Product feed management is the process of creating product data feeds, which are files that contain structured data describing your products. While most people associate product feeds with eCommerce websites, they are actually used by many types of businesses including manufacturing sites, retail sites and marketplaces.
In this guide, we review the aspects of Product Feed Management Software, What is product feed management, How do I create a product data feed, and feed management in dairy farm.
Product Feed Management Software
Let’s face it, while there are a lot of great things about running an eCommerce business, there are also some challenges. Like the time and effort required to gather all your products’ information in one place for a product feed management software. Then you have to format that data so that it’s ready for distribution across multiple platforms such as Google Shopping or Amazon. Finally, once everything is set up and ready to go…you wait around for customers to come buy your products! That’s where we come in: by automating the tedious process of gathering all your product information from various sources into one place so you can streamline it into a single feed optimized with keywords & SEO tags needed by search engines like Google & Bing.”
The product feed management software allows you to advertise products in Google Shopping and other marketplaces such as Amazon & Facebook.
Product feed management software is a service that allows you to advertise products in Google Shopping and other marketplaces such as Amazon & Facebook. The product feed management software allows you to create product feeds of any size or format, including large or small, as well as simple flat-file feeds, XML data feeds and JSON data feeds.
Arrange, enhance, syndicate & optimize product information feeds of any size or format.
Feeds can be any format.
They can be in any size.
They can be enhanced with images and videos.
They can syndicated to multiple channels.
You can optimize them for SEO
SEO optimized titles, descriptions and data fields.
You can also choose to have your title, description and data fields optimized for higher search engine visibility. Our platform provides everything you need to create an SEO strategy and then execute on it by automatically uploading the most up-to-date product content to shopping engines and marketplaces.
Data rules and validation for clean, accurate data to ensure best marketing results.
Data rules and validation for clean, accurate data to ensure best marketing results
One of the most important things you can do to reduce errors in your product feeds is to make sure that you provide the appropriate information. For example, if there are certain types of products that require a specific format or additional fields, then it’s important that these requirements are communicated clearly from the start. Feeds should also be formatted consistently across all channels so that users don’t have any trouble understanding how to fill out their own feeds.
Advanced pricing calculations for promotions and bundles.
When it comes to increasing sales, promotions and bundles are two of the most effective strategies. They allow you to offer customers a wide selection of products at discounted prices, which incentivises them to buy more than they normally would.
However, pricing calculations for promotions and bundles can be quite complex. For example, if you have an offer that includes “Buy one get one free” (BOGOF), customers could get two items for the price of one or even three or four items for the price of one (if you’re offering a BOGOF deal on multiple products).
In order to manage these types of promotions effectively, you need software that can help with managing your pricing calculations so that they’re accurate and consistent across all relevant product pages.
Automatic uploads to shopping engines and marketplaces.
Automatic uploads to shopping engines and marketplaces.
With a single integration, you can seamlessly integrate your product data with multiple shopping engines and marketplaces like Google Shopping, Bing Ads, Amazon, eBay and more.
A product feed management solution should allow for the automatic upload of new products to Google Merchant Center as soon as they are created in your ERP or eCommerce platform. It should also be able to update existing products automatically when there are changes in the master data (name, description etc) without requiring any manual interventions from salespeople or marketers at your company.
What is product feed management
Product feed management refers to the optimization of product feeds in an effort to improve shopping campaign results. This typically involves optimizing the following:
It also involves meeting data feed requirements and improving ROI.
Product Feed Quality
Optimizing feed quality is quite literally what it says on the tin. It’s the process of improving all the information within your product feed to help show your products to the right people when they are shopping and searching.
The first thing to look at when optimizing a product feed is whether or not it meets all the requirements. You can check out the requirements here. Getting this right is the primary step to optimization. When you have done this, you can then look to further optimize in other ways.
Try looking at optimizing your product titles. Adding a little detail and ensuring you are putting your most important information at the start of the title is a great place to start, as it’s one of the most important things shoppers look at. Also, bear in mind that your title may only have 25 characters displayed, so consider your title structures thoroughly. There are many other feed optimization tips you can use.
Don’t forget to check out tips provided by your Google Merchant Center. Often, these can help improve shopping campaign ROI.
Source Feed Quality
The source usually refers to the product data in your store. It is paramount that the source quality is good, otherwise there is a high chance that the feed will not be good either.
Within the source, there needs to be plenty of the right information. This is basic product information. However, leaving it out could hurt your feed, as well as the user experience for someone buying your product.
It is also important to consider the image. This will be one of the primary things a shopper will look at before making a purchasing decision.
Make sure you have the right resolution and that the image is visually pleasing. Getting the image right will often be the difference between someone purchasing or buying elsewhere.
Product Feed Management Tools
An effective way to help you get it right in a cost-effective manner is to onboard tools or expertise to help you manage your feed. Many people opt for a product feed management tool to get the best competitive edge they can.
These tools help with a wide range of things for your data feed management, such as feed creation, inventory updates and much more.
Effective product feed management is important to maximize shopping campaign ROI.
About DataFeedWatch
DataFeedWatch is data feed optimization and management software that enables merchants on Magento, Shopify, Volusion, 3Dcart, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, OpenCart, VersaCommerce, and numerous other shopping carts to optimize their product data feed for Google and 2000+ Shopping Channels in 60 countries. The most intuitive and easy data feed management and optimization tool on the market. Free trial and live demo available.
How do I create a product data feed
If you are an eCommerce retailer wanting to maximize your online exposure through increased product visibility, this article will take you through the process step by step. If there is a certain topic you are interested in please click on the link and you can skip to the section that will help you the most.
What is a product data feed?
A product data feed is a file that includes a text-based list of data and attributes from an eCommerce store. The file includes product details that are uniquely displayed, advertised or compared online.
Fields typically included in a product data feed are product title, description, price, size, image and product identifier. More complex feeds can include language, currency, marketing copy, Google custom labels, search engine marketing (SEM) content, social recommendations, product ratings and best seller information. The destination of your feed determines what type of data to include.
Where do you send a product data feed?
There is a large variety of online distribution channels that use product data feeds. Although it may appear easy to take an existing eCommerce catalog and create a product data feed, the specifications of most online distribution channels differ. Configure each product data feed in a unique way to meet the channel’s standards.
Here are some popular online channels that retailers use to market and sell inventory.
How does a product data feed connect to a marketing channel?
The configuration of product data feeds must meet submission requirements from each online distribution channel to get the best results from their platform.
Submit Product Catalog data via:
What are the 4 most popular techniques to generate a product feed for a shopping channel?
There are many ways to generate a product feed. Before choosing a method, consider the size and scope of your eCommerce catalog and potential shopping channels you want to list your products on.
These four techniques are the most popular ways to generate a feed for retailers to market and distribute their products online.
1. Manual Uploads/Downloads
For new or smaller eCommerce businesses, you can start off by manually uploading or downloading catalog product data to a channel in a standard file format (spreadsheet, CSV, TSV).
If you have product information, inventory updates or the shopping channel changes their feed requirements, new files need to be manually uploaded or downloaded.
At times, channels like Google Merchant Center, eBay, Amazon and others have been known to update their feed standards, thus requiring an updated product data feed.
Retailers usually handle this process internally until their catalog or online distribution channels increase to the point where they need an automated feed.
2. Programmatic Feed Generation
For more established and/or larger eCommerce businesses, Programmatic feeds can be generated using a procedure that dynamically creates a product data feed based on a set of variables. These variables prompt the feed to pull specific product information updates from a retailer’s eCommerce system, therefore providing shopping channels with the most updated and tailored information. Once the feeds are created, they can be made available for download or upload from within an eCommerce processor (such as Magento and Shopify).
To develop a programmatic feed, retailers can use either their in-house tech team, an outside software integrator or a product feed management provider.
3. Extended eCommerce Platform Feed Generation
Small to Medium-sized eCommerce businesses with larger catalogs may choose to use an API/plugin method instead of a feed. Depending on which eCommerce platform the products reside in, the platform can be extended by using a third-party extension, also known as a plug-in.
Catalog product data can be transformed into feeds and sent to digital marketing partners and marketplaces using the plug-in connected to your eCommerce platform (such as Magento, Shopify). In most cases, plug-ins include limited personalization and configuration.
4. Remote access to an eCommerce Platform or PIM Platform (Product Information Management)
In this case, a SaaS Product Feed Management supplier connects to their client’s eCommerce platform or PIM and remotely synchronizes product data to online distribution channels. Raw data from the eCommerce platform can be seamlessly transformed into feeds and matched to each channel’s specifications.
Product Feed Management Solution to get the best campaign results
Each product feed creation technique has pros and cons.
Highstreet.io provides you with a full service Product Feed Management Solution that handles the optimization, synchronization and approvals of your products across all of your shopping channels. Our Platforms, allows you to easily deliver optimized product data to market your products on search engines, social commerce platforms, affiliate networks and re-marketing/re-targeting services.
Brands, retailers and agencies choose us as we help them:
Interested in learning more about our Solution? Get in touch with one of our team members and book a free consultation with full details about how we can help you reach your business goals.
feed management in dairy farm
This fact sheet has been developed to support the implementation of the Natural Resources Conservation Service Feed Management 592 Practice Standard. The Feed Management 592 Practice Standard was adopted by NRCS in 2003 as another tool to assist with addressing resource concerns on livestock and poultry operations. Feed management can assist with reducing the import of nutrients to the farm and reduce the excretion of nutrients in manure.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service has adopted a practice standard called Feed Management (592) and is defined as “managing the quantity of available nutrients fed to livestock and poultry for their intended purpose”. The national version of the practice standard can be found in a companion fact sheet entitled An Introduction to Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Feed Management Practice Standard 592. Please check in your own state for a state-specific version of the standard.
The national Feed Management Education team has developed a systematic 5-step development and implementation process for the Feed Management Practice Standard. A complete description of the 5-steps can be found in a companion fact sheet entitled Five Steps to the Development and Implementation of a Feed Management Plan.
The fourth step of this systematic process focuses on the development of the Feed Management Plan. Key participants at step four are the producer and their nutritionist. The key tools to be used at step four are the Feed Management Plan (FMP) Checklistand the Feed Management Plan Template. This fact sheet will concentrate on using the checklist. The next fact sheet in this series A National Template for Preparing a Dairy Feed Management Plan will discuss the template.
Using the Feed Management Plan Checklist
The FMP checklist is designed to assist dairy operators and their nutrient management advisor to determine feeding management factors that affect nutrient management. The checklist is meant to be used as an on-farm assessment tool. The factors contained in this assessment can be used as a guide to document and identify feeding management practices that will impact whole farm nutrient management.
The FMP checklist is designed to assist dairy operators and their nutrient management advisor to determine feeding management factors that affect nutrient management. The checklist is meant to be used as an on-farm assessment tool. The factors contained in this assessment can be used as a guide to document and identify feeding management practices that will impact whole farm nutrient management.
The FMP checklist is designed to systematically gather information that can be used to develop the feed management plan. The organization of the checklist is divided into six management categories of:
To use this checklist, each practice should be discussed with the operator: Are they already implementing the practice? If Yes, indicate so and skip to the next question. If No, discuss whether or not the practice could be implemented and consider the economic implications. In many cases the economic implications will be a “best professional” judgment by the consulting nutritionist or producer.
It is important to address the question “Will it be considered in the future?” as this can provide guidance for reviewing and updating the FMP in the future.
The ‘Benefit to the Environment’ column provides the possible impact the practice could have on whole farm nutrient management. It is meant to be informative and should not be answered for each farm.
By following this link you will find a blank copy of the Feed Management Plan Checklist (PDF file). Additionally, a Completed Feed Management Plan Checklist(PDF file)is available as an example.
The next step in the process is to write the Feed Management Plan. A fact sheet on developing the FMP is available at A National Template for Preparing a Dairy Feed Management Plan.