Data feeds can generally be created in two ways – manually or automatically via your content management system (CMS).
If you’re going the automated route, be sure to discuss the best path with your developer or CMS provider. The eventual output will be a feed that pulls your entire inventory and uses the fields of information you already have on your site to create a formatted list of products. This keeps your data feed as up to date as the website and should be set to run daily. The format of this initial feed is important and is something your feed manager should direct.
If you have a considerably smaller set of SKUs or no means for an automated feed, a manual feed can easily be created to help promote your products. It’s as simple as creating an excel spreadsheet with as much information about your products as you can provide. However, some fields should always be used as a baseline, including product name, description, price, link to the product, and image URL. Make sure to check the requirements of the places you intend to send the feed before committing to the fields you want created. More on this later.
Once you’ve created the original file and have the information necessary, where do you send it? And what if a different format is required?
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