Product feeds in Personalize Pro
Product feeds are a type of content source that allows an e-commerce site to transfer its catalog to comparison shopping engines, marketplaces, and affiliate platforms. It can also be used in Litmus Personalize to power product automation and personalization. Every feed has unique content and purpose but there are some general guidelines to build a robust, usable feed for product automation and personalization with Litmus.
Build your best product feed
Follow these guidelines to help your feed function efficiently and provide the best data.
- HTTPS - host your feed from an https:// URL
- Unique headings - all column headings in the feed must be unique
- Clean headings - remove c: and spaces between words in column headings ; use underscores if desired
- Consistency - use uniform data for all products and use the same format regardless of territory or location
- Categories - product categories are foundational and need consistent names in every entry where they're used
- Custom labels - add flags to filter items like bestsellers or new
- Date stamps - keep content fresh by date stamping a product when it's added to the feed and to quickly find items that may need a custom label or removal when outdated
- Item variations - include every variation for each product SKU, such as color and size
- Feed updates - set = your feed to update hourly or every four hours
NOTE: To use CRM data and your product feed for personalization, the label data in the two locations must match.
For example, if the last browsed category in your CRM is recorded as dresses then all dresses need a dresses label in a consistent product feed column to retrieve the matching data.
This applies to any product identifier such as product ID, EAN, or gtin.
Data to include
Most feeds include the following fields as a foundation. More can be added or adapted to customize the feed for your business needs.
| Field Name | Description | Field Type |
|---|---|---|
| product ID | product identification number or code | Numerical/Text |
| gtin | unique product identification number | Numerical/Text |
| product title | name of product | Text |
| product description | description of product | Text |
| link | url to click through to | URL |
| image link | image url for product image | URL |
| stock level | stock level as of latest update | Numerical |
| date added | date product was new in feed | Date |
| price | price of item | Numerical |
| sale price | sale price of item | Numerical |
| brand | brand of item | Text |
| color | color grouping | Text |
| gender | gender of product | Text |
| size | sizes | Numerical/Text |
| master category | menswear, womenswear, home, kids etc. | Text |
| category_1 | clothing, accessories, tech etc. | Text |
| category_2 | dresses, skirts, tops, trousers | Text |
| category_3 | chinos, jeans, suitpants | Text |
| custom labels | SALE, outlet, new, promo | Text |
| fit type | core, maternity, curve, plus, tall, petite | Text |
Additional field options and examples
Date Added
To order the feed by the newest products, please include a ‘date added’ column. When a product is added to the feed, the date of this addition should be noted in the feed.
If out of stock products are removed from the feed, when they come back into stock, they should not be time stamped as back in stock date, but as the original date added.
When there is a date column in the feed, Litmus Personalize can order the product feed by date so that products are served in order from newest to oldest.
Product Categories / Classification
Categorize and list products from biggest to smallest category. Create additional columns for product type, product fit and size.
Product categories should not be structured as individual columns.
Product Title
If you wish to include the product title in your feed, avoid including unnecessary information.
Examples:
Good product title - Ruffle Dress
Inappropriate product title - Super Fancy Ruffle Dress in red, size medium
Custom labels
Custom labels can be used to flag products included in a specific offer, like BOGO, or to flag products on sale or outlet.
Example: Custom_label_1 = Y (where Y = included in offer)
Using the setup above will allow for advanced personalization in future.
CRM data
To use CRM data in conjunction with the product feed the information in both locations must match.
Images
If you foresee any issues with us retrieving images from your image server, we can pass a password or token in the image request.
International Feeds
Structure international feeds with pricing in the correct currency and the URL should be for the specific international site. Match the feed language to the language stored in the CRM data.