Detailed Guide to Shopify Product Data Entry Fields

If you’re wondering about product information and specific fields in Shopify, this article has you covered. Here, we break down the key details of Shopify product data entry you can include for each product and explain their significance. The information you provide not only helps you manage and locate products in the Shopify admin but also improves how customers discover them on your storefront.

Do you need to include every detail? Not necessarily. While it’s important to provide accurate and relevant product data entry in Shopify, not all fields are mandatory. Focus on the details that enhance product management and customer experience. Sound’s a bit confusing? Let’s break it down!

Shopify Product Data Entry: Title and description

When it comes to Shopify product data entry, the title and description are the most prominent fields that require attention. Here’s what you need to know about them:

• Title: The name you want shoppers to see next to your product.
• Description: You can format the product’s description using the rich text editor. To educate and persuade your potential buyers, describe your offerings in great detail. If you’re a reseller, avoid using a manufacturer’s exact description because you want search engines to recognize your products as being unique.

Note that you can incorporate keywords in both fields to boos your Shopify product SEO.

Shopify Product Data Entry: Media

As for the Media section of the Shopify product data entry, it is pretty straightforward. Use it to add images, 3D models, and videos to provide your customers with an understanding of how your product looks. The better the content quality is, the more engaged your store visitors will be.

Shopify Product Data Entry: Pricing

Shopify offers a variety of options for configuring product prices. Here are the key data entry fields available:

• Price: The cost of the goods that you are selling. On the page for general settings, you can change the currency. Click Available in other currencies if you are selling in different currencies. To examine your currency settings, go to Manage Currencies. If the product is taxable, select Charge taxes on this product.
• Compare at price: The original cost of a product that is currently on sale. The product shows a sale price when you enter a compare at pricing.
• Tax code: If you utilize a third-party tax solution for Shopify Plus plans, the product’s tax code is displayed here.
• Cost per item: It is the price you pay for a given product or variant. You can input the amount you paid the manufacturer, minus taxes, shipping, and other expenses, for instance, if you resell a product. You can input a value based on your labor and material costs if you make the product yourself.

Unless you add taxes to your prices, the predicted margin for products with product costs provided is displayed below the Price field on the product details page. ([price – cost] / price) * 100 is the formula for calculating the margin. For instance, the margin (calculated as ([500 – 300] / 500)*100) is 40% if your price is $500 and your cost is $300.

You can get reports to examine the expenses and profit margins of your products if your store is on the Shopify plan or a higher tier. Your cost of goods sold is also accessible (COGS).

However, it’s not necessary to enter the price per item. If you decide to enter your expenses, use the bulk editor or a CSV import to add the numbers to each of your current goods at once. You may maximize the value of your profit reports by updating the data simultaneously.

It is also worth mentioning that gift card products don’t have a cost per item.

Shopify Product Data Entry: Inventory

Accurate inventory management is a critical part of Shopify product data entry, ensuring your store reflects real-time stock availability. The inventory section allows you to track stock levels, manage SKU numbers, and update restocking details seamlessly. You can also enable or disable inventory tracking, set low-stock alerts, and even assign inventory to specific locations if you’re operating multiple warehouses. Proper inventory data entry not only prevents overselling but also ensures a smooth shopping experience for your customers. Here is what you need to know:

• SKU (stock keeping unit): the product’s internal product identification code. Each SKU must be unique to provide effective tracking and sales reporting. However, SKUs are not required. Your own SKU format is possible. See SKU formats for additional details below.
• Barcode (ISBN, UPC, GTIN, etc.): a new or current Global Trade Item Number must be used as the identifier (GTIN). Before a product can be published on some sales platforms, a GTIN must be provided.
  GTINs are distinctive identifiers that are used globally to store and find product data, such as UPC, EAN, and ISBN (read our SKU vs UPC comparison for further information). On the product package, the GTIN can be seen either above or below the barcode.
  Shopify POS uses the barcode in a store to publish products via the Google channel. You can ask the manufacturer for a GTIN if you don’t already have one for a given product. Visit the GS1 standards website to find out how to acquire a GTIN for a product you make. Avoid creating phony GTINs for your items.
• Inventory policy: Shopify provides this setting for inventory tracking.
• Available: This field shows the number of units in stock. For businesses based on multiple locations, the quantity is shown per location.
• Incoming: you can specify incoming units are about to be transferred. You can record incoming inventory after submitting a purchase order (PO) to your supplier or use this parameter to keep track of your inventory while moving it between various locations.
• Committed: this parameter indicates the number of units that are part of an order that should be yet fulfilled. Inventory units of draft orders aren’t counted as such.

Shopify provides the ability to use any custom format for product SKUs. But here’s the kicker:

• Characters: Any combination of numbers and letters is acceptable. Avoid using a format where the letters O and I can be mistaken for the digits 0 and 1. Avoid using special characters, symbols, or spaces because searching for products in Shopify by SKU or in other software applications like spreadsheet tools may be associated with issues. Remember that dashes or underscores are helpful to differentiate between sets of numbers and letters that stand in for characteristics of a product, such as style, color, size, pattern, or even a storage area.
• Length: Make sure your SKUs are as brief as you can afford, with no more than 16 characters. You might be able to employ an SKU format with only 4 to 8 characters, depending on how many and what kinds of products you offer.
• Simplicity: Use an SKU structure that your personnel can understand and that will assist in picking and packing orders. In an SKU, each letter and number must serve a specific function.
• Uniqueness: SKUs within your Shopify admin should be distinct, and no two product versions should have the same SKU listed in their information for tracking and sales reporting purposes. The SKU for each variant should be different if you sell an item available in various options represented by a different variant each.

Shopify Product Data Entry: Shipping

The shipping section in Shopify product data entry is where you define the logistics of delivering products to your customers. This includes setting up weight-based shipping rates, entering product dimensions, and specifying whether an item requires shipping or is a digital product. By properly configuring shipping details, you can ensure accurate shipping costs, improve delivery efficiency, and enhance customer satisfaction.

• This is a physical product: Uncheck this setting for digital products or services since it indicates whether a product needs to be shipped. Products that you never ship don’t require it.
• Weight: Specify the product’s actual weight here. Note that this field is linked to This is a physical product. If the latter is checked, the product weight needs to be specified.
• Country/Region of origin: This field indicates the country where the item was made or assembled. Specify the country or region where the product takes its essential form if it is made up of components from various other countries or locations.
• HS code: Enter the harmonized system (HS) tariff code if you want to send the item abroad. Customs receives information from these codes so that the appropriate tariffs can be applied to the order. By conducting a keyword search in the HS code section of the product details page, you can discover the HS code for your item.
• Fulfillment service: This field lets you select one of the utilized fulfillment services. If you don’t use any, select Shopify.

Shopify Product Data Entry: Variants

A product with multiple options, such as size or color, exists in several versions called variants in Shopify. A variant for a product can be created from any combination of option values.

Key Note on Variants: For products without variants, sections like Pricing, Inventory, and Shipping are visible on the product details page. However, if you add variants, these sections are replaced with fields specific to the variants, allowing you to manage each option individually.

Consider that you provide T-shirts in two variations: size and color. Three options are available for size: small, medium, and large. There are two values for the color option: black and white. So, the possible variants are:

• Black S;
• Black M;
• Black L
• White S;
• White M;
• White L.

On a product details page, you can see a list of all these variants. Additionally, using the Inventory section, you can control inventory per variant. Also, Shopify lets you hide variants that you don’t sell. The corresponding section on the product details page lists the available options for a product that includes variants, such as color and size.

Shopify Product Data Entry: Purchase options

You can configure your store to offer your consumers more purchasing options in addition to the standard buy-pay-ship paradigm. Your clients may subscribe to receive an item every month or order a product before its release date. Pre-orders, subscriptions, and try-before-you-buy features are just a few purchase alternatives you can add to your products.

If a purchase option has been applied to a product or any of its variants, the appropriate purchase option settings are displayed in the Purchase options section of the product page.

You can enable both the alternative purchase options and the standard one-time purchase or restrict a product’s availability to alternative options only.

These are three common purchase options:

• Subscriptions: This option lets you sell products and charge your customers for them repeatedly according to a schedule. E.g., cat food.
• Pre-orders: In this situation, your clients get the ability to purchase items that are not ready for fulfillment yet. They pay for an item, and you fulfill it later. E.g., an upcoming record by your band.
• Try before you buy: With this purchase option, you provide customers with the ability to order items without paying right away. Although you fulfill a TBYB order like a regular one, customers pay at a future specified date. E.g., a musical instrument.

Note that these purchase options are not available in your Shopify admin by default. They require installing third-party software, such as Subscriptions by Yotpo.

Shopify Product Data Entry: Search engine listing preview

This section illustrates a sample of your product’s appearance in search engine results. You can edit it, improving the SEO of your Shopify product pages. The product title, the item’s online store URL, and a portion of the description make up the preview, and you can freely change them here.

Shopify Product Data Entry: Product availability

You can manage the state of your product and the sales channels in which it appears due to product availability determined by its status.

The product status for recently generated products is, by default, set to active. The default setting for the product status for duplicated and unarchived products is draft.

The following states are at your service:

• Active: This product is displayed in the sales channels.
• Draft: You still need to provide additional product details before the product can be displayed in the sales channels.
• Archived: Although the product details are complete, such a product is no longer available in the sales channels.

The Sales channels and apps area illustrates a list of active sales channels where you can make your product available. Since all channels are selected by default, you may need to click Manage to edit sales channel availability.

Note that you set sales channel availability per product, including all its variants.

Shopify Product Data Entry: Organization

Organizing your products effectively in Shopify is key to creating a seamless browsing experience for your customers. The organization section allows you to assign products to collections, add tags, and define vendor or product type details. Proper product organization not only makes your store easier to navigate but also improves search functionality, helping customers find what they’re looking for quickly and efficiently. Here are the Shopify product data entry fields to consider in this section:

• Product category is a label that indicates a class that a product belongs to. It is selected from a predefined, standardized list. As a store administrator, you can use product categories for various purposes, such as automated tax rate selection, better product management, easier integration with other channels, etc.
  Note that it is possible to set only one category per product, which is applied to all its variants. Shopify often displays product category recommendations to help you select one that fits your product. Since product categories are optional, you can save your product without assigning a category to it.
• Product type is a custom label that describes a product category. This parameter provides the ability to use custom product categories. Just like in the case of categories, a product can be associated with only one custom product type.
• Vendor shows an organization that provided or produced the product, such as a manufacturer or wholesaler.
• Collections is a field that shows the collections a product is included in. Use it to add a product directly to a manual collection. As for automated collections, a product appears in them only if it matches the collection conditions.
• Tags is used to add searchable keywords associated with your product. Tags have a few purposes. Firstly, they can help customers find your product through the store search. Secondly, you can use them to create automated collections.

Shopify Product Data Entry: Metafields

Use Shopify metafields to add unique fields to your product pages. You can save customized data that is typically missed by your product pages with their help. For instance, a retailer of candles could wish to include the burn time for their candles on a product page. In addition to placing this information in a product description, it is possible to display it on the storefronts via metafields. The following are additional examples of specialized information:

• Part Numbers;
• Expiration Date;
• Color Swatches;
• Related Products;
• Launch Dates;
• Blog Post Summaries;
• Files For Download.

On a product details page, metafields appear in an editable table. A metafield name specified upon its creation is displayed next to it. The metafield type and its description can be seen by clicking on each table row. After that, you can add value. Furthermore, it is possible to attach metafields to your theme and tailor your pages to the product or variant displayed.

Final Words

Mastering Shopify product data entry is a fundamental step toward building a successful e-commerce store. From crafting compelling product descriptions to managing inventory and optimizing shipping details, each aspect plays a crucial role in creating a seamless shopping experience for your customers. Well-organized and accurate product data not only improves usability but also boosts search engine visibility, driving more traffic to your store and increasing conversions.

Ready to take your product management skills to the next level? Dive deeper into Shopify’s powerful tools and features to ensure your store stands out in the competitive e-commerce landscape. With the right strategies, your product data can become a key driver of your store’s success! Follow these links for further exploration:

• Shopify Admin Essentials;
• How to Add Products to Shopify;
• How to Edit Products in Shopify;
• How to Archive Products in Shopify;
• How to Delete Product From Shopify;
• How to Add Product Variants in Shopify;

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