Shopify Integration

Integrating Cloudinary with Shopify delivers powerful capabilities that transform how you manage and deliver visual content:

• Digital Asset Management (DAM) with Cloudinary Assets

  Centralize your entire visual content workflow in Cloudinary's intelligent asset management platform. Store, organize, and manage all your product images and videos in one location, then sync them seamlessly to one or multiple Shopify stores. This approach replaces scattered file systems and manual uploads with an automated, metadata-driven workflow that ensures your product visuals are always up-to-date across all your stores. Teams can collaborate efficiently, maintain brand consistency, and scale their content operations as their business grows.

  

• Optimized image and video delivery with Cloudinary Image and Video

  Deliver optimized images and videos through Cloudinary's global CDN with automatic compression and formatting. Your visuals are automatically optimized for each visitor's device and browser, ensuring fast load times and an excellent customer experience.

• On-the-fly image and video transformations with Cloudinary Image and Video

  Apply creative and AI-based transformations dynamically through URL parameters. Change aspect ratios with smart filling to convert between portrait and landscape orientations. Modify transformation parameters in Liquid templates or during sync operations to apply different crops for product detail pages, product listing pages, or marketing emails. Localize content with dynamic text overlays and automatic subtitle translation.

Choose your implementation approach

Cloudinary offers two implementation options for Shopify, depending on your business needs:

• Shopify AssetLink app (DAM with optional transformations and optimized delivery)
• Cloudinary Image and Video for Shopify (transformations and optimized delivery)

Shopify AssetLink app (DAM with optional transformations and optimized delivery)

The Shopify AssetLink app enables you to connect your Cloudinary Assets Media Library with your Shopify stores for centralized Digital Asset Management (DAM). Manage product images and videos in Cloudinary and automatically sync them to your Shopify products based on metadata matching, with transformations and optimized delivery through Cloudinary Image and Video.

Best for: Medium to large merchants who need centralized asset management across multiple stores, teams, or brands.

AssetLink provides Digital Asset Management as well as optional transformations and optimized delivery. This comprehensive solution centralizes your visual content workflow in Cloudinary Assets, then syncs assets to Shopify while automatically delivering them through Cloudinary Image and Video with optimization and transformation capabilities. Implementation typically takes 4-8 weeks and involves migrating assets to Cloudinary, training your merchandising and content teams, and replacing file-collaboration systems like Dropbox or Google Drive with a professional media management solution.

How AssetLink works:

The Shopify AssetLink app consists of two components:

1. Shopify AssetLink app in Cloudinary Assets: Enables you to select assets in your Cloudinary Media Library and configure sync settings
2. Cloudinary AssetLink app in Shopify: Installed from the Shopify App Store, this app receives and processes the synced assets

Assets are organized into groups based on metadata matching, allowing you to link multiple images and videos to products automatically while maintaining control over ordering, alt text, and display preferences.

Key AssetLink features:

• Metadata-based linking: Automatically match and attach assets to Shopify products using metadata fields like SKU, product ID, or custom fields
• Multiple store support: Connect and sync assets to multiple Shopify stores from a single Cloudinary account
• Flexible sync modes: Choose how assets are linked - overwrite, append, prepend, or insert at specific positions
• Asset type handling: Automatically detect and handle different asset types including product images and swatches
• Alt text management: Set custom alt text for each asset or use AI-generated descriptions
• Real-time sync tracking: Monitor sync progress with detailed reporting and error handling

Implementation guides:

• AssetLink Admin Guide - Installation, configuration, store connections, and metadata field mappings
• AssetLink User Guide - Daily operations, asset selection, grouping, link settings, and syncing

Cloudinary Image and Video for Shopify (transformations and optimized delivery)

This lightweight approach implements transformation and optimized delivery capabilities through theme-level code changes. Your product images and videos remain managed in Shopify, but are delivered through Cloudinary Image and Video's global CDN with automatic optimization and dynamic transformation capabilities. Implementation can be completed in one day and provides immediate performance benefits, typically boosting site performance by up to 30%.

Best for: Small merchants with simple content operations who need transformations and fast, optimized delivery without full DAM features.

Example 1 - Automatic optimization: Cloudinary automatically optimizes images with q_auto for quality and f_auto for format selection, reducing file sizes while maintaining visual quality. The optimized image is on the right of the slider:

Example 2 - Creative transformation:

Apply creative and AI-based transformations dynamically through URL parameters. Change aspect ratios with b_gen_fill to convert between portrait and landscape orientations.

Original With b_gen_fill

If your business grows and you later need centralized asset management, you can seamlessly upgrade to AssetLink. Your existing implementation continues to work while you add the DAM capabilities.

Implementation guide:

• Cloudinary Image and Video for Shopify - Set up upload mappings and modify theme code for transformations and optimized delivery