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How to bulk edit image alt text on Shopify (and what the EAA actually requires)

October 17, 2026 · The BulkSheet team

To bulk edit image alt text on Shopify, export your products to CSV, fill in the Image alt text column, and re-import a file cut down to the columns you need. Under a few dozen images, the admin's media editor is safer. BulkSheet doesn't edit alt text today; this guide covers the native routes and what the EAA requires.

Alt text is the short description a screen reader announces in place of an image. On a product page it is often the only way a blind shopper finds out what color the jacket is or what the back of the box says. It is also what search engines read for image search. Most stores have hundreds of product images with none at all.

What the European Accessibility Act requires (as of October 2026)

The European Accessibility Act (Directive 2019/882) has applied since 28 June 2025. It covers e-commerce: websites and apps that sell to consumers in the EU. That includes stores based outside the EU, because it applies to anyone who offers the service to EU consumers.

Most small stores are exempt. A microenterprise, meaning fewer than 10 people and annual turnover or balance sheet total of €2 million or less, doesn't have to meet the Act's requirements for services, and an online store is a service. If that describes you, alt text is still worth doing for your customers and for image search, but the Act doesn't require it of you.

If you're above that size, the Act asks for non-text content to have a text alternative. It doesn't spell out a technical test itself; the practical benchmark is WCAG 2.1 level AA, whose first criterion, 1.1.1 Non-text Content, says informative images need a text alternative that serves the same purpose, and decorative images need to be ignorable.

Enforcement is national, and so far it has started with large retailers. In March 2026 the Dutch consumer authority reviewed about 100 large webshops and contacted the worst; in June 2026 a French court ordered a major supermarket chain to make its site and app accessible. We haven't found a publicly reported fine under the Act as of October 2026.

Two cautions. Alt text is one requirement among many: keyboard navigation, color contrast, form labels and a usable checkout matter as much, and much of that sits in your theme. And no plugin or widget makes a store compliant by itself - in 2025 the US Federal Trade Commission ordered one accessibility-overlay vendor to pay $1 million over claims that its tool did. None of this is legal advice; if the Act applies to you, check your country's rules.

What good product alt text says

• What the photo shows that the title doesn't. The title is already on the page. “Back view showing the zip pocket” or “Model wearing size M, 175 cm tall” tells a shopper something; repeating the product name on all six images doesn't.
• The variant, on variant images. If a photo is the navy option, say navy. A shopper switching colors hears which one they're looking at.
• Short. Shopify allows 512 characters and recommends 125 or fewer. One sentence is usually right.
• No filler. Skip “image of” (the screen reader already says it's an image), file names like IMG_0041, and lists of keywords. Writing for search engines instead of people is the quickest way to make alt text useless for both.

A note on empty alt text. An empty alt is the correct way to mark a purely decorative image. But on product photos, many themes don't leave it empty: Shopify's image_tag filter, which themes use to render images, fills a missing product image alt with the product title. So a blank field doesn't make a product photo decorative - it makes every photo of that product announce the same title.

On AI suggestions. Drafts from Shopify's media editor or an app are a reasonable start, but they miss the detail that matters about a product (the exact shade, what this angle is for) and sometimes describe things that aren't there. Read each one against its image before you keep it.

Find the images that are missing alt text

Export your products to CSV from the Products page. Each image gets its own row, with its URL in Product image URL and its description in Image alt text. Filter for rows where the image URL is filled and the alt text is blank: that's your to-do list, and its length tells you which of the options below fits. See what a Shopify product export contains for the rest of the columns.

Option 1: the Shopify admin, one image at a time

Open a product, click an image to preview it, click Add alt text, type, and save. As of October 2026 the media editor may suggest AI-generated alt text for images that don't have any, which you can accept or edit. It is safe, since you see the image as you write, and it is the right tool for up to a few dozen images. Past that, the clicks add up: there is no bulk alt text screen in the admin.

Option 2: CSV export and re-import

This is Shopify's own bulk route, and it works, but a product import writes everything in the file, so cut the file down first.

1. Export the products you want to fix, and keep an untouched copy of the file. It is your only way back.
2. Delete every column except URL handle, Title (Shopify requires both), Product image URL, Image position and Image alt text. A column you've removed keeps its current value on import; a column you left in with a blank cell gets blanked.
3. Write the alt text in the Image alt text column, one row per image. Don't blank alt text you want to keep - an empty cell is a write.
4. Import five products first with the option to overwrite products with matching handles, then open them in the admin. Check the alt text landed and that each product has the same number of images as before.
5. Then import the rest.

Two things to watch for, both from Shopify's import documentation. If an image URL points at the Files area rather than at the product, the import downloads the image again and adds a duplicate. And if you deleted images or products after exporting, an import that still lists them fails. Both are reasons to export fresh, right before you edit. If an import has gone wrong before, a CSV import wiped my prices covers why it overwrites more than you meant and how to recover.

Option 3: an alt text app - what to check first

The Shopify App Store has apps that write alt text in bulk, from templates or with AI. Before you let one write to a catalog, check four things:

• You review before it writes. Drafts you approve, not a job that rewrites every image overnight.
• It leaves your own alt text alone unless you tell it otherwise. Overwritten hand-written descriptions are a complaint that shows up in app reviews.
• It handles variants, so the navy photo says navy.
• It can undo a run. And treat any app that promises to make your store “compliant” with skepticism - alt text is one requirement, not the whole of it.

Where BulkSheet fits

BulkSheet doesn't edit image alt text today. It edits your products and variants in a spreadsheet-style grid inside the Shopify admin - titles, prices, tags, inventory, metafields and descriptions - with a preview of every change before it saves and undo after. See the bulk product editor for what it covers.

If you'd use alt text as a column in that grid, with a filter for images that are missing it and the same preview and undo, email support@bulksheet.app and tell us how many images you're dealing with. Requests like that decide what we build next.

Frequently asked questions

Does the European Accessibility Act apply to my Shopify store?

It applies to online stores that sell to consumers in the EU, including stores based outside the EU, from 28 June 2025. Microenterprises are exempt for services: a business with fewer than 10 people and annual turnover or balance sheet total of 2 million euros or less doesn't have to meet the e-commerce accessibility requirements. If you're above that size, the practical benchmark is WCAG 2.1 level AA, and text alternatives for product images are one of its most basic requirements. This is a summary, not legal advice.

Is AI-generated alt text good enough?

As a first draft, often yes; unreviewed, often no. Accessibility rules judge the alt text on the page, not how it was written, and AI drafts regularly miss what matters about a product photo (the exact color, the detail this angle shows) or describe things that aren't there. Treat suggestions from Shopify's media editor or an app as drafts, read each one against the image, and fix the ones that are wrong before they go live.

Should I leave alt text empty on some product images?

Usually not on product photos. Empty alt text is the correct way to mark a purely decorative image, but many Shopify themes fill an empty product image alt with the product title, so a blank field doesn't make the image decorative - it makes a screen reader announce the same title for every photo. Write a short description of what each photo shows instead.

Can BulkSheet bulk edit image alt text?

Not today. BulkSheet edits product and variant fields - titles, prices, tags, inventory, metafields, descriptions - but not image alt text. If you'd use alt text as a column in the grid, email support@bulksheet.app with the subject "Bulk image alt text"; requests decide what gets built next.