Field mapping

Field mapping

Field mapping is where you tell the app which piece of Shopify data feeds each Amazon attribute. It is opened from the Sync settings card on Product Sync, and it applies to your whole catalogue.

Most merchants never need to touch it. The defaults are sensible and cover a normal Shopify product. You come here when Amazon is asking for an attribute that Shopify does not hold in the obvious place, or when the default mapping produces content you are not happy with.

The default mapping

Out of the box, every push is built from your Shopify data like this.

Amazon attribute Fed by default from
item_name (the listing title) The Shopify product title
brand The Shopify vendor
manufacturer The Shopify vendor
product_description The Shopify description, with the HTML stripped out
bullet_point The first 5 sentences of the Shopify description
generic_keyword (backend search terms) The Shopify tags
condition_type Fixed to new
The product identifier (UPC, EAN or GTIN) The variant barcode. The type is inferred from how many digits it has
Images The featured image plus the first 8 product images
list_price and the offer price The variant price
fulfillment_availability The variant inventory quantity

Two of those deserve a closer look.

The description is sent to Amazon with its HTML removed, because Amazon does not accept your storefront markup in the description field. If your Shopify description leans heavily on tables, styled boxes or embedded media, what reaches Amazon is the plain text inside it, which may read poorly. That is worth checking on your first few products.

The bullet points are taken by slicing the first five sentences out of your description. This works reasonably well for descriptions that open with the key selling points and works badly for descriptions that open with a paragraph of brand storytelling. If your bullets look weak, either re-point bullet_point at something better, or fix them per market with the AI tools. See AI tools.

Re-pointing an attribute

In the Field mapping modal, each Amazon attribute has a source selector. Change it and the new source is used on every push from then on.

The available sources are:

  • Recommended default. Whatever the table above says. Choose this to undo a change.
  • A product field: Title, Vendor, Type, Description (text), Description to bullets, Tags, Main image, or Additional images.
  • A variant field: Price, Barcode, Inventory, or SKU.
  • A Metafield. Give the namespace and key, for example custom.my_field. This is the workhorse option. If you already keep structured data such as material, care instructions or a manufacturer part number in Shopify metafields, point the Amazon attribute straight at it.
  • A Static value. A fixed string sent on every product. Use it when the answer is genuinely the same across the catalogue, for example a department of "unisex-adult" on a single-audience store.

Tip

A Static value is the fastest way to clear an Amazon required attribute you cannot otherwise supply. It is not a cheat: Amazon simply needs an answer, and a correct constant is a correct answer. Do not use it to fake data that varies from product to product, because a wrong attribute value can get a listing suppressed.

Attributes available but not mapped by default

The app exposes a further set of Amazon attributes that nothing feeds until you map them:

model_number, part_number, item_type_keyword, material, color, size, style, department, age_range_description.

You will typically meet these when the product type you chose declares one of them as required and the app reports "{n} required attribute(s) missing". Map the attribute to a metafield or a static value, save, and re-push. See Amazon product types and Required Shopify fields.

How mappings interact with everything else

Two rules are worth committing to memory.

Mappings apply to every push. They are catalogue-wide settings, not per-product ones. Change a mapping and it takes effect on the next push of any product, including a scheduled resync. If you want a change to reach listings that are already live, run Sync all on the Product Sync screen.

A per-market AI override beats the field mapping. When you run one of the AI tools on a product and click Apply and save, the result is stored as an override for that specific product and marketplace. That override wins. Future pushes and resyncs will send the override, not the field-mapped value, until you use Clear override on the product. This is what makes the AI content stable: it does not get quietly overwritten the next time a resync runs.

Warning

Because mappings are catalogue-wide, a bad mapping is a catalogue-wide problem. After changing one, push a single product first and inspect the result on its detail page before you run Sync all across everything.

Related articles

  • Product Sync for the publishing pipeline and where to find Sync settings.
  • Required Shopify fields for the Brand and Description gate and Amazon's schema-required attributes.
  • Reviewing a product to see the mapping applied to one product, side by side with the Shopify source.
  • AI tools for the per-market overrides that take priority over these mappings.
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