You found a store you like and want to know if it runs on Shopify, usually because you want to export its catalog, compare it with your own, or know which platform a supplier or client uses. There is no single badge that settles it, but a handful of checks get you there in under a minute.

Five checks you can do by hand

  1. Look for cdn.shopify.com. Right-click the page, choose View page source, and search (Ctrl+F) for cdn.shopify.com. Shopify stores load their images, scripts and stylesheets from it. A hit on almost every line is a strong sign.
  2. Check the URL patterns. Shopify product pages live at /products/<handle> and category pages at /collections/<handle>. Other platforms use these paths too, so treat this as a hint, not proof.
  3. Open the public product list. Add /products.json to the store’s address. On most Shopify stores you get a page of product data in JSON. A 404 doesn’t rule Shopify out: some stores block it, and headless stores often serve it from a different host. See why products.json can return a 404.
  4. Ask the browser console. Press F12, open the Console tab and type window.Shopify. On a regular Shopify storefront it returns an object with the shop’s details.
  5. Read the footer and checkout. “Powered by Shopify” in the footer is the easy case, though many stores remove it. The checkout page often gives it away too.

Headless stores are the hard case: they run Shopify behind a custom front end, so the page itself may show none of these signs.

What CatalogCSV tells you when you click it

CatalogCSV isn’t a technology detector. It doesn’t identify themes or apps, and it doesn’t check other platforms. Its job is to export a store’s public catalog, and the first thing it does when you click the icon is check whether the page in front of you is a Shopify store with a product list it can read. The status line in the popup is the answer, and it is more specific than yes or no:

  • “Shopify store detected” — a Shopify store with a readable public catalog. The Export button is on.
  • “Shopify store detected — products from …” — the page you are on doesn’t publish the catalog itself, but CatalogCSV found it on the store’s own separate host. This is how many headless stores show up.
  • “Shopify store detected — its product list is blocked, so products are read from its collection pages”, or “… read one page at a time from the product pages listed in its sitemap” — it is a Shopify store that hides its product list, and CatalogCSV will use a slower route instead.
  • “Shopify store detected — password protected.” — the store is behind a password page. Enter the password on the page, then open CatalogCSV again.
  • “Can’t read this page yet — the site is running a bot check.” — you are looking at a challenge page, not the store. Finish the check and try again.
  • “No public Shopify product list found for this page.” — the page carries some Shopify traces, but there is no product list CatalogCSV can read. It might be a headless store it couldn’t trace, or simply a non-store site that uses a Shopify image or button.
  • “This page isn’t a Shopify store.” — none of the signs it looks for are there.

The check runs only when you click the icon, and only on that tab. CatalogCSV has no host permissions, so it can’t look at pages you haven’t clicked it on.

When “isn’t a Shopify store” is wrong

Treat a negative answer as “CatalogCSV can’t export this page”, not as proof of the platform. A Shopify store with an unusual headless setup can come out as “No public Shopify product list found”, and a site might be on Shopify but block every public route to its products. If the manual checks above say Shopify and CatalogCSV disagrees, the manual checks are probably right; there just isn’t a public catalog to export.

Once you know it is Shopify

If the status line says Shopify store detected, the Export button is already there. Pick a format and click Export this store:

  • Variant rows (26 columns): one row per variant with price, compare-at (sale) price, SKU, in-stock status, options, vendor, type, tags, weight, product URL and image links.
  • Shopify import CSV (29 columns): the bulk-import layout, with every product set to draft and unpublished.
  • Image URLs only (8 columns): every image link with its position, alt text, size and the variants it belongs to.

The first 100 products of every export are free, in every format. Everything runs in your browser, with no account and nothing installed on the store. CatalogCSV is available for Chrome and Microsoft Edge.