How to Bulk Upload Product Images into Shopify

Ozkan Oz
13 min readJan 29, 2024

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While creating your Shopify store, migrating from another platform to Shopify, or adding new products, the most challenging part may be “Bulk Uploading Product Images.

How to Bulk Upload Product Images?
How to bulk upload product images?

Content:

  1. Possible ways to upload product images into Shopify
  2. Advantages of bulk uploading product images
  3. How Smart Bulk Image Upload helps

Possible ways to upload product images into Shopify

The basic way to upload product images is the manual process.

You can go to your “products” tab from the Shopify store, choose a product, and click on the “Add Image” button under media. In this way, you can upload images from your computer or add images by using image URLs.

How to manually add product images to Shopify

For a limited number of products and images, that makes sense. But let’s imagine we have more than 10 thousand products and variants. Can we upload their images one by one? We should be well-organized because, most probably, we will make lots of mistakes and will also need to fix these mistakes while trying to upload all of the images. Even if we upload all of these images without any mistakes, it will still take weeks to upload.

According to our research, manual upload takes 13 seconds for each image on average. That means you’ll need 13000 seconds for 1000 images (around 3 hours 37 minutes)

Bulk uploading product images saves your time and your “money.”
Bulk uploading product images saves your time and your “money.”

As a second option, you can manage your images by using Shopify's CSV download/upload functionality.

If you’re using a CDN or having an image provider, then it may be easier since you can import your product data as CSV. Image providers will share the image URLs you can use in the CSV, but you still need to paste them into the product CSV individually. For 10k images, you still need at least a couple of days.

How to use the import CSV feature of Shopify

As you can see, all of these processes need a lot of time, and I’m sure you know the importance of “time” especially for e-commerce.

Advantages of bulk uploading product images

Time equals money

For an e-commerce store, the most important thing is “time”. Since there are a lot of competitors in the market, you need to be fast to gain the advantage.

You can make your products ready to go live as soon as you can upload product images. And, as soon as you can go live with new products in the market, then you can earn more. Bulk uploading product images saves your time, and you can handle your other duties to go live, so you can start earning earlier.

Minimize errors while uploading product images

Manual processes cause mistakes. No matter how much preparation you make or how many people work on the same job, there is always a risk of human effort. You may upload the wrong images into the wrong products, miss some of your product images, or sort it differently than it should.

Manual upload is already difficult & time-consuming enough, and fixing errors… It will take even more time.

In some cases, you’ll miss the mistake and go live with the wrong images. Imagine your customers realize the mistakes; it will affect your brand reputation, and you’ll get a lot of customer messages about these mistakes. It may even cause money losses because of the refunds and order cancellations.

22 percent of those returns are due to the received product not matching the images
22 percent of those returns are due to the received product not matching the images

“Returns are common, with 30% of customers bringing back items they purchase online (it’s even higher just after the holidays). According to several conversion rate optimization experts, 22 percent of those returns are due to the received product not matching the images.”

How Smart Bulk Image Upload helps

Smart Bulk Image Upload helps bulk uploading product images
Smart Bulk Image Upload helps bulk uploading product images

Smart Bulk Image Upload eliminates all these risks for you. The application helps its users upload product images into Shopify in bulk. The number of your products and product images is not important; you only need to be sure of product SKUs/barcodes and image names. Smart Bulk Image Upload uses product SKUs & barcodes, and image names to match products and images that are stored in your Google Drive.

1. Store your product images in Google Drive or Dropbox

Smart Bulk Image Upload gets the product images from Google Drive or Dropbox. So, you need to store your product images in a Google Drive and/or Dropbox folder.

Google Drive as the image source
Google Drive as the image source

2. Install the app into your Shopify store

To use the app, you need to install it into your Shopify store. Then, you’ll be able to see it under your apps tab, and it’s ready to use!

Install the app from Shopify App Store
Install the app from Shopify App Store

3. Connect the app with your Google Drive or Dropbox

As the first step, you will connect your Google Drive or Dropbox account with the app, and after granting all the permissions, you will see all of your folders on the list.

Connect with Google Drive
Connect with Google Drive

4. Choose the folder that contains your product images

Then, you need to choose the folder that contains your product images. At that point, the application allows you to select from the list or search with the folder name. So, if you have a lot of folders, finding the correct one is getting easier.

Select the folder that contains product images.
Select the folder that contains product images.

5. Select the matching type according to your SKUs/Barcodes and their relation with image names

Smart Bulk Image Upload has six different matching types for SKUs & barcodes. They are;

  • Exact SKU: You can use this option if your image names and product/variant SKUs are exactly the same. i.e., the SKUs of the products are SKU1 and SKU2. Then, the product image names shall be SKU1.jpg and SKU2.png.
  • SKU contains image name: In this option, the application matches SKUs that contain the image name. i.e., the SKUs of the products are SKU1-long and SKU2-short. Then, product image names can be SKU1.jpg and SKU2.png. Smart Bulk Image Upload will match them successfully with this option.
  • Image name contains SKU: the option that allows the application to match images with the products whose SKUs are contained by the image names. i.e., the SKUs of the products are SKU1 and SKU2. Then, product image names can be SKU1-black.jpg and SKU2-white.png. Smart Bulk Image Upload will match them successfully with this option.
  • Exact Barcode: You can use this option if your image names and product/variant Barcodes are exactly the same. i.e., the Barcodes of the products are Barcode1 and Barcode2. Then, the product image names shall be Barcode1.jpg and Barcode2.png.
  • Barcode contains image name: In this option, the application matches the Barcodes that contain the image name. i.e., the Barcodes of the products are Barcode1-long and Barcode2-short. Then, product image names can be Barcode1.jpg and Barcode2.png. Smart Bulk Image Upload will match them successfully with this option.
  • Image name contains Barcode: the option that allows the application to match images with the products whose Barcodes are contained by the image names. i.e., the Barcodes of the products are Barcode1 and Barcode2. Then, product image names can be Barcode1-black.jpg and Barcode2-white.png. Smart Bulk Image Upload will match them successfully with this option.
Choose the matching type.
Choose the matching type.

6. Decide if you want to replace current product images or not

Changing the product images is as important as uploading product images in a bulk way. Updating product images, especially lifestyle images, is important for long-time popular products. Smart Bulk Image Upload also allows users to update product images by using the “replace current images” functionality.

By choosing this feature, the application removes the existing images and uploads new images in a bulk way. So, product images always stay up-to-date.

7. The app matches the images & products/variants automatically

And the best part… After the above steps, you only need to click on the “Start Matching” button, and you can sit back. Smart Bulk Image Upload handles the rest. It matches all the images and products/variants. When the matching is completed, you can check the results because the application also displays the image previews for each product/variant.

Check the image previews and orders.
Check the image previews and orders.

8. You can handle your other duties while it uploads on behalf of you.

Now you’re ready to go! Just click on the “Start Upload” button and follow the magic! The application will upload all of your product images in bulk.

Bulk Upload Product Images from Google Drive automatically.
Bulk Upload Product Images from Google Drive automatically.

For details, you can check the latest demo of the app;

How to Bulk Upload Product Images to Shopify from Google & Dropbox

You can contact and ask your questions to “hello<at>craftshift.com”

Some user feedback;

Smart Bulk Image Upload has 26 reviews with an overall 4.7/5 rating
Smart Bulk Image Upload has 26 reviews with an overall 4.7/5 rating

Luxe Home Office: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

“Really easy to use, amazing software. Helped upload images for 500+ products within no time. Definitely reccomend and will be using much more in the future!”

Vinyl Kitchen: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Fantastic app, did everything I needed it to do and I see it is being worked on to improve it in even more ways. Help was quick too. Great stuff!

Orientmattor: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Works well, matching is quick and you can check before importing if the match has been correct. Uploading is in the background, you can work in between.

Kulud Online: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Great app and most importantly very supportive team that would be willing to go above and beyond to help their customers. Highly recommend!

Allude München: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

awesome App. Takes so much work away! Really appreciate that this exists. Could not live without it anymore! :-)

Labels Resale Boutique: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

The app performs great and saved me much time uploading and replacing images for many items in my Shopify Store. I would highly recommend to anyone in need of managing lots of inventory.
You will need to play around with settings for the file titles you want it to find, but once you have got it you are good to go. And they give you the means of verifying everything is “found” before adding or replacing images.

Traralgon Sugarbabies: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

One of the best time saving apps with Shopify. Just get the SKU and image names the same and the rest is automatic. I have uploaded nearly a 1000 images without issues. This app has saved me hours !

Kantha Bae: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This app has been the best thing ever for my workflow. To date, we have uploaded 65,195 photos through Smart Image which, when you think about it, has most likely saved us weeks of time!!! Customer service is amazing as well! If you are looking to save time uploading images, this is the app you need. User-friendly, easy to use, and FAST! Thank you Smart Image for saving us valuable time!!!

DaydreamHQ: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This is the second website I’ve installed this app onto. It is a major time saver and super simple to use.

Trustables: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This app is truly awesome, but if you run into a snag, the helpdesk is extremely helpful and will go to any length to satisfy your needs. I asked for a way to upload without the need to change all the filenames to conform to the current naming conventions and Farid (owner) actually changed it so I no longer have to do this. How awesome is that?!!!

getchonet: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I’ve just uploaded to my store and I need to say it’s really simple and working! I like how easy the whole process is.

CatDogHotDog: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Great App. Makes bulk uploading of images really effortless, and easy. Price may be slightly high, but pays off well in terms of effort saved.

Industrial Control & Engineering: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This is one of the best Apps that I am using. Easy to use and understand and it delivers what it promises. It has saved me a tremendous amount of time and work. It is pleasant to work with Ozkan and Farid. The response is fast and effective.

FreshKart: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I used this app to upload around 1000 images. It’s very easy to use and connects with gdrive seamlessly. Error log is helpful and easy to fix problems. The per month price seems a bit high though.

Onlinetonerau: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

When I first started using this app a little over a month ago, I found it had some limitations regarding the functionality of matching up image file names and required SEO image preferred naming method. Farid and the team quickly reviewed my points and within 48hrs had a vastly improved option that works 100%. This team has taken on other suggestions and delivers a result. It’s now a great app and one that must be in your tool kit if you are serious about managing the large number of image files that Shopify expects.

Monilia Idee Preziose: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I used this app to import more than 1000 photos from a folder. It works more than perfect. I was looking for an app for this purpose but Smart Image upload is the best and easy one!

Posteraj — štampa i uramljivanje: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This app is awesome! Thank you guys for this amazing app! We have more than 23000 products in our store, and with this app, we uploaded around 23000 product images very quickly and saved a lot of time. The app works perfectly and without any issues. Totally recommended.

Swahili Modern: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This app saved me so much time and work when I needed to bulk upload a few thousand images to our site. I had no trouble with it at all, worked just as I needed, quick and easy and reliable.

DaydreamDealer: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I have uploaded a little over 8,000 images with this app so far and it has saved me a ton of time as I set up this new website. Their support is really responsive and helpful as well. There are a few features I would love to see in the future such as a cancel upload or upload with over-riding prior images, but as it’s a new app and saved me so much time I would still give it an easy 5 stars. One note to people using it, from my experience I’d recommend only uploading folders of no more than ~1,000 images at a time. It appears Google will time out the connection if you try to do much larger Google folders at a time.

California Motorcycles USA: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This is a great app. Simple yo use, quick and effective, and with a good technical support. Totally recommended.

SassyLAB.dk: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

We onboard 2000 new products every month, so the Smart Image Upload app is extremely valueable for us. The app works withount any issues, and the support have been helping me solve a special-case. I was very very impressed with their responsetime and effort in helping me out.

Ere Products London: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Long story short cut, saved almost days of work to a couple of hours, incredibly smart and beautifully well done. Just make sure all SKU is matched with the image. Then happy days. It is highly recommended.

GFX Auto: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

No joke, this is the best app to use if you have a mass amount of images to upload. I have a customer with 10,000 products that needed 10,000 images to be matched. This app solved that. Matches the product to the images. Because of this app my project went from 300 hrs (a lof of that uploading and matching the images), down to 60 hrs total. Big, BIG time saver! High recommended.

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You can check the details for bulk uploading product images into Shopify by the following link : https://apps.shopify.com/guided-search?q=bulk+image+upload

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Ozkan Oz

Shopify enthusiast - Sharing tips, trends, and e-commerce insights. Let's connect! #Shopify #Ecommerce