Managing Products: the List, Bulk Actions and the Product Editor

Overview

Catalog → Products lists your products, a page at a time. Click a product to open its edit page. To add products, see Getting Started → Add your products (manual entry, CSV import or a connected store).

Products and bulk actions are part of every plan.

The Import menu at the top of the list holds both importers:

• Import from CSV takes any spreadsheet or a Shopify export. You match your columns to ours and see a preview before anything is saved.
• Re-upload an Export file takes a file made by Export, after you have edited it, and imports it straight away. It reads our own column names, including pricecents (the price in cents, so 1999 is 19.99); a row without a price there is skipped and listed as an error, so use Import from CSV for any other file.

Both say, when it applies, how many imported products cannot be sold yet on a storefront that charges in a different currency from your store currency, and how to fix it (Storefront prices).

Categories and Collections beside it open your category tree and your collections.

Putting a product on your store

Each product card on the list has Publish to store. It makes the product visible on every one of your storefronts, and the button then reads Live on store, or On store · not live yet while the store itself is not live; click it again to hide the product from them. A product needs a price above zero first, and a storefront where you set the product's own price keeps that price. On a storefront that charges in a different currency from your store currency, a product that follows the product price is not published, and you are told which storefront and how to fix it; see Storefront prices.

It works on a store that is not live yet, so the product shows in your store preview straight away (see Going live). Shoppers see it once the store itself is live.

Scheduling a launch or an end date

Under Status on a product's edit page, Publish at puts a product on sale at a time you choose, and Unpublish at takes it off sale. Times are in your store's time zone (the one your storefront is set to, shown under the boxes), so a launch set for 9:00 happens at 9:00 where your store is, even across a clock change.

• To schedule a launch, set the status to Draft, choose Publish at, and save. You confirm the listing is lawful to sell when you save, as you would when publishing it yourself. A product that is live, or being put live, cannot also carry a launch time: set it to Draft first, or clear the time.
• At the publish time the product goes through the same checks as publishing it yourself, usually within a minute. If the automatic check holds it, it waits for review, as it would have if you had clicked Save. A listing that was rejected in review is not published.
• If what shoppers would see changes after you schedule (the name, description, category, tags, photos or videos), you confirm again when you save, and that is the version that goes live. If the product was changed some other way, such as an import or the API, it stays a draft at the publish time.
• At the unpublish time a live product goes back to Draft. It keeps everything else, so you can put it back on sale whenever you like.
• Each time is used once. After it has been acted on, the box is empty again. Unpublish at must be after Publish at, and a time you set must be in the future.
• If a scheduled launch does not happen (it was rejected, changed since you confirmed it, or its unpublish time had already passed), it stays a draft and you get a notification saying why. Every change made on schedule is in Settings → Audit log, marked as made by the schedule.

The product appears on the storefronts it is published to (see Putting a product on your store), so publish it to your store while it is still a draft and it is ready to appear at the launch time.

Changing many products at once

Tick the box on a product's photo, or Select all on this page, and a bar appears above the list:

• Status — set the selection active, draft or archived. Setting products active asks you once to confirm they are lawful to sell, and the automatic checks in Listing review below apply, exactly as one at a time.
• Price — change by a percentage (−20 is 20% off), by an amount, or set one price, with optional rounding (end in .99, .95, .00, or a whole amount). Each product's new price is worked out from its price now; a result below zero is held at zero and reported.
• Tags — add or remove tags.
• Collection — add to or remove from a collection you pick by hand. (Collections made by rules decide for themselves; see Collections.)
• Social channels — where the products may be posted: your store's networks, only the ones you pick, or never.
• Product feeds — which shopping feeds they appear in: every feed you have on, only the ones you pick, or none.
• Tax category — what the products are, for tax (see Tax categories below).
• Customs — the HS code, country of origin and CUSMA choice a label to another country declares. Fill in any of them; a box left empty keeps each product's own value, and a value no customs office reads is refused before anything changes (see Shipping across a border).

Up to 500 products at a time. If some did not change, the bar lists which and why; the rest are changed.

When the list has more products than one page shows, Select all next to Select all on this page selects every product in the list, on every page (for example, every product in a category). With more than 500 in the list it says so instead of selecting some of them: narrow the list first.

To change every product in a collection, open the collection under Products → Collections and click Change these products. The products list then shows only that collection (a hand-picked collection's products, drafts included; a rule-based collection's products that its rules pick now), and Select all … in that collection selects all of them for the bar. Clear the filter with the button beside the collection's name.

Collection needs the Owner, Admin, Manager or Staff role, the same as changing a collection on its own page. The other actions change a whole selection at once, so they need the Owner, Admin or Manager role; the bar shows only the actions your role can use.

The product editor

The edit page is in sections; the menu on the left jumps between them. Most are self-explanatory (basics, pricing, variants, inventory and shipping, description, SEO, specifications). A few worth knowing:

• Product type — Physical, Digital, Service or Gift card, at the top of Basics (and when you Add product). The sections change with it: a gift card shows Gift card amounts instead of a price, stock, shipping and variants. A product that has been ordered cannot become a gift card or stop being one. See Gift cards.
• Open in store (top right) opens the product's real page in your store. If your store is not live yet, it opens as a private preview. It also tells you if a shopper would not see the product yet, and why — it is waiting for review, hidden on that store, or has no price there. Quick preview shows a quick look inside the dashboard without opening your store.
• Photos — each photo is prepared when you upload it: turned the right way up, resized to at most 2,400 pixels on its longest side (3,000 for jewellery, watches and art; 2,000 for food and bulk goods), saved as a WebP file, and stripped of hidden details such as where the photo was taken and which camera took it. A transparent background stays transparent. Your store then shows each shopper a size that fits their screen. To use an image you already have, click Library beside the upload button, on the edit page or when you Add product: it comes from your media library as it is, without being uploaded again. A new photo has to be one of your own uploads or library images, and a video can't be a product photo; photos a product already has, such as an imported product's, stay as they are. The first photo is the cover.
• Image studio — the palette button on any product photo opens it: remove backgrounds, watermark, brand and campaign versions, infographics, platform sizes, social posts and video ads. See Image Studio.
• Marketing assets — everything the image studio made for this product, kept here after the studio closes: open it, copy its link, add it to the product photos, or take it off the list.
• Social — where this product may be posted, and a quick composer to post it now. See Social Media.
• Marketplace identifiers → Product feeds — which shopping feeds this product appears in. See Product Feeds.
• Translations — the product's name, description and web address in each language your store sells in.
• Tax category — under Pricing & promotions, what the product is for tax. See Tax categories.
• Policy override for this product — under Lifecycle, gift wrap, returns: mark a product non-returnable and add a note. Both show on the product's page in your store, in the Returns section, and a non-returnable product no longer shows a return window there.
• Canadian origin claim — under Compliance & customs, a "Product of Canada" or "Made in Canada" claim you make about the product. See Product of Canada and Made in Canada.

Nothing is saved until you press Save changes at the bottom of the page.

Tax categories

Every product is taxed as General goods until you say otherwise. Some goods are taxed differently: in Canada basic groceries, prescription drugs and some medical devices are zero-rated, and several provinces take their part of the tax off children's clothing and footwear and printed books. Pick the product's Tax category in the product editor or when you Add product:

• General goods — taxed at the full rate. Most products.
• Basic groceries — food for home consumption.
• Prepared food — ready-to-eat meals and heated food.
• Children's clothing & footwear — in children's sizes.
• Printed books — bound printed books.
• Prescription drugs
• Prescribed medical devices — devices on the zero-rated list, such as hearing aids and mobility aids.
• Digital services & downloads
• Professional services
• Not taxable (exempt) — no tax is charged on it, anywhere.

What the category does depends on how your store works out tax:

• With Stripe Tax on, each product is sent to Stripe with its category's tax code, so Stripe applies the rules of the place it is sold to. Nothing else to set up.
• With your own tax rules, a rule charges its own rate on every category until you give it a rate for that category, under Tax rules → Category rates (basic groceries at 0%, say). Not taxable (exempt) is the exception: it is never taxed unless a rule names a rate for it. The tax rules page warns you when products are in a category none of your rules sets a rate for. See Tax with your own tax rules.

The category is used everywhere an order is taxed: checkout, the cart's estimate, draft orders, the point of sale, exchanges and order edits. A gift card is never taxed when it is sold, whatever its category.

To set the category of many products at once, select them and use Tax category in the bar above the list. A CSV export has a taxCategory column, and importing a file with that column sets each product's category: leave a cell blank for general goods, or use one of groceries, prepared_food, childrens_clothing, books, prescription_drugs, medical_devices, digital_services, professional_services or exempt. A row with a category BestWebby does not know is skipped and listed, so a typo never changes what a product is taxed at. On the Import products page, match your column to taxCategory under Map columns; there a blank cell leaves the product's category as it is.

The category is separate from the Tax class, which picks which of your tax rules apply to a product (a rule written for your own "reduced" class, for example). A category then sets the rate those rules charge.

Product of Canada and Made in Canada

You can show Product of Canada or Made in Canada on a product's page. It is a claim you make, and you are legally responsible for it: BestWebby shows it exactly as you state it, never checks it, and never sets it for you. It is not taken from the product's country of origin, which is for customs and answers a different question.

The Competition Bureau's guidelines set the test:

• Product of Canada — the last substantial transformation of the product happened in Canada, and at least 98% of the total direct costs of producing or manufacturing it are Canadian.
• Made in Canada — the last substantial transformation happened in Canada, at least 51% of the total direct costs are Canadian, and the claim carries a qualifying statement, such as "Made in Canada with imported parts".

To make a claim, open the product, go to Compliance & customs, and choose it under Canadian origin claim. For Made in Canada, type the words that follow it in Qualifying statement (for example "with imported parts", up to 80 characters); the editor shows what shoppers will read. Then tick the confirmation that the product meets the test. A new or changed claim is not saved without that tick, and the product records who confirmed it and when. Choosing No claim takes it off; that needs no confirmation. Every change, and every removal, is in Settings → Audit log with the old and new claim.

Shoppers see one line on the product page, in your words: "Product of Canada", or "Made in Canada" followed by your statement exactly as you typed it. In French the claim reads "Produit du Canada" or "Fabriqué au Canada", followed by your statement as typed. Your store's product listing and search get a Canadian products filter once at least one product makes a claim.

Food is different. Origin claims on food follow the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's rules, not these. A product whose tax category is Basic groceries or Prepared food cannot carry either claim here, and a product that carries one cannot be moved to a food category until you remove it. You can still describe where your food comes from in its description.

In bulk. A CSV export has originClaim, originQualifier and originClaimAttested columns. In a file you import, originClaim is product_of_canada, made_in_canada or blank for none, and originQualifier holds the qualifying statement. A row that sets a new or changed claim is saved with it only when originClaimAttested says yes; otherwise the product is saved without the change and the import lists it with the reason. A claim imported unchanged asks for nothing. On the Import products page, match your columns to originClaim, originQualifier and originClaimAttested under Map columns; there a blank cell leaves the product's claim as it is. Column names ignore capitals, spaces and underscores in both imports, so Origin Claim or origin_claim reads as originClaim. Store syncs and supplier feeds never set or remove a claim.

Through the API, the fields are origin_claim, origin_qualifier and origin_attested_at; see the API reference.

Listing review

Your products go live as soon as you save them. Nobody at BestWebby has to approve them first.

• You confirm each listing is lawful to sell. When you add a product, publish one, or change what shoppers read or see (the name, description, category, tags, photos or videos), you tick a box confirming you have the right to sell it, that it is lawful everywhere you sell it, that you hold any licence needed, and that the description and photos are accurate. A price, stock or shipping change never asks.
• Each confirmation is recorded with who confirmed, when, which version of the text, and exactly what the listing said at that moment. This applies to the bulk bar, CSV import, the API, and showing a partner item in your catalogue too.
• A few automatic checks still apply. A listing that names something not allowed (counterfeit goods, for example) is refused with the reason. A listing is held for a quick check when a photo matches one removed before, or when the automatic check is confident it shows something not allowed.
• The automatic check finishes a few minutes after you save, so it can take a listing that is already live off sale. When it does, you get an email and a notification naming the kind of problem (a designer logo in a photo, for example), and the product editor shows the same message for as long as the listing is held.
• To fix a held listing, change what the check found (replace a photo of a different product, or reword a health claim) and save: the title, description and photos are checked again straight away. Otherwise a person reviews it and you are emailed the outcome.
• A photo that shows a different product (a necklace on a ring listing, for example) does not stop a listing selling. The check leaves you a notice in the dashboard so you can replace the photo before shoppers notice.
• A listing found to break the rules is removed, and repeated breaches can lead to the account being suspended.