Easiest way to upload thousands of product pictures

LAltmann3
Visitor
1 0 3

Hey all, I currently have an e-commerce store with everything ready to go however I have about 13k pictures from my wholesaler that I need to upload. What is the easiest way to go about doing this? I've tried the pxupload plugin but had no results.

Replies 13 (13)

Lulu
Shopify Staff
911 87 223

Hey, @LAltmann3!

 

Lulu here from the Shopify Support team. Thanks for reaching out here, and I'll be more than happy to help you out.

 

There are two methods to bulk import images into your Shopify store! You can either use our product CSV file template or use an app like this one. The Pxupload app is usually a good one too, can I ask why it didn't work for you? With the CSV file, you can include the image URLs in the CSV file for each product, including multiple variants images. Once the products are imported, the URLs will convert to Shopify image URLs, in case something were to happen to the original URLs.

 

Another solution is to first import the products then you could use the Image Manager app I linked above to organize the product images. If you prefer using the CSV file, please take a look at this Shopify Doc for additional information! CSV files can be a bit of work but they are great when you get the hang of them, if you choose this method, I always find the app 'Excelify' helps to make CSV files much easier and quicker.

 

I hope this helps, we are always here for you 24/7 in case you have any other questions or concerns! 

 

Kind regards,

Lulu

Lulu | Social Care @ Shopify
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northlandweb
Visitor
2 0 7

Hi Lulu,

The reviews on PxUpload don't look too good. Is it an official Shopify app or third party?

We are in a similar situation. I have read the features of all you've suggested but there is still no solution I can see - do Shopify expect users to copy and paste URL's to the CSV file thousands of times? One would have thought that naming a file to be the same as the SKU should automatically match itself to a product in the back end or something of this nature. This is Shopify - I'm surprised true bulk image import isn't available.

Please let me know if I am wrong. Having to cut and paste the CDN URL thousands of times is definitely not the answer we are seeking.

 

Cheers,

 

Josh

 

 

ricaza
Shopify Partner
3 0 3

@northlandweb I believe you are right. You will need to define the url for each of the images in your csv (Excel) file. If you named all your images with the SKU (such as 42133.jpg) you should be in good shape. You can use Excel features to create a column with the common part of the url and copy it for all products in a second. For example: https://www.yourdomain.com/images/

Then in a separate column use the CONCATENATE feature in Excel to combine that column with the SKU column, and in the same process add the final ".jpg" part. The result will be something like:  https://www.yourdomain.com/images/42133.jpg

Maybe there are some apps or methods around, but if the process is made like that you could finish it in just a couple of minutes, even if you are working with thousands of products. Just have in mind that you need to upload images to a server or cloud place so you can have a URL. That could even be your Files section inside Shopify, and you will have a url such as: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0111/6490/3010/files/....   Hope this helps. 

recordplayerz
Visitor
2 0 1

@ricaza i wish shopify would make it that easy. the issue is when uploading an image file to files section,  shopify doesnt simply add the image name at the end of the url. shopify adds some random info that we cannot predict. it would be so easy to just allow us to add file name at end of the url and we could use excel to make csv. for this one decision shopify has stuck to,  it has been years of headache and wasted time ffor me. btw pxupload is always messing up uploads..i have a huge list of upload errors that never made sense and yet i still waste money on it

ricaza
Shopify Partner
3 0 3

Hi @recordplayerz 

Yes, I assume you are referring to the ?v=SOMECODE part at the end of the URL? If that is the case, you can ignore that part and the image will be shown as well.

ie: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0457/6490/3070/files/SAG12860-05.jpg?v=1598655555

or

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0457/6490/3070/files/SAG12860-05.jpg

The main part of the URL will be the same for all images, up to the second /files/, so if you use the SKU as the file name for example that saves you a lot of time in most cases since you can concatenate that repetitive part of the url, with your SKU column in your csv file. The "concatenate" function in Excel is very useful for this purpose and makes the job a lot easier. 

But yes, I understand your point since it requires some kind of workaround.

 

 

movsumov
Shopify Partner
57 1 21

Hello, I see it is an old question but I would like to add a reply to this for the people who are coming to the topic from Google.

We recently created a Shopify App which is solving this problem.

This app can save you a lot of time by automatically uploading all your product images from Google Drive to your products.

Your product images should be names the same as the SKUs of your products. Then it will take just a few minutes to upload all images at once.

We have a free plan take a look into it. https://apps.shopify.com/smart-image-upload 

morepower
Shopify Partner
18 0 2

Does this utility support Dropbox?

ricaza
Shopify Partner
3 0 3

@morepower I'm not 100% sure if there is a way, but I believe that when you upload photos to Dropbox, it would create random url's for each file, so you won't be able to recognize a pattern. It would be easier if you can upload those pictures to a web server, so you can control the url structure.  

morepower
Shopify Partner
18 0 2

Thanks for the reply! I was asking about the previous post regarding Smart Image Upload, and if also supported Dropbox.

SpencerRead
Visitor
1 0 0

Hey! It sounds like you have had a massive task ahead of you with uploading 13k pictures, and I'm sure there are lots of people who has same challenges. Finding an efficient way to handle this can indeed be challenging. I would highly recommend checking out Smart Bulk Image Upload. It's specifically designed for Shopify stores to make the bulk uploading process as smooth and effortless as possible.

With Smart Bulk Image Upload, you can easily upload thousands of product images directly to your store without the hassle. It offers a user-friendly interface and powerful features to help you organize and map your images to the respective products, saving you a significant amount of time and effort. Whether your images are named with SKUs or Barcodes, this app has got you covered.

The app simplifies the process, allowing you to upload images from Google Drive to Shopify store, and it takes care of the rest. It's a great solution to manage large volumes of images efficiently, ensuring that your e-commerce store looks professional with minimal effort on your part.

You can find more about it and see how it can fit into your workflow by visiting Smart Bulk Image Upload on the Shopify App Store. Many users have found it to be a game-changer for their online stores, and it could be the solution you're looking for to tackle the challenge of uploading thousands of pictures."

SteveTT
Shopify Partner
39 4 16

You should try Uploado.

 

It can handle thousands of pictures, works without using csv, plus it does not have the high monthly subscription cost like other apps. It also has a generous free plan to get you started. You should check it out.

StanJewellery
New Member
4 0 0

Try this app https://apps.shopify.com/pics-io-import-plugin , works for any number of images, integrates quickly with your Google Drive (100 images upload limit during trial, keep that in mind). 

SKRASTS
Excursionist
23 0 4

After looking at a few of these apps, I used Filetastic to do this. Pretty intuitive and reasonably priced.