Uploading your first 50 products properly

This is the dullest part of setting up a shop, and the one that decides the most. Rush fifty products in, tell yourself you'll fix them later, and six months on you'll be fixing four hundred.

Product titles#

Start the title with the word people search for and leave the decoration until last.

Bad: "STYLISH AND PREMIUM | Custom Design | Handmade Leather Bag | FREE SHIPPING"

Good: "Handmade Leather Shoulder Bag | Tan"

Build the title in this order: product type, distinguishing feature, variant. Don't lead with your brand. The customer already knows they're in your shop.

Product descriptions#

Write it in two layers. At the top, three to five quick facts such as dimensions, material and what it's for. Below that, explain how it was made, who it suits and what it goes with.

Most customers read the bullet points and decide. The longer text is for the undecided and for search engines.

Never do this#

Don't copy the supplier's description. When the same text sits on hundreds of sites, Google doesn't rank any of them higher. Two paragraphs in your own words do more than ten copied ones.

Photos#

Take at least four photos per product: the whole item on a plain background, a detail such as the texture, stitching or label, the item in use or being worn, and one that shows its size next to a familiar object.

Keep them all at the same ratio on the same background. Lined up on a category page, mixed ratios look messy and make the shop look amateur.

Don't skip the file name either. Use "handmade-leather-shoulder-bag-tan.jpg" instead of "IMG_4471.jpg". Image search sends more traffic than people expect.

Variants#

Enter colour and size differences as variants of one product. If you list each one as a separate product, your reviews get split up, stock tracking gets confusing and the same content repeats across pages.

Give every variant its own stock code (SKU). When orders pile up, tracking which size has sold out by code is far faster than searching by name.

Category structure#

Don't build a deep category tree up front. Three or four categories are plenty for fifty products. A four-level structure like "Women > Bags > Shoulder Bags > Leather Shoulder Bags" isn't needed until you have thousands of products.

Customers narrow things down with filters anyway. Keep categories broad and make the filters detailed.

Do one product properly first#

Before you start on all fifty, prepare one product completely: title, two-layer description, four photos, variants, SKU, category and meta description.

Then use it as a template. Spotting a mistake on product fifteen costs far less than spotting it on product fifty.