How can I see what date a product was published?

[PercysVintage]

Hi! I have an online vintage store so pretty much everything I sell has it's own product page as we never really get duplicates. 

Anyway, I'm doing my taxes for last year (yes, they are really overdue) and my accountant wants me to give an estimate of my stock levels at the beginning and end of that year.

Is there a way that I can put in a date and it will give me a stock list? In my full time job I can just select a date range to see the stock on hand at that time but it uses a custom online store set up and not Shopify, and is a much more comprehensive set up.

Alternatively, how can I see when an individual product was published?

Thanks!

[Allan]

Hey, there!

Jason here from Shopify Support.

Since you've mentioned in your post that the information is going to be used for tax purposes, I want to introduce you to Shopify Analytics. Though the data may not directly reflect on the inventory level from the beginning of 2018 to the end, there're numbers that may be equally useful for your accountant.

For going over your online sales by each order in 2018:

1. Log in to Shopify admin > Analytics > Reports > Finances > Total sales.
   
2. Once you're in the Sales report, click on the date range button on the top right corner. Select Last year then Apply.
   
3. The complete sales report from last year will come out and you can click on Export to get the CSV file to work the numbers backward.
   

For a general sales report in 2018:

1. Log in to Shopify admin > Analytics > Reports > Finances > Finances summary.
   
2. In the report, click on the date range button on the top right corner. Select Last year then Apply.
   
3. The general report from last year will come out and you can offer the data to your accountant.
   

If for any reason the data isn't enough for your accountant, I recommend you to try out an app called DeepMine. It offers more advanced reports and has a 60-day free trial period. Feel free to use the app and remove it before the trial day ends to avoid the app charges.

I hope this information helps, however, should you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reply back here and I'd be happy to help out!

All the best,
Jason

[mcunningham]

Hi,

Did you ever figure out how to find out when products were published? Would love to figure that out!

Thanks!

[Julie]

Hey, @mcunningham!

Julie here from Shopify Support. Jason is no longer able to follow this thread, so I'll be happy to further assist. 

At the moment, there is no way to view the date each product was created or published directly in the Shopify Admin. However, there is a neat little hack that will allow you to get this data. If you add /products.json to the end of your store URL, this will give you an array of all products in your store, along with the metadata for when each product was made available. For example, this would look something like example-store.myshopify.com/products.json. 

The Store Activity section of your Admin will also give you a breakdown of all the activity in your online store, including when products were published. This is typically located in the righthand sidebar of your Admin. If you're finding the .json method difficult to navigate, then this would be a good workaround. 

Alternatively, there is an app called Xporter Data Export Tool I recommend checking out. This app will allow you to view a report that displays the date each product was created. It also includes a free trial, so you can see if it will suit your needs. If you ever need any assistance in getting this report through the app, the developers also have Live Chat, which you can access directly on their FAQ page. 

I hope this helps! If you have any more questions, please feel free to respond here and I can further assist. 

[Ronda1987]

Hi Julie,

Hope you are doing well.

Is there still no way to view the date each product was created or published directly in the Shopify Admin?

Thank you for your help!

Ronda

[Julie]

Hi, Ronda.

Thanks for reaching out. Currently, to view the date that each product was created or published, you'll just need to follow the instructions outlined above. That being said, I do know that this is a feature that our developers are currently looking into. Feel free to keep an eye on our Shopify Changelog, where we routinely announce new platform features as they are released. 

Thanks again!

[Ronda1987]

Thank you! We’ll keep an eye 😉

[bij]

Hi Julie,

Have there been any updates regarding the publish date of products?

It would be incredibly beneficial to track aging of products in our store.

Looking forward to your response - thanks!

[Julie]

Hey, @bij! Thanks for reaching out.

At the moment, you'll still need to use either the Xporter Data Export Tool app or the .json method mentioned above to view the date each product was created. While I don't have any updates on whether this feature will be introduced in the near future, I recommend keeping a close eye on our Changelog. 

That being said, we have recently introduced advanced product sorting in the Products section of your admin, which you might find useful! This will allow you to sort your products by when they were created (Oldest first, or Newest first). To do this, you'll just need to select the Sort option in Products > All products. Here's what that looks like: 

I appreciate you joining in on the conversation and I can definitely understand the need for this feature, so I'll be adding your name to the feature request list for our developers. 

Thanks again!

[DMiradakis]

All,

For any technical people, you can find this field for all products in the Shopify REST API as well as the Shopify GraphQL API. Look on the Fields table on either page for the Product database object.

[AsbestosBill]

Through the /products.json method, I only got the last 30 products, but through reading a bit of what DMiradakis linked to, I decided to try going to a specific product page and appending .json to the URL. It works and is far more convenient.

[Robert_Tolmach1]

Actually, there is a way to see the addition of products and collections. A bit cumbersome, but try this link:

https://yourstorename.myshopify.com/admin/activity

For reasons that are beyond the comprehension of any rational mortal, there is no link to that page in the Admin section of the store. SMH.

Here is what it looked like in one of our stores.

[Genkichan]

This does not go far back enough for me 😞

[poshpeacock]

Is there any option to set the default display for items based on sorting ONLY the "created - newest" rather than just "newest"? I would like our "New Arrivals" collection to show only NEW items - not items that presently seem to move to "new" status when they get a price update.

[poshpeacock]

It would be so helpful if they put the new-created as on option for the default sort on a Collection. Please add my name to one who is hoping this update is added SOON! 

[Jeff-Billykite]

I am still searching for an answer to this in 2021. We have +1Ok products so using the .json method doesn't help it could be such a simple feature to know when a product was created/published like it is in Woo Commerce

[SingleLength]

I can't believe it has been over 2 years since Shopify said this feature is being "looked into" but it still hasn't been implemented! It has to be the easiest thing to possibly add; just include the creation date (which is surely stored in the Shopify backend as it's viewable on the products.json page, and can be accessed using a 3rd party app) as one of the specs on each product page. SO EASY! COME ON SHOPIFY, GET WITH IT! 

[Leemsy]

How is Shopify not embarrassed at their complete ineptitude in this matter? This is basic product information that should be appended under the publish button on the product page, along with a history of when it was drafted and republished. 

Asking people to hunt through massive JSON objects is ridiculous and unhelpful. You literally point out that the data is there and accessible but refuse to assign a Shopify dev to render it in a little section on product pages. You're supposed to be better than Woocommerce as an Integrated Ecommerce solution and you lack such simple, basic information so frequently that it's baffling Shopify is used as much as it is. Are you looking for a Dev? It would be great to work for you; I could collect pay for years doing nothing.