Guide

How to add HS codes to Shopify products in bulk

By Spencer Flaherty, founder of Origova

If you sell internationally, every physical product needs an HS code — the 6–10 digit classification customs authorities use to work out duties and clear your shipments. Shopify has a field for it. What Shopify doesn't have is a reasonable way to find out which of your few hundred products are missing one. This guide covers where the field actually lives, where the usual bulk tools stop short, and the three realistic ways to get it done.

Where the HS code field lives (and why it's easy to miss)

The HS code isn't a normal product field. It's stored on each variant's inventory item, and in Shopify's admin it lives inside the Shipping card near the bottom of the product editor — but only when the Physical product toggle is on. Even then, the field itself sits inside a Customs information subsection that's often collapsed by default. So the path for one product is: open the product → scroll to Shipping → make sure Physical product is on → expand Customs information → enter the code → save. Multiply that by your catalog size and you can see the problem.

Why the bulk editor only solves half of it

Shopify's built-in bulk editor does reach the customs fields. From the Products page, select the products you want, click Bulk edit, click Columns, and under Shipping tick Harmonized system code. You get a grid and can type straight down the column. What it won't do is tell you which products to select. Shopify's product list has no filter for "HS code is empty," so building that selection means opening products one at a time to check, or exporting and reading a spreadsheet — and the standard product CSV doesn't include an HS code column at all, because the value lives on the inventory item rather than the product. Shopify gives you the editor. It doesn't give you the list.

If you landed here from the admin error that blocks a label purchase, that one has its own walkthrough: "HS codes and country of origin are required".

Option 1: one product at a time

For a dozen SKUs, the manual path above is honestly fine. Budget roughly a minute per product once you're in a rhythm. The pain isn't any single edit — it's that Shopify gives you no list of which products are missing a code, so you're opening every product just to check.

Option 2: spreadsheet-driven import apps

Heavy-duty import/export apps (Matrixify is the best known) can read and write inventory-item fields, including HS codes, through their own extended spreadsheet formats. If you already live in spreadsheets and know exactly which products need which codes, this works well. The trade-offs: you're driving a general-purpose tool with a learning curve, and it assumes you already know what's missing — the audit step is still on you.

Option 3: scan first, then fix in bulk

Origova approaches it from the audit side: it scans your whole catalog, shows you exactly which variants are missing an HS code (or have one in a format customs will reject — anything outside 6–10 digits), and lets you select the affected items and apply a code to all of them in one batch. The write goes to the real Shopify inventory item — under Shopify's own API rate limits, so a batch of thousands of variants takes several minutes and keeps applying in the background — every batch is undoable, and non-physical items like gift cards can be excluded with one click. Your first scan takes about two minutes on a typical store, a few minutes more on large catalogs — the docs walk through it.

A note on choosing the right code

No app can tell you what your product is — classification is your call. The first 6 digits of an HS code are internationally standardized; anything beyond that is country-specific (US imports use 10-digit HTS codes, for example). If several of your products are variations of the same thing, they usually share a code, which is exactly why bulk application makes sense. For genuinely ambiguous products, a customs broker or your carrier's classification help is worth the question — this guide isn't legal or customs advice. If you sell apparel, our clothing and apparel HS code guide walks through the headings that cover a typical store.

The short version

Native admin: fine for a handful of products. Spreadsheet apps: powerful if you already know what's missing and like driving spreadsheets. Scan-first: fastest path from "I have no idea which products are missing codes" to "done, in bulk, reversibly." That last gap — knowing what's missing — is the part Shopify doesn't solve at any catalog size.

The five methods, side by side

Method	Cost	~Time per 1,000 variants	Where it breaks
Admin, product by product	Free	8–15 hours	No way to see what is missing; you open all of them to find the empty ones
Native bulk editor	Free	2–4 hours	Lets you type codes down a grid, but you must already know which products to load into it
Inventory CSV export/import	Free	1–2 hours	The product CSV has no HS code column; you need the inventory export, and reimport is unforgiving of format errors
Matrixify or similar	Paid	1–2 hours	Powerful and general-purpose; the learning curve is the cost, and mistakes apply at full catalog scale
Purpose-built app	Free–$15/mo	15–40 minutes	Narrower scope — it fixes customs data and does not do general catalog editing

Frequently asked questions

Does Shopify's product CSV include HS codes?

No. HS codes live on each variant's inventory item, and the standard product CSV import/export doesn't include an HS code column — so a spreadsheet round-trip through the native CSV can't fill them in.

Where is the HS code field in Shopify admin?

Open a product, scroll to the Shipping card near the bottom, make sure the Physical product toggle is on, then expand the Customs information subsection — the HS code field is there, per variant. Customs information is often collapsed by default.

What format does an HS code need to be in?

6 to 10 digits. The first 6 digits are the internationally standardized HS classification; digits beyond that are country-specific extensions (like the 10-digit HTS codes used for US imports).

Do digital products and gift cards need HS codes?

No — HS codes classify physical goods crossing a border. Digital products, services, and gift cards don't need one, which is why a compliance scan should let you exclude them.

Primary source for US classifications: the official Harmonized Tariff Schedule (hts.usitc.gov). The statute ending de minimis: 19 U.S.C. § 1321 (Cornell Law, LII).