Shopify AssetLink integration

The Shopify AssetLink integration enables you to seamlessly connect your Cloudinary Assets Media Library with your Shopify stores, allowing you to manage product images and videos centrally in Cloudinary and automatically sync them to your Shopify products based on metadata matching. Assets are automatically delivered with optimization and transformation benefits through Cloudinary's CDN.

What Cloudinary brings to your Shopify store

Integrating Cloudinary with Shopify delivers two 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 CDN

Deliver optimized images and videos through Cloudinary's global CDN with automatic compression, formatting, and dynamic transformations. Your visuals are automatically optimized for each visitor's device and browser, ensuring fast load times and an excellent customer experience. Apply on-the-fly transformations like cropping, effects, overlays, and personalized visuals without manual editing or storing multiple versions.

Choose your implementation approach

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

Shopify AssetLink (DAM + CDN)

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

AssetLink provides both Digital Asset Management and optimized CDN delivery. This comprehensive solution centralizes your visual content workflow in Cloudinary Assets, then syncs assets to Shopify while automatically delivering them through Cloudinary's optimized CDN. 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 integration 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 CDN for Shopify (CDN only)

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

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

Example optimization: Reducing the quality of the following image to 70 results in a file size of 69 KB compared to the original file size of 195 KB with a barely noticeable reduction in visual quality (the lower quality image is on the right of the slider):

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

Implementation guide:

• Cloudinary CDN for Shopify - Set up upload mappings and modify theme code for optimized delivery