A Shopify Catalog audit checklist you can run by hand
You do not need an app to do this. Here is the full list in priority order, with how to check each one yourself. It takes an afternoon for a catalog of a few hundred products.
In short
- Exclusions first: they are pass-or-fail and nothing else matters until they are clear.
- Then the matching fields Shopify names explicitly.
- Then the store level: refund, privacy and terms policies published.
First, the exclusions
These are pass-or-fail. A product failing any one of them is absent from Shopify Catalog, so fix these before touching anything else.
- Price above zero on every product you intend to sell
- At least one image per product
- Published to the Online Store, Hydrogen or Headless channel
- Status is not Unlisted
- seo.hidden is not set on products you want recommended
- Every product has a URL handle
- Your storefront is not password protected
Then, the matching fields
These decide whether you are chosen once you are visible. Shopify names them explicitly.
- Description covers materials, use cases and the attributes shoppers ask about
- Product type set, and consistent across the catalog
- Vendor set
- At least one collection per product
- Barcode on each variant, never invented
- Variant options named for what they are, not left as Title
- More than one image where you can
Finally, the store level
Assistants answer questions about how you operate by reading your published policies.
- Refund policy published
- Privacy policy published
- Terms of service published
Then keep doing it
Catalogs regress. A bulk import, a theme migration or an app that creates helper products will quietly reintroduce exclusions, and nothing in Shopify will tell you.
When to stop doing this by hand
This list is complete and it is deliberately written to be run without installing anything. For a catalog of a few hundred products it is an afternoon, and it is an afternoon well spent because you learn which of these your own workflow keeps breaking.
The case for automating it is repetition rather than complexity. Endcap runs exactly these checks, adds the frequency we measured for each across real catalogs so you can see whether you are unusual, and separates housekeeping products such as content blocks and bundle helpers so they stop distorting the score. The three fields where a wrong value is visible and reversible can be corrected in bulk; the rest it finds and leaves to you, on purpose.
Common questions
Do I need an app to run this?
No. The list is written to be run by hand in your Shopify admin, and for a few hundred products it is an afternoon. The case for a tool is repetition rather than difficulty.
What order should I work in?
Top to bottom as written. Improving a description on a product that is excluded for a zero price changes nothing, so the exclusions come first.
How often should I repeat it?
After every bulk import, migration or app install. Those are the events that reintroduce problems, and nothing in Shopify will tell you they did.
Check your own store
Enter your Shopify URL and see whether the public products we can inspect show these problems. No install required for the first scan.