Matrixify is the go-to Shopify app for importing, exporting, bulk editing, and migrating data using Excel, CSV, or Google Sheets files. Formerly known as Excelify, it has been developed out of Riga and holds the "Built for Shopify" badge.
The developer's documentation says this better than we do, and it actually occupies ten of the forty-four Google results for its own name. What you won't find elsewhere is what an agency actually does with it on client projects.
Matrixify is the application we install most often for our clients. It has been involved in almost all of our projects since 2018, and not just for catalog imports. Here are our four use cases, two of which no one documents, and the scenario where we recommend something else.
In short
- Matrixify is used to manipulate Shopify data in bulk from a spreadsheet: products, collections, customers, orders, metadata, translations.
- Use case 1: all our WooCommerce and WordPress migrations go through it.
- Use case 2: it replaces a custom logistics or ERP connector when the latter is too time-consuming or expensive to develop, via scheduled flows on an FTP server.
- Use case 3: it automates the monthly sending of accounting exports to the accountant, without human intervention.
- Use case 4: since the arrival of its MCP connector, we barely use the app in the Shopify admin anymore; we manage it via conversation.
- Their support responds within the hour, and has done so since our beginnings. This is rare, and on this specific point, the developer does better than Shopify.
Summary
What Matrixify does, in one minute
Matrixify turns your Shopify store into a spreadsheet. You export a type of data, modify it in Excel or Google Sheets, and re-import it. That's it, and that is precisely what makes it powerful.
What Shopify cannot do natively and what it can do:
- Export and re-import data types that the native export ignores, including metadata, translations, automatic collections, historical orders, and B2B companies.
- Modify thousands of records in one operation, instead of one by one in the admin.
- Create, update, or replace based on an explicit command per line, which prevents duplicates on repeated imports.
- Test an import as a dry run before executing it, which regularly saves a catalog.
- Schedule recurring imports and exports from remote storage, FTP, Dropbox, Google Drive, and equivalents.
This last point is what most merchants ignore, and it is what opens up the following three use cases.
Use case 1: WooCommerce and WordPress migrations
All our migrations from WooCommerce and WordPress go through Matrixify. Caillou, Samaya, and the others: each time, the catalog, customers, and order history have passed through Matrixify files.
The reason is simple. A migration relies on data fidelity, and automated migration tools make choices for you. With a spreadsheet, you see every field before sending it, you correct outliers, and you know exactly what arrived and what is missing.
Our sequence is always the same: extraction from the old platform, cleaning in a spreadsheet, dry run import on a development store, verification on a sample, then the real import. URL mapping is a separate task, covered in our redirection plan for migrating without losing traffic, and the complete workflow for a project can be found in our Shopify migration guide.
A detail that matters for large volumes: Shopify's native import becomes laborious beyond a few thousand rows. Matrixify handles the load and takes control of batch updates, which changes the nature of the project when the catalog exceeds a thousand references.
Use case 2: replacing an ERP or logistics connector
This is the use case that no one talks about, and it's the one that saves our clients the most money.
The classic scenario: a brand needs to have Shopify communicate with its logistics provider or ERP. Developing a custom connector costs thousands of euros and takes weeks, and it will then need to be maintained. On many projects, this budget makes no sense given the actual need.
What we set up instead: scheduled outgoing and incoming flows, deposited and retrieved on an FTP server. Matrixify exports orders according to a defined format and frequency, the logistics provider retrieves them, drops off their stock and shipping tracking files in return, and Matrixify re-imports them. All without a single line of code.
We set this up for Riviera et Bar, and the flow runs very reliably.
What this approach requires and what you need to know: a stable file format on both sides, a frequency compatible with your business, and acceptance of batch synchronization rather than real-time. If your logistics provider knows how to handle a file deposited on an FTP, which is the case for most, it is doable.
The technical key is the range of Shopify fields that Matrixify knows how to read and write. This is what makes the difference between a flow that covers the need and a flow that forces you to manually redo the data.
Use case 3: automating accounting exports
At Cabania, our own brand of cabin beds, we have eliminated a recurring monthly task: preparing exports for our accountant.
Every month, on a fixed date, two exports are sent automatically: Shopify Payments payouts and orders for the period. The firm receives them directly, in the agreed-upon format, without anyone on our team opening the Shopify admin.
The gain is not just time. It is the elimination of a possible oversight and manual handling for every closing. A task that no one likes doing, which always comes at the wrong time, and which no longer exists.
The principle can be transposed to any recurring data shipment: weekly sales reporting, daily stock status, a product file for a reseller. As soon as a request starts with "we should receive every month...", the answer often involves a scheduled export rather than development.
Use case 4: controlling Matrixify via Claude
This is the novelty that has changed our daily life, and it is recent: Matrixify now offers an MCP connector. Concretely, we barely use the app in the Shopify admin anymore; we ask.
What this allows, from a conversation:
- Launch an export by describing what you want rather than checking boxes in a form.
- Start an import from a file dropped somewhere.
- Monitor the progress of a current job and retrieve its results file.
- List past jobs to find out what was done, and when.
- Query the developer's documentation without leaving the conversation.
The real benefit is not comfort; it is the disappearance of the learning curve. A Matrixify export used to require knowing the right settings; now you just need to know how to phrase what you are looking for. For an agency, this means that data manipulation is no longer reserved for technical profiles.
We see this as the beginning of a larger movement. E-commerce tools that expose their functions to an assistant will be used more and by more people than those that remain behind an interface. Matrixify took this turn early.
What makes the difference on a daily basis
Two things, and neither is a feature.
The documentation. Each data type has its page, file template, and tutorial, and special cases are covered. We have almost never needed to guess behavior: when a question arises, the answer exists and it is written. For an application that handles data in bulk, i.e., where an error is costly, this is a selection criterion at least as important as the functional scope.
The support. Response within the hour to all our requests, from the beginning. Not an automated response, but a useful one, often from a person who opened our file.
The contrast is worth noting, and it is instructive. We measured 72 hours to a week to close a simple ticket with Shopify support itself. An application developer with a handful of people therefore does significantly better than the platform on which it is distributed. This is the kind of detail that doesn't appear on any comparison sheet and that decides the life of a project.
When Matrixify is not the right answer
We recommend it often, but not always. Four situations where you need something else.
- You need real-time. A scheduled flow, even every hour, remains a batch process. If your stock must be accurate to the second because you also sell in a physical store or on tight marketplaces, you need a true integration.
- Business logic is complex. As soon as you need to transform, arbitrate, reconcile IDs, or apply conditional rules between two systems, the file reaches its limit. A connector becomes the rational investment.
- No one will monitor the flow. A scheduled export that fails silently is more dangerous than no export at all. You need someone to check the execution reports.
- The need is one-off and tiny. To edit thirty products, Shopify's bulk editing is enough. No need to install anything.
Our decision rule is simple: if the need fits in a file and can handle a delay of a few hours, Matrixify will do it for a fraction of the cost of development. Otherwise, you must commit to development, and we say so.
Our verdict after eight years of use
Matrixify is the application we install most often, and it is also the one we talk about the least, because it is invisible. It changes nothing about the look of a store. It changes the way you work on it.
If you manage a large catalog, if you are migrating from another platform, or if a data task comes back into your schedule every week, it pays for itself before the end of the first month. Start with their demo offer, which allows you to test on small volumes before committing.
And if your subject resembles the second use case of this article (a flow to set up between Shopify and a logistics provider or ERP), that is exactly the kind of trade-off we make at the start of a project. Let's talk about your case before budgeting for development you might not need.
