Manage Shopify Product and Variant Images inside Airtable

In Shopify, a product image carries more than the picture itself. Each image has a position that controls its order on the storefront, alt text used for SEO and accessibility, and an optional assignment to a specific variant.

The Shopify admin handles all of this one product at a time. Uploading new photos, dragging to reorder, and clicking into each image to edit alt text adds up quickly for stores with hundreds of products or recurring photo refreshes.

AirPower brings product images into Airtable. Pull them in as attachments on the Products table or as individual rows in a dedicated Images table. Review images, add new files, edit alt text, and manage variant assignments from the grid.

Sync images from Shopify to Airtable

There are two ways to pull existing Shopify images into Airtable. Pick one based on how you want to work with the images.

Map images to an attachment column on Products

This is the fastest setup. All images for a product land in a single Attachment column on the matching product row.

1. Create an Attachment column in your Airtable Products table
2. Open the Shopify → Airtable sync
3. Go to Data & fields and click Products
4. In the Main Fields pane, map the images Shopify field to that column
5. Click Save sync

When the sync runs, AirPower downloads all images for each product and adds them as attachments to the corresponding row.

This method is best when you only need to view or download images. Reordering, alt-text editing, and per-variant assignment are not available this way.

Use a dedicated Images table

Use this setup when you need to work with images individually. Each Shopify image becomes its own row, with its own position, alt text, and variant links.

Before mapping, set up the table in Airtable:

• Create a new table named Images (or any name you prefer)
• Add an attachment column for the image file
• Add a single-line text column for alt text
• Add a number column for position
• Add a linked-record column to your Products table (required)
• Add a linked-record column to your Variants table (optional, for per-variant images)

Then map it in the sync:

1. Open the Shopify → Airtable sync
2. Go to Data & fields and click Images
3. Select the Airtable table you just created
4. In the Main Fields pane, map the Shopify Image File, Alt Text, and Position fields to your matching Airtable columns
5. Click Save sync

When the sync runs, each Shopify image becomes one row in the Images table. AirPower fills in the file, alt text, and position, and links the row to its product (and variant where applicable).

Add and update images from Airtable to Shopify

There are two ways to push image changes to Shopify. Power Images columns are the quickest way to add files to a single product. The Images table lets you add new images, update alt text, and assign images to specific variants.

Power Images columns

Power Images lets you add images directly from a product or variant row using special columns on the Products or Variants table.

∞ Add images from files An Attachment-type column. Upload files here and AirPower adds them to the product or variant.

∞ Add images from URLs A Text-type column. Enter a comma-separated list of image URLs. AirPower downloads each image and sends it to Shopify. Direct image URLs and public Dropbox file links are both supported.

Images table

Use the Images table when you need to add images, edit alt text, or assign images to specific variants.

To add a new image, go to the Images table and create a row. Upload the image into the Image attachment column. Link the row to a product row (required) and optionally to a variant row. Add alt text in the Alt Text column if needed.

To update alt text on existing images, edit the Alt Text column directly. Changing Position on an existing image does not reorder that image in Shopify. Pushing alt text changes back to Shopify requires a separate Airtable → Shopify sync with Images mapped:

1. Open the Airtable → Shopify sync
2. Go to Data & fields and click Images
3. In the Main Fields pane, map the Alt Text field to your Alt Text column
4. Click Save sync
5. Click Sync now on the dashboard Airtable → Shopify sync card

Remove images

You cannot delete images from Airtable. Removing a row from the Images table does not remove the image in Shopify.

To remove an image, delete it in Shopify. Then run the Shopify → Airtable sync again so the Images table matches.

Related pages

• Bulk Edit Shopify Products and Variants with Airtable