Importing a product and offering it for sale are two different decisions. Collapsing them is how placeholder text and wrong prices reach customers.

The three stages

  1. Import as Draft. Get the data in without exposing it.
  2. Review on the storefront. Check title, description, images, price, delivery expectation, and variants as a shopper would.
  3. Publish in small batches. Release a few products, watch for errors, then continue.

Why it matters more with supplier files

Supplier statuses are unreliable — a product marked available may be discontinued, and a blank status may mean "unknown", not "active". Draft keeps that uncertainty away from shoppers.

Import Cleaner reports missing or unusual status values before you import, and Listing Quality Score covers the page-level review.