Shopify Theme Tabs and AI Descriptions: Why Your Tabs Are Empty (And How to Fix It)

Your Importier-generated descriptions look correct in the product editor. Switch to your theme's tabbed layout and the shopify product description tabs are empty, or they show the wrong content under the wrong labels. This is one of the most common questions we see from merchants using modern premium themes, and the answer is straightforward. It is a heading label mismatch between what Importier generates by default and what your theme is listening for. The fix takes under two minutes.

How Shopify Themes Create Product Description Tabs

Shopify does not have a native tab system for product descriptions. Every tab layout is built into the theme itself, which means every theme handles tabs differently.

Themes create shopify product description tabs in one of two ways:

Pattern A (the most common approach): The theme parses the product description HTML and turns each <h2> or <h3> heading into a tab, with the content below it as the tab body. Modern premium themes like Vela, Empire, and Impact, along with many customised free themes, all use this heading-parsing method.

Pattern B (less common): The theme reads specific custom metafields and maps each one to a named tab. Some configurations of high-end premium themes such as Prestige use this approach.

Pattern A is by far the dominant method across the Shopify theme ecosystem. The distinction matters because the fix for each pattern is different.

What Importier Generates by Default

Importier generates structured HTML descriptions with a heading for each section. A standard import using the Default description style produces section headings like these:

<h2>Description</h2>
<p>A compact cordless drill with two-speed settings and a 20V lithium-ion battery.</p>

<h2>Key Features</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Two-speed gear selector (0-450 / 0-1,500 RPM)</li>
  <li>Half-inch keyless chuck accepts standard drill bits</li>
  <li>LED work light for low-visibility applications</li>
</ul>

<h2>Specifications</h2>
<p>Voltage: 20V. Weight: 1.3kg. Chuck size: half inch. Battery: 2Ah lithium-ion.</p>

<h2>What's in the Box</h2>
<p>Drill, 2Ah battery, charger, belt clip, user manual.</p>

For any Pattern A theme, this structure works immediately. The theme parses the headings and creates one tab per <h2>. For a detailed look at how Importier generates AI product descriptions and what you can control across all description styles, see the full guide.

When the Tabs Show the Wrong Content (Or Nothing)

The problem appears when the heading labels Importier uses do not match what the theme expects for its theme tabs accordion description parsing.

Consider a merchant using a premium theme that creates tabs labelled "Product Details", "Quality Features", "Dimensions", and "Package Inclusions". Importier's Default style produces "Description", "Key Features", and "Specifications". The labels do not match.

When that happens, the theme either ignores the headings it does not recognise or creates extra unexpected tabs. Some themes are strict: if a heading does not match one of the expected labels exactly, the content under that heading is dropped from the tab view entirely and rendered as a raw block below the tabs. This is why you can end up with a fully populated description field in Shopify admin, yet empty tabs on the live product page.

This is not a bug in Importier and it is not a bug in your theme. It is a structural mismatch between the heading labels Importier produces by default and the heading labels your theme is configured to parse.

The Fix: Custom Description Sections in Importier Settings

Importier's Custom description style lets you define exactly which sections to include in each description, and what to call each heading, including the exact label text your theme expects.

Across Importier's 7 description styles, Custom gives you the most structural control. You can define between 1 and 10 section headings, in any order, with whatever text your theme is listening for. Importier's AI description generator, available across 18+ AI models, writes content for each section you define, using the heading as a guide to what belongs there.

Here is how to configure the shopify custom description sections in under two minutes:

1. 01
   Open Importier in your Shopify admin and go to Settings

   From the Apps menu, launch Importier and click Settings in the left navigation.
2. 02
   Expand Content Formatting under Preferences

   This section controls which description style Importier uses on every import.
3. 03
   Change Description Style from Default to Custom

   The Custom style unlocks the section heading editor below the dropdown.
4. 04
   Add sections using the exact heading text your theme expects

   Use the same capitalisation and spacing your theme uses. If your theme creates a tab called 'Product Details', your heading must say 'Product Details', not 'Product details' or 'product details'.
5. 05
   Save as a preset so every future import inherits the same section structure

   Presets carry all your settings, including the Custom style configuration, into every new import without reconfiguring.

Once saved, all subsequent imports produce descriptions with headings that match your theme's tab labels exactly.

For more on designing a section structure that works across your catalogue, the shopify product description template guide covers how to choose which sections to include, what order to put them in, and how to handle catalogues with mixed product types.

For existing products: merchants who have already imported products need to re-run their descriptions with the new Custom style. Use the Bulk Update flow in Importier's dashboard: select the products, choose Regenerate Descriptions, and select the preset with your new Custom style configuration. Importier overwrites the existing descriptions using the correct section structure. For a 40-product catalogue, this takes the same Importier session as the settings change itself.

How to Confirm Your Theme Uses Pattern A

Open any product in Shopify Admin and view the Description field in HTML source view (the <> button in the rich text editor).

If the description contains <h2> elements and those same labels appear as tabs on the live product page, your theme uses Pattern A. The Custom Description style fix will work immediately.

A faster visual check: look at the live product page after an Importier import. If tabs appear but are empty or show the wrong content, Pattern A with a label mismatch is almost certainly the cause. If no tabs appear at all, the theme may need a settings change inside the theme editor to enable tab parsing on the product page template. Look for a "Tabs" or "Description style" setting in the product page section settings.

What to Do If Your Theme Uses Metafields for Tabs (Pattern B)

A small number of themes map each product description tab to a dedicated custom metafield, for example custom.tab_product_details or custom.tab_warranty. For these themes, the Custom Description style alone does not solve the problem, because the theme is not reading the description field at all.

Importier does not currently write custom metafields as part of the import workflow. This is a known gap, and it affects a small percentage of merchants on Pattern B themes. Merchants who need metafield-driven tab population can vote for this feature on the feature request board.

There is a practical workaround worth checking first: many Pattern B themes include a toggle that switches between metafield mode and heading-parse mode. If your theme offers this option, switching to heading-parse mode and using the Custom Description style fix above resolves the problem without waiting for a new Importier feature. Check your theme settings or your theme documentation for a "Description tabs" or "Tab source" option.

Once you have confirmed which pattern your theme uses and applied the appropriate fix, the results are immediate on the next import run.

A Before-and-After

Here is the same scenario in concrete terms. A merchant running a home furnishings store on a Vela-based theme sets up tabs to show "Product Details", "Care Instructions", "Dimensions", and "What's in the Box". After their first Importier import, the tabs for "Product Details" and "Care Instructions" are empty. The Shopify admin description field shows content, but the theme is ignoring the "Description" and "Key Features" headings it does not recognise.

The fix: open Importier Settings, switch to Custom style, add the four section headings using the exact labels the theme expects, save as a preset. Every subsequent import produces descriptions the theme can parse correctly. The previous 80 products get re-run using the Bulk Update flow in the same session.

Closing Thoughts

“

Merchants who configure the Custom Description style on day one never encounter the tab mismatch problem.

The Custom Description style is the most underused setting in Importier. Those who discover it later typically spend 20 minutes working out what is happening, then two minutes fixing it, and wish they had set it up at the start.

To recap: Importier generates structured HTML descriptions with headings by default. Any Pattern A theme works with Importier output immediately. When the tab labels do not match, the Custom Description style is the fix. Define the exact headings your theme expects, save as a preset, and all future imports inherit that structure automatically. For Pattern B themes using metafields, check whether your theme has a mode toggle before assuming the feature gap applies to you, and vote on the feature request board if it does.

For further help with Importier configuration, the Importier knowledge base covers the full settings panel including how to configure presets, Brand Voice, and description styles before your first import.

Install Importier free on the Shopify App Store