What is a product feed in ecommerce?
What goes into a product feed?
One row per product. Each row has the details a platform needs: a title, a price, an image, whether it is in stock. Platforms add their own required fields on top.
In Merchant Center, the data comes in as a data source. Google's help lists a file, a Google Sheets template or the Merchant API as ways to supply it2. Other platforms have their own catalogue formats. The idea is the same.
Google separates a primary data source, the only kind that can add or remove products, from supplemental sources that fill in or update details for products already there2. Merchant Center calls it a data source. Most people still say feed.
Why does it matter for a shop?
The feed is the base for Shopping ads, for Performance Max product ads, and for catalogue-based ads on other platforms. On TikTok, GMV Max, the automated ads solution for TikTok Shop, promotes products listed in your Shop, so the product data there matters just as much.
Feed trouble is usually product data trouble. A price that differs from the site. Stock that is out of date. Titles written for people who already know the product. Platforms read what you send. They do not know what you meant.
So the feed is a small, boring job that decides what many ads say. Where it fits among your other channels is covered in paid media strategy for ecommerce. For the tool where Google feeds land, read what is Google Merchant Center.
For ZFD: We check the feed against the live site before we judge any product ad.
Easily confused with
Product feed vs Google Merchant Center
The tool that receives the data. The feed is what you send into it.
Product feed vs A product page
What shoppers see on your site. The feed is a machine-readable copy of it.
Product feed vs A catalogue (on another platform)
Another platform's name for the same idea, usually in its own format.
FAQ
Is a product feed the same as Merchant Center?
No. The feed is the file or data. Merchant Center is Google's tool that receives it.
How do I get product data into Merchant Center?
Google's help lists a file, a Google Sheets template or the Merchant API2.
Who owns the feed?
Someone should, by name. If nobody does, mismatches stay until a shopper finds one.
Let’s find what’s actually working.
Next step. Check what your product ads really return. Use the Is your ROAS real? calculator.