Shuttle lets you designate products and variations that should be skipped during transfer and update runs between Etsy and Shopify. Exclusions are useful for platform-specific listings, seasonal inventory, items under review, or anything you want to keep on one shop but not the other.
When a product is excluded, Shuttle leaves it out of every transfer and update run. The product stays where it is. Shuttle simply does not touch it.
Important: The exclusions described here apply only to product transfers and updates. To exclude products from stock syncing, configure that separately in the Stock Syncer settings.
Excluding entire products
There are two ways to exclude a product: directly from the Products list (best for one product at a time or a small group), or in bulk through the settings page (best when many products share common attributes).
Direct exclusion from the Products list
This is the most straightforward method and works well for targeted exclusions.
To exclude a single product:
From the Products page, locate the product you want to exclude.
On the product's row, open the actions menu and click Exclude product.
To exclude several products at once:
On the Products page, select the checkboxes next to the products you want to exclude.
In the bulk action bar that appears, click Exclude.
Excluded products move to the Excluded tab on the Products page. From that tab you can bring any of them back by selecting them and clicking Include, or you can use Include all excluded products in the top-right to undo every exclusion at once.
Bulk exclusion through settings
When the products you want to exclude share common attributes (a tag, a vendor, a collection, or a title keyword), the settings page handles the exclusion automatically for everything that matches.
Settings location: Settings > Products > General > Exclude products.
You can use any combination of the following fields. Each accepts a comma-separated list.
Exclude by tag
If you use tags to organize products (for example, "Archive" or "Etsy only"), enter those tags into this field. Shuttle will skip any product carrying any of the listed tags.
Exclude by title keyword
If the products you want to exclude share a common word or phrase in their titles (for example, "Discontinued" or "Local pickup only"), list those keywords here. Any product whose title contains a listed keyword will be skipped.
Exclude by vendor (Shopify)
To exclude all products from a particular Shopify vendor, enter the vendor's name. Separate multiple vendors with commas. This is useful for inventory from specific suppliers that you do not want to sync or transfer.
Exclude by collection (Shopify)
To exclude products that belong to specific Shopify collections, enter the collection names here. This is helpful when a collection contains items that are not intended for cross-platform transfers or updates.
The bulk exclusion fields are best reserved for large-scale exclusions based on shared characteristics. For individual products or small groups, the Exclude button on the Products page is usually the faster choice.
Excluding specific variations
Sometimes you want to transfer a product but skip a specific variation, such as a size or color that only exists on one platform. Variation-level exclusions are configured in their own section.
Settings location: Settings > Products > General > Exclude variations.
Exclude by SKU
If your variations have unique SKUs, list the SKUs of the variations you want to skip, separated by commas. SKUs offer the most reliable way to identify variations, especially on products with many options.
Exclude by name
Variations can also be excluded by name. Enter the variation names, separated by commas.
For variations made up of two options (for example, a product that comes in Medium size and Blue color), join the two option names with ||. For example, to exclude the Medium / Blue variation, enter Medium||Blue.
This is useful when SKUs are not used consistently across variations, or when identifying variations by their descriptive names better fits your workflow.
Important notes on variation exclusion
Behavior during transfers: when an excluded variation belongs to a product being transferred from Shopify to Etsy for the first time, Shuttle transfers the main product, but the excluded variations are created as hidden on Etsy. They will not be visible or orderable by customers.
Effect on stock syncing: variation exclusions apply only to transfers and inventory recreation. They do not affect ongoing stock syncing for variations that are already transferred and part of the regular sync process.
Single-variation products: products with only one variation (no selectable options like size or color) are not affected by variation exclusions. To skip a product with only one version, use the Exclude button on the Products page or the bulk product exclusion fields above.
Why exclusions are useful
Controlling which products and variations are included in transfers and updates gives you finer control over your catalog across both shops:
Keep products exclusive to one shop: tailor your offerings for each audience without worrying about cross-platform sync.
Manage seasonal or limited inventory: prevent out-of-season items or sold-out limited editions from being included in routine runs.
Test new listings safely: introduce a product to one platform without it being propagated to the other while you observe how it performs.
Preserve intentional differences: protect specific listings from being modified, so your catalog reads exactly as you intend on each shop.
Need help?
If you have questions or run into issues while excluding products or variations, our support team is available to help. You can reach us from inside the Shuttle dashboard.