Duplicate SKU

What is this issue?

Two or more rows share the same SKU in this file.

Why Amazon rejects this

Duplicate SKUs cause one row to overwrite the other during processing, potentially deleting stock or price data.

Examples

Fix in StriveFormats

StriveFormats highlights all rows with duplicate identifiers so you can see exactly which rows conflict.

Fix in Excel

1. 1In Excel, click the column letter for the sku / Variant SKU column.
2. 2Go to Home > Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cell Rules > Duplicate Values. Duplicate cells will be highlighted in red.
3. 3For each highlighted pair, decide which row to keep. Either delete the duplicate row, or change its identifier to something unique.
4. 4After resolving all duplicates, clear the conditional formatting: Home > Conditional Formatting > Clear Rules > Clear Rules from Selected Cells.
5. 5Save as CSV (Comma delimited).

Fix in Google Sheets

1. 1In Google Sheets, click the column letter for the sku / Variant SKU column.
2. 2Go to Format > Conditional formatting. Set 'Format rules' to 'Custom formula is' and enter: =COUNTIF($A:$A,A1)>1 -- replace A with your column letter.
3. 3Set a highlight color (e.g., red fill) and click Done. Duplicate values will be highlighted.
4. 4For each highlighted cell, either delete the duplicate row or assign it a unique identifier.
5. 5Remove the conditional formatting rule when done.
6. 6Go to File > Download > Comma Separated Values (.csv).

Prevent it next time

• --Define a clear naming convention for SKUs and identifiers before adding products.
• --Use a prefix system (e.g., SHIRTS-001) to keep identifiers organized and unique.
• --Before exporting, sort by the identifier column and scan for consecutive identical values.
• --Understand the difference between intentional duplicate parent identifiers (variant grouping) and accidental duplicates.
• --Run StriveFormats before every import to catch duplicates early.

How StriveFormats detects this

StriveFormats builds a frequency map of all values in the sku / Variant SKU column as it parses the file. Any value that appears more than once is flagged on every row where it occurs.