What are handleId and fieldType in a Wix CSV? A Beginner's Guide

(Updated 29th June 2026)

If you're creating a Wix product CSV for the first time, two columns are more important than any others: handleId and fieldType.

These fields tell Wix how to identify your products and how they're related to one another. Once you understand how they work, creating products with or without variants becomes much easier.

If you're looking for a complete walkthrough of every field in the Wix CSV template, read our companion guide: The Ultimate Guide to Bulk Importing Products into Wix Using a CSV File.

Before we begin, it's helpful to understand the difference between rows and columns.

Rows and columns explained

• Row – Runs horizontally and represents a single Product or Variant.

• Column – Runs vertically and represents one specific piece of information about that product, such as its name, price or handleId.

Understanding handleId

The handleId is the unique identifier for each product in your Wix CSV. Think of it as the product's permanent reference within your spreadsheet.

You can use almost any combination of letters and numbers, although creating a consistent naming structure makes large catalogues much easier to manage.

For example:

• ABC123

• MUG001

• NXD001

If your products already have SKUs, you can also use those as your handleId values.

Wix Doctor tip: Choose a naming structure before you begin creating products. Keeping your handleId values consistent makes future updates and troubleshooting much easier.

The most important rule is that every Product must have its own unique handleId. Duplicate values prevent Wix from correctly identifying products and usually result in import errors.

There is one important exception.

When you create Variants, every variant belonging to the same product shares the same handleId as its parent Product. That's exactly how Wix knows those rows belong together.

Understanding fieldType

The fieldType column tells Wix what each row represents.

There are only two accepted values:

• Product

• Variant

Every Product row should contain Product.

Every variation belonging to that product should contain Variant.

Spelling and formatting matter. Enter the values exactly as shown, without extra spaces or alternative wording.

Products and Variants explained

Imagine you're selling a T-shirt that's available in:

• Black

• White

and in two sizes:

• Medium

• Large

Your CSV would contain a total of 5 rows for the product, and its variants:

• One Product row for the T-shirt.

• One Variant row for Black / Medium.

• One Variant row for Black / Large.

• One Variant row for White / Medium.

• One Variant row for White / Large.

Every one of those variant rows uses the same handleId as the parent Product.

Each row then contains its own option values, allowing Wix to display every possible combination on a single product page.

Wix Doctor tip: Every unique combination of options requires its own Variant row. Two colours and two sizes produce four variants. Three colours and four sizes produce twelve variants.

Wrapping up

Understanding handleId and fieldType is one of the biggest steps towards mastering Wix CSV imports.

Although these columns only contain a small amount of data, they provide the structure that allows Wix to organise products, recognise variants and import your catalogue successfully.

Once you're comfortable with these two fields, the rest of the CSV template becomes much easier to understand.

Guest author

This article was written by Wix Doctor, a specialist Wix support agency providing technical help, troubleshooting and advanced solutions for Wix websites.

For a complete walkthrough of every field in the Wix CSV template, continue with The Ultimate Guide to Bulk Importing Products into Wix Using a CSV File, where you'll learn about pricing, images, categories, product options, inventory management and much more.