Bulk Upload Images and Link Images to Variations on Etsy

Images are a vital part of your Etsy listings. With Etsy being fully online, images are one of the two ways customers can see how your product looks, operates, or is worn. With this importance in mind, Etsy lets users upload ten images to each product listing. However, uploading images can only be done one listing at a time. That is where Shop Uploader comes in.

This article covers:

• What are Etsy’s image requirements?
• How to bulk upload images using Shop Uploader
• How images get uploaded to Shop Uploader
• Uploading your file

How do I bulk upload images to Etsy?

Shop owners can only bulk upload ten images to a single listing. There is no way to bulk upload images to multiple listings through Etsy. This limitation is where programs like Shop Uploader come in. Using a single spreadsheet, Shop Uploader lets users bulk upload images to all their listings at once.

What are Etsy’s image requirements?

Etsy allows you to upload ten images to each listing you create. These images must be at least 50x50 pixels. However, Etsy recommends that your images be at least 3000 pixels. Lastly, images can be at most 10MB in size.

How to bulk upload images using Shop Uploader

Bulk uploading via Shop Uploader is considerably faster than using Etsy. With Shop Uploader, you can add, edit, and delete your images from all of your listings at the same time.

The only complex part of uploading images with Shop Uploader is providing a publically viewable URL for your images. You can use websites like Imgur, Amazon web services, or your company’s website. Do make sure that you are providing a url that contains your image’s file extension.

To begin bulk uploading, you must first download a Shop uploader template from the Templates page. Once downloaded, fill out the listing's information until you reach the linked_image_url column. Only two column types accept your image's publically viewable image URL. Those are the linked_image_url column and the image_# columns.

image_url

The image_url column links an image to a variation in a listing. Linking an image to a variation means the image appears when the variation is selected. These images also appear on the listings slideshow.

image_#

The image_# columns hold the rest of your images. The # ranges from 1 to 10, so the columns you see will be image_1 instead of image_#. These images do not get linked to any variations. They do, however, still appear in the listing’s image slideshow.

In addition to these two columns, there are two additional image-based columns. Those are image_position, and image_for_option.

image_position

This column dictates where your images appear in the listing image slideshow. If you enter 1, then the image will appear first. If you enter 10, then the image will appear last.

image_for_option

This column indicates which product variation the image is assigned. Say you are selling bouncy balls. These bouncy balls vary in both their color and size. If you enter _primary_color into this column, your images show how your bouncy balls are changing by color. So in your image_url or image_# columns, you could have images of blue, green, red, and yellow bouncy balls.

How Shop Uploader handles uploading images

When uploading your images, Shop Uploader begins in the image_url column. It starts from the first row of the listing and continues down to the last. It determines these rows from the parent_sku column.

Next, Shop Uploader moves to the image_1 column. It again starts from the top and moves to the last row. It continues this process until it reaches the image_10 column.

Below is a visualization of how Shop Uploader processes images:

Don’t worry about duplicate URLs. Shop Uploader handles those for you 👍.

Image handling technicalities

If you enter the same number for image_position multiple times, the last image assigned to that position gets it. The remaining images get moved to the lowest available positions.

If you enter numbers higher than the total number of images, your images get shifted to the lowest available position. For example, if you have three images and label them as 8, 9, and 10. They will appear on the Etsy slideshow in the 1, 2, and 3 positions.

Below is an example using higher positions than the total number of images:

Images linked using image_url always get placed before images from image_# in the Etsy slideshow.

Uploading Your File

Now that you've completed your template, head on over to the Upload Center (must be logged in) to complete your first bulk upload.