How to bulk edit product tags on Shopify

Introduction

In the article we are going to look at how we can manually and bulk edit product tags on Shopify. We'll start by looking at how you can do it via the Shopify admin panel - the advantages and disadvantages of it, and then move on to Shopify apps that can help you do it in a more efficient way.

How to edit product tags via the Shopify admin

Manual Editor on Shopify Admin

To manually edit product tags on Shopify, do the following:

1. From the Shopify admin panel, click on products to view all the products. Then select the product you want to edit tags for.

2. On the right side you will see the option to manually edit tags under the product organization section. Over here you can manually add a new tag, remove a tag, or click on Manage tags to select from all the available tags.

Bulk Product Tag Editor on Shopify Admin

Although it is easy to manually edit tags for individual products, this can tiresome and almost impossible to do if you have hundreds or thousands of products.

Shopify allows you to filter products and edit tags in bulk from the products page. Use the filters to selectively choose products, and then click on 'More actions'.

You will then see the option to add or remove tags.

The preferred way to bulk edit products tags

The problem with Shopify's bulk tag editor is that you can only add or remove tags to a product. But as your store grows, you will want more options to edit your product tags. These are a few use cases on why you would use an app to bulk edit product tags.

Shopify bulk tag editor versus app editor

1. Removing product tags if tags contain specific text

For e.g. if you have tags with text 'sale' in them like 'summer_sale', 'winter_sale', 'sale_2022' - and you want to remove all these tags from products, you cannot do it via the admin panel. You will need to you a bulk product tag editor to do this.

2. Replacing a tag with another tag on Shopify

Another use case of bulk editing tags is when you want to replace a tag with another tag. For example, suppose you have tagged a few different products with tags like 'blue shoes', 'blue shirt' - and you now want to replace the tag 'blue' with 'turquoise' for matching products, so that the tags are changed to 'turquoise shoes', 'turquoise shirt' etc, you can only do this via an external app.

3. Replacing text 'X' with 'Y' in Shopify product tags

Another common use case is if you have tags like 'size_8', 'size_10', 'size_12', and you want to replace them with 'length_8', 'length_10', 'length_12', you should be able to just enter 'size' and 'length' into a form, and the tags should be updated properly for all matching products.

4. Updating product tags based on product type

Although Shopify allows you remove or add products, you cannot edit tags based on product variables. Suppose, the product type is 'Shirt' and you want to add the tag 'type_shirt' to one product, and 'type_shoes' for the Shoe product, you can only do this via an external app. External apps will also check existing tags with same prefix and delete them if necessary. For example, product has tag 'type_Hoodie', but product type is not 'Hoodie' anymore to qualify for that tag, 'type_Hoodie' tag can be deleted.

5. Updating product tags based on vendor

Similar to product type you may want to update all tags based on the product vendor. For example, if the tag to be added is 'Nike' for a nike shoe, and 'Adidas' for an adidas shoe, this can be done with an external app.

When prefix is used, the app will also check existing tags with same prefix and delete them if necessary. For example, product has tag 'vendor_Adidas', but product vendor is not 'Adidas' anymore to qualify for that tag, 'vendor_Adidas' tag will be deleted, and replaced with the new tag.