So you have decided to do something new and exciting: To open an eCommerce store on Shopify. It might be a bit overwhelming for those who are not technologically savvy or do not know where to start. But that’s okay!

Shopify understands this and actually helps to make the experience easier on those who aren’t too keen on tech. 

But the first big step toward managing your new eCommerce store is to upload your first batch of products. In this guide, we’ll explore the many ways you can upload your products step-by-step.

Steps to adding products on Shopify

Your products are the stars for your brand, and you want them to stand out and catch a buyer’s attention as quickly as possible. Starting a new product catalog might seem a little daunting at first for people who aren’t tech-savvy, but don’t worry.

We’ve compiled an easy, step-by-step guide to walk you through the process of how to add products to Shopify. Just follow these steps and you’ll be good to go!

Step 1: Go to the Products section on your Shopify Admin.

Head over to the Products section on the side menu.

Click the Add product button on the top left corner.

When you get on this page, you will notice that there is a lot of information that needs to be filled in. To add a product, you do not need to fill out every single field. Keep reading to see the most necessary information.

Step 2: Add a specific yet unique product title.

Your product’s title is one of the most important parts of uploading your product. It’s also a good place to add keywords to help improve your SEO. If you don’t know already, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a way to increase the visibility of a page on a search engine.

By placing some keywords into your product’s title, potential customers will have a higher chance of finding your product on Google. You want people searching for products like yours on Google (or Amazon) to find you when they look for those terms.

Here are some tips for writing a product title:

• Use keywords in their natural order: This would be the order in which people would search for them if they were looking for a specific item online; don’t just slap them all together randomly because you think it looks good. For example, “black mini convertible leather bag” sounds better than “leather convertible mini bag black”.
• Make sure every word in your title has meaning: Don't just throw random filler words in there because they sound good but might not be relevant to the product.

Step 3: Include a Description.

The easiest way to demonstrate and market your product to your target audience and attract their attention is through the product description. It's important to put effort into crafting detailed product descriptions that answer frequently asked concerns and resolve any lingering doubts your customers may have about making a purchase.

You may customize your description with Shopify's powerful text editor. If any of the icons on top of the textbox are new to you, you can hover over them to read their definitions.

When you're first starting out, persuading customers to believe in your product is one of the toughest challenges. As a new shop owner, you need to persuade customers that you have something worthwhile. For this reason, accurate and detailed descriptions of products are essential.

It's possible to make your items stand out from the crowd by describing them in detail. You may also use them to draw attention to certain features, advantages, or other details about your products.

The easiest way to describe your product is to use language that clearly illustrates what customers will get. This type of wording is convincing since it informs customers about what to expect when buying from your store. It also helps customers determine whether or not they should purchase from you rather than someone else.

Step 4: Add Images and video.

To properly convince customers to buy, you need to show them the product, of course. Incorporating many views of your product, as well as a few closeups, is always a smart idea. Customers will be able to gauge the value of a product this way. It also clears up any concerns they might have.

Make sure to use high-resolution professional images. Shopify product photos can be up to 4472 x 4472px in size and must be less than 20MB in size.

As soon as you upload your first image, it will serve as the primary image for your product. To upload an image, simply select "Upload Image" in the toolbar at the upper right of the page.

You can access further upload options by hovering your cursor over the image and clicking on "Preview," "Alt Text," or "Delete."

Don't forget about the alt text for your image. With this helpful field, you can add a description for customers who can't see it. Making your photos crawlable for Google is another approach to boost SEO for your site.

Remember, this is where you put your product's finest face forward. Shopify has put in a lot of work to change what used to be the Image field into the Media field. It's now possible to include 3D models as well as self-hosted films from sites like YouTube and Vimeo. With augmented reality, you can even allow customers to have a first-hand experience of your product.

Step 5: Add Pricing.

This is one of the most crucial parts of any business. As the specialist in your field, you should be able to provide your customers the most competitive pricing.

There are a few options you can use to enter your pricing:

• Compare at Price: On your product page, this will show a “for-sale” price and a crossed-off original price. This is an optional field that could attract your customer’s attention by alerting them that your product is on sale. Customers may get encouraged to buy since it shows them that your product is on sale for a limited length of time. 
• Cost Per Item: This is what it costs to produce and ship the product. This is basically an internal method for keeping track of the cost of your product.

Step 6: Add Shipping Details.

Adding info in this section allows Shopify to automatically compute a customer's shipping costs, saving you the hassle of manually calculating shipping costs every time a customer places an order. Here are some of the sections you might want to fill out:

Physical Product: If the product is digital or does not need to be shipped, uncheck the box.

Weight: This is how much your product weighs. You can set the weight as pounds (lb), ounces (oz), kilograms (kg), and grams (g). 

Country/Region of origin: This is the place where your product is made or developed. If you are delivering a product to another country, the shipping fee could include duties.

HS (Harmonized System) code: If you want to sell this product internationally, you must input a harmonized system code. This will apply the necessary tariffs to the customer's order.

Fulfillment Service: If you do not use a fulfillment provider, simply pick Shopify. If you have a fulfillment provider, go to Settings Shipping in Shopify Admin. Then, scroll down to Custom Order Fulfillment and select the Add Fulfillment Service button.

Step 7: Add Product Variants.

So what happens if you were to offer the identical product in a different color? Of course, you could publish it as a different product, but it's not ideal if you have a large inventory.

A better strategy would be to add a product variant.

 

If you offer items that come in various sizes and colors, Shopify allows you to add up to a hundred variants. Additionally, for the same product, you can add up to three options. The product, for example, might have a number of characteristics, such as sizes, colors, and weight. 

Step 8: Generate a preview of your search engine listing.

This is a useful tool for viewing and modifying the preview of your product in search engine results. 

Remember to go through all of the details for newer products before clicking the "Save Product" button to allow Shopify product visibility.

The "View on your website" option allows you to see a preview of your product and edit it if there are any errors. Just go back  to the first step if you need to make changes.

Step 9: Enter the Product Availability

Shops that sell on more than one platform can stand to gain from product availability (also known as sales channels). You can choose whether you want to sell your product through certain channels or at a certain time.

Click the calendar button to schedule the posting of a product for a later time and date. This is most often used when you want to publish the product at a certain time like a major release, a collab or something that's anticipated.

Step 10: Organize your products.

There are several ways to categorize your products.

By product type: Allows you to classify your products by type. To create a product type, input text and click Save. Existing product types will be auto-populated under the text you've input.

By vendor: This refers to the vendor, distributor, or maker of your product.

By collections:. You have the option of adding your product to a manual or automatic collection. An automated collection will seek products that fulfill the collection's criteria.

By tags: Tags help you keep your backend organized by allowing you to search for products in similar groups. Product tags aren't visible to shop visitors. Using product tags organizes collections and adjusts search results. For example, you can use a "sale" tag to identify discounted items and generate an automated collection from them.

Importing products from another store

If you have previously uploaded your product information on another eCommerce platform, you probably won’t want to manually upload them again on Shopify.

Adding items from other websites to Shopify may be done in one of two ways. First, you need to create CSV files from the store's data. After that, edit them in accordance with Shopify's format. Upload the updated files to Shopify's database after that.

If you don’t have the option of doing this, you can get the help of a Shopify expert to migrate your products for you. You can contact our team at Webinopoly so we can help you with product uploads and organization.

And voila! Your products are now uploaded.

There's a lot more to learn about how to add products on Shopify, but hopefully this tutorial has given you a good start.

Connect with us

If you need to build your Shopify website, need a Shopify app, or require eCommerce solutions to be developed, you may call us at 713-805-5888, email us at [email protected], or leave us a message here.

TALK TO US!

• Speak with one of our experts

  Let’s start improving your business today! Just answer a few questions and our team will provide you with an overall assessment, a pricing estimate, and a project timeline to start. 

• View our Award-Winning Portfolio

  Webinopoly has worked with various brands from website development to app creation. View some of our best work and get inspired.