Feed Management File Formats
Accurate product data is critical in running your online store and ensuring overall customer loyalty and satisfaction. Part of this journey involves the back-end specifications of your product data and how you choose to format your product data feed files.
The following outlines what data feed management is, what your product data feed is, and the types of commonly used product data feed
What is data feed management?
Feed management is the structured process of cleaning, optimizing, and categorizing your stores’ product list (or product feed), which makes your product data visible before it reaches your customers on whichever marketing channel or marketplace you use. Moreover, accurate product descriptions are the most compelling aspect of a buyer’s desire to convert – which leads to conversion rate optimization.
What is a product data feed?
A product data feed is a file that consists of product attributes, including title, type, brand, color, size, and marketing copy. This product data feed is available on your Shopify, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce, and OpenCart website and does not get edited or changed when you decide to use a product feed manager like ShoppingFeeder. Rather, your product feed file is downloaded and optimized externally.
A product data feed has multiple file formats, including CSV. TXT. XML and a JSON file feed format.
What are data feed formats?
Data feed formats consist of your product feed information that gets delivered from your store to our channel. These tend to start by being in Microsoft Excel or Google sheets format and convert into a CSV, TXT, XML, XLS, (more commonly), and JSON.
Types of Data Feed Formats
CSV Files
A CSV file stands for Comma Separated Values and is a plaintext file that defines each piece of data using separating commas. CSV files can be used for several different programs including defining your product data feed and customer relations management.
TXT Files
A TXT file is a plaintext file that contains text and no formatting. TXT files are used to store information or logs for any program. You can even convert an MP3 file into TXT format. Simply save anything as a TXT file as you would with a JPEG or PDF.
XML Files
An XML file or eXtensible Markup Language is one of the best ways to move your product data. The XML file is more specific than a CSV or TXT extension as it contains specific tags (or elements) that indicate how a product feed can be stored and migrated online. XML files are necessary for web and software as it is readable to both humans and machines.
JSON Files
JavaScript Object Notion or JSON is a plain text file format that structures simple objects and data structures. It is used to transfer data from web application to server and sending data from server to client.
XLS Files
XLS files, or Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets, are text files that contain more visual elements like colour, font, and style. You would likely use Excel spreadsheets before converting the file format onto TXT or CSV file formats.
Which file feed format is better?
It’s not a matter of which file feed format should or should not be used, rather it’s how you’d like to use each format. While CSV and TXT files are great for basic information storage, XML and JSON formats are more useful for matters like machine learning and enriched product data categorization.
What is data feed marketing?
Data feed marketing uses your store’s product data feed, optimizes and cleans this product (without impacting your current Shopify or WooCommerce data), and migrates it onto your chosen marketing channel like Microsoft Advertising or TikTok advertising. This means that your whole, structured, and organized product data can be simply copied and pasted into your desired marketing channel and marketplace, saving you time, and money and boosting your conversion rate.
ShoppingFeeder, a product feed management application for Shopify or ShoppingFeeder’s WordPress plug-in for WooCommerce uses these particular feed file formats and integrates them into your chosen marketing channels. Furthermore, it ensures that your product data is constantly checked, refreshed, and updated before issues with GMC misrepresentation occur.
Conclusion
Accuracy is an extremely important aspect of running an online store, as it determines how your products display on your website and your chosen marketing channels. We’ve outlined the ins and outs of product data feeds, and the types of product data feed formats that apply in product feed management.
