Product images for Shopify and online stores
Shopify product images: without Amazon's rules, what sells is what counts.
In your own store, nobody checks your background. Shopify sets technical limits only; everything else is your call. Here is what still applies from Amazon practice, what works differently in your store, and where Google Shopping brings rules back.
Shopify sets only technical requirements for product images: file type, up to 5000 × 5000 pixels or 25 megapixels, under 20 MB. White background, no text on the first image, product fill: those are Amazon rules and do not apply in your own store. But what makes product images work does not come from Amazon. It comes from the buyer, and that stays.
01 / Applies everywhere
What still applies from Amazon practice
The most important rules for product images are not in any guideline. They follow from how people buy: on their phone, in seconds, without being able to touch the product. That is no different in your own store than on Amazon.
Show the product in use
In a store, nobody can pick the product up. An in-use image answers what a cut-out leaves open: how big it really is, how it fits, what it makes possible.
How to do it: Show the moment of use, not the setting around it: the hands taking hold, the result taking shape. The product large in the foreground, the person acting rather than standing next to it. In-use images that show a reason to buy.
Graphic design that matches your brand
In your own store, every image is part of your brand. Fonts, colours and icons that change from image to image look thrown together, even when each image looks good on its own.
How to do it: One font pairing, one icon family, fixed colours for panels and text. Brand colours belong on backgrounds, bands and type, never on the product: a red sneaker stays red even if your brand is teal.
One message per image
Every gallery image answers one buyer question: what do I get, what can I do with it, which doubt goes away? Four messages in one image say none of them.
How to do it: Check every image as a small tile on a phone. If it does not land there in half a second, it will not work large either. The message sits large in the image, not small in a box at the edge.
Text that stays readable on a phone
On a phone, a product image is at most as wide as the screen. Text that fits on a desktop quickly becomes unreadable there.
How to do it: Our rule of thumb: headlines at least about 8% of the image width tall, sublines about 4%. Whatever does not fit at that size gets cut, not shrunk.
The gallery as a series
Buyers see your images side by side, as a strip under the large image or in a slider. One image in a foreign colour world stands out, two near-identical images waste a slot.
How to do it: Decide once whether your graphic panels are light or dark, and stick to it. Alternate scenes with calmer images: two in-use scenes in a row become a wall. Which job each image in the set takes on.
True, not embellished
An image that shows a different colour or more accessories than are in the box comes back to your own store as a return and a bad review. There is no platform in between.
How to do it: Colour, size and contents as they really are. Every element in the image needs a real reason: no scales for “lightweight”, no props that look like accessories. Styling such as a material surface or a cast shadow is fine. Create product images with AI and check them against the original.
02 / Store, not marketplace
What is different in your own store
On Amazon, your main image sits in someone else's search grid. In your own store, you build the grid yourself, with your theme, your fonts and your colours. That changes the job of the first two images.
On small screens, swipe the table sideways.
| Question | On Amazon | In your own store |
|---|---|---|
| Who checks your images? | Amazon, on upload | Nobody; only Google Shopping checks again, and only the main image |
| Background of the first image | Pure white | Your choice, but consistent within a collection |
| Text on the first image | Not allowed | Allowed; no promotional text for Google Shopping |
| The second image | Only visible on the product page | With many themes, already in the collection on hover |
| What surrounds the image | Amazon's page layout | Your theme with your fonts and colours |
The first image builds your collection grid
Shopify shows products side by side in collections. If the first images have different aspect ratios, the products appear at different sizes. Shopify therefore advises using one consistent aspect ratio for all featured images.
We go one step further: same background, same light, same camera angle and a similar product size in the frame. Then the collection looks like one coherent catalogue.
Source: Shopify Help Center, “Product media types”, note on collection pages.
The second image often appears in the collection already
Many themes show the second product image as soon as someone hovers over a tile. In Shopify's free Dawn theme, the setting is called “Show second image on hover”.
Put an in-use image there. The first image shows what the product is, the second what it looks like in everyday life. An infographic in second place is hard to read in a small tile.
Source: Shopify Dawn, collection grid settings.
Your theme crops
Themes adapt images to their layout. In Dawn, you choose the collection grid's image ratio: “Adapt to image”, “Portrait” or “Square”. A focal point lets you set which part of the image always stays visible when cropped, if your theme supports it.
Keep text and key product parts away from the edges, and check new images in the theme editor's mobile and desktop views.
Source: Shopify Help Center, “Uploading images”, section on focal points.
Banner text belongs in the theme, product image text in the image
For banners and slideshows, Shopify themes come with their own fields for heading, text and button. Text there instead of in the image stays readable on any screen, can be changed without remaking the image, and search engines can read it.
Gallery images work the other way round: they are viewed without accompanying text, zoomed in, in a slider, while swiping. Their message belongs in the image.
03 / Specs
What Shopify requires technically
These are the limits and recommendations from Shopify's help pages. They apply to every theme; how an image ends up looking is decided by your theme.
| Topic | Shopify |
|---|---|
| File types | PNG, then JPEG; also TIFF, BMP, GIF, SVG, HEIC and WebP |
| Size | Up to 5000 × 5000 pixels or 25 megapixels, file under 20 MB |
| Recommended | 2048 × 2048 pixels for square product images |
| Compression | Not needed; Shopify serves each browser the best format it supports |
| Colour profile | Removed on display; the browser then assumes sRGB |
| Alt text | Up to 512 characters, 125 or fewer recommended |
| Video | Up to 10 minutes, 1 GB and 4K; MP4, MOV or WebM; the theme must support video |
| 3D model | GLB or USDZ, up to 500 MB |
On file type, Shopify's help pages contradict each other: the product media page names PNG as the best type, the theme images page recommends JPEG for product photos. For you, that means: use the best file you have. It gets compressed later anyway.
Source: Shopify Help Center, “Product media types”.
Source: Shopify Help Center, “Uploading images”: formats, compression, colour profiles.
Source: Shopify Help Center, “Adding alt text to media”.
What we take from this
- Export in sRGB. An image in Adobe RGB or Display P3 loses its profile in the store, and the colours shift.
- Upload the best quality you have instead of compressing it yourself. Images from SellerVisuals come in up to 4096 × 4096 pixels, well within Shopify's limits.
- Write alt text as an image description with product name and variant, for example “Bamboo tray with soap and toothbrush on a bright vanity”, not “bamboo tray bathroom buy cheap”. It helps people using screen readers and search engines.
04 / Google Shopping
Google Shopping: this is where rules come back
If you show your products on Google, for example through the Google & YouTube app for Shopify, Google checks the main image. It comes from the image_link field and appears in ads and product listings. According to Google:
- From 31 January 2027, at least 500 × 500 pixels for all products. Google recommends 1,500 × 1,500 pixels or more, with a maximum of 64 megapixels.
- The whole product, no placeholder, no border.
- No promotional elements: no calls to action like “Buy”, no prices, no free shipping, no warranty claims, no promotional words like “best” or “cheap”, no condition labels like “new”.
- No watermarks, no barcodes and no added brand or retailer logos, unless they are part of the product.
- Recommended: the product fills 75 to 90% of the image.
- Images created with generative AI keep their metadata, for example the IPTC DigitalSourceType value TrainedAlgorithmicMedia.
Source: Google Merchant Center Help, “Image link [image_link]”.
What this means for your first store image
Plan the first image so it also passes at Google: the whole product, no text and no logo overlay, filling most of the frame.
Other angles have their own field at Google (additional_image_link), and so do in-context or lifestyle images (lifestyle_image_link). Which store image reaches Google as the main image depends on your connection. Check it in Merchant Center before you start a campaign. If you edit an AI image afterwards, make sure your software keeps the metadata.
05 / The law
Nobody checks your own store. You are still responsible.
Without Amazon's review, one check disappears, not the liability. Consumer law applies in your own store just the same. These points affect product images most often:
- Rights every buyer already has by law must not be presented as a special feature of your offer. A statutory right to return is not a selling point.
- For food and supplements, health claims are only allowed if they are authorised; in Great Britain, they have to be on the GB nutrition and health claims register.
- Prices, discounts and deadlines belong in the store text, not in the image. In the image, they go out of date with the next promotion, and Google rejects main images with prices.
Source: Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Schedule 20, paragraph 11.
Source: Great Britain nutrition and health claims (NHC) register.
FAQ
What image size is best for Shopify?
Shopify names 2048 × 2048 pixels as the size that usually looks best for square product images. You can upload up to 5000 × 5000 pixels or 25 megapixels at under 20 MB. You do not need to compress images yourself.
Do Shopify product images need a white background?
No, Shopify does not prescribe a background. What matters is that the first images in a collection match. If you advertise on Google Shopping, the main image must follow Google's rules: the whole product, no promotional overlays, ideally filling 75 to 90% of the frame.
Which aspect ratio should I use?
One for all first images, otherwise products appear at different sizes in the collection grid. Square is the safe default; portrait suits fashion and tall products. Your theme decides how tiles are cropped; in Dawn, you set this in the collection grid.
Can I use my Amazon images in my own store?
Yes. A pure white main image works in a collection grid too, as long as all products are shown that way. Remove notes from the gallery that only make sense on Amazon, and check how your theme crops the images. A+ modules work well as image bands in the product description.
How do I write good alt text?
Briefly describe what is visible, with product name and variant. Shopify allows 512 characters and recommends 125 or fewer. No keyword lists: the text is read aloud to people using screen readers.
Do Amazon's image rules apply to my store?
No. White background, no text and product fill are Amazon's rules for the main image. Google Shopping has its own rules, which partly overlap.
Before you publish
- All first images in a collection share the same aspect ratio, background and light.
- The second image shows the product in use.
- Every gallery image answers one buyer question and is readable as a tile on a phone.
- Fonts, colours and icons are your brand's; the product keeps its real colours.
- Exported in sRGB, best available quality, no larger than 5000 × 5000 pixels.
- Every image has short, descriptive alt text.
- For Google Shopping: main image without prices, promotional text or logo overlays; AI metadata kept.
Plan an image set for your store with SellerVisuals: 10 images free, no account →