Creating a product needs only a title, description, product type and price. The product form has several more fields that save time or change how the product appears. This article covers the ones in the Product Information card and the Search Engine Optimization card.
Where these fields are
In the left sidebar click Shop+, stay on Products and click the + icon in the toolbar, or click Edit on an existing product. The Product Information card is at the top left of the form.
Add by UPC: fill in a product from its barcode
For packaged goods that carry a manufacturer barcode, you do not have to type the details.
Above the Title box click Add by UPC. A box labelled "Enter or scan a UPC code" appears with a Fetch button.
Scan the barcode with a scanner, or type the digits.
Click Fetch. Shop+ looks the code up in public UPC databases and fills in the details it finds.
In this example the code 049000028911 filled in the Title and External Title (Diet Coke Soft Drink), put the UPC in the SKU box and wrote a description with the brand, size and ingredients.
Check what was filled in, tidy the title if you want it shorter, then add the Product Type, Category and Price, which are always yours to set. Click Close UPC Lookup to hide the box.
If nothing is found for a code
Add by UPC only works for codes that exist in the public UPC databases. Fetch comes back empty when the code is not a standard manufacturer UPC (for example a code printed by a supplier, a distributor or your own label printer) or when the product is simply not listed in those databases. The barcode still works at the register; it just cannot fill in the details for you.
Click Close UPC Lookup.
Scan or type the same code into the SKU box.
Enter the Title, Description, Product Type, Category and Price by hand and save.
Scanning that code at the register will then find the product, exactly as it would for a fetched UPC.
SKU
SKU (optional) holds your internal stock code or the item's barcode. If you scan barcodes at the register, the code in this box is what a scan matches. For a product with variants, each combination has its own SKU box in the Variant combinations table.
Contains Alcohol
Turn on Contains Alcohol for beer, wine, spirits and anything else with alcohol. The switch is labelled as the Uber Eats flag: it marks the item as alcohol for delivery ordering.
Color
The Color dot beside the External Title sets a color for the product. Click it to choose one. This is a display color for the product, not a color option for customers. Customer-facing colors are set up as variants.
Fulfillment Vendor
If another business fulfils this product for you, choose them in Fulfillment Vendor. Assigned vendors receive order notifications and can access the items in the vendor portal. Leave it at N/A when you fulfil the product yourself.
Title, External Title and Description
Title is your internal name. External Title is the name customers see. Description is formatted text with bold, lists, links and headings, shown on the product page of the online store. All three are required.
Product Images
Drag image files onto the Product Images area or click it to upload. You can also choose an image you have already uploaded by clicking Library. Add more than one image to give the product a gallery. Products without an image show a placeholder.
Product Organization
In the right-hand column, Product Organization holds Category, Sub Category, #Tags and Labels. The gear icon beside each one opens its management window.
The Category gear opens Category Management, with an Edit tab to rename categories, an Order tab to change their order, and an Add New Category form with a Title, an Image and a Label Color.
Search Engine Optimization
Further down the form, the Search Engine Optimization card controls how the product appears in search engine results for your online store. A preview at the top shows the result as you type.
Page Title: the headline of the search result. It is filled from the product title and can be changed.
Page Link: the last part of the product's web address. It is filled from the title with hyphens in place of spaces.
Page Description: the short text under the headline. It is filled from the product description.
For most products the automatic values are fine. Edit them when the title is internal shorthand, or when you want the description to lead with the words customers search for.
Tips
Use Add by UPC when loading a retail catalog. Scan, fetch, set category and price, save, and move to the next item.
Keep the External Title short. It is what fits on a receipt and a product tile.
Put the barcode in SKU even if you do not scan today. It makes scanning work the day you add a scanner.
Common questions
How do I add a product by scanning its barcode? Click Add by UPC, scan the code and click Fetch.
I scanned a UPC and Fetch found nothing. Is something broken? No. The code is either not a standard UPC or not in the public UPC databases. Close the lookup, put the code in the SKU box and fill in the product details yourself. Scanning will still work at the register.
Where do I enter a barcode so it scans at the register? In the SKU box.
How do I mark an item as alcohol? Turn on Contains Alcohol.
How do I add a picture to a product? Drag the file onto Product Images or click the area to upload.
How do I change how a product looks in Google results? Edit Page Title, Page Link and Page Description in the Search Engine Optimization card.