Short answer: in your Shopify admin, go to Products, click Add product, enter a title and the details you have, and click Save. That’s the whole mechanical part. What decides whether the product sells and gets found is what you write in a few of those fields: the title, the description, and the search engine listing. Below are the steps, what to put in each field, and a faster way to create a product from a few notes with ProductReady.
How to add a product in Shopify, step by step
- Open Products. From your Shopify admin, go to Products.
- Click Add product. You get an empty product page.
- Title. The name shoppers see. Lead with what the product is, then the detail that sets it apart.
- Description. What it is, who it’s for, the specs people decide on, and how to care for it. More on this below.
- Media. Add your photos and videos. The first image becomes the main image, so make it the clearest one.
- Category. Pick the closest category from Shopify’s standard product taxonomy. Shopify uses it to organize products, work out taxes, and sell on other channels.
- Price. Add the price, and a compare-at price if the product is on sale.
- Inventory and shipping. Add a SKU and the quantity you have, and the weight if you charge shipping by weight.
- Variants. If the product comes in sizes or colors, add them as options so they share one product page.
- Search engine listing. Click edit to set the title and description Google shows. If you leave them empty, Google usually gets the product title and the first lines of your description instead.
- Status and publishing. Keep the product as Draft while you work on it. Set it to Active and choose your sales channels when it’s ready.
- Save.
You don’t have to fill in every field for every product. Shopify creates the product URL (the handle) from the title automatically, so set the title before you share links.
What to write in the fields that matter
Most of a product page is filled in once and forgotten. Four fields do the selling and the getting found:
| Field | Who reads it | What works |
|---|---|---|
| Product title | Shoppers on your store, Google Shopping, social catalogs | What it is first, then the key detail: “Linen Throw Pillow Cover, 45 x 45 cm, Hidden Zip” |
| Description | Shoppers, Google, AI assistants | Two or three lines on what it is and who it’s for, then the specs people decide on, then care and shipping. Avoid supplier boilerplate like “100% brand new” |
| SEO title | Google search results | Shopify recommends 60 characters or fewer. Put the product type in it, not only a brand-style name |
| Meta description | Google search results | Shopify recommends about 160 characters. One clear sentence on what the product is and why to click |
More detail on each: product title length, meta description length, and a product description template. You can check a title and meta description with the free title and meta description checker.
A faster way: create a product from notes with ProductReady
Writing all of that for every new product is the slow part. ProductReady, our Shopify app, has its own New product page: you fill in the product as usual, add a few notes in your own words, and it writes the copy for you to review.
- Open the form. On the Products page in your Shopify admin, open More actions and choose Add with ProductReady. You can also start from ProductReady itself: Products, then + New product.
- Add a working title and your notes. The working title is “a name for now”; ProductReady writes the final one. Under Tell us about your product, write the concrete details: what it is, material, colour, size, and who it’s for. For example: “linen pillow cover 45x45cm, washed linen, hidden zip, sand/sage/charcoal, machine wash 30”.
- Fill in the rest on the same page. Photos and videos, price, inventory and SKU, shipping, variants, status, sales channels, vendor, collections and tags are all on the form, so you don’t have to switch to Shopify’s editor. For anything that isn’t there, such as metafields, Open in Shopify saves the product as a draft and opens it in Shopify.
- Click Create and write copy. ProductReady creates the product in Shopify and writes its copy from your working title and notes: the product title and description, SEO title and meta description, Google Shopping title and description, Facebook & Instagram title and description (if that channel is on), and a short AI summary. Suggested tags are added to the tags you already have.
- Review and apply. The new copy waits for your review. Edit what you want, then apply. If you change your mind later, you can undo from version history.
- Go live. The product status is Draft unless you choose otherwise, so set it to Active when it’s ready to sell.
Why it helps:
- One page instead of a blank editor. You write notes, not finished copy, and the copy is written for you to check.
- Each channel gets its own copy. Google search, Google Shopping and Facebook & Instagram each read your product differently, so each gets text written for it instead of one description everywhere.
- Written from your notes. The copy comes from your working title and notes, and anything it can’t support from them is flagged for you to check.
- You stay in control. New copy waits for your review, and you can undo it from version history.
Writing a new product’s copy counts as one product on your plan (more if you also write other languages); saving it as a draft without writing doesn’t. The free plan includes a few products, so you can try it on your next new product before you decide. ProductReady on the Shopify App Store.
Adding many products at once
For more than a handful of products, Shopify’s CSV import is usually faster than adding them one by one: download Shopify’s sample CSV from the import screen on the Products page, fill in one row per product, and import it. Imported products often arrive with short or supplier descriptions, so plan time for the copy. ProductReady can write copy for existing products in batches, up to your plan’s limit per batch.
Mistakes to avoid
- A slogan as the product title. “A little warmth, a little whimsy” tells Google nothing. Name the product first.
- Supplier text left as is. “100% brand new and high quality” or “Item Type:” lists read like a marketplace listing.
- The same description on every color. Separate products with identical text compete with each other. Use variants, or write each one.
- HTML codes in the title. If your title shows “&” in the browser tab, retype the ampersand in the title field.
- Going Active too early. Keep a product as Draft until the photos, price and copy are done.
Sources
- Shopify Help Center, Adding and updating products
- Shopify Help Center, Product details
- Shopify Help Center, Adding keywords to improve SEO