Shopify Product Title Character Limits for Each Channel

The same product needs a different title on every channel you sell it through. Not because the product changes, but because Google Merchant Centre truncates at 150 characters, eBay truncates at 80, Amazon allows 200, and Shopify's storefront has no hard limit but the meta title that appears in search results displays roughly 50-60 characters before Google cuts it off.

Most merchants know the 150-character rule for Google Shopping. Fewer know that this makes the same title too long for eBay by a factor of nearly two. And the attribute order that works for Google (product type front, then brand, then key differentiators) is the wrong attribute order for Amazon (brand first, then model, then attributes and variant information).

This article covers what each channel actually requires, the three title failure modes that cause disapprovals or listing rejections, and how Importier's Title Optimizer handles the conversion with channel-specific presets.

Why Channels Have Different Title Requirements

Each channel uses product titles differently, which is why there is no single title format that works across all of them.

Google Merchant Centre feeds product titles into a search index that matches queries against structured attributes. Google's feed specification recommends that the most important attributes (brand, product type, key differentiators like size, colour, or material) appear at the start of the title so they are not lost when GMC reformats the title for display in Shopping ads and free listings. The 150-character hard limit exists because longer titles are truncated. Google applies Title Case and flags all-capitals titles in its compliance checker.

eBay's search algorithm weights keywords that appear early in the title. The 80-character limit is a hard cut-off: eBay's listing interface rejects titles over 80 characters. The constraint forces merchants to prioritise the keywords most likely to match buyer queries, which on eBay tend to be category and condition keywords rather than brand statements. eBay's own guidance recommends sentence case rather than Title Case for listing titles.

Amazon's product title requirements vary by category, but the general format is brand plus model name plus key attributes plus variant information (colour, size, quantity). The 200-character limit is generous by comparison, but Amazon's search algorithm penalises keyword stuffing and non-standard characters, including excess capitalisation. An all-capitals title that passes GMC can be flagged as low-quality by Amazon's algorithm.

Shopify's storefront has no title character limit. The practical constraint is the SEO meta title: Shopify uses the product title as the page title by default, and Google search results display roughly 50-60 characters before truncation in most viewports. A product with a 180-character title will have most of its title cut off in organic search results even though the Shopify storefront displays the full title on the product page. Merchants can set a separate meta title in Shopify's SEO section, which makes it possible to maintain a full-length GMC-formatted title while keeping a shorter title for organic search display.

The Three Title Failure Modes

Truncation at the wrong point. A 152-character title submitted to GMC gets cut at the 150th character regardless of where that falls in the text. A title like "Merino Wool Crew Neck Sweater Heavyweight 400gsm Charcoal Grey Navy Blue Burgundy Men's Available in Sizes Small Medium Large and XL" loses its size information at character 150, which is precisely the attribute that differentiates this variant from others in a Shopping campaign. The truncation does not trigger a disapproval, it just removes the differentiating content silently.

Wrong attribute order for the channel. A title structured for Amazon places brand and model at the start, which is correct for Amazon's algorithm. The same title submitted to GMC performs less well because Google's algorithm weights product type higher than brand for established labels. A title formatted for GMC (product type first, then brand, then attributes) submitted to Amazon receives lower relevance scores for the model-name queries Amazon shoppers use. The format that passes one channel's best practices is not automatically correct for another.

eBay's hard 80-character rejection. The most common source of eBay listing failures for merchants importing from a Shopify catalogue is titles already formatted for GMC at 100-150 characters. A title optimised for Google Shopping is automatically too long for eBay by between 20 and 70 characters. The eBay import either fails the listing or, depending on the tool used, silently truncates the title, removing the attributes that differentiate the product in eBay search.

“A title optimised for Google Merchant Centre is typically too long for eBay and structured in the wrong attribute order for Amazon. Three channels require three different formats from the same product data.

Importier's Title Optimizer: Channel Presets

The Title Optimizer generates channel-specific titles from existing product data. Each marketplace preset enforces the character limit, attribute order, and case transformation appropriate for its channel.

GMC preset (150 characters): generates titles in the format Google's feed specification recommends: product type front-loaded when the brand is established via the product GTIN, brand plus product type when it is not. Applies Title Case. Enforces the 150-character limit at a word boundary rather than a character boundary, so the truncation never lands mid-word. The GMC compliance checker flags any generated title that would lose a key attribute to truncation and suggests a shorter variant.

eBay preset (80 characters): generates titles with the highest-value keywords placed at the start of the title to match eBay's search algorithm behaviour. Applies sentence case rather than Title Case, in line with eBay's listing guidance. Enforces the 80-character hard limit. For products where essential identifiers cannot fit in 80 characters, the preset prioritises: category keyword, brand, model or key differentiator. Secondary attributes that exceed the limit are omitted.

Amazon preset (200 characters): generates titles in Amazon's preferred format: brand plus model plus key attributes plus variant information. Permits up to 200 characters but avoids keyword-stuffing patterns (excessive repetition, non-standard characters). Does not apply all-capitals transforms, which Amazon's guidelines prohibit for words other than abbreviations and acronyms.

Store Scanner for Existing Catalogues

The Title Optimizer runs during an import, but most merchants have an existing Shopify catalogue with titles that were imported from supplier files (often ALL CAPS, missing key attributes, or over 150 characters) or written for one channel and repurposed for others.

Store Scanner finds existing products whose titles would fail a given channel preset. For GMC compliance, it identifies products with titles over 150 characters or with ALL CAPS formatting. For eBay, it identifies products over 80 characters. The filter by collection or SKU pattern narrows the scan to the relevant product range when only part of the catalogue sells through a specific channel.

The retroactive workflow: run Store Scanner, filter by the failure criteria for the target channel, run the appropriate Title Optimizer preset across the filtered products, review the generated titles, then push back to Shopify in Replace mode. For merchants who have submitted a Google Shopping feed and received title-related disapprovals, this process is faster than editing titles individually in the Shopify admin.

Generated titles from Title Optimizer count toward the monthly product allowance at generation time. The per-product per-billing-month deduplication applies: if the same product already had a description generated this month, the title generation does not add a second count.

1. 01
   Open Title Optimizer and select the channel preset for the channel you are preparing for

   GMC (150 chars, Title Case, product-type-first), eBay (80 chars, sentence case, keyword-first), or Amazon (200 chars, brand-first, no all-caps). Each preset configures all three formatting rules simultaneously.
2. 02
   Review the generated titles before applying. Title Optimizer shows the original and generated title side by side. Products whose existing titles already meet the channel format are flagged as passing and will not count toward the monthly allowance unless you regenerate them.
3. 03
   Run the GMC compliance checker after generating Google titles. The checker identifies titles where truncation would fall mid-attribute rather than mid-word and suggests a shorter alternative. Fix these before submitting the feed

   mid-attribute truncation causes poor ad performance, not a formal disapproval.
4. 04
   For an existing catalogue, use Store Scanner before running the preset. Filter by titles over 150 characters (GMC) or over 80 characters (eBay) to identify the products that need changes. Generating titles only for products that fail channel validation keeps the monthly count lower than regenerating the full catalogue.
5. 05
   Save the configuration as a named Preset. If you sell on multiple channels, save separate Presets for GMC, eBay, and Amazon. Each subsequent import applies the saved Preset, so new products from supplier files receive channel-appropriate titles without a separate formatting step.

For the full range of issues that cause Google Merchant Centre product disapprovals beyond title formatting, the Shopify products disapproved in Google Merchant Centre guide covers data quality failures including missing GTINs, incorrect pricing, and image compliance issues. For context on how product title quality affects Google Shopping campaign performance and quality scores, running Google Shopping campaigns from Shopify covers feed submission and bid strategy. For foundational title cleaning before applying channel presets (removing ALL CAPS, stripping SKU codes, keyword front-loading), the Shopify product title optimisation guide covers the bulk editing tools in detail.

Google Merchant Centre's product title requirements document the recommended attribute order, capitalisation guidelines, and character limit rules for Shopping titles and free listings. eBay's listing title guidance covers the 80-character hard limit and keyword placement priorities for eBay search.

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