The problem
Most messy catalogs were pasted from a supplier's spreadsheet. The titles read like keyword lists — "Custom Face Hawaiian Shirt Personalized Photo Button-Up Aloha Shirt for Vacation Family Gifts" (93 characters of search-bait, a leftover Chinese supplier filename still hiding in the product's web address). Attributes sit blank: no type, no SKU codes, no image descriptions. Broken characters from a double-copy-paste litter the descriptions. Near-duplicate products split sales and confuse inventory.
None of this shows up as a complaint. It shows up as products that storefront search and Google cannot match to what people actually type — a buyer searching "walnut mantel" never finds the listing titled "WA07-144". That is quiet, weekly, invisible loss.
What we do
We clean your product data per product: readable titles, repaired descriptions, consistent types and tags, SKU codes where they are blank, image alt text written, duplicates surfaced. Every change is mechanical and listed with its reason; anything that needs a human decision (rewriting a badly stuffed title, merging near-duplicates, picking a product type) goes on a separate you-decide list instead of being changed silently.
The first 5 products are free. We pick the 5 messiest from your public store pages, clean them, and send you the before/after — no store access needed, nothing to sign up for. If the full catalog is worth a pass, that sample is exactly what the paid work looks like.
Email catalog@orbitalfour.com with your store's web address. The 5-product sample comes back free, with no obligation.
What a sample looks like
One real row pair from a sample we built (store name left out — a personalized-gifts store whose catalog came from a supplier's file):
Before
Title: "Custom Face Plush Keychain Personalized photo doll keychains
Gag Gift for Friend Funny Gift" (91 characters, keyword-stuffed)
Variant SKU: (blank on every variant)
Description: "Soft & Breathable Fabric…" (double-escaped
characters), supplier boilerplate
Image alt text: (none)
After
Variant SKU: CUSTOM-FACE-PLUSH-CREA — generated from the product and
option, was blank
Description: "Soft & Breathable Fabric…" — encoding repaired,
boilerplate flagged
Image alt text: written from the cleaned title and variant
Title: moved to the you-decide list with a proposed rewrite — titles
that heavy are rewritten by a person, not silently truncated
You get one page like this per product, field by field, with the reason for every change. Nothing is invented: facts come from your own pages or the maker's public materials.
What it costs
Flat CAD 3.50–6.00 per product, by catalog size. Under 500 products is $6 each, 500–2,000 is $4.50, over 2,000 is $3.50, and the minimum job is $250. One price, in writing, before work starts — never hourly. A seasonal refresh later costs 40% of list.
How a job runs
- You email us your store's address. We clean 5 of your products from its public pages and send the before/after — free.
- If you want the full catalog done, you export your product file (Shopify admin → Products → Export) and email it. We never ask for your password or store access.
- We return the cleaned file, the change log, and the you-decide list within 2 business days, with the invoice — you pay after reviewing the files.
- You check the change log, keep a backup export, and press the import button yourself. The cleaned file never blanks a field that had content and never touches your product URLs or existing SKU codes automatically.
Who it's for
Shopify stores whose catalogs grew by pasting from supplier files or marketplaces: vintage and secondhand clothing, collectibles and trading cards, pet supplies, niche hobby shops, print-on-demand stores. If your product titles would embarrass you read aloud to a customer, your search results already know.
Get your free 5-product sample
Email catalog@orbitalfour.com with your store's web address. You'll get the before/after for 5 of your products by reply — free, and yours to keep either way.