Automatically generating product descriptions

Get help writing and editing product descriptions with 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. It can also offer suggestions to help you rewrite selected text from an existing description.

Caution

You are 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. For example, the generated content for a t-shirt could mention things such as care instructions ("machine-washable") or product guarantees ("guaranteed up to 1000 washes"). 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.

Language support

​ 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 is not one of the supported languages, then this feature will not be available in your 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, use the Special instructions field to specify the output language to use. For example, you could include the instruction Write the description in Norwegian. Note that you should only use this method for languages that you are comfortable reading and evaluating, since the quality of the output might vary significantly. 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. ​

Tips for improving suggestions

​ 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. ​ ​

Adding more keywords about your product

​ 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:

• 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 buyer. The best product descriptions reflect the needs and interests of your target buyer. 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 that appears 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.

Choosing a tone for your generated content

​ The tone of your store’s content is how you communicate the personality of your brand, and it influences the feelings customers might have when they read your content. Tone should match the information you’re delivering, the situation, and the expectations of the customer, and it should be consistent with your overall approach to content across your brand.

​ When generating product descriptions, you can select from predefined tones or specify a custom tone to get content suggestions that fit with your brand. If you’re not sure which tone to use, then experiment with the tone setting to generate different versions of the text to find a good fit for your product and that speaks to your target customer. ​

When you select a tone option, the characteristics of the suggested content change to match the tone that you select, including the kind of vocabulary, sentence structure, and punctuation. All of the predefined tone options produce positive-sounding descriptions that highlight the benefits of your product.

The following predefined tones are available:

• Expert: Written from the perspective of a product or industry expert, this tone sounds professional by using scientific and objective language, and statements of fact.
• Supportive: Written from the point of view of someone that empathizes with the customer and wants to help them, this tone sounds supportive, and uses language that is friendly, approachable, and straight-forward.
• Persuasive: Written from the perspective of someone who passionately believes in the value of the product, this tone sounds persuasive and inspiring, using language that appeals to the senses and inspires strong emotions in the buyer.
• Daring: Written from the perspective of someone who challenges the buyer to be bold and adventurous, this tone uses strong action words to motivate and inspire.
• Playful: Written from the perspective of someone who doesn't take themselves or life too seriously, this tone uses fun or quirky language, including humor and slang expressions.
• Sophisticated: Written in the style of a luxury brand selling premium products, this tone sounds sophisticated and refined, using language that appeals to a buyer’s desire for high quality and taste. ​

You can also specify a custom tone to use in your descriptions by selecting Custom from the dropdown menu and specifying a custom tone of voice, such as Sarcastic and witty. This custom tone will be available as an option for each product you create descriptions for unless you replace the custom tone label with a different one, such as Confident.

Drafting a full description

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:

Desktop

1. From the Shopify admin, go to Products, and then click a product.
2. In the product description text box, click the Shopify Magic icon in the toolbar.
3. Enter some product features or keywords. The more details you add, the more relevant the suggested content will be.
4. Optionally select a new tone for your description. You can select one of the predefined tones, or add a custom tone to use.
5. If you want to provide additional instructions for generating your description, such as changing the description length, format, or other custom details, you can add instructions in the Special Instructions field. Refer to Using special instructions for more information about the types of instructions you can provide.
6. Click Generate text to generate the first version of your suggested content.
7. 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 Try again.
   • To change the tone of the generated content, select a different tone option, and then click Try again.
   • To view different versions that you’ve generated, use the arrows below the generated text to move forward and backward through the versions.
8. Click Keep to add the suggested content to your description and close the window.
9. 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.

iPhone

1. From the All products screen, tap a product.
2. In the description text box, tap the Shopify Magic icon.
3. Enter some product features or keywords. The more details you add, the more relevant the suggested content will be.
4. Optionally select a new tone for your description. You can select one of the predefined tones, or add a custom tone to use.
5. Tap Generate text to generate the first version of your suggested content.
6. 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:
7. To refresh the suggested content and get a new version, tap Try again.
8. To change the tone of the generated content, select a different tone option, and then tap Try again.
9. To view different versions that you’ve generated, swipe through the versions.
10. Tap Keep to add the suggested content to your description and close the window.
11. Edit and format the product description to match your product and brand, and then tap Save. Published products display the new product description right away.

Android

1. From the All products screen, tap a product.
2. In the description text box, tap the Shopify Magic icon.
3. Enter some product features or keywords. The more details you add, the more relevant the suggested content will be.
4. Optionally select a new tone for your description. You can select one of the predefined tones, or add a custom tone to use.
5. Tap Generate text to generate the first version of your suggested content.
6. 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, tap Try again.
   • To change the tone of the generated content, select a different tone option, and then tap Try again.
   • To view different versions that you’ve generated, swipe through the versions.
7. Tap Keep to add the suggested content to your description and close the window.
8. Edit and format the product description to match your product and brand, and then tap the check mark to save. Published products display the new product description right away.

Editing existing descriptions

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

Desktop

1. From the Shopify admin, go to Products, and then click a product.
2. Select the text that you want to edit. A menu of editing options appears.
   • 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.
3. 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:
4. To refresh the suggested content and get a new version, tap Try again.
5. To change the tone of the generated content, select a different tone option, and then tap Try again.
6. If you want to provide additional instructions for generating your description, for example changing the length, format, or other custom details, you can add instructions in the Special Instructions field. Refer to Using special instructions for more information about the types of instructions you can provide.
7. To view different versions that you’ve generated, use the arrows below the generated text to move forward and backward through the versions.
8. Click Keep to add the new text to the product description in place of the original selection.

iPhone

1. From the All products screen, tap a product.
2. Select the text that you want to edit. A menu of editing options appears.
   • To generate a new version of the selected text, select the tone for the rewritten text, and then tap Rephrase.
   • To generate a shorter or simplified version of the selected text, tap Simplify.
   • To make the selected content longer, such as by adding another sentence, tap Extend.
3. 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:
4. To refresh the suggested content and get a new version, tap Try again.
5. To change the tone of the generated content, select a different tone option, and then tap Try again.
6. To view different versions that you’ve generated, swipe through the versions.
7. Click Keep to add the new text to the product description in place of the original selection.

Android

1. From the All products screen, tap a product.
2. Select the text that you want to edit. A menu of editing options appears.
   • To generate a new version of the selected text, select the tone for the rewritten text, and then tap Rephrase.
   • To generate a shorter or simplified version of the selected text, tap Simplify.
   • To make the selected content longer, such as by adding another sentence, tap Extend.
3. 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:
4. To refresh the suggested content and get a new version, tap Try again.
5. To change the tone of the generated content, select a different tone option, and then tap Try again.
6. To view different versions that you’ve generated, swipe through the versions.
7. Click Keep to add the new text to the product description in place of the original selection.

Using special instructions

In addition to listing product features and keywords, you can also provide instructions directly to the tool to specify things such as description length or format, or you can use it to get output in a language or dialect that is different from your storefront's default language. For example, you could add an instruction to write a description that is 40 words or less, to write the description in Spanish, or to finish the description with a sentence that rhymes.

Note: Special instructions are not supported on iPhone or Android. To include special instructions, access the Shopify admin from a desktop computer.

To add a special instruction, enter your instruction in the Special instructions field. You can write your instruction as a simple phrase such as Include emoji, or a more complex command such as Use regional sayings and slang from the American South.

In some cases, special instructions might not be interpreted correctly, and your generated text might not appear as you expect. You can try generating the text again, or adjust the wording of your instruction until you get the desired result. Providing multiple instructions at the same time might also give inconsistent results. Consider simplifying the instructions for better outputs. If you're getting results that you don't expect, for example, receiving output in English when you've provided an instruction to write in Spanish, you can explicitly say what you don't want in your output. For example, say Don't write in English. Write it in Spanish.. You can also try being as specific as possible. For example, say Include 5 emoji rather than Include a lot of emoji.

Providing feedback on suggestions

You can provide feedback to Shopify about generated suggestions to flag any inappropriate or harmful content. Your feedback helps us to improve the quality of suggestions generated by Shopify Magic.

Steps

1. Hover over the suggested content, and click the thumbs-up button to give positive feedback, or the thumbs-down button to give negative feedback.

2. Select from the predefined feedback types, and then provide any additional details that you want to add.

3. Click Send to submit your feedback.