Product descriptions are an important part of your Meta catalog feed. They help customers understand your products and give Meta the product information it needs for shops, catalogs, and product listings.
Flexify can include different description fields in your feed, including the regular description, optional short_description, and optional rich_text_description.
These fields can come from different places in Shopify, depending on your product setup and any Flexify mappings or overrides.
Editing your Shopify product description in Shopify #
Customers can edit their product description directly in Shopify. Shopify’s product description field uses the Rich Text Editor, which lets merchants format product content in the Shopify admin.
However, for Meta feeds, the regular description field should still be sent as plain text only. Rich text or HTML should only be used in the optional rich_text_description field.
For Shopify’s own guidance, see Using the rich text editor for content.
description #
The regular description field is the main product description in your Meta feed.
This field should contain a clear plain text description of the product. It should include relevant product details, such as material, colour, size, features, or other information that helps customers understand the item.
The regular description field should contain plain text only.
Do not use raw HTML or rich text formatting in the regular description field. If HTML is included in the standard description field, Meta may show warnings such as unsupported HTML, invalid HTML, or HTML format not supported.
The description field is still required, even if you also use short_description or rich_text_description, because Meta uses it as a plain text fallback.
If your products are missing a regular description, Meta may show a missing required attribute warning. For help with that warning, see Resolving the "Missing Required Attribute 'description'" Warning.
short_description #
The optional short_description field can be used for a shorter product summary. It is useful when you want to provide a more compact version of the main product description, such as a brief summary, key product message, or shorter product headline.
The short_description field should not replace the regular description field. Each product should still have a complete plain text description in the feed.
By default, Flexify can use the Shopify SEO description as the source for short_description.
Flexify can also use a dedicated variant-level override for short_description. This override is stored in the following Shopify variant metafield:
variant.metafields.flexify.short_description
If this metafield has a value, Flexify can use it as the short_description for the selected variant.
This field can be managed from the Flexify Product Preview Page, or directly in Shopify via metafields.
If your store uses a custom Shopify product metafield for short descriptions, such as a subtitle or displayed title field, that field will not automatically populate short_description unless it is mapped in Flexify.
rich_text_description #
The optional rich_text_description field can be used when you want to provide a formatted product description.
If you want to include paragraphs, lists, tables, headings, or basic text formatting, this content should go into rich_text_description, not the regular description field.
If rich_text_description is provided, Meta may use it instead of the regular description in supported placements. However, rich text descriptions are not supported in ads, so the regular plain text description should always be present as a fallback.
HTML or rich text should only be used in the optional rich_text_description metafield.
HTML must be valid #
If you use rich_text_description, make sure the HTML is strictly valid so it can be included correctly in the feed.
Invalid, broken, or unsupported HTML can cause Meta feed warnings and may prevent the rich text description from being applied correctly.
Meta’s product description requirements are available here: Product description specifications for catalogs.
Supported HTML tags #
Meta supports a limited set of HTML tags for rich_text_description.
Supported tags include:
Structure tags:
<form>, <fieldset>, <div>, <span>, <section>
Header tags:
<header>, <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, <h6>
Table tags:
<table>, <tbody>, <tfoot>, <thead>, <td>, <th>, <tr>
List tags:
<ul>, <li>, <ol>, <dl>, <dd>, <dt>
Formatting tags:
<b>, <u>, <i>, <em>, <strong>, <title>, <small>, <br>, <p>, <div>, <sub>, <sup>, <pre>, <q>, <s>
HTML tag attributes, such as style, may be stripped from the field. For best results, keep your rich text HTML simple and avoid inline styling, scripts, custom attributes, or unsupported tags.
Best practice #
Use:
descriptionfor the main plain text product descriptionshort_descriptionfor a shorter optional summaryrich_text_descriptiononly when you need valid, supported HTML formatting
This setup gives Meta a reliable fallback description while still allowing shorter summaries or richer formatting where supported.