When a CSV feed is opened in Microsoft Excel, product titles, descriptions, categories, brands, or other fields containing international characters may sometimes appear incorrectly.

For example, instead of:

Κατηγορία
Ανδρικά Παπούτσια
München
café

you may see characters such as:

ΚατηγοÏία
München
café

This usually does not mean that the product data itself is damaged. It is commonly caused by the way the CSV file is interpreted by spreadsheet software.

Deviking Product Feeds Pro provides an UTF-8 BOM (Excel-friendly) option for CSV feeds to improve compatibility with applications such as Microsoft Excel.

Enable UTF-8 BOM for Excel Compatibility

Open:

Deviking Feeds → Feeds

Edit the required CSV feed and go to the CSV output settings.

Enable:

UTF-8 BOM (Excel-friendly)

This adds a UTF-8 byte-order mark to the beginning of the generated CSV file.

The marker helps spreadsheet applications identify the file correctly when it contains:

Greek characters
Accented European characters
Arabic text
Asian characters
Other Unicode characters

After enabling the option, use:

Save & Generate

to regenerate the CSV file with the updated setting.

Example

Your WooCommerce product may contain:

Name:
Ανδρικά Αθλητικά Παπούτσια

Brand:
Café Sport

The correct CSV output should contain:

sku,title,brand
SHOE-100,"Ανδρικά Αθλητικά Παπούτσια","Café Sport"

If Excel interprets the file using the wrong character encoding, it may display something similar to:

ΑνδÏικά Αθλητικά ΠαποÏτσια
Café Sport

Enabling UTF-8 BOM (Excel-friendly) usually allows Excel to identify the CSV correctly when opening it.

When Should UTF-8 BOM Be Enabled?

Enable the option when the CSV file will commonly be opened manually in spreadsheet software such as Excel.

A typical configuration is:

File Type:
CSV

UTF-8 BOM (Excel-friendly):
Enabled

This is especially useful for catalogs containing non-English characters.

For example:

Greek
German
French
Spanish
Polish
Arabic
Japanese
Chinese

If All Data Appears in One Column

Character encoding and CSV delimiters are two different issues.

If the characters look correct but the entire row appears in a single Excel column, the problem is usually the delimiter, not UTF-8 encoding.

Deviking Product Feeds Pro supports these CSV delimiters:

Comma
Semicolon
Pipe
Tab

For example, a comma-delimited file contains:

sku,title,price
ABC-100,"Running Shoes",79.90

A semicolon-delimited file contains:

sku;title;price
ABC-100;"Running Shoes";79.90

Depending on the computer’s regional settings, Excel may expect a different separator.

If the entire feed appears in one column, try changing:

CSV Delimiter:
Comma

to:

CSV Delimiter:
Semicolon

then regenerate the feed and open it again.

Encoding Problem vs Delimiter Problem

The symptoms are different.

If characters are corrupted, check UTF-8 BOM.

If columns are incorrect, check CSV Delimiter.

CSV Enclosure

The CSV settings also include an Enclosure option.

Available choices are:

Double quote
Single quote
None

For most general-purpose CSV feeds, double quotes are useful when fields may contain commas or other separator characters.

For example:

ABC-100,"Shoes, Blue Edition",79.90

The comma inside:

Shoes, Blue Edition

is part of the product name rather than a column separator because the field is enclosed in quotes.

Be careful when setting:

Enclosure:
None

because values containing the selected delimiter may become ambiguous to the receiving application.

Example Excel-Friendly Configuration

A CSV intended for regular use in Excel could be configured as:

CSV Delimiter:
Semicolon

Enclosure:
Double quote

Include Header Row:
Enabled

UTF-8 BOM (Excel-friendly):
Enabled

Possible output:

sku;title;brand;price
ABC-100;"Ανδρικά Παπούτσια";"Café Sport";79.90
ABC-101;"Γυναικεία Παπούτσια";"München Shoes";89.90

Opening the CSV Through Excel Import

If the file still does not open correctly when double-clicked, import it from inside Excel instead.

In recent Excel versions, use:

Data → From Text/CSV

Select the generated CSV file.

Excel will display an import preview where you can confirm the detected:

Encoding
Delimiter
Column structure

Use UTF-8 encoding and select the delimiter configured in the feed.

For example, if Deviking Product Feeds uses:

CSV Delimiter:
Semicolon

select:

Delimiter:
Semicolon

during import.

This allows Excel to interpret the file explicitly instead of relying on regional defaults.

Check the Feed Before Changing Product Data

If characters appear incorrectly in Excel, do not immediately edit the WooCommerce product.

First open the feed in Preview.

If Preview shows:

Ανδρικά Παπούτσια

correctly but Excel shows corrupted text, the WooCommerce source value is probably fine and the problem is related to how the CSV is being opened.

Check:

UTF-8 BOM
CSV Delimiter
Excel import settings

before changing product content.

If Preview Also Shows Incorrect Characters

If the incorrect characters already appear in Preview, check the original WooCommerce data.

For example, open the affected product and inspect:

Product Name
Description
Short Description
Attributes
Categories
Custom Fields

If the stored source itself contains:

café

instead of:

café

the feed generator will export the value it receives.

Correct the original data and regenerate the feed.

Test the Generated File

After changing CSV settings:

1. Save the feed.
2. Use Save & Generate.
3. Open the newly generated CSV file.
4. Check products containing international characters.
5. Confirm that columns are separated correctly.
6. Run Preview to compare the generated values.
7. Run Validate Feed if needed.

Make sure you test the newly generated file rather than an older downloaded copy.

Header Row

CSV feeds can also include the Mapping output field names as the first row.

Enable:

Include Header Row

to generate:

sku,title,price,brand

before the product records.

This is independent of UTF-8 BOM and delimiter configuration.

Example with Greek Product Data

WooCommerce product:

SKU:
GR-100

Name:
Ελληνικός Καφές

Category:
Τρόφιμα > Καφές

Brand:
Παραδοσιακός

CSV configuration:

Delimiter:
Semicolon

Enclosure:
Double quote

UTF-8 BOM:
Enabled

Generated output:

sku;title;category;brand
GR-100;"Ελληνικός Καφές";"Τρόφιμα > Καφές";"Παραδοσιακός"

When opened with compatible UTF-8 handling, the Greek characters remain intact.

Using CSV Files for Automated Feed Delivery

If the CSV is consumed directly by a marketplace, distributor, advertising platform, or another automated system, configure the CSV according to that destination’s specification.

Do not change:

Delimiter
Enclosure
Header Row

only to make the file look better in Excel if the external destination requires different settings.

Excel compatibility and marketplace feed specifications are not necessarily the same thing.

For example, a destination may explicitly require:

Delimiter:
Comma

even if semicolon-separated CSV files open more naturally on a particular computer.

Always follow the destination’s feed specification.

Quick Troubleshooting

If you see:

café
München
ΚατηγοÏία

enable:

UTF-8 BOM (Excel-friendly)

If you see:

ABC-100,Product Name,79.90,EUR

inside one Excel column, check:

CSV Delimiter

If commas inside descriptions create unexpected columns, check:

Enclosure

If the wrong characters already appear in Preview, inspect the original WooCommerce source data.

Recommended Excel-Friendly Setup

For CSV files primarily intended to be reviewed manually in Microsoft Excel, a practical starting configuration is:

CSV Delimiter:
Semicolon

Enclosure:
Double quote

Include Header Row:
Enabled

UTF-8 BOM (Excel-friendly):
Enabled

For feeds submitted to an external platform, use the delimiter and enclosure required by that platform and enable UTF-8 BOM (Excel-friendly) when necessary for compatibility.

The key point is to distinguish between encoding, delimiter, and source-data problems. Deviking Product Feeds provides separate CSV controls for each output requirement, allowing the same WooCommerce catalog to generate CSV files suitable for different destinations and workflows.