On Shopify it is recommended to upload the highest quality images you have since Shopify offers the capability to enhance your images through cropping and resizing processes.
Shopify serves images from its CDN and it will automatically choose the optimal image format for delivering images on your store, so you don’t need to compress the images manually before uploading them if you do not want to.
My recommendation is to optimize them but keep them high quality so they can look good across devices, especially on Apple’s Retina and HD displays.
First login to your Shopify admin. If you do not know how to follow this tutorial: How to login into your shopify store?
Upload images
Once you are logged inside your store go to the “Content” menu item in the admin left sidebar like in the image below:
Now select the “Files” menu item (marked with 1 in the image below).
On this page you have the ability to upload and store all of your necessary files in one central location.
Whether it’s images, videos, audio files, or even PDFs, you can easily upload and manage your files right here.
To start uploading, simply click the “Upload files” button (marked with 2 in the image below) and select the files you wish to upload.
Select your images from your local environment.
Navigate to the folder that contains your images, in my case is my “Desktop” folder (marked with 1 in the image below), click to select the first image and after use ⌘ + A on Mac OS or CTRL + A on Windows to select all files.
If you have all files selected you’ll see them highlighted in a blue color on Mac.
Now click the “Open” button (marked with 3 in the image below) to upload your files to Shopify:
Shopify will list some messages on the right corner about the upload process and when this process is completed you’ll see a success message (marked with 1 in the image below) and your new uploaded files (marked with 2 in the image below) listed under the “Files” page like in the image below:
At this point in time your images are uploaded to Shopify and you can use them.
Properly name the image files
When you perform a search to find an image file the only way for Shopify search engine to find it is via the file name since at this time the Shopify file manager is pretty limited in what it can do compared to other CMS’s out there.
A thing to keep in mind and something that I always do and advise my clients is to properly name the image files before uploading, since when you’ll be searching after them you’ll have a hard time to find the image that you need.
I’ve seen it many times when the client can’t find the image file due to bad naming or not naming and what it does since it is faster to re-upload the image file and you’ll end up with a total mess inside the files manager.
Avoid uploading files with the same name twice or more since when you do that Shopify will upload the file but it will add a unique identifier to the file.
If you have the file:
"my-image.jpg"
when you add it the second time Shopify will give a name like:
"my-image_7C59E090-CE74-4F71-8F96-764B606F8F78.jpg"
which makes it hard to identify.
As you see in the example below I’ve uploaded the “social-default.jpg” file (marked with 1 in the image below) two times and what Shopify did with the file name (marked with 2 in the image below):
Setup alternative text for SEO
Make sure you also set up ALT text for your images to help search engines understand what the image is about.
ALT text comes from “Alternative text” and it contains a description of the image so that search engines know what the image is about and it helps with accessibility as well, meaning the screen readers can prompt users with special needs what the image is about.
I’ve seen it many times, either store owners do not know what this ALT thing is or they are in a hurry to upload the image and get done with it.
Yes, this is important since search is not performed only on text based, but on images as well.
Do this correctly and you’ll see an increase in your visitors to the store.
To setup the ALT text click on the image and type the text in the ALT input box (marked with 1 in the image below) and after hit the “Save” button like in the image below:
Image formats
Shopify offers support for multiple image formats, including JPEG, Progressive JPEG, PNG, GIF, HEIC, WebP, and AVIF.
The platform is designed to automatically recognize the image formats supported by your customer’s browser and then displays the images in the optimal format available.
This ensures that your images look great and load quickly for all customers, regardless of the device they’re using.
When uploading images to your Shopify store, it’s important to choose the right format for each image to ensure the best quality and performance.
If you’re not sure which format to use, JPEG is a safe choice for most images.
Upload limitations
When uploading images to Shopify, there are limitations in terms of both the number of pixels (megapixels) and the file size (megabytes).
The maximum allowed values are 20 megapixels and 20 megabytes, respectively.
To calculate the number of megapixels in an image, use the formula (pixel width x pixel height) / 1,000,000.
For instance, an image with a resolution of 2400×3600 pixels would be 8.64 megapixels, computed as (2400×3600) / 1,000,000 = 8.64 MP.
Regarding the number of files there is no specific limit you can upload to Shopify.
You can upload as many product images as you need to showcase your products effectively and provide customers with a clear idea of what they’re buying.
However, it’s worth noting that having too many images can also slow down your site and negatively impact the customer experience.
To avoid this, it’s recommended to use a limited number of high-quality images that effectively showcase what you need to your customers, rather than uploading a large number of low-quality images.
Where can you use the images
The images uploaded via the “Files” manager can’t be used in products, collections or the blog featured image.
For these types you need to upload the images separately in the relevant sections of your Shopify admin.
For example, if you want to add an image to a product, you’ll need to go to the product’s edit page and upload the image directly in the “Media” section.
Similarly, if you want to add an image to a collection, you’ll need to go to the collection’s edit page and upload the image in the “Collection image” section.
Since the “Files” manager is pretty limited in my opinion in comparison with other popular CMS’s out there, this separation of files helps to ensure that you can easily manage and organize the images used in your store, and makes it easier to keep track of which images are used where.
By following this approach, you can ensure that your store is well-organized, visually appealing, and provides a great customer experience.
The images uploaded under the “Files” section can be used inside your theme sections in the theme customizer, inside theme code (if you know how to request them), in metafields, in pages content and in blog posts (articles).
Conclusion
I hope this helps you with the bulk image upload and saves you some time in the long run.