Why am I getting 'The Variant Already Exists' error in my product import file?

[MicheleW]

I've been working on my product import file for several days, and I'm continuing to receive an error that "The variant 'Spiral-bound' already exists."

I've set up my file so that my book products have Option 1 Name as "Format," and then they have several different values for Option 1: things like audiobook, Spiral-bound, paperback, digital download." 

The variants all have unique SKUS, so I'm not sure why this is happening!

[MicheleW]

I chatted with Shopify's support and discovered that the issue was that I couldn't leave the handle blank on product variants. Resolved!

[ethanvee]

hi I have the same problem what exactly did you do to fix the error?

[BackyardKiln]

Solved it!
If you have more than one variant, in the column where you type the name (Title), add anything different into that box. I put 1, 2, 3, etc after the file name. Then they all went through!