If you work in e-commerce, you probably know how time-consuming and tedious it is to create product descriptions for your Shopify catalog.

One of the most time-consuming tasks with no added value is the layout.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to generate product descriptions for your Shopify catalog using Make (Intergomat). In particular, we'll be using Abyssale

Creating your visuals with Abyssale

You'll need visuals for your product description. To mark your branding, you may need to do some editing.

To give you an example, we decided to simulate the creation of a product description for a women's long-sleeved sailboat. Here's what the visuals we want to create look like:

Visual 1:

Introduction of marinière

Visual 2 :

Product sheet's visual

We create templates in 1080x1080 px format from Abyssale. To adapt these visuals to each product, certain elements must be modifiable.

For visual 1, only the photo of the sailor will be modified. The element will be called "product_photo ".

For visual 2, there are more elements: the product photo, the text zones in white on a blue background, and the price. Here's how we'll name them in the Abyssale template:

  • product_photo
  • material
  • sizes
  • colors
  • country
  • washing
  • price

Once the templates are ready, you can generate your first visuals by clicking on Single generation.

Create a template for your Shopify product descriptions

Before automating anything, you need to establish a structural basis for your product descriptions.

Log in to your Shopify account. In the left-hand column, click on "products". Then click on the "add a product " button in the top right-hand corner of your screen.

This will take you to the product builder. Edit the description for your first product. When building it, keep in mind that all product descriptions will have the same structure.

Here's how our product description looks:

part of the product sheet builder

We added the photo from its URL. To retrieve this address, right-click on the photo generated earlier on Abyssale and select "copy image address ".

Once the structure of your product description is complete, click on "&lt/&gt" in the top right-hand corner of the builder. The HTML code for your description will appear.

Here's what the HTML code for the sample description looks like:

product sheet html code

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This code will serve as a template for all your product descriptions.

In our example, there are 7 elements in order:

  • 1 H1 title
  • A 1ʳᵉ text zone
  • A 1ʳᵉ photo
  • 1 H2 title
  • A 2ᵉ text zone
  • A 2ᵈᵉ photo
  • A 3ᵉ text zone

Creating a database with Google Sheets

Now that you've got your template code and the templates for your visuals ready, you're going to need to create a database. As you fill it in, new products will be automatically added to Shopify (the last step in this tutorial will be to automate the generation of visuals and product descriptions).

Start by creating a new Google Sheets document. *In our example, we'll call it "Shopify Product Descriptions".

On the first line, we'll add the following columns:

  • Title (for product name)
  • Type of product (for the type of product)
  • x columns for each element of the second Abyssale template*.
  • x columns for each element of your product sheet template. For our example, we'll have 6 columns**.
  • HTML body (for the product sheet HTML)

(*) Here's how we've named the 6 columns for Abyssale's visual #2 for our example:

  • Material
  • Size
  • Colors
  • Country
  • Washing
  • Price

(**) Here is how we have named the 6 columns concerning the product sheet for our example:

  • H1 title
  • Intro text
  • Product photo
  • Title H2
  • Description text
  • CTA

Create a Make scenario

This is the last operation before automating the creation of your product description. It's also the longest and the one that requires the most concentration. Nothing complicated! Just make sure you follow each step carefully.

Once you've created a new Make scenario, remember to rename it so you can find it easily later.

In our example, we'll rename it "Shopify Product Description Tutorial ".

Add a Google Sheets module "Watch news rows"

Connect the Google Sheets you created earlier.

Add an Abyssale module "Generate Single Image"

This module will be used to generate the first photo in our example. Connect the corresponding Abyssale template. Then add the variables in the corresponding lines.

In our example, we'll select the "Photo 1 Shopify" template and add the variable [Photo 1 (K)] to the "Element : product_photo / image_url." line.

Add a new Google Sheets module "Updates a row"

Complete some lines so that the url of image 1 generated by Abyssale registers in the database:

  • Row number = [Row number] (from the first Google Sheets module)
  • Photo 1 Shopify = [File : File url] (from the first Abyssale module)

Repeat the operation as many times as you have images to generate with Abyssale

For our example, we add a second Abyssale module "Generate Single Image". After connecting this module to our second photo, we fill in the lines as follows:

  • Title - payload = [Title (A)] (from Google Sheets module 1)
  • product_photo - image_url = [Product Photo (K)] (from Google Sheets module 1)* material - payload = [Product Photo (K)] (from Google Sheets module 1) (from Google Sheets module 1)
  • material - payload = [Material (C)] (from module 1 of Google Sheets)*
  • Size - payload = [Size (D)] (from Google Sheets module 1)
  • colors - payload = [Colors (E)] (from Google Sheets module 1)
  • country - payload = [Country (F)] (from Google Sheets module 1)
  • washing - payload = [Washing (G)] (from Google Sheets module 1)
  • price - payload = [Price (H)] (from Google Sheets module 1)

Then, a new Google Sheets module "Updates a Row" allows us to save the url of the image generated by Abyssale in the "Photo 2 Shopify" column of the database.

Add a Google Sheets module "Updates a Row"

The aim here is to automatically create HTML from the information that appears in your Google Sheets. You have to fill in each column manually except for "Photo 1 Shopify", "Photo 2 Shopify" and "Body HTML", which your Make automation will fill in.

There are only 2 rows to fill in this module:

  • In the row number line, select the variable [Row number].
row number line
  • In the Body HTML line, it's a little more technical:

Start by pasting in your template's HTML code. Then, locate each of the text elements and replace them with the corresponding variables without touching the rest of the code.

In our example, we've replaced :

  • "Embrace the style of the sea" with the variable [Title H1 (I)].
  • "With its simple, streamlined style, this long-sleeved swimsuit can be adapted to almost any everyday situation." by the variable [Intro Text (J)]
  • "https://production-banners.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/1a89bf91-a4ae-46e8-8ba7-809cc3cedd14/9a8dcf7e-fc33-4a96-b11d-499a6af0c883.jpeg" by the variable [File: File url] in the first Abyssale module.
  • and so on... to arrive at the result below :
body HTML line 'Make extract)
  • The "Body HTML" section is a simple copy-paste from the "Body HTML" section of the previous Google Sheets "Updates a Row" module.

In addition, we deliberately select the "draft" status to avoid the product appearing directly in the catalog. There will still be a few adjustments to make on Shopify before putting it up for sale and changing the status to "Active".

Finally, here's how our scenario looks :

Make scenario

The more images you have from Abyssale templates, the longer your scenario will be.

Test your scenario

If you've followed the instructions in this tutorial step by step, everything should work. Sometimes, however, you may come up short. That's why it's important to test your scenario.

Start by adding a line to your Google Sheets document. Then, on Make, run the scenario.

If no error message appears, you should :

  • find the URLs generated by Abyssale in the "Photo 1 Shopify" and "Photo 2 Shopify" columns
  • find the HTML code of your product sheet in the "body HTML" column of your Google Sheets document.
  • see a new product appear in the list of products on your Shopify store, as in the photo below.

All you have to do is click on the product to fill in the missing information (price, delivery times, etc.).

Now you're ready to draw up product descriptions faster than you can count with Abyssale!

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