Overview
We recommend keeping copies of all of your images in point of sale. It can streamline product management, and adds a safety net in case you accidentally delete a product listing from your online store.
Because online stores have specific image requirements, uploading giant images from your camera or your supplier isn't the best practice. Consider using smaller detail images over one massive image. Resizing your images can improve performance and your customer experience. Regardless of which online store you use, Shopify has some good guidelines for images: Shopify Product Media Types - Images
Your online store and your template or theme determine how and where images are presented. Once images are uploaded to your online product, you are free to arrange them as you see fit.
Initial Product Upload
Single and Matrix/Grid Products Images
When Accumula initially transfers a product to your online store it will include all images assigned to it.
Due to image handling by online stores, in addition to all images assigned to a Matrix/Grid Product, you will also see one image from each associated variant in your point of sale.
Variant Images
Due to image handling by online stores, one image from each variant in your point of sale will be uploaded to your online store. For Shopify users only, an image can be associated to the variant if the image is present in the point of sale when the variant is first uploaded to Shopify by the Accumula integration.
If the same image is used for multiple variants in your point of sale, it will result in multiple copies of that image uploading to your online store product. Example: Shoes and apparel where the size is the only thing that changes.
Please contact our support team if you commonly setup your products with the same images.
Post Product Upload (Update)
Adding New Images
Because image data is very large, compared to the other data for your products, and it can slow down sync times. As a result the Accumula update images setting is turned off by default. We recommend keeping the update images off to keep sync speeds as fast as possible.
When the Accumula update images setting is turned on, new images added to a product will be uploaded to your online store after the product is saved in the point of sale.
Updating Images
Image updates that occur on Shopify are not synced back to the point of sale. Rather than resaving an existing image Shopify replaces the image when you update or revised it. Any edits, or resizing by an image optimization app found on the Shopify market place will replace image IDs previously saved to Shopify. Because the ID's connected to the image are replaced by Shopify the Accumula integration will think image was delete and re-upload the image to Shopify. If this is a common workflow for you, we recommend turning off image updates.
Deleting Images
Most point of sale solutions do not have a way to inform services like Accumula when an image is deleted. As a result, and to protect users from accidental data loss, Accumula is designed so it cannot delete images from your online store.
To remove images from your online store, the images must be deleted manually from the online product.
Self Help
An example workflow for replacing images on a product after it has been uploaded to your online store:
In the Accumula settings turn Update Images to on.
Delete the images from point of sale that you no longer want on Shopify. Save the product in point of sale.
Delete the images from Shopify that you no longer want on Shopify.
Add any new images you'd like to the product in point of sale. Save the product in point of sale.
If all data exists for a product in your point of sale, you can also simply delete the product from your online store. Then save the product in your point of sale to re-upload to your online store.
If you're having difficulty removing old images please contact Accumula support.
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