When a product changes in one shop, Shuttle can carry that change over to its match in the other. You choose which fields to overwrite and Shuttle leaves everything else alone, so the differences you keep on purpose between your Etsy and Shopify shops stay in place.
How do product updates work?
A product update changes products that already exist on both Etsy and Shopify. It never creates new ones. Shuttle copies the fields you pick from the source product onto its match on the other platform.
Shuttle can only update a product once it has a match on the other platform. If you have not set up matching yet, do that first.
Fields you have blocked with the Master Switch are never updated, whichever update method you use.
Update a single product
Updating a single product is the quickest way to refresh one product.
Go to Products and find the product.
Click the update button on the product's row. Its label depends on the tab you are on:
On the Etsy → Shopify tab, click Update in Shopify.
On the Shopify → Etsy tab, click Update in Etsy.
On the All Products tab, click Update, then pick Update in Shopify or Update in Etsy.
In the Update product window, tick the fields you want to overwrite. Tick Select all fields to update every field except When made, which you tick on its own.
Click Update Shopify product or Update Etsy product to start.
A single-product update shows its progress in the Update product window. When it finishes, Shuttle shows Update completed, a warning or an error.
Closing the Update product window early does not stop the update. It keeps running, and Shuttle tells you the result once it is done.
Update products in bulk
A bulk update refreshes many matched products in one run, and you start it from the transfer page.
Go to Products and click Transfer or update products at the top of the page.
Under Start a transfer or update, pick a direction: Etsy → Shopify or Shopify → Etsy.
Under What do you want to do?, choose one of these:
Only update existing products refreshes matched products and adds nothing new.
Transfer & update products adds new products and refreshes existing matches in the same run.
Under Narrow down the products, pick a product status. It starts on Active Products Only, so if you leave it, the run only covers your active products. From Etsy, a run covers one status at a time. From Shopify, you can also pick All statuses.
If you want, pick a section (Etsy) or a collection (Shopify), or leave it on All sections or All collections.
Under Fields to update on duplicates, tick the fields you want to overwrite.
Check the settings under Review & start. Then click Start update or Start transfer & update.
A bulk run that stops before it finishes can be resumed. Open the transfer page and pick Continue last run, and Shuttle picks up where the run stopped with the same settings.
Update a queue of products
The queue lets you pick exactly which products to update, and one queue can hold products going in both directions.
Go to Products. On a product's row, open the more actions menu (the three dots) and click Add to queue. For a matched product, Shuttle asks for a direction: pick Etsy to Shopify or Shopify to Etsy.
Open the Queue tab to check the list. To take a product out, open its menu and click Remove from queue.
Click Transfer queued products.
Under Fields to update on duplicates, tick the fields you want to overwrite.
Check the summary under Review & start, then click Transfer queued products.
A queue run handles matched and unmatched products together. It adds any queued products that have no match yet, and updates the ones that do.
Which fields can you update?
In a bulk or queue run, Shuttle starts with Title, Description, Images and Quantity already ticked. You can change the selection to suit the update.
These fields work in both directions:
Title, Description, Tags, Status, Categories, Translations and Personalization
Images and Video
SKU, Price, Quantity and Shipping
Some fields only exist on one platform:
When you update Shopify products from Etsy, you can also pick Collections, Weight and Metafields.
When you update Etsy listings from Shopify, you can also pick Attributes, Sections, Dim. & Weight and When made.
A queue run does not offer Status, Sections, Metafields or When made.
The fields you tick only change products that are already matched. A product with no match is always transferred in full, whatever you tick. This applies to Transfer & update products and to queue runs, in both directions.
To send only some fields, such as only Images, choose Only update existing products. Products with no match are then skipped.
To update all the other fields in one go, tick Overwrite all fields on the transfer page, or Select all fields when you update a single product. Neither box ticks When made, so to update When made on Etsy, tick it yourself.
While Overwrite all fields or Select all fields is ticked, unticking one field clears that box and keeps every other field ticked.
Unticking Overwrite all fields itself clears every field except When made, and a run with no fields ticked will not start. Unticking Select all fields leaves only Title ticked, plus When made if you ticked it.
Shuttle sets a Shopify product's vendor and theme template only when it creates the product. A product update never changes them, even with Overwrite all fields or Select all fields ticked.
Rebuild variants or replace SKUs during an update
For bigger changes, Shuttle offers two extra options when you update products.
Recreate product inventory
Recreate product inventory rebuilds the variants and inventory on the other platform from the source product, so use it when the product's variants have changed. When you update a single product, the option is called Recreate Shopify inventory or Recreate Etsy inventory.
In an Etsy to Shopify update, Overwrite all fields and Select all fields do not add, remove or rename variants. Shuttle only updates the variants that are already matched.
A Shopify to Etsy update works differently when some variants are not matched. If you tick Overwrite all fields, Select all fields, or all three of SKU, Price and Quantity, Shuttle rebuilds the Etsy variants from Shopify. Otherwise, it only updates the matched variants.
You can tick Recreate product inventory without ticking Overwrite all fields or Select all fields. Ticking Recreate product inventory also ticks SKU, Price and Quantity.
Overwrite existing SKUs
Overwrite existing SKUs replaces the SKUs on the other platform with new ones from your SKU generator, even where SKUs already exist. The option only appears when SKU generation is turned on and SKU is one of the fields you are updating.