Product Descriptions: Claude + Make

A vintage-watch reseller has two hundred pieces sitting in a drawer, unlisted, because writing a description for each, the movement, the patina, the strap, is a month of evenings he never starts. The photos are taken and the prices are set; the words are the wall between a drawer of stock and a working store.

This build writes the words. He keeps a sheet with each watch’s details, and Claude turns every row into a clean product description and creates the product in Shopify as a draft. He reviews and publishes; the blank-listing wall is gone.

We wire it in Make, the first build in our e-commerce set. The products land as drafts, not live, so you check the description and price before anything shows in your store. Claude writes; you publish.

What does this workflow actually do?

In one line: a product row becomes a draft listing. Make watches your sheet. When you add a product with its details, Claude writes a description, and Make creates the product in Shopify as a draft. You review and publish; nothing goes live on its own.

A few real cases, none of them the usual ones:

• The vintage-watch reseller above, turning a drawer of stock into a store.
• A spice importer listing dozens of single-origin SKUs with real tasting notes.
• A ceramics studio describing one-of-a-kind pieces faster than they come off the wheel.
• A used board-game reseller listing a warehouse of titles with condition details.

Sourcing and pricing the products is the work you choose to do. Writing the hundredth description is the chore that stalls a catalog. That writing is exactly what Claude is good at.

Why use Make if Claude can already read and write?

Fair question. Claude is good at turning a few product facts into a clean, appealing description. It is not built to watch a sheet and create products in Shopify with the right fields. That is plumbing, and Make does plumbing.

Make handles the no-judgment steps: catching each product row, creating the Shopify draft, looping down the list. Claude handles the one step that needs words, the description. Make is the shelf-stocker; Claude is the copywriter. Drafts, not live listings, keep you in control of what customers actually see.

What do you need before you start?

• A Make account. The free 1,000 operations a month covers a big catalog upload.
• A Claude API key from the Claude console, not the chat app. New to Claude? See how to use Claude.
• A Google Sheet with a row per product: name, key features, price.
• A Shopify store connected to Make.

Two Make words, once. A scenario is one automation, the whole sheet-to-store chain. A module is one box. Three boxes, one scenario.

How does the workflow work, step by step?

Three modules, left to right:

Module	App	What it does
1. Trigger	Google Sheets	Fires when you add a product row
2. Brain	Claude	Writes the product description
3. Output	Shopify	Creates the product as a draft

Step 1: Set up the product sheet

Create a scenario and add Google Sheets, Watch New Rows, connect your account, and point it at a sheet with Name, Features, and Price columns. Each row is one product.

Step 2: Let Claude write the description

Add a Claude module (Anthropic), Create a Prompt, paste your key, pick Sonnet. Give it your voice and the facts:

Write a product description for an online store.
Name: {{Name from Step 1}}
Features: {{Features from Step 1}}

Two short paragraphs, warm and specific, no hype or fake urgency.
Use only the facts given; do not invent specs, materials, or claims.

The do-not-invent rule matters in commerce: a made-up material or measurement is a return waiting to happen.

Step 3: Create the product as a draft

Add Shopify, Create a product, connect your store, map the name, Claude’s description, and the price, and set Status to draft. The product appears in Shopify unpublished, so you review the listing and publish when it is right.

How do you run it and check the result?

Click Run once on a test row. When I tested this, the description came out clean and on-brand once I told Claude to use only the given facts, which stopped it inventing specs. Tune the voice, keep products as drafts, then turn the scenario on so a sheet of stock becomes a queue of draft listings.

After that, the catalog stops being a wall. You fill the sheet as stock comes in, review the drafts, and publish, instead of staring at two hundred blank listings.

What does this cost to run?

Piece	Free tier	If you outgrow it
Make	1,000 operations/month free	Core plan from about $9/month
Claude API	Pay per use	A product description on Sonnet costs a fraction of a cent
Google Sheets	Free	Free
Shopify	Your existing plan	No extra cost

Each product is three Make operations and a sliver of Claude. A hundred products is a few hundred operations, inside the free plan. For tiers, see our Make beginner’s guide.

What can go wrong, and how do you avoid it?

• It goes live unreviewed. Set Status to draft so you check each listing before it publishes.
• It invents specs. Keep the use-only-the-facts rule; wrong details cause returns.
• Descriptions sound samey. Give Claude your brand voice and vary the prompt by product type.
• Prices or fields mismap. Check the Shopify field mapping on a test product first.

Want more of this pattern? Our Make AI scenarios roundup has the next ideas.

How do you build this in Zapier or n8n instead?

The three jobs do not change, only the names do.

Job	Make	Zapier	n8n
Catch a product	Watch New Rows	New Spreadsheet Row trigger	Google Sheets Trigger node
Write the description	Claude module	Claude (Anthropic) action	Anthropic node
Create the draft	Create a product	Shopify Create Product	Shopify node

Make and Zapier are the gentlest for a first build. Zapier vs Make vs n8n compares all three. WooCommerce and others work the same way.

Common questions

Will products go live automatically?

No, if you set Status to draft. They appear unpublished in Shopify for you to review and publish, which is the safe default for listings.

Do I have to use Shopify?

No. WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and others have create-product actions. Swap the last module; the sheet and Claude steps stay the same.

Can it write SEO fields too?

Yes, ask Claude for a meta title and description in the prompt and map them. Our next guide does exactly that for products you already have.

What about product images?

This build handles text. Add images in Shopify, or extend the flow with an image step once the descriptions work.

Is the Claude chat app the same as the API?

Same models, different door. Make talks to the API, so you need a key from the console.

Sources and docs

• Creating a scenario (Make Help)
• Claude API overview (Anthropic)
• Shopify Help Center
• Shopify on Make (integrations)
• Shopify — Grokipedia

Last reviewed: May 2026. Make, Claude, and Shopify update their interfaces; check the official pages for exact button names.

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• Zapier vs Make vs n8n: which to start with
• The AI Tools Directory