the importance of datafeeds for webshops
Thursday, August 20th, 2009If you run a webshop your goal is to sell a much of your products as possible. So you create a great looking website, add your products and focus on getting found in Google (and/or use adwords) to get visitors. You have optimised your website so conversion is high: your products are easy to find, well documented and visible (images/video) and your checkout process is easy. So where is your datafeed? What? Yes, your datafeed…..PUBLISH YOUR FEED!
What is a datafeed?
A datafeed, also known as product feed, is a file containing all information of all the products you sell. The format of this file is often XML and can look something like this:
<listing>
<product>
<name><![CDATA[blue t-shirt by Tommy]]></name>
<description><![CDATA[a nice blue t-shirt from Tommy which won't shrink when washed. Waste is slim]]></description>
<gender><![CDATA[boy]]></gender>
<sizes>
<size>62</size>
<size>68</size>
</sizes>
<brand><![CDATA[Tommy]]></brand>
<color><![CDATA[blue]]></color>
<type><![CDATA[shirt]]></type>
<url><![CDATA[http://www.domain.com/producturl1]]></url>
<image><![CDATA[http://www.domain.com/imageurl1]]></image>
</product>
<product>
<name><![CDATA[green shorts]]></name>
<description><![CDATA[short which fall just beneath the knee]]></description>
<gender><![CDATA[boy]]></gender>
<sizes>
<size>62</size>
<size>68</size>
</sizes>
<brand><![CDATA[Ralph]]></brand>
<color><![CDATA[green]]></color>
<type><![CDATA[trousers]]></type>
<url><![CDATA[http://www.domain.com/producturl2]]></url>
<image><![CDATA[http://www.domain.com/imageurl2]]></image>
</product>
</listing>
The feed should contain as much information as possible related to the products you sell. It can be something like a RSS feed but be aware that the productfeed I am talking about MUST contain all productdata for all products you have. If the file becomes too big, split it into several files (make a sensable split by producttype or something).
Why publish your datafeed?
Well…to sell more! How? There are a lot of websites out there, who are willing to add your productfeed to publish on their own website…for free! True, a lot of websites only accept affiliate productfeeds to earn some money with a datafeed, but to complete the offering on a vertical (websites where all sites for one subject are indexed) your datafeed will be pickedup.
And if you are thinking about using affiliate someday, your feed is ready. By letting others use your content, you will sell more…and that is the goal.
How to publish your datafeed?
Just put it on your website. Add it to the menu or the links at the bottom of your pages. Just make sure it can be found easily…some nice bonus: search engines will pick it up as well.
Most webshop software can create your datafeed automatically from the database it holds. Just make sure the feed is complete, correct and up to date and you are good to go….and sell more!