Shopify Bulk Editor Tips

How to bulk edit in Shopify

You can bulk edit products within the admin by using the Shopify bulk editor. To access the editor:

Go to your Shopify admin and open up the product list page
Select the checkbox next to each of the products you want to edit
Click on the Bulk edit button that appears at the bottom of the page.
Make your changes to the displayed product data
Click on the Save button to commit your changes

What is the Shopify Bulk editor?

The Shopify bulk editor is a spreadsheet-like interface where you can update data for multiple products from the same screen.

It is useful for situations where you have 1-2 product fields that you want to edit on a small number of products. You can simply move between the different products and update the values, without having to load each product separately in the Shopify admin.

The bulk editor also works on collections and inventories.

Shopify Bulk editor keyboard shortcuts

You can use keyboard shortcuts to move through and edit your products in the bulk editor more quickly.

There's several ways to move between cells:

The arrow keys - this is the simplest but does require you to move you hands out of the typing position
Tab move to the next cell in the horizontal direction
Shift+Tab move back one cell in the horizontal direction

To edit a highlighted cell just start typing in it. If you're having trouble you can also press Return to enable edit mode for the cell. Once you've finished adding your new value, press Return and you can move on to the next cell. Note, your data isn't saved at this point, to save your data you need to click on the Save button at the top of the screen.

Problems with the Shopify Bulk editor

While the Shopify Bulk editor can be a quick way to update products, you can run into several problems while using it.

The first is that it's easy to loose your work. The data you enter isn't saved until you click on the Save button at the top of the page. If you fill out a whole screen and then leave the page without clicking it, all your work will be lost.

Another issue is that it can take a long time for new Shopify features to be supported by the Shopify Bulk editor. For example, metafield definitions for products were released in 2021 however it took until November 2022 for the Shopify bulk editor to support metafield definitions.

There are other small inconsistencies between the Shopify Bulk editor and the admin too. For example, as of June 2023, the bulk editor refers to the price field for variants as 'Base Price', will the rest of the Shopify admin just calls it the 'Price'. These differences can lead to confusion as to what field you're actually editing.

Finally, support for rich text metafields is limited. You can open up a rich text metafield in the Shopify bulk editor but it's not possible to add a new line in the text edit box. Pressing return or shift+return moves you to the next cell instead of adding a new line to your text.

Tips for using the Shopify Bulk editor

Here are some tips for using the Shopify Bulk editor:

Save your work often - there's nothing more frustrating than loosing your work because the editor had a glitch
Save your work before going to the next page of products
If you want to edit different fields, click on the Columns button at the top of the screen
Use keyboard shortcuts - press the arrow keys to move between cells and the enter key to edit a cell
Filter your products on the product list page in the admin first if you just want to edit a subset of products
You can modify the URL for the Shopify bulk editor to view Google Shopping fields

Overall, the Shopify bulk editor is a good tool for making quick edits across several different products at once. If you need additional features like undoing edits you can try our Shopify bulk editor for products.