I have about 200 products of a certain type that need a mass description change. They are all being changed to the same thing but they need to include the product name in each description. Manually doing this is going to take forever. Is there any automated way to do this and have the title name be inserted into each description per product?
Also needed to mass edit photos, does this need to be done manually as well? 200 listings + 4 photos each?
Looking for the easiest way to get this done. Thank you.
Yes, you can automate both tasks there’s no need to edit 200 products one by one.
For the descriptions, a common approach is to export your products as a CSV, use Excel or Google Sheets to generate the new description with a formula inserting each product’s title into the same template, and then import the CSV back into Shopify. If you’re comfortable using apps, tools like Matrixify or other bulk product editors can make this even easier.
For the images, it depends on what you’re changing. If you’re replacing images and have the new image URLs available, they can also be updated in bulk via CSV or a bulk import app. If the images only exist on your computer and don’t have URLs yet, you’ll typically need a bulk import tool that supports image uploads, otherwise uploading them manually can become very time consuming.
For 200 products, I’d definitely recommend using a CSV workflow or a bulk editing app rather than making the changes individually.
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Note: You can Excel Copilot or Gemini AI to update it quickly.
3. Select that column, Copy, then Paste special > Values only into the Body (HTML) column. Now delete every other column except Handle and Title.
Products > Import > add the file > tick Overwrite products that have the same handle > import.
The part that keeps you safe: to update, Shopify only needs Handle and Title. Any column you delete keeps its current value. But a column you leave in and blank gets wiped. So trim the file to Handle + Title + Body (HTML) and nothing else.
A CSV carries image links, not the files off your computer.
Photos already online: add columns Image Src (plus Image Position and Image Alt Text) to the same file, one row per image, repeating the Handle. Position 1, 2, 3, 4 sets the order.
Photos only on your computer: upload them first under Content > Files, copy each file’s URL, then drop those URLs into Image Src and import the same way.
Doing a full swap of all four photos on 200 product: use Matrixify. It reads images straight from a Drive or Dropbox folder and replaces the old set in one go.
mZee — doing a mass update across 200 products (descriptions + images) natively in Shopify UI will take hours and is prone to human error.
The cleanest native way to handle a 200-product batch update without paid apps is via Shopify’s Product CSV export:
Export your 200 products: Go to Products → Export → All products → CSV for Excel/Plain CSV.
Edit in Bulk: Open the CSV in Excel/Google Sheets. Keep the ‘Handle’, ‘Title’, ‘Body (HTML)’ (for descriptions), and ‘Image Src’ / ‘Variant Image’ columns.
Bulk HTML Description Update: You can write HTML tags directly into the ‘Body (HTML)’ column. Use a concatenation formula in Excel if you want to prepend/append standard text across all 200 rows in seconds.
Image Synchronization Note: If your updated image references are raw WebP links from supplier CDNs (common with Asian manufacturers), Shopify’s background CSV importer may reject or drop them. Shopify expects standard static .jpg or .png URLs.
If your 200 products involve multi-variant images (like Color x Size combinations), Shopify requires strict per-row duplication of the image URL across all size variants of the same color.
If you want to automate the WebP-to-JPG conversion and CSV multi-row variant formatting locally on your machine, consider using EasyCatch (a client-side Chrome extension). It transpiles WebP images to JPG in your browser sandbox and exports a Matrixify-compliant ZIP with pre-mapped variant CSV rows, cutting a 200-product update down to under 5 minutes. 100% Local-First so no store data leaves your browser.
The CSV approach should work. I’d test it on a few Shopify products first and only include the identifiers and fields you want to change. For the photos, the new images will need to be uploaded or available by URL.
You could also use Altera to update the descriptions and images together. It integrates with Shopify Sidekick, and since the free plan supports 100 rows per job, you could split the 200 products into two jobs and do it for free.
You definitely don’t need to edit 200 products one by one. The easiest route is a product CSV:
Export only those 200 products from Shopify.
In Google Sheets or Excel, use a formula to combine the product title with your new description text.
Import the updated CSV back and overwrite the matching products.
Test it with 2–3 products first, and keep the original export as a backup.
For the 800 photos, it depends on what you mean by “edit.” If you’re replacing or rearranging them, this can also be handled in bulk using image URLs in the CSV. If you need to crop, resize, or retouch the actual images, you’ll need to batch-process them first, then upload the new versions.
We handle bulk Shopify import product data regularly at LitExtension, and CSV is usually the quickest option for a task like this. Just be careful not to change the product handles or CSV structure during editing.
Yes, you can automate both tasks without editing each product individually.
For descriptions, you can export your products as a CSV, use a spreadsheet formula to generate the new description by inserting the product title into your template, and then import the updated CSV back into Shopify. If you’re comfortable with bulk editing, this is usually the fastest approach for hundreds of products.
For photos, if you’re replacing existing images, you can also do this via a product CSV by updating the image URLs, provided your new images are hosted online. Alternatively, bulk product management apps can make image updates much easier if you expect to do this regularly.
Before importing any bulk changes, I’d recommend exporting a backup of your products so you can easily restore them if anything doesn’t look right.
The CSV route ajaycodewiz laid out is the right mechanic. One thing worth building into the formula before you run it though: if the product name is the only thing that varies across 200 descriptions, you get 200 pages that read as near identical to Google, and they end up competing with each other rather than ranking.
Cheap fix is to pull a second column into the same formula. Whatever genuinely differs between those products, size, material, capacity, is already sitting in your export, so drop it in next to the title and each description comes out actually different.
While you’re in the file, the Image Alt Text column ajaycodewiz mentioned takes the same treatment. A formula combining the title and the image position fills all 800 in one pass, and that is usually the only realistic chance anyone gets to do alt text at scale.
