Data feeds are an indispensible component of any e-commerce operation. They’re also one of the trickiest areas to understand and navigate if you’re not well educated on how they operate. We’ve addressed this issue briefly in the past but it’s definitely time for a refresher course on the subject, particularly for those readers of ours who are either starting an e-commerce operation from scratch, or existing online retailers looking to make some changes to optimize their site’s performance.
The basics: a product data feed is a file that contains information about your products that you submit to price comparison sites or other shopping portals that you are partnered with. This file can include product names, prices, descriptions, image URLs, and any other attributes about items that you want shoppers to know about as they browse. The feeds can contain anywhere from just a handful of products to thousands depending on the depth of your product offerings.
The process: you build your data feed with as many products as you choose, including whatever information you deem is necessary to the product listings, and then save the feed as a text or CSV (comma separated value) file. Different price and comparison search engines have different requirements for adding your data feed so make sure you’re operating in tandem with them. Once they upload your feed, your product listings will appear on their site with all of the information you provided and you’re well on your way.
Now, maybe you don’t have that time (or patience) to compile and distribute your data feeds. This is particularly true for e-commerce entities that are a ‘one man show’ or have limited staffing resources. No worries. There are lots of data feed services that will help consolidate your product information and then distribute it through whatever online avenues you choose. Depending on which service you choose, some can also help maintain your feeds once they’re up and running by updating changes to the feeds as you make them. For example, if you discount a particular item as a special sale, a good feed service will change the price for that product on your feed, so that all your product listings across the board reflect the new sale price. Not only do these additional services help keep your information current and up-to-date, they make it easier for you to manage your operations, track sales and traffic, and overall keep tabs on which shopping portals that you’re partnering with are proving to be the most useful.
Tips: the best suggestion we can give you for managing your data feeds, and one that is echoed by many SEO and e-commerce experts, is make them as complete and detailed as possible. Provide every available and relevant piece of information about a particular product, even if it is a bit more time consuming on your end. The extra effort is worth it, because smart shoppers are always looking for those details as they shop, especially since the nature of online shopping makes a sensory evaluation of a particular product almost impossible.
Spend an afternoon browsing the web and e-commerce blogs to learn about how data feed services differ, and look around for testimonials from other retailers about their experiences with those companies. It might also be worthwhile to build a spreadsheet with all of the data feed services you are considering, with columns for their prices, benefits, disadvantages and summaries of other merchants’ experience with them. That way, you’re giving yourself every possible avenue to make the right choice.
Two feed services that we would personally recommend are SingleFeed and Merchant Advantage . We’ve seen their logos splashed around as partners with many of the top online comparison sites, and both not only do a fantastic job of simplifying the process, they also offer blogs and background information to help new merchants succeed with their feeds.
