Birthday ideas,2026-09-02
shopper2@example.com,oak-serving-board,COVE-BOARD-OAK,My wishlist,2026-07-21
shopper2@example.com,stoneware-mug-set,COVE-MUG-SET,For the new flat,2026-07-21
shopper2@example.com,glass-carafe,COVE-CARAFE,For the new flat,2026-07-22
shopper3@example.com,wool-felt-slippers,COVE-SLIP-M,My wishlist,2026-10-01
shopper3@example.com,canvas-weekender-bag,COVE-BAG-CANVAS,My wishlist,2026-10-01
nobody@example.com,woven-storage-basket,COVE-BASKET,My wishlist,2026-09-11
shopper2@example.com,discontinued-ceramic-vase,,My wishlist,2026-06-03
,cotton-bath-towel-set,COVE-TOWEL-SET,My wishlist,2026-09-18

In both, “My wishlist” goes to each customer’s default list; “Birthday ideas” and “For the new flat” become named lists on Pro and go to the default list on other plans.