There are several ways to display video on your storefront: a Video section you can add to almost any page, or a video attached directly to a product's media gallery. This guide covers both, plus the video formats Shopify supports and a few settings worth knowing about.
Which method should I use?
- Video section — best when you want to show the same video in more than one place (home page, a collection page, a static page, etc.).
- Product media — best when you want a different video for a specific product, shown right in that product's image gallery.
Add a Video section
Every Pixel Union theme includes a built-in Video section.
- In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes, and open the theme editor.
- Navigate to the page you want to add the video to — this section can be added to the home page, product page, collection page, static page templates, cart page, collections list page, blog page, and more.
- Click Add section, then select Video from the list.
- With the section selected, use the sidebar to add your video and configure its settings.
Video section settings
Once the section is added, you can typically configure:
- Video source — a YouTube or Vimeo URL, or a video uploaded directly through Shopify.
- Cover image — the image shown before the video plays.
- Autoplay, loop, and mute — control whether the video plays automatically and whether sound is on by default. If autoplay is enabled, we recommend also muting the video by default — many browsers block autoplay with sound anyway, and unexpected audio is a common source of visitor complaints.
- Overlay text and button — optional heading, subheading, and call-to-action button layered on top of the video.
Note: Exact settings vary by theme and theme version. If you don't see an option described here, check that your theme is on its latest version — see Updating your theme for instructions.
Add a video as product media
Use this method to attach a video to one specific product's gallery.
- In your Shopify admin, go to Products and open the product you want to edit.
- Below Media, click Add file to upload a video directly, or Add from URL to embed a YouTube or Vimeo video.
- If uploading a file, select your video and wait for it to finish processing — this can take a few minutes for longer videos.
- Once added, you can drag the video to reorder it within the product's media gallery, just like an image.
Shopify automatically converts uploaded videos to MP4/HLS for playback, and adjusts quality (480p–1080p) based on the visitor's connection.
Native upload vs. YouTube/Vimeo embed
Both options work well, but they have different tradeoffs:
- Direct upload keeps visitors on your site with no third-party branding, ads, or "recommended videos" overlays, and tends to load faster since it's served from Shopify's own CDN.
- YouTube/Vimeo embeds are a good fit if the video already lives on one of those platforms — for example, if you're reusing a video from your YouTube channel and want the view count to count there too.
Common issues
- Video won't play in the theme editor preview — this is sometimes a browser or ad-blocker issue; check the live storefront before troubleshooting further.
- Video section isn't available on a page — confirm the page type supports sections (older, non–Online Store 2.0 templates may not) and that your theme is up to date.
- Uploaded video is stuck "processing" — large files can take several minutes; try refreshing the product page after a short wait.