Set Up the Shopify ID Column in Airtable

How the Shopify ID column matches Airtable rows to Shopify products, orders, and customers, what field type it needs, and how to rename it safely.

Shopify gives every product, variant, order, customer, and other record its own ID. A sync stores that ID in a column on each Airtable row, so it knows which Shopify record the row belongs to.

Without the right ID, a sync can’t find a record’s row. A Shopify to Airtable sync adds a second row for the same record, and an Airtable to Shopify sync creates a new record in Shopify instead of updating the existing one.

AirPower adds this column for you, named Shopify Id, in every table the sync uses. Most stores never need to touch it.

Where the column comes from

AirPower adds the column in three cases:

When the New sync setup creates a table
When you click Create a … table, such as Create a Products table, for a data type you add later
When you save the sync page and one of its tables doesn’t have the column yet

The sync page shows the column on each data tab, in the Behind the scenes card. It’s marked Required, because every sync needs it.

Behind the scenes card showing a product's Shopify ID syncing to the Shopify Id column, marked Required

AirPower can only add the column when its connection can change your base. See Connect Airtable.

Column requirements

Every table in a sync uses the same column name.

Column name
The name in Settings > Connection > How rows are matched. New syncs use Shopify Id. When your tables already have an ID column with different capital letters, such as Shopify ID, the New sync setup uses that spelling.

Field type
Number, with 0 decimal places. Files and Discounts are the exception. Their IDs look like gid://shopify/MediaImage/123, so their column is Single line text.

Values
One Shopify ID per row. Don’t use a formula, lookup, or linked-record column for it.

Add the column yourself

You only need this when the sync can’t change your base.

In Airtable, add a column named Shopify Id to every table the sync uses
Set its type to Number with 0 decimal places, or Single line text for Files and Discounts
On the sync’s page, click Settings
Under Connection, click Refresh tables and columns

Change the column name

How rows are matched sets the column name for the whole sync.

Connection settings with How rows are matched set to the Shopify Id column

Changing it means AirPower can’t find the rows it wrote before. If no column has the new name, saving adds an empty one, and the next run adds new rows. Rename the column in Airtable first, so the IDs move with it.

Pause every sync that uses the tables
In Airtable, rename the column in every table
On each sync’s page, click Settings
Under How rows are matched, enter the new name
Click Save in the save bar
Resume the syncs

When several syncs share the same tables, update all of them before you resume.

The ∞ Shopify Id name

Older templates and syncs use ∞ Shopify Id. It works the same way, as long as the column and How rows are matched use the same name. To switch to Shopify Id, follow the steps above.

How the ID affects each row

Rows with a Shopify ID
The sync updates that record. In Shopify to Airtable, the row gets Shopify’s latest data.

Rows without a Shopify ID
An Airtable to Shopify sync creates a new record in Shopify, for data types that it can create, then writes the new ID into the row.

Don’t clear or edit the ID on an existing row. Without an ID, the next Airtable to Shopify run creates a duplicate record. With a wrong ID, the row fails with an error.

What you’ll see after saving

Every table in the sync has the ID column. Rows from Shopify get their IDs as they arrive, and rows created from Airtable get theirs after the run that creates them.