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Feed syndication

Feed syndication is turning one master catalogue into a separate feed for each sales channel, such as Google, Meta, price comparison sites and marketplaces.

How it works

Each channel reads products in its own format. Heureka.cz, a price comparison site, requires the tags ITEM_ID, PRODUCTNAME, URL and PRICE_VAT, the final price with VAT in Czech koruna. It asks for categories from its own tree, while Google sorts products into its own product taxonomy. The Meta catalog accepts XML feeds whose attributes carry Google’s g: prefix.

Syndication keeps the facts that must match everywhere, such as ID, price, availability and link, in one master. On a schedule, it turns the master into each channel’s file. Edits for one channel, such as a title format, a category mapping or products left out, live in that channel’s layer. For Google, that layer can be a supplemental feed, which can replace an attribute’s value without touching the master.

Our guide to feeding every channel from one catalogue covers Heureka, Zboží and Rozetka.

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop sells its 3,000 products through Google, Heureka and Meta. A supplier raises prices on 400 of them. In three separate files, that is 400 × 3 = 1,200 edits. In a master catalogue it is 400: all three feeds pick them up at the next export. The shop leaves its 200 paper napkins out of Heureka only: that feed carries 2,800 products, while the master keeps 3,000.

Not to be confused with

  • Feed — one file of product data for one channel. Syndication produces several feeds from one source.
  • Multichannel selling — the decision to sell in several channels at once. Syndication keeps its product data the same in all of them.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “We fixed the price in the Heureka file, so it is fixed.” Right: if that file comes from the master, the next export overwrites the fix, and Google and Meta never get it.
  • Wrong: “Our Google feed will work on Heureka as it is.” Right: Heureka reads its own tags, such as PRODUCTNAME and PRICE_VAT, so you have to map the same data to them.

Sources