Product Feed
A product feed is a structured file that bundles all sales-relevant product data – title, description, price, image, availability and identifiers such as GTIN – in a machine-readable format. It delivers assortments automatically to shops, marketplaces, price comparison sites and advertising channels like Google Shopping.
A product feed is a structured, machine-readable file that describes a retailer’s assortment in a uniform format: for each product, the feed holds fixed data fields such as title, description, price, product image, availability, category and unique identifiers like GTIN or SKU. Instead of maintaining item data by hand for every sales channel, the product feed delivers this information automatically to external systems – to marketplaces, price comparison portals and advertising platforms such as Google Shopping or Meta.
Technically, a product feed is usually a file in CSV, XML or TXT format that is refreshed at regular intervals and provided via a URL or an API. Each row describes one product, each column one attribute. The receiving channel reads the feed, maps the fields to its own requirements and displays the products. The product feed is thus the bridge between a retailer’s assortment and the many channels on which it is to be sold or advertised.
At a glance
- Product feed = structured file with all sales-relevant product data per channel
- Common formats: CSV, XML, TXT – provided via URL or API
- Typical fields: title, description, price, image, availability, GTIN, category
- Target channels: marketplaces, price portals, Google Shopping, social ads
- Ideal data source is the ERP or PIM – not manually maintained spreadsheets
How a product feed is structured
A product feed always follows the same basic principle: a list of products, each described by a fixed set of attributes. Which fields are mandatory is dictated by the target channel. For Google Shopping, for example, a unique item ID, title, description, a link to the product page, an image link, price and availability are required, along with product identifiers such as GTIN, brand and manufacturer part number (MPN). If mandatory fields are missing or faulty, the affected product is rejected and does not appear in the channel.
The file itself can be structured in different ways. A CSV file lists products row by row, separated by commas or semicolons; an XML feed uses nested tags and is often used for Google and price portals. Beyond the pure data structure, content quality matters: meaningful titles with brand and product type, clean categories, correct prices including currency and up-to-date stock figures determine whether products are found, displayed correctly and not blocked because of data errors.
Required fields and product identifiers
At the core of every feed are the unique product identifiers. The GTIN (Global Trade Item Number, visible as an EAN barcode) identifies an item uniquely worldwide and is mandatory on many channels because it consolidates products and enables price comparisons. In addition, the internal SKU serves for mapping within your own system. If a valid GTIN is missing, channels usually require the combination of brand and MPN – or they downgrade the listing in reach and visibility.
What a product feed is for and why it matters
The value of a product feed grows with the number of channels. A retailer running only its own shop can often do without a separate feed. But as soon as marketplaces like Amazon or eBay, price portals like idealo or Google Shopping and social media advertising come into play, every channel demands the product data in its own format and with its own mandatory fields. Without an automated feed, a retailer would have to maintain the same data multiple times – time-consuming, error-prone and repeated with every price or stock change.
A centrally generated product feed solves this problem: the product data is maintained once and shaped into the appropriate form for each channel. When the price updates or stock drops, the feed transmits the change automatically. This reduces manual work, prevents outdated information and guards against overselling. For visibility in advertising and comparison channels, feed quality is also a direct lever: complete, correct data leads to more approvals, better discoverability and fewer complaints.
The product feed in the ERP system
The most reliable data source for a product feed is the system of record in which the product data is maintained anyway – in many mid-sized retail companies that is the ERP or merchandise management system or a connected PIM. That is where item master data, prices and – unlike in a static export file – daily up-to-date stock levels reside. If the ERP generates the feed directly or feeds a feed tool, the delivered data is automatically consistent with inventory and costing.
Many ERP and multichannel systems can generate product feeds natively or hand them over to feed management services via interfaces. The key advantage lies in the interplay with inventory management: when a channel sells an item, the stock in the ERP drops, and the next feed run reflects the new availability back to all connected channels. This keeps assortment, price and availability in sync across shop, marketplace and advertising channel, without anyone updating spreadsheets by hand.
Field mapping and feed management
Because every channel has different field names and format requirements, there has to be a translation between the ERP fields and the channel fields – so-called field mapping. A feed management tool or the ERP itself maps, for example, the internal field “item name” to Google’s field “title”, converts prices into the required format and filters out products that are not meant to be sold on a particular channel. Clean mapping and regular updates are crucial so that feeds are not rejected because of format errors.
Distinction: product feed, product catalog and PIM
Product feed, product catalog and PIM are often confused but denote different things. A product catalog is the content-oriented compilation of an assortment – classically a printed or digital catalog for people to view. A product feed, by contrast, is a technical exchange format for machines: it carries the same product information but in a structured, machine-readable form for automatic processing by a target channel.
A PIM (Product Information Management), in turn, is the system in which product information is centrally maintained, enriched and released – the data source from which feeds and catalogs are generated. Put simply: the PIM manages the product data, the product catalog presents it for people, and the product feed delivers it to channels by machine. A good product feed is therefore rarely built by hand but rather the automated result of well-maintained master data from the ERP or PIM.
Example
Example: one set of feeds for shop, marketplace and Google Shopping
A retailer of outdoor equipment with around 4,000 items sells through its own shop and a marketplace and advertises its bestsellers via Google Shopping. All item data – titles, descriptions, prices, GTINs and stock levels – resides in the ERP. From it, a feed tool generates a dedicated product feed per channel: for Google, an XML feed is built with the mandatory fields title, price, availability and gtin; for the marketplace, a CSV feed following its category structure.
When the marketplace sells a rain jacket, the stock in the ERP drops. At the next feed run – for example hourly – the reduced availability is transmitted to the shop and Google, so the product is no longer advertised as available anywhere once it is sold out. If purchasing changes a price, the change automatically applies across all channels after the next run. No one maintains the data three times by hand.
Frequently asked questions
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