A Base Score tells you, on a scale of 0 to 100, how well a product listing is set up for AI-powered product discovery. Shuttle works it out from the product data you already have, so no AI processing is needed and no credits are used.
Each platform gets its own Base Score. If a product exists on both Shopify and Etsy, you'll see a separate score for each, because the listing data can differ between the two.
How to calculate your Base Scores
You can calculate Base Scores for all your products at once from the AI Discovery page:
Open AI Discovery in Shuttle.
Click Calculate Scores.
Click Recalculate all to confirm.
Shuttle then scores every eligible product, which means products that are active, sold out or in draft. With many products this may take a few minutes, and you can keep using Shuttle while it runs.
To score a single product that has no Base Score yet, open it from the AI Discovery page and click Calculate scores.
When do Base Scores update?
Base Scores don't update on their own when you edit a listing. To see your new scores, run a full recalculation again with Calculate Scores.
You can run a full recalculation once every 24 hours. After one finishes, the Calculate Scores button is greyed out for 24 hours. Any listings you edit during that time get their new scores at your next recalculation.
What does the Base Score measure?
The Base Score is built from three areas, and each one looks at a different part of your listing.
Identity & Content
Identity & Content checks whether your listing is complete and easy for AI to understand. It looks at:
Your title: length, formatting, and no keyword stuffing
Your description: length, detail and structure
Your category, and how specific it is
Your tags: how many you have and how varied they are
Structured Attributes
Structured Attributes checks whether your listing has rich, detailed product data. It covers:
Image count and quality: 5 or more images score highest, and the resolution and shape of your main image matter
Alt text on images
Variant structure and pricing
Materials
Product attributes
SKU coverage
Trust & Readiness
Trust & Readiness checks whether your product is trustworthy and ready to be recommended. It includes:
Reviews: count and average rating
Inventory levels
Product status and visibility
SEO metadata
GTIN/barcode coverage
Vendor/brand information
SEO metadata, GTIN and vendor apply only to Shopify, so Etsy listings are not penalized for them.
Products scored on both Shopify and Etsy
When a product has both a Shopify and an Etsy Base Score, the same details are shown in two columns instead of three: Identity & Media and Product Data & Trust.
How are reviews counted in the Base Score?
Products without reviews are not penalized in their Base Score. The review points are left out of the maximum possible score, so the score is calculated fairly from the remaining elements.
Which reviews count depends on the platform:
Etsy: only reviews stored in Shuttle count. Your Etsy products may already have reviews on Etsy that aren't reflected in the score until you store them in Shuttle.
Shopify: reviews count when a reviews app saves product ratings to your Shopify products.
What do the Base Score tiers mean?
Every Base Score falls into one of four tiers:
Great (90 to 100): your listing is well-optimized for AI discovery
Good (70 to 89): a solid foundation with room for improvement
Okay (40 to 69): some gaps that could cause AI assistants to skip your product
Low (below 40): significant improvements needed
How to improve your Base Score with Improvement Tips
When you open a scored product, the Improvement Tips section shows practical recommendations based on your listing data. Acting on these tips is free and doesn't require running an Analysis.
The most important tips appear at the top, under Quick wins. Examples include:
Adding more product images
Making your description longer or more detailed
Adding missing tags or a category
Fixing title formatting, such as an all-caps title
The other recommendations are grouped by topic and marked by impact, with the highest-impact ones first, so you know which changes will make the biggest difference.
Why do Base Scores differ between Shopify and Etsy?
The same product can have different Base Scores on Shopify and Etsy because each platform is scored on its own listing data. For example, if your Etsy listing has a longer description or more tags than your Shopify listing, the Etsy score may be higher.
Go further with an Analysis
Once you've reviewed your Base Scores and made any quick improvements, an AI-powered Analysis can find gaps that rule-based scoring can't detect.