How to Add Products to Shopify

With a Shopify account, you can add products to your online storefront for customers to purchase. Adding and sharing product listings on social media and other sales channels can help your target customers more easily.

By the end of this tutorial, you could create and customize a product listing on Shopify, publish the product listing, and share your product listings via social media channels and other e-commerce sites. 

How to add products to Shopify

To add products to Shopify, you’ll need to complete the following steps: 

1. Add a product title.

2. Add a product description. 

3. Add media. 

4. Set pricing. 

5. Manage inventory and set quantity. 

6. Set shipping cost. 

7. Edit search engine listing. 

8. Turn product status to “active” and save the listing. 

Let’s look at each step to examine the process more closely. 

1. Add a product title. 

Click Add product at the top of the window on the Product page. Go to the Title box and type the name of your product.

Keep your product title concise, between 70 and 90 characters, but highly descriptive. Include target keywords when applicable and specify any distinguishing characteristics. 

2. Add a product description. 

In the Description section, add helpful product details for your customers. If using SEO, this is the space to include keywords and phrases. Some details to enter could include the following:

• Product dimensions

• Shipping details

• Price

• Images 

It can be helpful to include the benefits of your product and other reasons a customer should purchase it.

3. Add media. 

To add media, go to the Media box and click Add file > Add from URL. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the file or files you want to add into this box. You can add up to 250 images, including videos and 3D models. 

Note that the first media item you upload displays as the feature image for that particular item. 

You may also want to consider adding alternative or alt text to images to help shoppers find your listing. Alt text is a written description of your image that explains how the image relates to your webpage, or in this case, product listing. Search engines index alt text and display it in place of an image if the image fails to load. To add alt text, save the product first. 

4. Set pricing. 

Under the Pricing section, you’ll see three fields to complete: 

• Price: This shows what someone pays at checkout. On the General Settings page, you can choose your currency type.

• Compare at price: This shows the original price of a product on sale. You can leave this section empty if an item is not on sale.

• Cost per item: This field helps you track the costs of buying products and other goods from a manufacturer. If you did not purchase the product, enter an amount based on how much it costs you to manufacture it. 

Check the box entitled Charge tax on this product for taxable products. 

5. Manage inventory and set quantity. 

Tracking inventory helps account for fluctuations in sales throughout the year and ensures sufficient inventory. Managing, updating, and tracking your inventory is also helpful for your customers when they want to place an order. 

To manage and set your product inventory, you can fill out the following fields under the Inventory section: 

• Inventory will be stocked at: If you manage the inventory independently, choose your physical address in this field. If you’re selling from a physical location, your business address will appear next to the stock count so you know the product is associated with this particular physical location.

• Track quantity: Check this box if you want to track your inventory. Then Shopify automatically decreases this product's stock count every time someone orders.

•  Quantity: Set the number of units you have to sell.

• Continue selling if out of stock: Select if you want to continue selling your product, even if it’s out of stock.

• SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) and Barcode: This field will appear if you select This product has an SKU or barcode. If you have one, enter the SKU and/or barcode numbers accordingly. 

Your inventory layout may vary if you have multiple locations or no physical location. For example, if you only sell one product from one location, click the zero under Available to adjust the stock for your product. If you sell from multiple locations, adjust the stock inventory under Available under each location. 

6. Set a shipping cost. 

If you’re selling a physical product, click the box next to This is a physical product under the Shipping section. Enter the product’s weight of your product under Weight. 

If you offer international shipping, check This product ships internationally. When you check this box, a Customs information drop-down menu appears. Complete all customs information regarding your product. 

Click on the Digital product or service if this is not a physical product. 

7. Add product options and variants.

Use the Options section to add product details, such as size, material, style, or color. Check the box entitled This product has options like size or color to add variants. Then fill in the following fields: 

• Option name: Choose size, color, material, or style. 

• Option values: Select the type of variants available. 

Click Add another option to add other product variants, or Done if you do not. A new Variant drop-down menu will appear with a list of each variant you just added. Next to each variant, you can add quantity and price and edit the SKU number if needed. If you want, you also have the option to assign each variant its own image.  

8. Edit search engine listing. 

Under Search engine listing preview, you can see your listing as it would appear on a search engine such as Google. To edit this listing, click Edit website SEO. A window will appear with the option to change the page title, meta description, and URL handle. Make any necessary adjustments, and click Save. 

Use relevant keywords in the title and meta description to improve your rankings on popular search engines. Make sure the product title and URL match. 

9. Turn product status to “Active” and save the listing. 

Under Product status, change the status to Active to publish your post. Save the product listing as Draft, allowing you to make future changes.

Under Sales channels and apps, click Manage to choose where you want your product listing published. You can choose from Google, Facebook, and other options in the Sales channels and apps pop-up. Select Done to save changes. 

Connect each sales channel to Shopify before adding your product listing. Once you’ve added a sales channel, it will show up in Shopify’s Sales channels and apps options. 

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