After you connect your Shopify store to AutoDS and upload your first products, you start managing those products from AutoDS. Each product, though, exists in two places at the same time: in AutoDS, where you define how it is listed, priced, and updated, and in your Shopify store, where your buyers see it and purchase it.

Because of that, part of what affects your products is specific to Shopify, both in AutoDS and in your Shopify admin. This article explains those Shopify-specific parts: the settings that keep your products available for sale, how variants, bundles, prices, and reviews work in a Shopify store, how your product changes move between Shopify and AutoDS, and how to resolve the most common product and upload errors in your dropshipping business.

Variants let you offer different options of the same product, such as size or color, within a single listing in your Shopify store. Shopify sets limits on how many variants and option types a product can have, and products sold as bundles follow different rules from single products.

The general steps to upload and manage products with variants are the same for every selling channel. In a Shopify store, these points are specific to variants:

Shopify sets limits on the variants and the option types of each product, and a product above these limits does not upload to your store. The limits come from Shopify, not from AutoDS.

These are the limits that apply to your products:

AutoDS uploads a product with the same variants and option types that the supplier offers, and the option types are not editable during the import. For this reason, a product with more than 3 option types does not upload.

For example, a product with 5 sizes (XS, S, M, L, XL), 7 colors (Black, White, Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Grey), and 3 fabric types (Cotton, Polyester, Blend) has 105 variants (5 × 7 × 3). Shopify's standard plans allow a maximum of 100 variants per product, so the upload of this product returns an error.

If you need to list products with more than 100 variants, a Shopify Plus account allows more flexible variant limits.

To fix an upload that goes above these limits, see the product with more than 100 variants and the maximum of 3 options error in the troubleshooting section.

AutoDS does not support bundles. A bundle is an offer that puts several units or products into one purchase, such as a pack of 2 or 3 units, a kit, or a "Buy 2, Get 3" offer.

AutoDS manages the stock and the orders of each product through its SKU (Stock Keeping Unit), a unique code that identifies and tracks one product in your inventory. A bundle groups several products or quantities in one listing, so it does not match a single SKU, and AutoDS does not know how many units to order for it.

You can create bundles in your Shopify store, and they can look like this:

When a buyer purchases a bundle you created in Shopify, FBA and Auto-Order do not place the order automatically, and you place the order yourself with the supplier as a manual order.

To keep your orders automatic, list each product as a single unit instead of creating a bundle, as explained for bundle products on upload.

If a bundle option shows on a product you imported to your Shopify store, it comes from your Shopify store settings. AutoDS does not add or change the bundle settings of your store. To remove it, reach out to Shopify through its contact page so they can help you find and remove it. After you remove it in Shopify, AutoDS updates by itself, so you do not need to delete the product or import it again.

For a buyer to purchase a product in your Shopify store, Shopify needs to know where the stock of the product is kept and how the product ships. For the products you upload with AutoDS, these two parts are set up in your Shopify admin:

When the shipping profile is missing, your products can show as unavailable or stop your buyers at checkout. When a product is stocked at another location instead of the AutoDS location, it shows as Sold Out in your store even when AutoDS and the supplier show stock. You manage both in your Shopify admin, not in AutoDS.

The AutoDS shipping profile is named AutoDS Free Shipping, and it is where the shipping zones and rates of your AutoDS products are set. Because it has free shipping by default, buyers see Free Shipping at checkout until you add a shipping rate.

To find the AutoDS shipping profile:

If "App shipping profiles" does not appear, follow these steps to make it visible again.

Keep the AutoDS shipping profile in your Shopify store, even when another source, such as Shopify's Sidekick assistant, suggests removing it to stop Free Shipping from showing at checkout. Without the profile, your products can show as unavailable, or your buyers can be stopped at checkout. To stop Free Shipping from showing, change the shipping rates of the profile instead of removing it, as explained in the next section.

To stop Free Shipping from showing at checkout, change the shipping rates of the AutoDS shipping profile in your Shopify admin. The profile, AutoDS Free Shipping, has free shipping by default, so your buyers see it until you set a shipping rate for your region.

To change the shipping rates of the AutoDS shipping profile:

For more help, see Shopify's guides to shipping zones and flat shipping rates.

If you charge a shipping rate at checkout, leave "Include shipping price" unchecked in your pricing settings. With it checked, your buyers get the shipping cost twice, once inside the product price and once at checkout.

In a Shopify store, the shipping zones and rates are set in the AutoDS shipping profile in your Shopify admin, not in the Shipping Policy setting of your Lister settings, which is available for eBay and Etsy stores.

To sell only to specific countries in your Shopify store, configure your shipping zones in your Shopify admin. Shipping zones define which countries can complete the checkout, so only customers from the countries in your shipping zones can place orders.

To restrict sales to specific countries:

The Ship to Country setting in AutoDS is a monitoring setting: it defines which regional version of the supplier's site AutoDS reads data from, and it does not control which customers can place orders in your store. To learn more about it, click here.

For detailed guidance on shipping zones, see Shopify's documentation here.

After AutoDS imports your products, Shopify can list each product under more than one inventory location, which is a place where Shopify keeps the stock of a product. For example, a product can appear under your physical address and under the AutoDS location, such as AutoDS prod-ozaesbkl. The code at the end of the AutoDS location name is different in each store. This is expected, and it does not need any action by itself.

Having a product under both your physical address and the AutoDS location is normal when:

In this setup, AutoDS monitors the inventory, processes your orders, and fulfills your products from the AutoDS location, and the physical address at 0 does not affect how your orders are routed or fulfilled. You can also keep only the AutoDS location selected, as long as AutoDS is set as the fulfillment and inventory location and has the correct stock.

Take action only when your products show as Sold Out in your store while they should be available, or when AutoDS does not fulfill your orders correctly. A Sold Out message at checkout means the inventory location needs to be corrected, for example, when AutoDS is not set as the inventory location or has no stock. In that case, follow the inventory location steps.

The Ship to Country setting (Supplier settings) does not change how the locations are listed. It only defines which regional version of the supplier's site AutoDS reads data from, and it does not control where your products are listed in Shopify, where your orders are fulfilled, or which customers can place orders. You do not need to delete your products and import them again to change how the locations are listed, because this display is not related to the supplier's location.

When you change a product directly in your Shopify store, some of those changes reach AutoDS automatically. This is the Shopify to AutoDS product sync, and it is specific to Shopify stores: in other selling channels, product information goes only from AutoDS to your store. Sync is active by default for every connected Shopify store and requires no setup. Making your product changes in AutoDS is still the recommended way to keep both sides in sync.

When you change these product details in Shopify, AutoDS updates them automatically:

Compare Price: If Compare Price is on in AutoDS, change the crossed-out price in AutoDS, because your Shopify store keeps showing the price set in AutoDS. If Compare Price is off, you can set the crossed-out price in the "Compare at price" field in Shopify, and AutoDS keeps it as you set it.

Images: edit the images of your products in AutoDS with the built-in image editor, where you can also add a watermark. Videos you add in Shopify stay in your Shopify store and are not shown inside AutoDS.

If the title and description of a product in AutoDS look the same as in your Shopify listing after you edited them in Shopify, this is expected: AutoDS updated its copy to match, and no data was lost.

When you change the supplier of a product in AutoDS, and the product is already published in your Shopify store, AutoDS updates the existing product page with the data of the new supplier, including the title, the description, the images, and the variants. AutoDS reads the product details directly from the supplier you select, so this update applies every time you change the supplier.

To keep your original Shopify page as it is, the option is to import the product again from the new supplier. This creates a new listing in your Shopify store, and you can then unpublish the original listing or set it as a draft in Shopify. The steps to import a product are here.

Resync Store is available in most selling channels. In most of them, a resync sends the data stored in AutoDS to your store, and Shopify is the exception. For the steps and the options of this action in all selling channels, see how to resync your store. In a Shopify store, a resync updates AutoDS with data from your Shopify store, and it includes:

Resync Store never changes your Shopify store: it only brings data from Shopify into AutoDS, so edits you made directly in Shopify stay as they are after a resync.

You find Resync Store in the three-dot menu next to your store name in AutoDS. A resync can take up to 2 hours to finish. The action can look finished in a few seconds, while the data, including product images, keeps transferring in the background. Do not delete or import a product again before the 2 hours have passed.

A product you add directly in Shopify, instead of importing it through AutoDS, appears in AutoDS as an untracked product. AutoDS does not update its stock and price automatically, and the orders for this product arrive with the Unmonitored status, so AutoDS does not fulfill them automatically.

To bring the product back into monitoring and automation, connect it to a supplier in AutoDS. This connects the product that already exists in your store, so AutoDS does not create a duplicate listing. You can find the steps to connect the product here. To keep your products tracked from the start, add them through AutoDS instead of adding them directly in Shopify.

Compare Price lets you set up strikethrough pricing for your Shopify products directly in AutoDS. This feature uses the "Compare at price" functionality of Shopify, which is the Shopify version of this setting, to display a higher original price, crossed out, next to your current price, helping you highlight discounts and increase conversions. Compare Price is available for Shopify stores only, because other selling channels do not have the "Compare at price" field.

When you turn on Compare Price, you choose "Percentage" or "Dollar" and enter a value, and AutoDS adds it to your current price to display a higher original price, crossed out next to the current price on your product page.

This is an example, and the values change with the price of your product and the comparison you set. If the current price of your product is $100:

You set the Compare Price yourself. It is not linked to the supplier's original price, so it does not follow a supplier's sale or a change in the supplier's price. When Compare Price is on, your Shopify store keeps showing the crossed-out price set in AutoDS, even if you edit the "Compare at price" field in Shopify. When Compare Price is off, the value in the "Compare at price" field stays as you set it in Shopify.

When you turn on Compare Price in the pricing settings of a supplier, it applies to all the new products you upload from that supplier. The products that are already in your store keep their current settings, and you can change them with Bulk Edit or in each product.

To turn on Compare Price for the new products of a supplier:

Compare Price is set for each variant of a product. A product with one variant has one setting, and a product with several variants has one setting for each variant.

To set Compare Price for a variant:

To turn it off, follow the same steps and turn off Compare Price.

You can set Compare Price for several products at once with Bulk Edit.

To set Compare Price for several products at once:

Bulk Edit applies Compare Price to all the variants of the selected products. Both "Percentage" and "Dollar" are available for every Shopify store, regardless of your store's currency. If the "Dollar" option is not selectable in your store, please let us know by sharing a screenshot of the Compare Price section.

Customer reviews help build credibility in your Shopify store. Judge.me is a review app for Shopify that works with AutoDS: you open Judge.me from AutoDS to import reviews for a product, and Judge.me collects, manages, and displays the reviews on your product pages. The reviews you import are not AutoDS reviews, and Judge.me is a separate app, with its own settings and support. This option is available for Shopify stores only.

With Judge.me, you can:

To import reviews for a product from AutoDS:

Import Reviews with Judge.me is a shortcut: the reviews are imported inside the Judge.me app. If Judge.me opens on its home page, go to the section to import reviews inside the app.

The review settings, management, customization, and any support questions about Judge.me are handled inside the Judge.me app, and AutoDS does not control the review system. If you have questions about how your reviews are displayed, about widgets, or about other Judge.me features, please reach out to Judge.me through the support in the app or its support portal.

When a product does not look or behave as expected in AutoDS or in your Shopify store, find the message or the situation you see among these entries, and follow the steps.

When your Shopify products show Sold Out to your buyers while AutoDS or the supplier shows stock, the most common cause is the inventory location configuration in your Shopify admin: a product is stocked at another location instead of the AutoDS location. Review the settings below, starting with the shipping profile and the fulfillment location.

To check that AutoDS is a fulfillment location:

A misconfiguration in the shipping profile, shipping zones, or shipping rates can keep products from being available for purchase or from proceeding to checkout. For the Shopify steps, see how to set up shipping profiles, shipping zones, and shipping rates.

If "App shipping profiles" does not appear, Shopify hides this section when your shipping settings are managed through Shopify Markets. In "Settings" → "Shipping and delivery", find the message stating that shipping has moved to Markets and click "Switch back". The "App shipping profiles" section then appears, and you can confirm that the AutoDS profile is listed.

Each Shopify product must be stocked at the AutoDS location for AutoDS to monitor its stock and for the product to be available to your buyers. Set the location on one product at a time, or on many variants at once with the bulk editor.

To set the AutoDS location on one product:

To set the AutoDS location on several products with the bulk editor:

If the Stocked at column is not listed under the Columns icon, set the AutoDS location product by product with the steps above. If the "Save" button stays inactive, check that no other location is still checked under Quantities by location. If it stays inactive, please let us know by sharing a screenshot of the inventory section of the product.

When Shopify shows the message Add a SKU to use this location while you set AutoDS as the inventory location of a variant, that variant is missing a unique SKU (Stock Keeping Unit). Each variant requires a unique SKU before AutoDS can be selected as its inventory location. Without it, AutoDS does not monitor or automate that variant, and the product can show as out of stock in AutoDS even when the supplier has stock.

To add a unique SKU to a variant:

The inventory policy of your Shopify products (Continue selling when out of stock or Deny selling when out of stock) is controlled only in Shopify. AutoDS does not update or override this setting, even during a resync. If the policy changes on its own, adjust it directly in the product settings in your Shopify admin.

If needed, renew the token of your store in AutoDS to recover the connection with your store.

If your products still show Sold Out after you review the shipping profile and shipping zones, the fulfillment location, the inventory location of each product, and the unique SKU of each variant, please share the following details with us:

The quantity shown in your Shopify store represents how many units you make available for buyers to purchase. For example, if your store shows 10 units, buyers see that 10 units are available. This number is different from the actual stock displayed on the supplier's page. In Shopify, you control the product quantity, and Shopify automatically subtracts one unit each time an order is placed.

In dropshipping, you do not hold the stock yourself, so AutoDS lets you define how many units your store offers instead of copying the supplier's actual stock level.

You can configure this quantity in AutoDS through Default Product Quantity, located in "Settings" → "Supplier Settings" → "Lister".

This setting defines the quantity displayed in your Shopify store for each new product listing and applies only to products imported after you save the change. AutoDS continues to display the quantity you configured even if the supplier has more units in stock. For this reason, it is expected that the quantity shown in your Shopify store is different from the supplier's actual stock.

You can change the Shopify quantity of a product in AutoDS, check the supplier's actual stock, and see when the quantity in your Shopify store changes on its own. Use the sections below.

The Default Product Quantity setting in AutoDS applies only to products imported after you save the change. To change the quantity of products already in your AutoDS inventory and Shopify store, use "Bulk Edit" on the Products page in AutoDS and select "Quantity".

AutoDS shows whether a variant is in stock or out of stock, not the exact number of units at the supplier. To check the supplier's units, click the Buy Item ID link on the Products page in AutoDS to open the product on the supplier's website. Some suppliers show exact numbers, and others show only In Stock or Out of Stock.

The Available, On Hold, Out of Stock, and Total columns on the AutoDS Products page count variants, not units. For example, Available 4 means that 4 variants of the product are in stock, not that 4 units are available. To learn more, click here.

The quantity in your Shopify store can change by itself in two situations:

Stock Monitoring is not enabled by default, and enabling it applies only to products uploaded after the change. If Stock Monitoring is disabled, changes in the supplier's stock are not tracked, and the product status in AutoDS is not updated. The setting is not available on the Import 200 plan, where AutoDS reads the supplier's stock only when the product is uploaded. To learn how to turn on Stock Monitoring for products already in your store, click here.

Shopify supports a maximum of 3 option types per product, such as Size, Color, and Material, and AutoDS uploads a product with the same option types that the supplier offers, without editing them during the import. When a product has more than 3 option types, the upload to your Shopify store shows the error "Product import to your store(s) has failed. ['input', 'productOptions']: Can only specify a maximum of 3 options."

To add the product to your Shopify store with 3 option types and keep it managed in AutoDS:

After you connect the product, AutoDS monitors its stock and price if monitoring is enabled in AutoDS.

Shopify supports a maximum of 100 variants per product, so a product with more than 100 variants does not import to your Shopify store. To import the product, reduce its variants to 100 or fewer in AutoDS first.

To reduce the variants of the product:

The variation limit of your AutoDS plan is different from the variant limit of Shopify. If AutoDS shows a message about reaching your subscription limits when you upload a product, the limit comes from your AutoDS plan, and you can learn how variations are counted here.

AutoDS shows the monitoring error "Product variant is missing ID attribute" when the active variant options of a product no longer match between Shopify and AutoDS, for example, when a color or size option was edited or removed directly in your Shopify store.

To fix the error:

To keep the variants of a product matching between AutoDS and Shopify, make the changes to your products in AutoDS instead of directly in Shopify, because edits made in Shopify can make AutoDS and Shopify show different information.

The error "Could not find 'Online Store' among the available publications" appears during the product import when the Online Store sales channel is not active in your Shopify store.

To fix the error:

If the error continues after these checks, please share the following details with us:

When a product appears in AutoDS but not in your Shopify store, it was most likely deleted from your store, for example, by accident. AutoDS still shows the product until the synchronization with your store happens, and you may see the error "Product does not exist in the Shopify store". A resync does not restore a product that was deleted from Shopify.

If you did not remove the product from Shopify and it disappeared without any action on your side, please share the following details with us:

To keep your products tracked and synchronized, always manage them through AutoDS instead of directly in Shopify.

The error "Product does not exist in Shopify store" appears when the product is no longer active in your Shopify store, for example, when it was deleted directly in Shopify.

To remove the product from AutoDS, delete it and select the option "Delete only from AutoDS" (how to use it).

If the error continues after these steps, please share the following details with us:

When you import a product from a supplier, AutoDS syncs the product images automatically. If the images do not appear after the import, check where they are missing and follow the steps below.

If the images are not showing in AutoDS:

If the images are showing in AutoDS but not in your Shopify store:

If the images are still not showing after these steps, please share the following details with us: