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Shopee requires 1:1 square product images with a 500 × 500 pixel minimum (1,024 × 1,024 recommended), JPEG or PNG files under 2 MB, and up to 9 images per listing. The cover must use a clean background — pure white or a single colour, or a natural scene with no more than three dominant tones — while Shopee Mall enforces stricter limits: solid background, product covering at least 60% of the frame, and no text, watermarks or borders at all.
Editorial review: Berrys Team · 2 November 2026. Shopee's Seller Education Hub varies rules by country and updates them without notice; the figures below were cross-checked against Shopee Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines seller documentation in late 2026. Verify on your own upload screen before a large batch.
The Core Spec Sheet
| Requirement | Rule | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Aspect ratio | 1:1 mandatory | 3:4 exists as an optional display format; you must upload 1:1 first |
| Minimum size | 500 × 500 px, 72 dpi | Widely stated in SG/PH/MY seller guides |
| Recommended size | 1,024 × 1,024 px or larger | Shoot masters at ~2,000 × 2,000 px so crops stay sharp |
| File types | JPEG / JPG / PNG | PNG for heavy text or transparency-critical edges |
| File size | ≤ 2 MB per image | Duplicates are skipped during upload |
| Image count | Cover + up to 8 more, plus variation images | Video slot is separate |
| Video | 1 per listing, ~10–60 s, ≤ 30 MB | Check your market's upload screen for exact limits |
| Primary image background | Clean: white/single colour, or natural with ≤ 3 dominant tones (props blurred) | Live, distracting or low-contrast backgrounds fail listing quality checks |
| Background vs product split | Background ≥ 10%, product body ≤ 90% | From SG listing-quality criteria |
| Text & graphics on cover | ≤ 25% of background (general listings) | Discouraged outright on covers; promo text kills ad eligibility |
Shopee Mall Is Stricter — Plan Covers Accordingly
If you operate a Mall storefront, the cover rules harden:
- Solid background, white preferred. No environment shots on the Mall cover (exceptions exist for Apparel, F&B, Tickets and Home & Living in some markets).
- Product fills at least 60% of the image — at least 3 different, professionally taken images for Mall listings.
- No watermarks, montages, borders or text. A logo may sit top-left only, occupying no more than 10% of the image.
- Minimum resolution 500 × 500 px applies to Mall covers explicitly.
Non-Mall general listings get more latitude: a natural background with three or fewer dominant colour tones counts as "clean", which is how lifestyle-first brands keep covers compliant without looking sterile.
The 3:4 Display Format, Properly Understood
Shopee Singapore's guidance: uploading in 1:1 is mandatory for all listings; the 3:4 vertical display is an additional tick-box under Basic Information. Shopee auto-crops your existing uploads into 3:4 and lets you adjust the crop per image. Two consequences:
- Do not pre-crop masters to 3:4 and expect them to behave — you must still upload 1:1 first.
- Compose masters for both frames. Keep the product vertically centred with breathing room top and bottom so the auto-crop never clips the handle, sole or cap. The failure mode is a 1:1 cover that looked full-bleed until the 3:4 crop sliced the bag's handle.
Why the Cover Image Is Where Shopee Is Won
Search results render at thumbnail scale, roughly 150–200 px on mobile. Everything below fails at that size and no zoom recovers it:
- Low-contrast product-on-background merges — beige packaging on beige scenes disappear.
- Busy live backgrounds — allowed under the 3-tone rule but they destroy product separation at thumbnail scale.
- Text-heavy covers — promo stamps read as noise, get suppressed on ad placements, and violate Mall rules.
- Watermarks over the product body — listing rejection, sometimes account strikes at scale.
The compliant pattern that also converts: white or near-white background, one soft contact shadow, product at 60–80% fill, single hero angle, packaging label legible only if it stays legible at 200 px (usually it shouldn't — put copy in slot 2+).
The AI Batch Workflow for Shopee Compliance
Doing this manually per SKU means nine uploads × crop decisions × size checks per product. A pipeline collapses it:
1. Generate from a locked master set. Store front/back/detail masters per SKU. Every export derives from masters, never from another generated image — derived-of-derived output softens labels with each pass.
2. Set platform slots as pipeline parameters, not post-processing. Define the target as a recipe: shopee-main = 1:1, 1024–2040 px, white bg, product ≥60% fill, ≤2 MB. Bake the 2 MB budget by exporting quality-tuned JPGs (PNG only when the file stays under cap; a 2,040 px PNG of a clean studio shot usually doesn't).
3. Enforce the geometry rules in-prompt and in-pipeline. Pin background to seamless white or your single approved tone, product to centre-weighted 60–80% of frame, and keep an aspect-aware safe box so the 3:4 auto-crop never touches the product silhouette.
4. Validate before export, not after rejection. An automated check — resolution ≥ 500, square flag, size ≤ 2 MB, background-tone count ≤ 3 for lifestyle covers — catches the class of failures that cost a day of re-uploading 400 listings one by one.
5. Review against the physical product, every time. Label spelling, colour under both cool and warm display light, component count, port positions. Generated geometry is confident; wrong looks right until a customer holds the real item.
6. Batch-upload smart. Seller Centre Media Space takes up to 60 files per upload and skips duplicates. Name files by SKU and slot (SKU123_cover.jpg, SKU123_back.jpg) so variation mapping doesn't become archaeology.
Failure Modes That Get Listings Rejected
Before blaming Shopee's review, check your asset against these:
- Border or frame added by tooling — some export presets stamp a hairline border; Mall treats any border as a violation.
- Montage images — four product views stitched into one square counts as a montage, not an image.
- Scale distortion — stretching a 3:4 master to fill 1:1 warps proportions ("do not distort product proportions" appears verbatim in PH/MY guidance).
- Variation mismatch — a colour-variation slot showing the wrong shade image is a common counterfeit-flag trigger.
- AI-render placeholders — if you don't ship what the render shows, listing policy violations apply; show the actual product.
A Practical Master-Asset Convention
Teams that survive catalogue updates adopt one convention: shoot or generate masters at 2,040 × 2,040 px, product centred inside a 70% safe box on seamless white, with a separate lifestyle set on ≤ 3-tone backgrounds. Every platform export (Shopee 1:1 + 3:4 crop, TikTok 1:1, Instagram 4:5/9:16) derives from the same master by crop and resize only. When Shopee changes a size rule next year, you re-export — you never re-shoot.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the Shopee product image requirements?
Square 1:1 images at a 500 × 500 px minimum, with 1024 px recommended. Files are capped at 2 MB per image in JPG or PNG. The cover image needs a solid background (white preferred) with the product filling at least 60% of the frame, and no watermark, montage, border, or overlaid text.
What is the Shopee cover image rule?
The cover is the listing's primary thumbnail and the strictest slot. Use a solid white background, keep the full product in frame at 60% or more of the image area, and place any brand logo top-left at no more than 10% of the frame. Shopee Mall listings also require at least three non-duplicate, professionally taken images at different angles.
How do I batch-export Shopee-compliant images?
Build masters at 2,040 × 2,040 px with the product centred inside a 70% safe box on seamless white. Export the 1:1 cover from that master, then generate the angle set and lifestyle variants from the same locked source. Doing it this way means one master serves every slot without a per-image crop.
Can I use the same images for Shopee and TikTok Shop?
Mostly yes. A 2,040 px square white-background master serves both Shopee's 500–1,024 px slots and TikTok Shop's 600–1,080 px slots. Keep a separate lifestyle set on simple backgrounds and reserve 9:16 natives for video placements only.
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