Data Feeds

A data feed, or a product feed, is a file that lists data about all the different entities on a website. A product feed is created to list the products that an online shop sells. It will include the product name, description, price, URL, image URL, category, brand and other useful details for every single product available on the ecommerce store.

Data feeds are generated with a purpose in mind, whether it’s for amending the data en-masse, data analysis, or for use in publishing online.

Data Feed Uses

Data Feeds come in useful for many different applications. They can be used by affiliate publishers to help display the latest deals; websites to showcase a webstore’s product range, and even on social media!

I have created CSV and XML data feeds for eCommerce websites so that their product range can be added to Google Merchant Center and other platforms, like Facebook. By submitting a product feed to these applications, you can see your inventory displayed on the Shopping tab of Google, your commercial profile on Pinterest, and the Shop section of Facebook and Instagram. You can even run paid advertising on Google to promote your products further using Google Shopping, with top bill listing on the first page of Google for relevant commercial searches.

There are tons of opportunities to benefit from by having a product data feed. A feed allows you to reach users beyond your domain but gain the referral traffic back to your website. Any businesses looking to tap into the features offered by Google Shopping, affiliate publishers and social media platforms that are powered by data feeds need to ensure their feed is fetchable and valid.

Having worked with product feeds since 2010, I know what a data feed needs to be successful and can troubleshoot data feed issues that may be hampering your integrations.