Automatically generating product descriptions

You can use Shopify Magic to write and edit product descriptions using automatic text generation. This feature uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to take details that you provide, such as a product title and keywords, and generates a suggestion for a product description. Shopify Magic can also offer suggestions to help you rewrite selected text from an existing description.

Before you generate automatic text for your product descriptions, review Tips for using Shopify Magic text generation.

Caution

You're responsible for the accuracy of all of the content that you publish to your store, even when you use automatic text generation to create it. Generated text can include things such as product benefits even when you didn’t list any explicitly, and facts based on other published content related to similar products. It’s important that you read all generated content closely to ensure accuracy before publishing. Refer to Shopify’s Terms of Service to learn more about your responsibilities for store content.

Supported languages

​ Support for automatically generated product descriptions is currently available in the following languages:

• English
• German
• Spanish
• French
• Italian
• Japanese
• Portuguese (Brazilian)
• Chinese (Simplified)

By default, American English is the dialect used for English suggestions. The language data that the AI uses is largely from North American sources, so generated content might contain vocabulary and expressions that are local to that region. You can change any part of the content suggestions to match what your customers would expect.

The language used to generate your output suggestions is determined by the default language for your storefront. If your default storefront language isn't one of the supported languages, then this feature isn't available in your Shopify admin. You can update this language setting by going to Settings > Languages and clicking Change default.

Although the list of supported languages are the languages that have been verified, the text generation might work for additional languages to differing degrees of quality. If you want to try generating output in your preferred language, then you can use special instructions to specify the output language to use. For example, you could include the instruction Write the description in Norwegian. Because the quality of the output might vary significantly, you should only use this method for languages that you're comfortable reading and evaluating. Another strategy is to generate the English output, and then use the Translate and Adapt app to translate the generated output to your preferred language. ​

Drafting a full product description

Note

Text generation isn't supported on iPhone or Android. To automatically generate product descriptions, access your Shopify admin from a desktop computer.

When you need to write a new product description, you can use automatically generated descriptions to help you get started. The tone for generated content is set by default to the last option that you used, but you can change it before you generate new content. In most cases, it’s best to maintain a consistent tone for product descriptions across your store.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Products.

2. Click a product that you want to draft a description for.

3. In the product description text box, click the Generate text icon in the toolbar.

4. Enter some product features or keywords. The more details you add, the more relevant the suggested content will be.

5. Optional: Select a new tone for your description. You can select one of the predefined tones, or add a custom tone to use. Learn more about choosing a tone for your product descriptions.

6. Optional: If you want to provide additional instructions for generating your description, then you can add instructions in the Special instructions field. Refer to Using special instructions for information about the types of instructions you can provide.

7. Click Generate to generate the first version of your suggested content.

8. Optional: You might want to use the following steps to generate and review several versions of a product description before choosing one as a draft:

   • To refresh the suggested content and get a new version, click Generate again.
   • To change the tone of the generated content, select a different tone option, and then click Generate again.
   • To view different versions that you’ve generated, use the arrows below the generated text to move forward and backward through the versions.

9. Click Keep to add the suggested content to your description and close the window.

10. Edit and format the product description to match your product and brand, and then click Save. Published products display the new product description right away.

Edit existing product descriptions

Note

Text generation isn't supported on iPhone or Android. To automatically generate product descriptions, access your Shopify admin from a desktop computer.

You can use Shopify Magic to edit sections of an existing product description.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Products.

2. Click a product that you want to edit the description for.

3. Select the text that you want to edit, and then click the Generate text icon to display a menu of editing options:

   • To generate a new version of the selected text, select the tone for the rewritten text, and then click Rephrase.
   • To generate a shorter or simplified version of the selected text, click Simplify.
   • To make the selected content longer, such as by adding another sentence, click Extend.

4. Optional: You can use the following steps to generate and review several versions of a product description before choosing one as a draft:

5. To refresh the suggested content and get a new version, tap Generate again.

6. To change the tone of the generated content, select a different tone option, and then tap Generate again.

7. If you want to provide additional instructions for generating your description, for example changing the length, format, or other custom details, then you can click the Special instructions icon and then add instructions in the Special instructions field. Refer to Using special instructions for more information about the types of instructions you can provide.

8. To view different versions that you’ve generated, use the arrows below the generated text to move forward and backward through the versions.

9. Click Keep to add the new text to the product description in place of the original selection.

Improving the content suggestions that you receive

​ When you evaluate generated suggestions for your product descriptions, consider what makes a good product description. Product descriptions need to communicate your product’s benefits in a non-generic way that reflects your store’s brand. When you’re automatically generating description content, you’ll get better results from including more details and by carefully selecting a tone that matches your business.

The best way to improve the generated suggestions is to provide the tool with more details about your product. At a minimum, provide a product title and at least 2 product features or keyword items before generating a description. If you add more keywords or phrases, then you’ll receive more accurate and unique generated content.

To improve results, consider adding the following types of information to your product descriptions:

• Product type keywords: If your product title doesn’t explicitly describe the type of product, for example, a product name such as Washington that doesn’t include eyeglasses, then you might get lower quality results. Provide keywords that indicate the product type or category, such as hot sauce or bar soap.
• Information about the customer: The best product descriptions reflect the needs and interests of your target customer. Include some keywords about who the product would be great for, such as their demographic (young parents) or their values (eco-conscious, outdoorsy). This information is helpful for generating product benefits and determining the type of vocabulary used in your results.
• Specific details about materials, production method, fit, intended use: Any product specifications you provide can be turned into paragraphs in your generated descriptions.
• Important brand keywords or terminology: While the results will include different phrasing for the information you provide, special words or phrases are often kept, such as brand names or unique descriptive words. For example, if you describe your mint lip balm as mint-astic in the keywords, then the generated suggestions will often include that term.
• Other product details: You can use the details that you’ve added to your product in Shopify to give you ideas about what keywords to provide. For example, if your product has variants, then you could provide the variant options such as size and color as keywords. Other product details could be considered as well, such as vendor, category, or collection names.