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Administrative Questions

Will I be charged per submission?

We no longer charge per submission, and have not for many years now. Your monthly feed service fee includes unlimited submissions, so you can submit as often as you wish whether your store has changed or not.

We still maintain an auto-skip feature that can be useful in some circumstances. It cancels submissions if it is sure that your store data has not changed since the last submission. It is recommended to disable auto-skip in most cases.

Are there any hidden fees?

Accounts are funded in advance, and there is a one-month minimum purchase requirement. Credit balances are forfeited after extended account inactivity. Other than that, there are no hidden fees, maintenance fees, minimum contracts, or cancellation fees. Credit balances are refundable at any time upon request. Setup fees are at your option. See our Billing Notes for details.

What support do I receive?

Included in your service is troubleshooting and technical support support by email. There is also help documentation available on the website.

What if I want to cancel my service?

You can stop your submissions at any time. If you want to close your account, we will provide a full refund of any remaining credit in your account (less free trial credit).

What payment methods do you accept?

Payments are processed online through Paypal or via the Shopify Billing API. We accept all major credit cards, debit cards, and eChecks/EFT payments. You may also mail us a check.

How do I reset or recover a lost or forgotten password?

Please use our Password Reset page.

How do I get my confirmation code after registering my account?

The confirmation code will be automatically emailed to you upon registration. If you do not receive it, use our Resend Confirmation Code page. If that doesn't work, please re-register.

Where can I find your terms of service and policies?

Please see our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

How do I manually submit, upload, refresh, or resubmit a data feed?

1. Go to My Account
2. Click Manage for the desired feed
3. Click the Submit button, or click the Refresh button

The task will be placed into the queue immediately, and runs in the background, so you will see a task status page and you do not have to keep the browser open.

Refresh reloads the data from the source into our system, whereas Submit reloads the data and uploads it to the destination. Therefore, you do not need to click Refresh before clicking Submit.

Go to Manage > View Results to view the submission history for the feed.

You can also submit the feed by going to My Account > Manage Feed > Submit a Task, and clicking the desired button. Additional task buttons for Quick Refresh and Quick Submit are on this page.

How do I merge my accounts?

If you have multiple accounts with us that you would like to merge together, please contact us and provide us with the account email addresses of the account(s) you want to deactivate and account you want to keep. We will manually process your request. Feeds, alerts, and credit balances (excluding free trial credits) will be transferred, but not account credit history.

How do I pause, delete, or cancel a data feed?

OPTION 1: Pause or Suspend a Data Feed

To pause a feed, complete these steps:

1. Go to My Account
2. Go to Manage Feed > Modify Feed Settings
3. Set the Update Frequency to Never
4. Click the Update button

Even though the feed is stopped, you will still be charged for 30 days for this feed. (This is because many shopping engines expire your listings after about 30 days.) After that, the fees stop automatically.

You can leave a data feed paused/suspended for at least one year, and usually longer. We typically delete unused feeds over one year only if the account is inactive and the specifications have gone out of date.

OPTION 2: Archive a Data Feed (Suspends Billing Immediately)

If you wish to pause a feed and stop the billing for the feed immediately, please contact us and we can archive your feed by moving it to another account. You would contact us again to move it back into your account.

OPTION 3: Permanently Delete or Cancel a Data Feed

To delete your feed, just go to Manage Feed > Delete Feed and click Delete. All the settings and history for this feed will not be recoverable. (We can manually restore settings from backup, but there may be a fee involved.)

When you delete the feed, the fees stop immediately. Take a screenshot of the Define Fields, Modify Settings, and other pages if you want to delete a feed temporarily, and perhaps add it back later. You would have to manually add it back. You can add/remove feeds at any time.

Merchant Accounts are not Touched

The actions above only stop the product data feed from being submitted to the destination. Pausing, archiving, or deleting a feed does NOT:

• Remove or delete active product listings from the destination. Listings typically remain active for 30 days from the last feed submission, depending on the channel.
• Stop any running ad campaigns
• Cancel or close the merchant account of the destination

The above steps must be completed by you, at your discretion.

Why am I receiving Low Credit Notice emails?

Once your credit balance goes below the notice threshold in your profile (default $8.00), our system emails you periodically to add credit to your account. Once you add credit, the notices will stop being sent.

If you would like to stop receiving reminders without adding credit, change your account status to "Inactive" from the change account status page. You can reactivate your account from the same page in the future.

Accounts are automatically deactivated after 360 days. You can extend the account expiration for an additional 360 days by clicking the link in the notification email you receive prior to the account being deactivated.

To change your low balance notice threshold, simply edit your profile.

Do you support automated monthly billing?

Unfortunately, at this time, we do not support automated monthly billing. By not storing your financial information, we keep our system simpler and more secure.

Instead, our system will email you Low Credit Notices once your balance becomes low. Just click the link in the email to add funds to your account. You can configure the low credit notice threshold from your profile.

You can add enough funds to cover any number of months of service. Unused credits are refundable should you choose to close your account.

NEW: We are planning to add automatic payments soon.

Can you send an invoice to add funds to the credit balance?

Instead of a paper or email invoice, we recommend that you go to the Purchase Credit page, enter the amount of credit you wish to purchase, and click the Check Out button to complete the purchase.

This way, the credit will post automatically and almost immediately to your account.

If you need a paid invoice for your records, then you can go to the Account History page and click the Generate PDF Invoice button.

If you do not have a Paypal account, you do not need to create one. After clicking the Checkout with Paypal button, click the Pay by Debit or Credit Card button to Checkout as Guest.

If your email address is registered with Paypal, but you do NOT want to pay by Paypal, click the Pay by Credit Card button at the bottom of the Purchase Credit page for instructions.

If you prefer a PDF invoice by email, then please note that the payment must be posted manually, so it takes a bit more time to process. Just click this Request Email Invoice link and include the amount you wish to purchase in the message.

How do I add a user, email, or alternate login to my account?

Please send us the alternate email address and desired password using our contact form and we can add them as a user. To remove access for a user, please contact us as well. Here are some things to keep in mind.

• Alternate logins do not receive emailed announcements or system notices.
• Alternate logins have full account access. We do not store any credit card information on any of our systems, so that information can not be accessed.

Add an Email address for Notifications, Announcements, etc.

Unfortunately, we do not have a way to add an Email address for notifications/emails. We use one email address as a single point of contact. Here are a couple workarounds:

• Add a mail filter in your e-mail program to forward emails from *@atensoftware.com to your alternate email address.
• Set up a group email address, like datafeeds@yourdomain.com, and assign the people who should manage the data feeds account to that group. We will email datafeeds@yourdomain.com and everyone in that group will receive the emails.

Multi-Client Accounts

Do you need to manage multiple accounts using one login and password? If so, please contact us with your request. We hope to have this feature available in the near future.

FTP Password Reset Instructions for Each Shopping Engine

General Instructions

View Your Feeds

• Go to My Account on our website. (Log in if prompted.)
• Feeds are displayed in a table with their current update frequency and last activity date.

Reset Password for a Feed

• Use the password reset instructions (in the section below) for the specific shopping engine.
• Go to My Account on our website
• Click the Manage link in the table of feeds for the feed you are working on.
• Click the Modify Settings link.
• Enter the new password in the FTP Password box.
• Click the Update button.
• Click the Test Settings for this feed link.
• Confirm that the Checking FTP Credentials... result is Success

Instructions for each Shopping Engine

Google Shopping

• Go to Google Merchant Center SFTP / FTP / GCS Settings (Log in if prompted.)
• Click the Generate New Password button
• Copy the password that is displayed

Bing Shopping

• Go to Bing Ads and log in
• Click on Tools > Bing Merchant Center from the top menu
• Click on your store name
• Click the FTP Settings tab
• Enter a new password in the Password and Confirm password boxes.
  At least one number and one symbol are required.
  Here is a random one for your convenience:
  8WjAsQ4{
  It is regenerated each time this page is reloaded.

Connexity (Shopzilla / PriceGrabber)

Connexity does not provide a method for resetting the FTP password without contacting them.

Shareasale

Shareasale does not provide a method for resetting the FTP password without contacting them. However, they restrict uploads by IP address too, so it is safe to do nothing. The only time you may want to contact them to reset the FTP password is if you receive many notifications about unauthorized uploads.

Custom Feeds and Other Shopping Engines

Please contact us if you need assistance resetting the FTP password.

Ecwid / Deluxe Enterprises Google Shopping Feed Store Export

1. Open Google Chrome web browser (other browsers will NOT work)
2. Go to https://my.deluxe.com/
3. Log in
4. Click Website Creator under the Web Design section
5. Click My Add-Ons on the side-bar
6. Expand the Sell Online section
7. Click the gear icon on the Online Store image
8. Select Catalog > Products on the Menu
9. Scroll to the bottom of the product list
10. Click the Export All button
11. Scroll to the middle of the page
12. Select Comma as the Delimiter
13. Click the Download CSV file button
14. A file like products_2019-08-08_14-20.csv will be downloaded to your computer
15. Rename the file to products.csv
16. Upload the CSV file to ftp.atensoftware.com using an FTP client like WinSCP. Overwrite the existing file on the FTP server. The FTP login and password can be found under My Account > Manage Feed > Modify Feed Settings in the Product Catalog URL box.

Agency Partner Accounts

Onboarding Instructions for Shopify Stores

The instructions below are for agencies to on-board new clients.

The workflow requires a one-time set up in advance. Please contact us to set up the agency integration workflow for your company.

Once the client completes the instructions below, then the agency can add feeds for the customer to their account.

Instructions to Agency

• Click the Copy to Clipboard button below
• Paste into an email to your customer
• Send the invitation email
• Wait for the user to email you back confirming they have installed the app.
• Go to My Account > Add Feed
• The Store Name should be pre-filled. If missing or incorrect, please enter it.
• After you click Add Feed, on the Modify Settings page, the shop token should be pre-filled. If not, please contact us to configure it.

Invitation Email

---

Here are the instructions to install the free Aten Software Data Feeds app. Installing this app does not change your store in any way. It solely gives us read-only access to your product catalog via the Shopify API. The $24.90/month fee will not apply, so you can disregard that information.

A) Go to Aten Software Shopping Data Feed Shopify App
https://apps.shopify.com/aten-software-shopping-feeds

B) Click the Add app button

C) When prompted, click the I installed on behalf of ... button applicable to you.

D) Reply back to this email with a note like "The app is installed."

---

Copy Invitation Email to Clipboard

---

Staff Permissions Required to Install App

Here are the minimum Shopify Store Staff Permissions required to install our Shopping Data Feed Service Shopify App, as of October 2021.

• Products
• Export products and inventory
• Manage settings
• Manage and install apps and channels

Only the above four check boxes need to be checked.

Here is a screen shot: Minimum Shopify Staff Permissions To Install Shopping Data Feed Service App

The app itself requests the following permissions/scopes:
read_products,read_inventory,read_locales,read_translations,read_publications

Agency Partner Terms and Conditions

An Agency Partner is any registered user of our service with active feeds representing more than ten (10) distinct stores, where each store is owned by a different legal entity.

Agency Partner accounts have the same per feed monthly pricing listed on our Pricing page, but have a higher service level.

These Terms and Conditions herein extend the general Terms and Conditions for the service.

Below is a description of the services included for Agency Partner accounts.

1. The one-time fee for Feed Setup and Optimization is waived on up to three feeds to any customer referred by the Agency Partner to Aten Software for their feed services. This also applies in the case where the customer discontinues services with the Agency Partner and requests to use Aten Software data feed services directly.
2. The support response time goal of one to two business days is the same as for all other accounts, but response to Agency Partners will be prioritized.
3. A minimum of thirty (30) days notice will be provided in case of termination of the account for any reason, including the sale of Aten Software to another company, or Aten Software business closure.
4. Individual feeds and/or services may be shut off in case of excessive system resources usage, unusual activity, and/or suspicious activity, without advance notice. Notice will be provided after.
5. Additional services that may be offered on a case-by-case basis include:
   1. Streamlined and agency-specific onboarding instructions and account pages
   2. A limited amount of free setups/programming
   3. Customizations and new feature additions to the account
   4. Twice per day feed updates
6. The Agency Partner may request a free quote for all other custom work.

Amazon Data Feed

Do you support Amazon Marketplace Seller Central data feeds?

We support Amazon Marketplace Price & Inventory Feeds and Inventory Loader feeds. Read on for more information about how to use these feeds.

Overview of Amazon Marketplace

The Sell on Amazon program allows you to sell your items directly on Amazon's main website. Your company will be listed as a third-party seller on product pages. Shoppers checkout on Amazon's site, and you pay Amazon a commission on the sale.

List Products Already on Amazon.com

Price & Inventory and Inventory Loader feeds are exclusively for listing products that already exist on Amazon.

As such, this feed does not require any product details, only the quantity in stock, product identifier (UPC), and your selling price.

To get started, please read our article, Amazon Inventory Loader and Price and Quantity Update Feeds, or contact us for a quote.

List Products not yet on Amazon.com

Category-specific, Inventory Template Feeds are used to add items to Amazon.com that do not already exist there.

Each top-level product category on Amazon has different data feed requirements, which are spelled out in their Inventory templates for product categories.

You can use the Amazon Product Classifier to determine the appropriate Inventory template for your products.

Amazon has strict requirements for adding new items. You will likely need to do item-by-item content work on your product catalog. At a bare minimum, Amazon requires that you specify a UPC code, product type, and item type for each item. Additional requirements vary by category. Unfortunately, we do not offer content-editing services to add your products to Amazon Marketplace.

If you already have a working and tested spreadsheet that you upload to Amazon, we can program your rules into our system and set the feed up to run automatically. Please contact us for a quote.

Amazon Inventory Loader and Price and Quantity Update Feeds

We are able to generate and submit Amazon Inventory Loader or Amazon Price and Quantity Update feeds to Amazon.

Features

• Uploads your price, quantity, and UPC code only
• Feed submit automatically every day (or more frequently if desired)
• Our system maintains your SKUs in order to zero out the quantity if you delete, remove, or discontinue an item from your store
• We custom-program your business rules (pricing, filtering, etc.)
• We can provide settings for markup rules, filters, etc. that you can modify via our website anytime
• Feed is uploaded automatically to your Amazon account via our integration with Amazon MWS (Merchant Web Services API)
• We do not need your Amazon account login (you just grant us the limited access to MWS that we need)

Requirements and Limitations

• UPC codes (or EAN/ISBN/ASIN) are mandatory
• Only items that already exist in the Amazon Marketplace will be listed
• Items that do not exist in Amazon will error out and be ignored
• You are responsible for obtaining necessary approvals from Amazon for the items and categories you want to sell

Note that in some cases, a UPC code may match up to two different products in Amazon. Amazon provides some tools to help you select specific listings.

Pricing

Please contact us for a pricing quote, which would involve a monthly fee and a setup fee.

The setup fee includes the following:

• setting up a price/quantity/UPC feed for your store
• obtaining access to your Amazon account via MWS
• setting up the persistent SKU table
• programming in your business/pricing rules/filtering rules
• doing test submissions to Amazon
• revising until such time that the feed is working as desired
• scheduling the feed according to the desired frequency.

How to set up a custom sub-domain for Amazon S3 hosted images

If you have images or other content hosted on Amazon S3, then the default domain will be s3.amazonaws.com, resulting in URLs like the following:
 
http://bucketname.s3.amazonaws.com/image.jpg
or
http://s3.amazonaws.com/bucketname/image.jpg

If you want the URL to contain your own domain name, then there is an easy way to achieve that. Follow the instructions below:

1. Log into your domain registrar's website, e.g. GoDaddy, NameCheap, Network Solutions, Yahoo! Domains, etc.
2. Navigate to the management area for your domain name.
3. Add a new sub-domain that matches the name of the bucket, for example, image.mydomain.com.
4. Navigate to the custom DNS settings for the new sub-domain
5. Add a CNAME entry that maps your new sub-domain name to Amazon's domain name, like this:
    
   image.mydomain.com => image.mydomain.com.s3.amazonaws.com
    
   In this example, image.mydomain.com is the name of the custom sub-domain and also the name of the bucket.
6. Allow about 24 hours for the changes to propagate through the Internet.
7. Contact us to update your feed settings with the new domain name.

How to grant access to a single Amazon AWS S3 bucket

Use these instructions to share programmatic full read/write/list access to a single Amazon S3 bucket in your Amazon Web Services (AWS) account. You can optionally configure the bucket for public read access, suitable for access via HTTPS (static web site hosting).

Choose a bucket name

If your website is mystore.com, then we suggest naming the bucket like atensoftware.mystore.com, so you know the purpose of the bucket.

Enter your Bucket Name to automatically customize the instructions.

Bucket Name

  This information is not transmitted or saved anywhere.

Create the bucket

1. Sign into the Amazon AWS S3 Management Console
2. Click the Create Bucket button.
3. Enter a bucket name, like atensoftware.mystore.com
4. Select the US East (Ohio) us-east-2 region.
5. Set Object Ownership to ACLs disabled (recommended).
6. Leave checkboxes for Block public access checked.
7. Set Bucket Versioning to Disable
8. Do not add any Tags
9. Leave Default encryption at defaults: Encryption key type = Amazon S3 managed keys (SSE-S3) and Bucket Key = Enable.
10. Do not change any Advanced settings
11. Click the Create bucket button.

(OPTIONAL) Enable public HTTPS web access to the bucket

Complete this section to enable public web access to files in the bucket. Otherwise, skip to the next section if access must be restricted to a specific user.

1. From S3 Console, click the Buckets tab in side-bar.
2. Click on the bucket that you created, e.g. atensoftware.mystore.com
3. Click the Permissions tab.
4. Click the Edit button in the Block public access (bucket settings) section.
5. Uncheck the Block all public access checkbox and all four checkboxes underneath it.
6. Click the Save changes button.
7. Type confirm in the box that pops up, and click the Confirm button.
8. Scroll down to the Bucket policy section and click the Edit button
9. Copy and paste the text below, replacing the bucket name if needed:

   {
       "Version": "2012-10-17",
       "Statement": [
           {
               "Sid": "PublicReadGetObject",
               "Effect": "Allow",
               "Principal": "*",
               "Action": [
                   "s3:GetObject"
               ],
               "Resource": [
                   "arn:aws:s3:::atensoftware.mystore.com/*"
               ]
           }
       ]
   }

   Copy to clipboard
10. Click the Save changes button.

If you upload a file named image1.jpeg to the bucket, then the publicly-accessible URL to an object in the bucket will look like this: https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/atensoftware.mystore.com/image1.jpeg

Create a permission policy for the bucket

This permission policy will be assigned to the user created in a later step.

1. Go to the Amazon AWS IAM Management Console
2. Click Policies on the side-bar.
3. Click the Create Policy button
4. Click the JSON tab
5. Copy and paste the following into the text box, replacing the bucket name if needed:

   {
       "Version": "2012-10-17",
       "Statement": [
           {
               "Effect": "Allow",
               "Action": [
                   "s3:ListBucket"
               ],
               "Resource": [
                   "arn:aws:s3:::atensoftware.mystore.com"
               ]
           },
           {
               "Effect": "Allow",
               "Action": ["s3:*"],
               "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::atensoftware.mystore.com/*"
           }
       ]
   }

   Copy to clipboard
6. Click the Next: Tags button.
7. Click the Next: Review button.
8. Enter SingleBucketFullAccess as the Name, or another name of your choosing.
9. Click the Create policy button.

Create a user with access to the bucket

1. Go to the Amazon AWS IAM Management Console
2. Click Users on the side-bar.
3. Click the Add users button.
4. Enter atensoftware as the User name.
5. Check the Programmatic access checkbox for Access type. Leave AWS Management Console access unchecked.
6. Click the Next: Permissions button.
7. Select Attach existing policies directly.
8. Type single in the Filter policies search box.
9. Check the box for the SingleBucketFullAccess policy that was created earlier.
10. Click the Next: Tags button
11. Click the Next: Review button
12. Click the Create user button
13. Continue to the next section before closing the browser.

(Customers only) Send us the user credentials

This section is only applicable to our product data feed customers.

1. Click the Show Secret access key link and leave the browser window/tab open.
2. Go to our Secure Login and Password Form in a new browser window/tab.
3. Select NOT APPLICABLE as the Shopping Engine.
4. Copy the Access key ID and Secret access key from the Amazon IAM User Security Credentials to our Secure Login and Password form, placing them in the Login and Password boxes, respectively.
5. Enter the bucket name, e.g. atensoftware.mystore.com, in the Additional Notes box.
6. Click the Submit button.

If later you decide to revoke the permissions, simply delete the 'atensoftware' user. You can also delete the policy and bucket if you no longer need it.

BigCommerce Product Data Feeds

Where to find your BigCommerce Store Hash

The BigCommerce Store Hash is a unique identifier for your store comprised of a short sequence of lower-case letters and number. It can be found in the URLs assigned to your store by BigCommerce. Read on for two different ways to locate your store hash.

Method 1: BigCommerce Store Hash from Permanent Address (or Temp URL)

1. Login to your BigCommerce Account Dashboard as the store owner
2. Click on your Store Name
3. Scroll down to the Details section
4. The Permanent Address will be displayed as:
   https://store-abcde12345.mybigcommerce.com
   abcde12345 is the store hash

Method 2: BigCommerce Store Hash from API Path

1. Log into your BigCommerce Store Control Panel
2. Go to Advanced Settings > API Accounts
3. Click the Create API Account button
4. The API Path will be displayed as:
   https://api.bigcommerce.com/ stores/abcde12345/v3/
   abcde12345 is the store hash

References

• BigCommerce Support > Finding Your Web Address > Permanent Address

Bing Shopping Feed BigCommerce

Option 1: Express Setup Request

We recommend that you have us set up and optimize the data feed for you with our Express Setup and Optimization Service. There is a one-time fee associated with this service.

To purchase this service, paste the password you created, API Token, API Path, and any special instructions into the 'Additional Comments' field of our Express Setup Request Form, and click Submit Request.

Option 2: Do-it-yourself Setup

Use our Bing Shopping Data Feed Setup Guide to complete the setup of your Bigcommerce Bing Shopping Feed.

Advantages of our feed vs. the one provided by BigCommerce or Shopify

• We have over 15 years experience in data feeds, so we have the expertise to get your products listed correctly and in an optimal way.
• We provide free phone/email support for your feeds, which is especially useful when there are feed errors and when the feed specifications change.
• Standard feeds include 'Smart' fields, which use our proprietary logic to improve data quality for product_type, GTIN, size, color, etc.
• With our free Google Shopping Monitoring Service, we email you whenever there is a problem with your listings.
• We specialize in very large stores, complex stores, and other cases where the built-in or free software does not suffice.
• You can filter out items with errors to prevent your feed from being disapproved by Google.
• We offer Google Shopping Categorization Service for an additional fee.
• We support all the major shopping engines - including Bing Shopping, Facebook Product Ads, and Pinterest Product Ads.
• We support international feeds with multi-language support and automatic currency conversion.
• Our feeds are pre-configured with URL tracking codes for Google Analytics.
• All feeds have a fixed, file download URL. Feeds are in CSV format, easily viewable in Excel/OpenOffice Calc.
• Our system gives you the ability to customize the feed.
• You can use our Google Validation Report to quickly view and identify item errors/warnings.
• We keep track of the results of each feed submission.

How to Add Custom Fields to a BigCommerce Store

To add custom attributes to a BigCommerce product catalog, you have the four options listed below:

1. BigCommerce Custom Fields

The preferred way to add BigCommerce Custom Fields is to use the built-in Custom Fields feature. There is an easy way to hide BigCommerce Custom Fields from appearing on your product pages.

We can map your Custom Fields to any attribute of the feed. This feature is turned off by default (for performance reasons). If you want the Custom Fields available in your feed, please contact us and we can turn that feature on for you.

2. BigCommerce Meta-Fields

Meta-fields are an ideal way to store extra data in your catalog. You can store data at the product or variant level, or both. Our system can import this data and incorporate it into your feed.

You can search for a Metafield Manager App in the app store to add, view, edit, import, or export BigCommerce metafields. Besides using an app, the only other way to manage these is via the BigCommerce API.

3. Use an Unused Field

You can also enter data into built-in product attributes that you are not likely to use for anything else. Here are some unused field suggestions:

Other Details

Bin Picking Number, Warranty Information, Search Keywords

Accounting Settings

Asset Account Code, Income Account Code, Expense/COS Account Code

Peachtree Fields

General Ledger Account

Google Shopping

Color, Size, Material, Pattern

We can map any of the above fields to any attribute in your feed. For example:

Bigcommerce  => Google Feed Attribute
Color        => custom_label_0
Material     => custom_label_1
Pattern      => custom_label_2

4. Google Sheets

You can set up a Google Sheet (public read-only, unlisted), and add product ID and custom attributes there. With a Custom feed, we can program your feed to incorporate data from the Google Sheet. Please contact us for more information.

5. Private Database

We can also provide you with a private database, where you can directly enter the data. The advantage of this is that the product IDs can be automatically maintained. Please contact us for more information.

How to hide Custom Fields from BigCommerce product pages

BigCommerce Custom Fields provide an easy way to store arbitrary product data in your product catalog. The problem is that by default, each custom field you add will also display on the product page for the item.

To prevent Custom Fields from appearing on product pages in BigCommerce, add the CSS below to your theme:

// Hide first custom field
dl.productView-info dt:nth-child(1) {
    display: none; visibility: hidden;
}
dl.productView-info dd:nth-child(2) {
    display: none; visibility: hidden;
}
// Hide second custom field
dl.productView-info dt:nth-child(3) {
    display: none; visibility: hidden;
}
dl.productView-info dd:nth-child(4) {
    display: none; visibility: hidden;
}
// Repeat for additional custom fields ...

The CSS code above will remove the Custom Fields from your product page.

Using Custom Fields is the preferred way to store additional product details, as opposed to using unused fields.

Customize the BigCommerce Product Export for Performance

Below is a list of fields you can uncheck to improve the performance of the BigCommerce product export. To access this list, click the Products tab when editing the export template in your BigCommerce store control panel.

The fields listed below are rarely, if ever, used for generating data feeds for the shopping channels. However, to maintain maximum flexibility for the future, you should only uncheck these if you are having problems with your feed.

Bin Picking Number
Brand + Name
Option Set   (keep for variant feeds)
Option Set Align
Cost Price
Calculated Price
Retail Price
Fixed Shipping Price
Free Shipping
Warranty
Product Not Visible
Product Inventoried
Date Added
Date Modified
Low Stock Level
Product Files
Product Images > Product Image ID
Product Images > Product Image File
Product Images > Product Image Path
Product Images > Product Image Description
Product Images > Product Image Index
  (Note: For Product Images, only URL and Is Thumbnail are needed)
MYOB Asset Acct
MYOB Income Acct
MYOB Expense Acct
Event Date Required
Event Date Name
Event Date Is Limited
Event Date Start Date
Event Date End Date
Sort Order
Product Tax Class
Stop Processing Rules
Redirect Old URL
Avalara Product Tax Code
Product Custom Fields  (keep if enabled for your feed)
Product Availability
Minimum Purchase Quantity
Maximum Purchase Quantity
Show Product Condition
Shipping Groups
Origin Locations
Dimensional Rules
GPS Custom Item

Unchecking the above fields may greatly increase the speed of the export, and reduce the file size.

BigCommerce Store API Account Setup (OAuth Token)

If you have Standard feeds, simply Install our App instead of using the instructions below.

Otherwise, if you have a Custom feed that requires additional scopes, you can use these instructions to create an alternate API Token.

1. Log into your BigCommerce Store Control Panel
2. Go to Settings > API > Store-level API Accounts (Only Store Owners can see this option.)
3. Click the "+ Create API Account" button.
4. For Token Type, select V2/V3 API Token
5. For Name, enter atensoftware
6. Under OAuth Scopes, select the following:
   • Information & Settings - Readonly
   • Products - Readonly (or Modify for Custom Product/Inventory update feeds)
   • Sites & Routes- Readonly
   • Store Inventory- Readonly
   Leave all others at None
7. Click Save
8. Download the .txt file to your computer
9. Log in to your Aten Software account, or if you have no account yet, Register an account.
10. Send the contents of the .txt file using the Secure Login and Password page.

References

• BigCommerce Support - Store API Accounts
• BigCommerce API Docs - Obtaining OAuth Tokens - Authenticating with OAuth

Error Installing BigCommerce App: Detected Browser Preventing Cross-site Cookies

When installing our Product Data Feed BigCommerce App, you may encounter the following error message:

We have detected that you are using a browser which is preventing cross-site (3rd party) tracking cookies. In order to install this application, you must temporarily enable cross-site cookies to allow information to be shared with the developer of the application. How to disable 3rd party cookies.

This an issue specific to the BigCommerce App Atore, and is not something that we can resolve on our end.

To fix the error, any of the following recommendations might work:

• Enable 3rd party (cross-site) tracking cookies in the browser settings
• Try 'incognito' or 'private' browsing mode
• Use an entirely different web browser
• Temporarily disable privacy-related web browser extensions
• Temporarily disable anti-virus software

If all else fails, the last option is to manually create the credentials using these instructions: BigCommerce Store API Account Setup (OAuth Token). However, this should be avoided since it is a a much more manual procedure.

What data do you import from BigCommerce?

Currently, our system imports all products (along with their variations) returned by the catalog/products API endpoint.

All feed templates are pre-configured with filters to remove hidden and disabled products. Coming soon, hidden and/or disabled products will NOT be imported by our system at all.

Availability (in stock/out of stock) is computed automatically and correctly.

All product data is imported by default, including variants, bulk pricing rules, images, primary image, and custom fields.

Our system is capable of importing a wide variety of additional product-related data for special cases, such as:

• Product-level meta-fields
• Variant-level meta-fields
• Merged value of product-level and variant-level meta-fields
• All brand information, including brand-level meta-fields
• Product reviews
• Price lists
• Channel assignments
• Inventory at locations
• Store currencies
• Store information

Catalog-on-Demand® Data Feed

How do I set up a Catalog-on-Demand data feed?

On our Site

1. Go to My Account on our site
2. Click Add Feed
3. Select your store platform, the Catalog-on-Demand Template, and then click Create Feed
4. Continue to Modify Settings
5. Enter the Source settings, leave the FTP Settings blank, and click Update. Note: This feed is not uploaded by FTP.
6. Go to Manage Feed > Submit a Task and click Refresh
7. Go to Manage Feed > Download Data Feed File and copy the File URL setting to your clipboard for use in a later step.

On the Catalog-on-Demand Site

1. Sign up with Catalog-on-Demand - Registration is free
2. Send a message via their help desk and they will manually activate your 6-month free trial (if available)
3. Click on Account
4. In the Automated Data Import Setup section, select the following:
   • Import type: Catalog-on-Demand data file
   • Data file/archive URL: Paste the data feed File URL from our system that you copied in a previous step
   • Encoding: UTF-8, 8-bit UCS Transformation Format (default)
   • Auto Start Time of Day: 8:00
   • Auto Start Days of Week: Check all the boxes
5. Click the Create Data Import Setup button, then click OK when prompted
6. Click the Import Now button.
7. Click the History button
8. Wait 2-5 minutes and click Refresh until the status of the Data File Import changes from in progress to completed

Designing your PDF Catalog

1. Click on Choose Design. It is best to start with the simplest brochure — Ironwood Brochure A. Then, read the help icons on each of the configuration pages.
2. We recommend running lots of test jobs. It is best to make test jobs very short, say 5 products or so. That gives you a faster turnaround time. Also, small jobs are easier to troubleshoot. You can choose products to include in your catalog via the Catalog-on-demand website.
3. For additional assistance, go to the Catalog-on-Demand Support page. From there, you will find manuals and a link to the Ask for Help contact form.

What are the benefits of PDF catalogs and flyers for my online store?

A PDF catalog, brochure, or single-product flyer is specifically formatted for print, making it an invaluable aid for your customers while they make their buying decision.

Printed flyers help your customer's compare products more easily, share product pictures and information with others, and they are often more convenient than a computer.

The PDF contains QR-codes so that visitors can access your store with a simple scan from their smart phone. The QR-codes will take the visitor directly to the product page, saving them navigation, and you will be able to track the hits.

Printed catalogs promote your brand and increase your credibility, which can help you increase market share and build relationships with your customers.

ClixGalore Data Feed

ClixGalore Auto-Upload Settings

Use the instructions below to set up auto-upload of your ClixGalore data feed.

1. Log into your ClixGalore account.
2. Go to "Promotional Tools" > "Product Catalog Marketing / Upload Product Datafeed".
3. Click on the "schedule an auto upload" link.
4. Enter the following settings:
   • File Source: HTTP
   • Format: clixGalore
   • FTP Server / URL: Look for this URL on the "Manage Feed > Download Data Feed File" page in our site. Add &format=.csv to the end of the URL.
     Example: https://www.atensoftware.com/ p400_12345.php? f=clixgalore.csv
   • Ftp Username: leave blank
   • Ftp Password: leave blank
   • Ftp Directory: leave blank
   • Ftp Filename: leave blank
   • Load File At: 2 PM (GMT)
   • Every: 3 days
   • Starting From: 22/12/2024
5. Click Save Details.
6. Go to Promotional Tools > Catalog XML/CSV File Definition
7. In each Element Names, copy over the field name without the leading word "Product". For example, for "Product Name/Title", enter "Name/Title". For "Product Currency", enter "Currency", etc.
8. Click the Save Details button
9. Go to Manage Feed > Advanced Settings on our site, and set the Upload by FTP setting to No - Update feed file only.
10. Under "Manage Feed > Modify Settings" on our site, enter the following settings:
    • FTP Username: leave blank
    • FTP Password: leave blank
    • FTP Server: leave blank
    • File Name: clixgalore.csv
    • Update Frequency: Daily
    • Auto-Skip: Enabled

Commission Junction cj.com Data Feed

How do I set up a Commission Junction (CJ.com) data feed?

Register Feed in cj.com

1. Log In To Your CJ Affiliate Account
2. Navigate to Links > Feeds
3. Click the Register Product Feed button
4. Enter the following settings:

   Product Feed Name

   Your Store Name via Aten

   Email(s) For Notifications - Registered Users

   Select an email address

   Email(s) For Notifications - Non-registered Users

   This field is optional

   Send Notifications When Imports Not Received

   We recommend selecting After 1 day

   Archive URL

   Enter your store URL, e.g. https://www.mystore.com

   Mode

   Select Live - Available to publishers

   Product Search Results and API

   Select your preference; default is Yes - All products should be visible in search

   Publisher Group With Access to Feed Export

   Select your preference; default is All Joined Publishers

   Format

   Select Shopping (Google Format)

   Field to Use for Item Level Commissioning

   Select your preference; default is N/A (no item level commissioning)

   Target Country

   Select UNITED STATES

   Currency

   Select USD

   Content Language

   Select English

   Data Format

   Select CSV

   Do you use quoted fields?

   Select Yes - I use quotation marks...

   Price Field Currency Format

   Select the common in North America format

   Delivery Methods

   Select CJ SFTP (Post)

   Filename

   Enter cj.zip

5. Click the Register Feed button
6. Back on the Feeds page, click the Product List Settings button.
7. Select Shopping (Google Format) Feeds for the Product List Commissioning Source:
8. Click the Save button
9. Check your email for SFTP username and password

Add Feed on our site

1. On our website, go to My Account > Add Feed
2. Enter your store name, select the Commission Junction Template, and click Create Feed
3. Continue to Manage Feed > Modify Settings
4. Enter your store source settings and the CJ SFTP username and password.
5. Click "Update" to save your settings.
6. Click the Submit button from Manage Feed > Submit a Task
7. Check your e-mail in 1-6 hours to see if cj.com processed all the items.

Connexity Data Feed

How do I set up a Connexity (Shopzilla/Pricegrabber) data feed?

The Connexity is the parent company of Shopzilla, Bizrate, PriceGrabber, and Become.com. A single Connexity feed will list your products in all of those websites, as well as Yahoo Shopping and Ask.com.

1. Log into your Connexity Merchant Account
2. Go to Manage Listings > Submit Inventory
3. If you see a Update your Product Listings heading and a blue Edit button, you will need to contact Connexity support and tell them you want to submit your feed by FTP. The will need to make the necessary modifications to your account before you can proceed.
4. Click the blue Submit My Feed button
5. 1. Select Create a Connexity FTP location for me
   2. Set Filename to shopzilla_feed.zip
   3. Set Unzipped Filename to shopzilla_feed.txt
   4. Click the blue Next button
6. You will be given an FTP Username and Password. Leave this browser window open for future use.
7. On our site, go to My Account > Add Feed
8. Choose the Connexity template and click Create Feed
9. Continue on to the Modify Settings page.
10. Copy the Username and Password from your Connexity Merchant Account into the FTP Username and FTP Password settings on the Manage Feed > Modify Settings page in our site.
11. Select Daily as the Update Frequency.
12. Click Update to save the settings.
13. From the Manage Feed page, click Submit.
14. Wait for the task to finish processing.
15. Return to the Connexity Merchant Account, and click the Validate button.
16. You should see a message saying, "SUCCESS! Your Product Data Feed has been updated." Click the link titled Contact your account manager and create a support ticket for Connexity to review your feed submission.
17. Don't forget to set up and fund your Connexity account.

How to grant us access to your Connexity Account to Manage Listings

To give us access to manage your Connexity feed, do not send us your main account login and password. Instead, add us as a user using the instructions below. This way, your login remains secure, our access is limited to only what we need, and you can remove our access at any time.

1. Login to Connexity Business Services as the account owner or any user with Access Rights permission.
2. Navigate to the Account Management > Passwords tab.
3. Click the Add New User button.
4. Fill in the form as follows:
   (Tip: Use Copy to clipboard buttons so you can quickly copy and paste each value.)

   Login:	atensoftware586	Copy to clipboard
   Password:	password1	Copy to clipboard
   First Name:	Aten	Copy to clipboard
   Last Name:	Software	Copy to clipboard
   Email:		Copy to clipboard
   Rights:	Check only Manage Listings

5. Click the Submit button.
6. If you see a "User name already exists" error, try a different number in the Login.
7. Use this link to send us the user name you created: Contact Us
   We will reset the temporary password after logging in.

Do I need your service to upload my Yahoo Store to Connexity?

No, Shopzilla has an option to import your the XML Export of your Yahoo Store automatically, but you may obtain better results by using our system.

Our system submits in Connexity's standard feed format. Connexity recommends this format because, "You can update & resubmit your listings through FTP as regularly as you like."

Furthermore, our system will allow you to correctly map the Manufacturer and UPC fields to your respective catalog fields. Regarding UPC codes, Connexity says, "Providing your product's UPC number is one of the single most effective techniques to ensure an optimal display of your product listings in our search results."

Custom Data Feeds

How do I hide, disable, or suppress fields from my data feed?

Follow the instructions below to prevent a field from being written out to the data feed file.

• Go to Manage > Define Fields for your feed.
• Click Edit for the field you want to hide.
• Uncheck the box labeled Enabled and click Update.
• Run another Refresh or Submit task to update your products.

You can still apply filters to disabled fields. Also, the field will still display in the product list on our site, but will be faded out.

Use Case 1

The Standard data feed templates contain fields that, in certain circumstances, you may not wish to submit to the search engine. For example, you may want to suppress optional attributes (those beginning with 'c:') from the Google feed.

The above attributes are generated and submitted as custom attributes for the purposes of keyword optimization. You may prefer to disable them if you do not want those keywords as part of your data feed, or they contain prohibited words that are causing the listings to be rejected.

Use Case 2

Suppose you have a custom field in your store such as "cpc-submit". You set it to 'Yes' when you feel the product will provide a return on investment in a CPC-based shopping engine.

In this scenario, you can add a filter to exclude the products by this field, but leave the field disabled so that it is not submitted in the data feed. Now, directly from your store catalog, you have fine-grained control over the products being submitted.

HeidiSQL Setup and Usage Instructions for Custom Feeds

If you have been provided with a MySQL database for your data feeds, please use the instructions below to get started.

First, download and install the freeware HeidiSQL software from the HeidiSQL Downloads page. Select the latest HeidiSQL Installer.

In order to set up your database connection, follow these steps.

1. Run HeidiSQL
2. Click the New button in the Session Manager.
3. Enter the following on the Settings tab of the New Connection Dialog:
   • Session name: mysql.atensoftware.com
   • Network type: MySQL (TCP/IP)
   • Hostname: mysql.atensoftware.com
   • User: provided by us
   • Password: provided by us
   • Port: 3306
   • Check the Compressed client/server protocol box.
   • Leave all other settings at defaults.
4. Click Open to connect to the database.

Conventions

Tables whose names start with edit_ are tables where you can enter information for your feed.

The fields that start with an underscore are system fields that should not be edited, and may be updated automatically.

You can edit data in any of the fields that do not start with an underscore.

Data in the edit_ tables is generally refreshed and/or incorporated into your feed each time your data feed is refreshed or submitted from our site.

Please contact us for the specifics of your setup.

Tips

Click the Data tab after selecting a table to see a spreadsheet-like view of the data. There are several buttons in the upper-right corner of the data area that will make your life much easier.

By default, only the first 1,000 records are displayed. Use the Next and Show all buttons to display more records.

Click the Columns button to show/hide columns. This is especially handy if there are many columns and you need to focus on just a few.

You can click the column headings to sort by a column. Click the Sorting button to fine-tune the sort order.

Click the Filter button to filter the data. Here are some common SQL expressions you can use - remember to use the field names specific to your table.

_code = 'abc123'

Find a record with a specific code.

_title LIKE 'abc%'

Find records with title's that start with abc.

_description LIKE '%free%'

Find records where the description contains the text free.

_price < 20

Find records where price is less then 20.

For more information on the features of HeidiSQL, check out the HeidiSQL screen shots.

Can I downgrade a Custom feed to a Standard feed?

It is not possible to directly downgrade Custom feeds due to the possible customizations they may have. The easiest option is for you to contact us and we can manually remove the customizations. Another option is to simply add a new, Standard feed for that store and shopping engine. Configure this new feed based on the Standard feed. Once you are done, you can delete the Custom feed.

Automatically Removing Duplicate SKUs from your Product Catalog

Some store platforms, allow you to enter the same SKU for multiple items. This causes problems in the feeds because the shopping engines do not allow you to submit multiple product listings with the same identifier.

If our system detects duplicate SKUs in your catalog, it will show you an error message with the SKUs that are duplicated. You will also receive an email with the error message.

The best solution is to edit your product catalog and remove the duplicate SKUs manually. If that is not possible, we have several options for automatically removing the duplicate SKUs, as listed below:

• 'error' mode - the feeds show an error and sends you an email if duplicate SKUs are detected
• 'kill' mode - delete duplicate SKUs entirely (you will not see duplicate SKU errors anymore, but those SKUs will be completely gone)
• 'safe' mode - reduce duplicate SKUs to one SKU only if the all the other product data is identical (you may still get duplicate SKU errors if for some reason the product data is not identical)
• 'sort' mode - reduce duplicate SKUs to one SKU by applying a sort and picking the first record (you won't see duplicate SKU errors anymore) You need to specify the fields to sort by.

The 'error' mode is the default mode for almost all the feeds. Please contact us if you would like us to configure a specific mode for your feed.

Simple programmed rules for Standard Feeds

The Standard feed service now supports simple, programmed rules for no extra monthly charge. These types of modifications can greatly optimize your feed and boost your ad rank.

We program these rules directly into your feed using PHP code, so we have much more flexibility than other systems. Other systems require you to manually enter cookie-cutter rules through a cumbersome, difficult to use interface. With our system, you just email us and we take care of it.

If you need some logic programmed into the feed, please send us your requirements and we can give you a quote. Depending on the work involved, we may do the programming for no charge.

For more advanced logic like inventory updates, you may require a Custom Feed. Otherwise, simple rules can cover the scenarios listed below.

• Append, prepend, or concatenate (combine) one field with another field (e.g. append title to the description, and brand to the title)
• Apply a simple price markup or adjustment (e.g. add VAT tax)
• Translate unsupported values to supported values (e.g. translate "remanufactured" to "refurbished")
• Find and replace, or remove text strings
• Change case (e.g. change all-caps titles to title case)
• Enforce MAP pricing
• Multiply price times minimum order quantity to get minimum price

Automatic 'Smart' fields for Shopping feeds

Our feeds now support 'smart' apparel, GTIN, and product_type attributes, which greatly improve the data quality scores for retailers of all types.

These fields are computed from your product data using proprietary scoring algorithms, keyword lists, and parsing patterns refined over the years from experience with multiple retailers. We studied the Google Product Feed specifications closely to get the best results.

These fields are completely automatic, and enabled by default on most feeds. Because this automatic optimization is the secret sauce of our system, we do not post too many details publicly. If you have more specific questions, please contact us.

For example, 'color' is often mapped to 'option_color' by most feed generators. In many cases, 'option_color' is blank because the product has no variations. This results in low data quality scores. Our system will search in other appropriate fields for valid color names if 'option_color' is not found.

Apparel Fields

size

Automatic detection

color

Automatic detection

gender

Automatic detection

age_group

Automatic detection

size_system

Automatic detection

size_type

Automatic detection

Other Fields

product_type

Chooses most appropriate product descriptive category from among all categories assigned to the item. Removes non-descriptive keywords.

gtin

Automatically detects UPC/EAN, with auto-correction and check-digit validation

Other Languages/International Feeds

We support smart field logic for the following languages:

• English (en)
• German (de)
• Spanish (es)
• Italian (it)
• French (fr)

If you have feeds in any of the languages listed above, our system can detect color, size, gender, and age group values automatically.

Request for Quote Questionnaire for Inventory Management Supplier Feed

Please answer the questions below so that we can prepare your quote for the supplier to store data synchronization feed. This type of feed reads data from your supplier, and automatically creates, updates, and/or deletes products in your online store on a Daily basis. It will sync products, options, inventory, and image data. Scheduling frequency is flexible.

1. What is the source of the supplier's product data? (e.g. a fixed URL, API, database, email, etc.)
2. What is the destination store URL and platform? (e.g. Shopify, BigCommerce, etc.)
3. How often does the feed need to run? (e.g. one-time only, daily, hourly, etc.)
4. If a product does not exist in your store, does it need to be created by the feed? (Yes or No)
5. If a product already exists in your store, does it need to be updated? (Yes or No)
6. If a product is in your store, but not in the supplier data, what should happen? (delete the product, mark it disabled/hidden, do nothing, etc.)
7. How do you identify this supplier's products in your store? (supplier's name stored in a field, a SKU prefix, etc.)
8. What type of pricing rules need to be applied? You do not need to provide any specifics. (e.g. no change, fixed markup, configurable markup, markup table, custom rules, etc.)
9. Are there any other rules or filters that need to be implemented?

How to run a Supplier feed update

This article assumes you provide your supplier inventory/product data file (typically CSV, XLS, or XML format) by FTP to atensoftware.com.

1. Using your FTP Client (such as WsFTP, FileZilla, CuteFTP, WinSCP, etc.), log into ftp.atensoftware.com using the username and password provided by us.
2. Upload your supplier file to the server with the same name as the existing file, overwriting the existing file.
3. Go to My Account.
4. Click Manage for the Product Update supplier feed.
5. Click the Submit button

Can I provide you PHP code of rules/conditions on feed attributes?

Yes, you can provide PHP code of feed data transformation rules to apply to your data feeds.

It is not possible to enter the code directly into our system, for obvious security reasons. However, you are welcome to email the code to us and we can plug it in for you.

There is a custom row transform function that runs once the feed data is generated. It takes a $row parameter which is an array that contains every field in the feed listed on the Define Fields page, as well as any raw data field listed in Analzye Source Data page.

Here's a common example:

if($row['mpn'] == '')
{
   $row['mpn'] = $row['id'];
}

Feel free to use any PHP code. We will review it and let you know if there is anything off-limits.

The Standard feed plan can accommodate about a page worth of basic rules. If the rules are going to be very complex, we might ask you to upgrade to a Custom feed.

Data Feed Files

What is a data feed file?

The data feed file is simply a text file containing your product data, in a format suitable for upload to a comparison shopping engine. A data feed file may also be referred to as a product feed, data feed, bulk upload, or file.

Where is my data feed file?

Our system automatically creates and uploads your data feed file by FTP. You never have to work with spreadsheets, or download/upload manually.

How do I download my data feed file?

You can easily download the entire data feed file generated by our system via a fixed HTTP URL. You are welcome to share the URL with third-parties.

You can create or refresh the file from your account anytime and as often as you wish. The file will be available for download for 30 days. Your latest store data will be retrieved (if necessary) before creating the file.

To download the file, follow these steps:

1. Go to Manage Feed > Download Data Feed File
2. Click the Download button

You can also view the file in your browser as plain text by clicking on the File URL link or clicking the View as Text button. If you click the View as HTML button, the file will open as web page in your web browser.

If the file does not exist, simply click the Create button to queue a task. When the task completes, click the Download Feed File link that appears.

How do I set my data feed file to be refreshed only and not uploaded?

If you wish to disable the FTP/SFTP submit/upload feature of the feed and use the Feed URL only for HTTPS fetch, follow these steps:

• Go to Manage Feed > Advanced Settings.
• Change the Upload by FTP setting to No - Update data feed file only.
• Click the Update button to save the settings.

Background Information

All feeds have a Feed URL which you can use for any purpose to directly download the data feed file.

The Feed URL can be found on the Manage Feed page. Additional details like file size, date created, and expiration date are on the Manage Feed > Download Data Feed File page.

Feeds to destinations (like Google and Bing) that support FTP/SFTP upload are configured by default to submit via FTP/SFTP. If the FTP/SFTP settings are invalid, the feed will auto-disable and notify you after a series of errors.

To avoid this, you can use the setting above to disable the FTP/SFTP upload. Then, you can provide the Feed URL to your ad agency, an alternate destination, or use it for any other purpose.

Related

• Available Feed Scheduling Options: How often can I submit my feed?

Open tab-delimited TXT or CSV file in Excel or Open Office Calc

Use these "how to" instructions to open any delimited format text file as a spreadsheet. The instructions below are for tab-delimited files, but can be adapted for comma-separated or pipe-separated files easily by simply choosing the appropriate delimiter/separator.

Some feeds use comma as the 'delimiter' or 'separator'. You can find your feed's settings on the "Manage Feed > Advanced Settings" page.

Open Office Calc 3.3.0

1. Start Open Office Calc
2. Go to File > Open.
3. In the Files of type: drop-down menu, choose Text CSV (*.csv; *.txt), which is in the section that begins with ODF Spreadsheet (*.ods)
4. Select the file and click Open
5. In the Text Import dialog, choose the following settings and click OK
   • Character set: Unicode (UTF-8)
   • Language: Default - English (USA)
   • From row: 1
   • Separator options: Separated by Tab
   • Text delimiter: " (double-quote)
   • Quoted field as text: checked
   • Detect special numbers: unchecked
6. The settings above will be remembered by OpenOffice, so the next time you open the file, you can simply review the settings and click OK.

Excel 2002 SP3 and Excel 2007

Tip: Typical TXT and CSV files can be opened rapidly using this shortcut. Open Excel and close the blank workbook. Drag and drop the file onto the dark gray working area of Excel. Excel will automatically detect the format and load the spreadsheet instantly. If this doesn't work, use the full instructions below.

1. Start Excel
2. Excel 2003:
   1. Go to File > Open
   2. In the Files of type: drop-down menu, choose Text Files (*.prn; *.txt; *.csv)
   3. Select the file and click Open
3. Excel 2007:
   1. Select the Data tab.
   2. In the Get External Data group, select From Text.
   3. Once the Import Text File dialog box appears, choose the file and click Open.
4. In the Text Import Wizard - Step 1 of 3 dialog, choose the following settings and click Next
   • Original data type: Delimited
   • Start import at row: 1
   • File origin: 437 : OEM United States
   Note, in later versions of Excel, you may be able to choose UTF-8, which is the actual 'origin' or 'encoding' of the file.
5. In the Text Import Wizard - Step 2 of 3 dialog, choose the following settings and click Next
   • Delimiters: Tab
   • Treat consecutive delimiters as one: checked
   • Text qualifier: " (double-quote)
6. In the Text Import Wizard - Step 3 of 3 dialog, leave the settings as-is and click "Finish".

Row limits and field length limits

• Starting with version 3.3, the OpenOffice Calc row limit is 1,048,576 rows. Prior versions were limited to 65,536 rows.
• Excel 2002 is limited to 64K rows, but later versions of Excel support 1M rows.
• Excel 2002 through 2010 have a field length limit of 32,767 characters. If you have a caption or other field that exceeds this length, the extra data will flow to the next cells or rows, and the file will appear to be corrupt.

Excel and UTF-8 Encoding

Our system produces feeds with UTF-8 character encoding. If the file contains any high value UTF-8 characters, then Excel may have problems opening the file. You may see fewer lines than expected.

You can check your text file for UTF-8 characters by using the Count Character Occurrences Tool. High value characters are those with a decimal code value of 128 or higher. Some non-printable characters under 32 may also cause issues.

To solve the problem, you can force Excel to open the file with UTF-8 encoding.

How do I view all the items with missing data in my feed?

To view all your items with missing or invalid values, simply download the data feed file from your account, open it in Excel, and then sort by the appropriate column.

• How do I download my data feed file?
• How do I open my data feed file in Excel (or OpenOffice)?

Format of UPC Codes in Excel - Prevent Scientific Notation

This article describes how to prevent Excel from automatically converting a UPC code to scientific notation and corrupting your product catalog.

By default, when you enter a number over 12 digits in an Excel spreadsheet, it auto-corrects the number to scientific notation for brevity. For example, "879860004073" is converted to "8.7986E+11". When Excel exports the value to a CSV or Text file, it will export what you see, not the actual 12-digit value. This can wreak havoc on the UPC codes in your product database.

To prevent this, you must format the column as Text, and take some additional steps when opening a CSV file in Excel. Here are the instructions:

1. When you open the CSV or TXT, tab or comma-delimited file, use the Excel Text Import Wizard. See the following article for instructions: Open tab-delimited TXT or CSV file in Excel or Open Office Calc
2. Make sure to select the column type as Text for the UPC column.
3. Once the file is open, select the column and format it as Text before you save it as CSV again.
4. You can verify that UPC codes have not been corrupted by opening the CSV file in Notepad or Textpad.

You an use this technique for all types of unique product identifiers, known as Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs).

Universal Product Code (UPC)

12 numeric digits

European Article Number (EAN)

Typically 13 numeric digits (can also be 8 or 14 numeric digits)

Japanese Article Number (JAN)

8 or 13 numeric digits

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

ISBN-10: 10 numeric digits (last digit may be "X")

ISBN-13: 13 numeric digits and usually starts with 978 or 979

References

• Display numbers with scientific notatation, Excel Support - also explains how to disable it
• Unique product identifiers, Gooogle Merchant Help

Can I use my Google feed for another shopping engine?

We strongly recommend setting up a separate feed for each shopping engine using the template we provide.

You are welcome to use one feed for multiple shopping engines, but we would only provide technical support for one of them.

Also, at this time, the Standard feeds can only be uploaded by FTP to one destination. Other shopping engines would have to pick up the file via HTTP from the Data Feed File URL found on the Manage Feed > Data Feed File page.

We can submit your feed to multiple FTP, SFTP, or WebDAV destinations with a Custom feed if desired.

Why are feed updates by FTP/SFTP upload preferred to fetch via HTTPS?

Better tracking, control, and coordination are the reasons why we prefer to configure all feeds to upload by FTP/SFTP whenever possible.

1. Tracking

We record the date/time, bytes uploaded, and success/failure of each upload by FTP/SFTP. This upload history is available on the Manage Feed > View Results page in your account.

By contrast, when a feed is fetched from the HTTPS URL, there is no way for us to definitively identify who fetched the feed, and the access attempts are not visible in your account.

Destination channels usually provide information on when the feed was updated, regardless of the method of upload. However, this history is limited and not readily available to us as your feed provider for troubleshooting purposes.

2. Control

With FTP/SFTP uploads, we can control exactly when the feed is submitted, and allow you to submit the feed on demand.

With scheduled fetch by HTTPS, you must rely on the destination channel's fetch schedule. Although there are few channels that allow you to request an immediate fetch, but there are more steps to request the update.

3. Coordination

With scheduled fetch by HTTPS, the time when the feed is refreshed on our end will not match the time when destination fetches the feed. This results in a lag in the update. For a daily update, the lag could be up to 24 hours.

For these reasons, if the destination channel provides the FTP/SFTP upload option, we strongly recommend to use it, and can help you set it up if needed.

Data Feed Optimization for Google Shopping

How can I get higher ranking in the search results?

Google has been giving higher ranking to more optimized item listings. In order to maintain and enhance ranking, merchants need to be proactive with their data feeds, and follow Google's Improving your Data Quality guidelines.

We offer a one-time data feed optimization service for a flat fee. We would go through and add relevant attributes to your feed, and then offer you tailored suggestions for additional improvement. In some cases, it can make a big improvement in your ranking, although this is not guaranteed. See our Data Feed Optimization page for details, or submit an optimization request.

You also have the option of optimizing the feed on your own by following our Data Feed Optimization Tips for Google Shopping.

If you have a legacy store, you can add attribute data to your product captions. Our Custom feeds have the capability to extract that information and submit the attributes to Google. See our instructions for legacy stores for more information.

Configuring product identifiers Brand, MPN, and GTIN/UPC Fields

Google requires at least two of the following three attributes for almost every product.

• Brand - brand name or manufacturer of the item
• MPN - manufacturer part number
• GTIN - global trade item number (UPC, EAN, JAN, or ISBN)

Background Info and Best Practices for GTIN/UPC

GTIN is the category (or hypernym) for UPC, GTIN, JAN, etc.

So UPC is a type of GTIN. Much more in-depth discussion is here: About unique product identifiers: Google Merchant Center Help.

Our 'aten_smart_gtin' field will find the right 'GTIN' from among all the relevant fields in your source data, which can be viewed from Manage Feed > Analyze Source Data page in your feed.

In case it finds multiple values, it assigns a weight to each one it finds and then chooses the one with the highest weight.

You can put the GTIN/UPC of the item into any of the UPC/GTIN-related fields and 'aten_smart_gtin' will find it, validate it, and insert it into the feed. It also validates the check-digits for UPC and EANs.

As a best practice, I recommend to enter all GTINs of any type into the GTIN field, and not use the UPC field since that is more limited in scope. For example, it would be confusing to put an EAN into the UPC field.

Tips

Leave GTIN blank if it is not available.

Not all items have a GTIN. For those items, leave the GTIN field blank and provide the brand and manufacturer part number (MPN) instead.

GTIN is required for certain designated brands.

For certain designated brands, you must provide a valid GTIN when the item condition is new.

Specify MPN and Brand for items with no GTIN

If the products are white-label, vintage, custom-made, or manufactured by you, then just set brand to your company name and map MPN to your internal product code or SKU field.

Specify UPC codes as 12 digits

To avoid an invalid identifier warning, always specify UPC codes as 12 digits. There should not be any hyphens/dashes or spaces in the UPC code, and remember to include any leading zeros.

Use the complete Manufacturer Part Numbers

Two or more character MPN values are now allowed. A single character MPN will result in an error.

Use only one Manufacturer Part Number

If the MPN has multiple variations of hyphenation, spacing, or capitalization, only specify the official or most common one.

Use real, accurate information

It is not useful to insert dummy, made-up, or generic values for these fields. You should only put information in these fields if it is real and accurate, otherwise, Google may suspend your items.

Request exceptions for disallowed items

If identifiers are not available for your products and Google disapproves the listings, then contact Google via your Merchant Center account to find out your options.

Looking up Identifiers

There are several ways to obtain the above information for your products.

• Search for the item in Amazon and look in the Product Information section.
• Contact or check the website of the item manufacturer or your supplier
• Read it off the product packaging
• Hire a Product Data Entry service

Multiple UPC codes

If you have multiple UPC codes for a single item, specify each one separated by a comma and space.

If you have products with size/color variations, each with a different UPC code, you have numerous options with varying complexity.

1. Create a catalog field called 'upc' in your store catalog, and specify each UPC code separated by a comma and space.
2. Create catalog fields called 'upc' and 'upc-multiple' in your store catalog, and specify just one of the UPC codes in 'upc', and all the UPC codes separated by commas in 'upc-multiple'. Google can accept comma-separated UPC codes, and for other shopping engines, you can use the single UPC code.
3. With a Custom feed and some special programming, we can multiply your listings by each size/color option.

Fixing Google Merchant Center Diagnostic GTIN Errors and Warnings

Limited performance due to missing value [gtin] - Warning

Limited performance due to missing ISBN or GTIN - Warning

This warning is not something that can be fix via the feed. This is where Google expects the product to have a GTIN based on their master catalog. The only way to fix this is to contact Google and ask them how to remove the error. They may ask you to provide documentation stating that there is no GTIN for the products.

This warning typically affects a large number of items, but it does not prevent the listings from appearing in search results. Therefore, if the GTINs are difficult or impossible to obtain, the recommended action is to do nothing and ignore the warning.

Invalid GTIN - Error

Unsupported coupon value [gtin] - Error

These typically affects a small number of items. The recommended action is to review and correct these manually in your store catalog.

The feed automatically blanks out most invalid GTINs based on basic check-digit validation, but it doesn't catch every possible issue like reserved GTINs, internal company-specific GTINs, coupon code GTINs, etc.

Factors that affect ranking in Google Shopping

There are many factors that affect ranking, performance, or clicks that you get from Google Shopping. Listed below is not meant to be an exhaustive or accurate list. Google's algorithms are secret, and below is simply our best guess based on Google's recommendations and other Internet chatter.

Factors That You Control

• Product titles and descriptions
• The amount of your bid, daily budget, and other Adwords settings
• Submitting all other, relevant product data
• Submission frequency (daily is best)
• Site uptime and load time
• Completeness and accuracy of the product data
• Following Google content policies
• Following Google quality guidelines
• Following Google editorial guidelines

Factors Out of Your Control

• Competition from other merchants
• Google's ranking algorithm, which is constantly being changed
• Customer demand for your products
• Customer demand for Google and Google Shopping
• How much Google promotes Product Search

Do you offer search engine optimization for Google Shopping?

We offer one-on-one consulting to optimize your data feed. While we can help you optimize your feed, we do not offer content optimization services at this time. However, we have collected the best advice we can find below, and can assist you in following that advice. By simply following these tips, you can dramatically increase your ranking in Google Shopping.

Daily update frequency is recommended for all data feeds

The recommended feed refresh or submission frequency is Daily for all feeds.

Individual submissions and refreshes are free, so there is no additional cost to make this change. It is included with your feed service plan.

If available for your store platform, then the free, Daily Plus option is recommended.

(Auto-skip is a legacy setting and can be Disabled for all feeds.)

Google's Recommendation

Google's high-quality data requirements ask that you provide up-to-date pricing and availability information in order to provide the best experience for shoppers and improve your ranking. This is recommended even if your listings do not change often.

Refresh your bulk uploads to keep your data up to date. Our algorithm will demote items that are not refreshed regularly.

Source: http://googlebase.blogspot.com/2006/07/optimizing-base-items-to-get-more.html

Other Shopping Search Engines

Many other shopping engines also encourage frequent submissions to keep your listings fresh. For example, Bing and Facebook also have the capability to accept frequent data feed submissions. Therefore, to get the best results from all shopping engines, we recommend Daily submission of your feed.

Error Detection

Another advantage of Daily submission is that any issues with feed processing are identified sooner. The system monitors for repeated errors, so a Daily submission ensures that any persistent issue is detected in a timely way.

Instructions

1. Go to My Account
2. Click Manage for the feed
3. Click Modify Settings
4. Select Daily as the Update Frequency
5. Set Auto-Skip to Disabled
6. Click the Update button

Custom Scheduling Options

For custom scheduling or more frequent submissions, see:
Available Feed Scheduling Options: How often can I submit my feed?

Tax and Shipping settings for Google Shopping

Starting June 3, 2011, tax and shipping settings are required for all Google product feeds targeting the United States. You can enter these settings at the item-level or account-level. It is easier to enter the settings at the account level.

Account-level tax and shipping rules

• GMA Tax Settings
• GMA Shipping Settings
• Tax & Shipping Instructions in Google Merchant Center Help

Item-level tax and shipping rules

Your Google feed may be pre-configured to read Google shipping/tax information from relevant fields in your store catalog. If you need to supply item-level tax and shipping values, then please add columns for those in your store catalog, and refer to the instructions below.

• Tax & Shipping Instructions - click on the 'shipping' and 'tax' attribute links

Google Product Category and Product Type attributes

Summary

• google_product_category - (optional) select one Google Product Category from the taxonomy
• product_type - (optional) any merchant-supplied category

How to set Google Product Category

You have four options for setting Google Product Category values in your feed. Here is a summary.

Option 1: Leave it blank and let Google auto-categorize

Google automatically categorizes your products if you leave google_product_category blank. Their system does a good job for common products. This is now the most common choice by far.

Option 2: Set a default value for all items

You can configure a default value that applies to all items in your feed where no other google_product_category value is available. This option is typically used in addition to Option 3 or Option 4. Refer to the How to set a Default Value for Google Product Category section later in this article for specific instructions.

Option 3: Map to a field in your catalog

If you have google_product_category values in your product catalog already, you can map your Catalog field to the 'google_product_category' field in the feed from the Manage Feed > Define Fields page.

Option 4: Use our Categorization Service

For a one-time setup fee and small monthly fee, we can categorize your products for you by mapping each of your categories to a closely matching Google product category. See google_product_category Categorization Service for details.

How to set a Default Value for Google Product Category

Use the instructions below to add a default Google product category value for your data feed.

1. Go to the Manage Feed > Define Fields page.
2. Click Edit for the google_product_category field.
3. Look up the appropriate category by going to Manage Feed > Taxonomy Search page (The official list is here: Google Product Taxonomy)
4. Enter the category in the Default Value box without double-quotes, and click the Update button. You can only choose one category.
5. Resubmit your data feed.

How to map a Catalog Field for Google Product Category

Your feed may be pre-configured to use an appropriate Catalog field from your store catalog. To change or add that setting, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Manage Feed > Define Fields page.
2. Click Edit for the google_product_category field.
3. Enter the field name from your store catalog in the Field Name setting, and click the Update button.
4. Resubmit your data feed.

Google Product Category Tips

The quotation marks around the category are optional, and we recommend leaving them out for clarity.

Google may accept categories with altered spacing, but our system is more strict and expects the spacing to be exactly like it is in Google's official taxonomy.

Incorrect Spacing:

Electronics>GPS >  Sport GPS

Correct Spacing:

Electronics > GPS > Sport GPS

Google changes the taxonomy from time to time, and you need to update your categories when they do that.

If you have missing or invalid categories, you can find out in the Google Validation report in your account.

If you have a large number of items, start out by specifying a top-level category, like Electronics or Home & Garden, just so the items can be listed. Later, you can go back and put in more detailed categories for better results.

Product Type

product_type is a recommended field and you can provide your own, merchant-specific category in this field. The feeds are pre-configured to put in your merchant category or path in this field.

product_type is a very important field for two reasons. First, it is one of the few fields that is used as a source of keywords for searching. Second, you can set up product groups by product_type in your Shopping Campaign to optimize your bids by category.

You have the option of overriding this pre-configured value with the value from any of the fields in your store catalog. You can also set a Default Value that will be used for any items without any other product type. You can configure this field by going to Manage Feed > Define Fields > Edit product_type.

How to configure Google Shopping Availability attribute

Your data feed submits the ‘in stock’ value in this attribute by default, so there is generally no need to do anything further. Note that your data feed generally filters out items with a zero price and items that are not orderable.

To specify availability information for specific items, follow these steps.

1. Add a custom field to your store called google-availability.
2. Populate one of the values listed below for each item. Google only accepts these values for the availability attribute.
   • 'in stock' - you are accepting orders and fulfilling the purchase
   • 'out of stock' - you are not currently taking orders
   • 'preorder' - you are taking orders for an unreleased product

Your data feed's availability attribute should already be configured to read from the google-availability field. If you need to change the field name, follow these steps:

1. Go to the “Manage Feed > Define Fields” page.
2. Click “Edit” for the availability field.
3. Enter the field name from your products table in the Field Name setting, and click the 'Update' button.
4. Resubmit your data feed.

What are the ways to submit custom attributes in my Google feed?

If you have more fields in your store catalog, you can output them to your data feed by adding Catalog Fields from the Manage Feed > Define Fields page. Refer to Defining your Custom Attributes for details on how to name the attributes in the feed.

The values in the above field types are passed through directly without any changes. If you need special handling, consider upgrading to a Custom data feed. We have customizable field types that can do things such as remove HTML tags, remove boilerplate text, and re-categorize products.

How do I optimize my keywords for Google Shopping?

Quick Tip: Optimize the first 70 characters of the title, and the first 140 character of the description for best results. Describe the item accurately and concisely within that limit with all relevant keywords for the item.

Because Google’s search algorithms are secret, there is no guaranteed way to improve your visibility and ranking in the search results. Furthermore, as the algorithms change over time, your visibility and ranking will also change over time. The following are only general techniques to improve your search engine ranking for Google Shopping.

The closer your product descriptions and titles match the keywords that people are typing into the search box, the higher the resulting listing. Keyword order and spelling are important. Matches in titles rank higher than matches in descriptions. On your site’s product pages, text size, placement, and contrast affect the importance of the keywords. (Hidden text in meta tags is generally ignored.) These guidelines are not absolute.

Example

Target Keywords

nike air max 360 mens

Title

Nike Air Max 360 Mens Size 7 Sneakers

Description

Nike Air Max 360 Mens Size 7 Sneakers BB low basketball shoes. The Mens Nike Air Max 360 BB is designed for the athlete...

Strategies

• Keywords are the first words in the title and description.
• Keyword spelling matches exactly, including punctuation and plurality (case does not matter).
• Keyword order matches exactly.
• Keywords are repeated in the description multiple times, with variations.
• Use the suggestions that pop-up when you search in Google to determine the correct keywords to target. The most popular keyword phrases appear higher.
• Longer keyword phrases (i.e. the most specific ones) have the highest conversion rates.

Will Checkout badges improve my ranking in Google Shopping?

Google Shopping is an unbiased product search engine, and therefore, usage of Google Checkout or Adwords does not affect your ranking. However, your store will be more prominently featured by having the Checkout badge next to your items. This is one avenue you may wish to investigate further. We currently do not offer any services in this regard.

Title Length for SEO: Importance of the 70 character limit for Google

NEW: These recommendations have been updated in 2024 to reflect Google's change in recommendations to use all 150 characters, but put the most important keywords in the first 70 characters.

According to Google's Product Feed Specifications, the 'title' attribute has a maximum length of 150 characters. Title's over that length are truncated automatically, and a warning is shown in Diagnostics.

Our system automatically truncates titles over 150 characters on a word boundary, in most cases.

Google search results only display about 70 characters or less of the titles, because products with long titles are not as user-friendly. Nevertheless, Google recommends using all 150 characters of the title. Just be aware that the words after 70 characters may not be considered as relevant for search, and will not be displayed in search results.

You may still want to keep page titles under 70 chars for general Search Engine Optimization for Google's organic search ranking.

If your product titles are excessively long, we can program your (Custom) feed so that all the titles are limited to a 70 character title length by truncating long titles at a word boundary. However, we generally do not recommend this. The loss of visibility penalty due to the lack of important title keywords is typically greater than the minor ranking penalty due to having more than 70 characters. Keywords in the title are very critical to getting your products to show up for particular searches.

Strategy for the transition to Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs)

Your existing Google Merchant Account data feed is used to create a new Adwords Campaign for the Product Listing Ads. Here are the steps to take to make the most of the transition from free listings to pay-per-click listings with Google Shopping.

Enable Product Listing Ads

Go to the GMA Adwords Settings page and follow the steps in the wizard to set up a default campaign. You can set your daily budget to $1.00 and default bid to $0.01 while you learn how it works.

Starting Out Small

We recommend you set your maximum bid to $0.01 per click and set your maximum daily spend to $1.00. This will cap your spending to $30/month, and deliver you up to 100 clicks per day. Customers searching for hard-to-find items, or those sorting by price or other factors may still find your items and click on them. This is a good way to get started without a huge investment of time or money.

Refining the Campaign

For strategies on optimizing your your product listing ads campaign, please see our article: How to optimize your Product Listing Ads Campaign

How to Optimize a Google Shopping Campaign

Campaign Tracking

Set up Google Analytics Tracking URLs and track your conversions in Google Analytics.

Negative Keywords

To prevent paying for irrelevant clicks, you can configure negative keywords in your Adwords campaign. In your campaign settings, on the Dimensions tab, select search terms to see the keywords that are coming in. Then, you can start adding the negative keywords on the keywords tab, in the negative keywords section.

Weekly Bid/Budget Adjustment

On a weekly basis, you should review and adjust your bid and daily budget. Small changes in the bid can result in big changes in traffic and conversions. It needs to be maintained at least once per week because the competition is changing all the time.

Scheduling Ads

With Shopping Campaigns, your daily budget could be exhausted before the end of the day. Please contact Adwords and ask them about showing the ads evenly over the day, or scheduling the ads to only appear at certain times of the day.

Bidding by Price Range

We can help you set up your feed so you can set your bids based on the price of the product. This allows you to bid more on higher-priced items, and less on lower-priced items. To learn more, see: Google Shopping Bidding by Price Break.

Product Groups

On the Product Groups tab of your Shopping Campaign Ad Group, you can click the plus icon next to All Products to set up different bids for different groups of products. You will want to bid higher for high price/margin items, and lower for low price/margin items. You can set up a target by the following fields:

• Category
• Brand
• Item ID
• Condition
• Product Type
• Custom Label 0
• Custom Label 1
• Custom Label 2
• Custom Label 3
• Custom Label 4

Filtering

If there are items you do not want listed, you can filter these from your feed. You can filter items individually, or by attributes such as price, category, markup, or any other product attribute. For instructions, see our Filtering Techniques and Instructions.

Titles and Descriptions

The first 70 characters of the title and the first 140 characters of the description play a key role in determining the ranking of your items in Google Shopping. Include words that accurately describe the item. Irrelevant information here will lower your ranking. Do not include boilerplate text, shipping terms, availability information, calls to action, block capitals, etc. See our keyword optimization page for more details.

Additional Resources

Google Shopping Best Practices Guide - free

This official Google guide covers optimizing your feed, setting up product targets, bidding strategy, and analytics.

The Google Shopping Guide for Business Owners - free

This guide covers bidding strategy with product targets, and includes examples of how to best use the information from Google Analytics.

How to Set Up a Feed & Shopping Campaign with Bids by Product Price

Overview

Are you bidding the same price for clicks on your $10.00 items as your $200.00 items? If you bid too high, it may be too costly to sell the $10.00 item, and if you bid too low, you may miss sales opportunities on the $200.00 item.

This easy optimization will let you customize your bid by the price range of your products, allowing you to submit your whole catalog of products to Google Shopping. This can significantly lower your conversion cost and improve your return on investment in Google Ads Shopping Campaigns (previously known as Adwords or Product Listing Ads (PLA)).

Instructions

Our Google Shopping feeds include a free feature to define price breaks, also known as 'ranges', 'brackets', or 'buckets'. The price break values will be placed in one of the custom_label_X fields. You can use this setting to set up product groups that target different price ranges. In this way, you can set lower bids for lower priced items, and higher bids for higher priced items.

1. Go to My Account
2. Go to Manage Feed > Define Fields for your Google Shopping feed
3. Click Edit for the custom_label_0 field, or any other unused custom_label_X field
4. Enter your price break points in the Price Breaks input box. Separate each one with a comma (and optional spaces).

   Example:
   custom_label_0 Price Breaks set to 50,200,9999
   custom_label_0 values will be 50.00, 200.00, and 9999.00
   Ranges will be $0.01 - $50.00, $50.01 - $200.00, and $200.01 - $9999.00
   NOTE: Any settings for Default Value and Catalog Field will be ignored. Refer to the instructions on the Add or Modify Field page for details.

5. Make sure your highest price break is greater than your highest priced item.
6. Go to the Manage Feed page and click the Submit button
7. Wait for the feed to be resubmitted and Google to process the update. Depending on the size of the feed, it could be a few minutes to a few hours.
8. Log into your Google Ads account
9. Under your Google Shopping campaign in the left side-bar, select the ad group that you want to customize.
10. Click on the Product groups tab
11. Hover your mouse over the All products product group, and click the pencil icon that appears
12. Select Custom label 0 in the Subdivide All products by: drop-down box
13. Click the bulk add values manually link
14. Enter each price break value, e.g. 50.00, on a separate line. The price break value must have two decimal places, and must not have any double quotes or commas.
15. Click the Add values button
16. Click the Save button.
17. The new product groups will appear in the list. Click the Max. CPC box next to each group, and enter your maximum cost-per-click bid for the price range.
18. If you follow the example above, you will have three new product groups as follows:
    • 50.00
    • 200.00
    • 9999.00
19. Make sure to set an appropriate bid for the Everything else in 'All Products' product group. For example, you can set the bid to $0.01 (or anything less than or equal to the bid on your lowest product group). This is a catch-all rule that ensures all your items have a bid, in case you ever add items with prices outside the ranges that you set up.

Matching Product IDs to Preserve Click Stats in Google Merchant Center

Why preserve product IDs?

When changing feed providers, it is important to ensure that the product IDs match between the old feed and the new feed. Google Shopping tracks performance metrics like clicks and sales by these IDs, and adjusts the ranking of your items based on their specific performance. If you submit the same products with new IDs, then all the performance history is lost. This can reduce your ranking, click-through rate, and impressions, until Google has time to gather performance data for the new product IDs.

What is the impact of changing product IDs?

One of our customers with an established feed and sizable traffic changed their product IDs to make a clean break from an earlier feed system. Their performance statistics (impressions and clicks) dropped substantially. It took about two months for the performance to recover, but it did eventually recover.

For the many customers who are starting a feed for the first time or with little performance history accumulated, changing product IDs has little to no impact.

You can find Best Practices for Product ID in the GMC Help website.

How do I see the previous feed's product IDs?

If you have already uploaded a new feed, then the easiest way to see what the old product IDs were is to follow these steps:

1. Go to Products > Diagnostics tab in your Google Merchant Center (GMC) account.
2. Click on the Item Issues Chart on a date where the old feed was in effect.
3. Click on the View Examples link for any of the listed Issues.
4. Look in the Item ID column for the old item IDs

How to change or select a different field to map to Product ID

1. Go to Manage Feed > Analyze Source Data for your Google feed
2. Acceptable field names are those that are 100% populated and with 100% distinct values.
   (You can choose other fields, but you may get missing or duplicate ID errors.)
3. Go to Manage Feed > Define Fields for your Google feed
4. Click Edit for the 'id' field.
5. Select the field name from the drop-down
6. Click Save
7. Click the Quick Submit button from the Manage Feed > Submit a Task page.

Should I include 'out of stock' items in the Google Shopping Feed?

Google generally recommends to include 'out of stock' items in the feed for products that are temporarily unavailable. By doing this, it eliminates the potential for an activation delay due to a review when a product is re-introduced.

In practice, a short-term (less than 30 days) removal of an item does not incur any review delay when re-introduced. A longer term (more than 30 days) removal of an item also typically incurs no delay when reintroduced. However, especially in certain categories, there could be a delay of anywhere from a few hours to a few days. This is not documented anywhere, just based on experience.

However, 'out of stock' items do NOT appear in Google Shopping search results, and do not receive any traffic from there.

Product feeds do not have any effect on Organic Search listings, so those would continue to appear in Organic Search with price/availability using the structured data tags on your site.

In cases where the catalog has many errors/warnings, it is preferable to filter the 'out of stock' items from the feed. The reason for this is that you can then see the errors and warnings only for actively listed items in the diagnostics, and then work on correcting those errors. Otherwise, those get drowned out in all the other errors on 'out of stock' items.

It is very important to get the errors on 'in stock' items fixed and data quality increased (e.g. by adding images), because those are the only items that are eligible to appear in Google Shopping search results.

If your items are available on a delayed basis, such as preorder, call-to-order, drop-ship, or backorder, then you can use the 'preorder' or 'backorder' availability values. Google requires an 'availability_date' with these values. If you do not have availability dates, then the feed can be programmed to set 'availability_date' to a date that is two weeks out (for example).

Note that 'preorder' is for items which have never been on sale before, and 'backorder' should be used for all other cases of delayed availability.

For further details, see here: Availability [availability] - Google Shopping Feed Specifications

Ebay Data Feed

Can you submit my eBay Store listings to Google Shopping?

Google Shopping no longer accepts eBay product listings directly from individual eBay sellers. You must rely on the automatic data feed provided by eBay.

eBay is considered a marketplace. This means that sellers items are listed under the stores.ebay.com domain. For example, Acme Store's eBay Store might have a website URL like stores.ebay.com/AcmeStore.

Google Shopping requires that marketplace listings be submitted by the marketplace itself, and not by the individual sellers in the marketplace. This is described in Google Merchant Center Help: About Marketplaces.

Please contact eBay directly regarding your listings in Google Shopping.

Can you upload my items to eBay?

We do not support bulk listing uploads to eBay due to its complex nature.

However, there is software out there that can upload a CSV (tab-delimited or comma-delimited text) file containing product information into eBay - please search in Google.

If you can provide us a working, sample CSV file for whatever eBay software you choose, we can give you a quote to implement a feed that generates that CSV file automatically from your product data. You can then use the software you chose to actually manage the eBay listings.

Facebook Product Ads Feed

Facebook Product Ads Campaign Setup

I. Log into your Facebook Business Manager Account

1. Go to https://business.facebook.com - Facebook Business Manager
2. If you do not have an account, click Get Started to sign up.

II. Create a Product Catalog

1. In the left side-bar, click Product Catalogs. (It will be under the Business Settings heading if you have the pull-down menu activated.)
2. Click the Add New Product Catalog button.
3. Select Create new catalog and click Next.
4. Enter your store name as the product catalog name, and click the Create Product Catalog button.
5. Click Skip in the Add People dialog.
6. Click OK in the Product Catalog Created dialog.

III. Assign a Partner to your Product Catalog

1. If you are setting up the Product Feed on your own, refer to our Setup Instructions. Otherwise, assign us as a Partner as described here.

IV. Create a Campaign

In your Facebook Business account, go to Ads Manager and create a new Producct Ads or Dynamic Ads campaign. Select the catalog you created above as the Catalog for the campaign. Be sure to fund and activate your campaign.

See here for the complete instructions:
Create a Dynamic Ad Capmaign

Facebook Product Ads / Instagram Shop Feed Setup Instructions

We support Facebook for Business product feeds. The same feed can be used for Instagram Shop (single-image, carousel, or collection format). You can use this feed to populate your Product Catalog data source in Facebook (Meta) Commerce Manager.

1. Add and configure a new feed in your account, selecting the Facebook Product Ads template.
2. Refresh the feed to make sure the data feed file is generated.
3. Create a Business Manager account on Facebook for Business.
4. Log into the Meta (Facebook) Commerce Manager
5. In the Catalogs section, click the + Add catalog button.
6. Select Ecommerce - Products sold online, and then click Next.
7. Select Upload Product Info, set the catalog owner, enter your store name as the catalog name, and click Create.
8. Click the View Catalog button.
9. Go to Catalog > Data Sources or click the Add Items button.
10. Select Data feed and click Next.
11. Select Yes for Are you ready to upload your spreadsheet or file? and then click Next.
12. Select Use a URL on the Choose how to upload your file page.
13. Enter the Data Feed URL, which can be found in our site, on the My Account > Manage > Download Data Feed File page.
14. Leave Username and Password blank, and click Next.
15. Select Daily
16. Select a time of 09:45 AM GMT-05:00 (America/New York) (This page will show a slightly different time each time you reload the page, so that feed retrievals are spread out over time.)
17. Disable the Add automatic updates setting, if you see it.
18. Click the Next button.
19. Click the Next button again on the Confirm settings and upload page.
20. Click the Upload button on the Fix Column Issues page.
21. Click the Settings tab.
22. Click the Edit button for the Name field.
23. Enter a name like "Acme Store Feed via AtenSoftware" and then click Save. This step is optional, but greatly helps us find your feed in our Business Manager account.

Don't forget to set up and fund your Facebook Product Ads campaign or Instagram Shop.

Facebook Product Ads Optimization Strategy

Because visitors to Facebook do not have an explicit shopping intent (compared to someone who searches for a product in a search engine), advertising in Facebook takes a different mindset. According to the experts, Facebook Product Ads may be the most effective for branding, and using it for retargeting may the best place to start. Read on for more information about this new advertising program and how to set it up.

• Facebook Dynamic Product Ads - main page
• Product Ads on Facebook announcement from Feb. 17, 2015
• Facebook Product Ads: What the New Program Means for Retailers - by CPC Strategy
• 5 Retail Experts Weigh in on Facebook Product Ads - lots of great tips
• Facebook Product Ads: A Retailer's Guide To Facebook Advertising - by CPC Strategy
• How to Set Up Facebook Business Manager - For Retailers - by CPC Strategy
• How to Set Up Facebook Dynamic Product Ads

How to assign us as a partner to your Facebook Product Catalog

1. Go to Facebook Business Settings > Data Sources > Catalogs at this URL: https://business.facebook.com/settings/product-catalogs/
2. Select your store's Catalog, or create a new one
3. Click the Assign Partners button
4. Click the Business ID button
5. Enter our Business ID:1122558261092024
6. Enable the Admin Access: Manage Catalog toggle button (The Create Ads toggle button will be automatically enabled too)
7. Click the Next button
8. Click the Done button

How to Refresh a Facebook Product Catalog Feed Immediately

Facebook/Instagram feeds set to update Daily normally refresh once per day in the overnight/early morning hours.

To refresh the feed on-demand and see the new/updated products in your Facebook Business Manager account, follow these steps.

1. Go to My Account, and click Manage Feed for the Facebook feed.
2. Click the Refresh button, and then wait for the task to complete.
3. Go to Business settings > Catalogs in your Facebook/Meta account
4. Select the Catalog and click the Open in Commerce Manager button
5. Click Data Sources in the side-bar menu
6. Click on the Data feed you want to update
7. Click the Upload now button on the Settings tab
8. Click the Request update now button

For a small to medium sized stores, allow Facebook 30-60 minutes to process the feed and make the updates live. For large stores, allow an hour or two more.

The instructions above assume that you have a Data source configured with an automated Replace schedule to fetch the feed from a URL, as described in our Facebook/Instagram Feed Setup Guide.

Facebook Shoptab Data Feed

Shoptab Categories and Facebook Shoptab Data Feed Setup

Our system can generate a Facebook Shoptab data feed from your online store. Follow the instructions below on how to set up your feed using our pre-configured template.

1. Log into our site and go to My Account > Add Feed, and choose the Shoptab Feed Template
2. Go to Manage Feed > Modify Settings and configure the store source settings using the Store Source Settings Setup Instructions. FTP settings should be left blank
3. Go to Manage Feed > Submit a Task and click Refresh
4. Go to Manage Feed > Download Data Feed File and copy the File URL.
5. Log into Facebook Shoptab Admin and click on the Data Feed tab.
6. Paste the File URL into the Url of file box under the Scheduled Updates section.
7. Add ?f=s.csv to the end of the URL. The final URL will look something like this:
   http://www.atensoftware.com/ p400_12345.php?f=s.csv
8. Select daily as the Frequency and click the Schedule button.

At this point, you can either do a manual upload of the feed file downloaded from our site, or wait until Shoptab picks up the feed according to their schedule. Check your Shoptab Admin account My Products page to see if your products are listed.

Shoptab Categories Setup

By default, our system will use the merchant-category field from your store catalog as the Shoptab category. If you want to use a different field, follow these instructions:

1. Go to Manage Feed > Define Fields for your Shoptab feed
2. Click Edit for the category field
3. Enter the name of another catalog field, e.g. shoptab-category, into the Field Name box, and click Update
4. Go to Manage Feed > Submit a Task and click the Refresh button to refresh the feed.

Notes and Tips

For best results, we recommend short category names (less than ~20 characters) for your products, because the ShopTab will display the categories in a narrow, vertical menu bar. If you do not have an existing field with suitable categories, we suggest creating a custom field in your store catalog named shoptab-category.

Products in the feed will be sorted by ID and this is not configurable as of yet.

Image hosting is required for Facebook, and we provide this service free of charge. The hosted image URLs take about half an hour to become active. Image hosting will rewrite the URLs so that they all end in JPG. The URLs will be on ih.atensoftware.com, and will redirect to the actual images on your site. That will be sufficient for ShopTab.

The Facebook Shoptab feed is similar to, but not exactly the same as the Google Data Feeds. Shoptab may have issues if you try to submit a Google feed directly.

Filter, Remove, or Exclude Products

How to Filter, Remove, or Exclude by Individual Product

1. Go to My Account
2. Click Manage for the desired feed
3. Click Search by Keyword
4. Type letters of the product ID or keywords from the title until the product appears in the search results
5. Click the product in the search results
6. On the Product Detail page, click the exclude button at the top of the page. The icon will be disabled if the product is already filtered out.

How it Works

The steps above will automatically add a filter on the product ID, which will remove it completely from the feed file. The product will appear with strike-through text in your account.

To review the filters on the feed, go to Manage Feed > Product Filters.

To remove the filter, click the Include button from the Product Detail page, or delete the filter for that product ID from the Product Filters page.

Limitations

The instructions above are suitable for filtering a handful of individual items in one specific feed. To filter larger number of products, have filters apply to multiple feeds, or filter by rules, refer to our other support articles in this topic.

How to Filter, Remove, or Exclude a Large Batch of Products by ID

1. Prepare a list of product IDs in your favorite spreadsheet or text editor
   • Only one identifier is needed per product
   • You can select any identifier field that is added to the feed on the Define Fields page
2. Ensure that there is one product ID per line
   • Duplicates and blank lines are OK (will be ignored)
   • Product IDs are case-sensitive and should not have any leading or trailing spaces
3. Select the list of product IDs in your application and copy them to clipboard.
4. Go to My Account
5. Click Manage for the desired feed
6. Click Product Filters
7. For Criteria, select the identifier field, e.g. 'id', and equals as the comparison operator
8. Paste the product IDs into the text box
9. Click the Add Filter button

A separate filter will be created for each ID in the list. You will see a warning for duplicate IDs, and only one filter will be created for that ID.

There is no limit to the number of filters you can add. However, if you have over 5000 filters, the filters page will become difficult to work with. Check the other articles in this topic for better techniques.

How to Filter, Remove, or Exclude Products using Rules on any Field

Product Filters (Rules on any Field)

Product filters are analogous to email filters, and allow you to exclude items from the data feed. Your feed can also be configured to include only the items matching the filters. You can set up filters from the "Manage Feed > Product Filters" page.

You can add a filter on any field For example, you can add a filter to exclude items where 'price' < 1.00, 'title' contains "gift certificate", or 'qty' = 0.

Using your Store's Catalog to Filter

Rather than configuring filters in our system, it may be more convenient for you to control which items are excluded and included directly from your store catalog. To set that up, follow these steps:

1. Add a custom field to your store catalog, like 'exclude-from-nextag' with values 'y' and 'n'.
2. Add a catalog field to your feed for this custom field from the "Manage Feed > Define Fields" page, and mark it disabled.
3. Create a filter like 'exclude-from-nextag = "y"'.

Use the Manage Feed > Analyze Source Data tool to see the values in the raw data for your boolean field. Use those values to set up the filters accordingly. For example, a 'false' may be represented by a blank value, and 'true' may be represented by a 't'.

Viewing Filtered and Unfiltered Items

After making your changes, look in the "Product List" to review the filtered and unfiltered items. Filtered items will appear with strike-through. Then, run a Submit task from "Submit a Task" to send your updated feed to its destination.

Although we do not recommend this, you can also manually remove items. Download your data feed file from the "Data Feed File" page, remove the items using a spreadsheet program, and then upload it manually. This is not recommended because you would have to repeat the manual clean-up every time.

Regular Expression Filters

Filters can be added using regular expressions. Regular expression syntax is essentially an extremely terse programming language. So they are very powerful, but also very hard to learn how to write. You can use this MySQL Regular Expressions Documentation for reference, or contact us for free setup of regular expression filters.

How to download a list of filtered items

1. Go to Manage Feed > Advanced Settings
2. Change the Product Filters setting to Include products matching the filters. (If it is already set to that, change it to Exclude products matching the filters instead.)
3. Go to Manage Feed > Download Data Feed File
4. Click the Refresh button.
5. Return to Manage Feed > Download Data Feed File when the task completes.
6. Click the Download button.
7. After downloading the file, be sure to change the Product Filters setting back to its original value.

How to download all items (filtered and unfiltered) in a feed

1. Go to Manage Feed > Advanced Settings
2. Change the Product Filters setting to Include products matching the filters. (If it is already set to that, change it to Exclude products matching the filters instead.)
3. Go to Manage Feed > Product Filters
4. Add a temporary filter that matches all the items, like id does not equal 'xyz'
5. Go to Manage Feed
6. Click the Refresh button.
7. Return to Manage Feed > Download Data Feed File when the task completes.
8. Click the Download button.
9. After downloading the file, be sure to change the Product Filters setting back to its original value, and remove the temporary filter.

Exclude or Filter Out Items That Do Not Meet Google Requirements

Our system has the capability to validate your Google feed and exclude items that do not meet Google requirements. This feature is currently only supported for Google feeds.

Set up a filter to exclude the items with errors by following these instructions:

1. Go to Manage Feed > Product Filters
2. Select the item_errors field, select does not equal, click String, and leave the text box empty.
3. Click Add
4. Refresh or Submit the feed

As you correct the errors in your store, the items will automatically be included and submitted in the feed.

For a summary of all item errors and warnings, go to Manage Feed > Validation Report.

Adding the validation fields

All Google feeds should contain two special fields, 'item_errors' and 'item_warnings'. If you have a Custom feed and these fields do not exist, follow these instructions to add them:

1. Go to Manage Feed > Define Fields
2. From the Add Field form at the top, select Template - Placeholder and click Add
3. Uncheck the Enabled checkbox, enter item_errors as the Name, and then click Add
4. Repeat the above for the item_warnings field.

Hand-picking most profitable items for inclusion in PPC sites

You can use the strategy below to optimize your pay-per-click campaigns.

If you prefer to control the items from your store catalog without having to log into our site, please see the Using your Store's Catalog section in our article on configuring filters.

Set the Filtering Mode

1. Go to Manage Feed > Advanced Settings.
2. Set the Product Filters to Include Products Matching the Filters.
3. Click Update to save the settings.

Include Groups of Items

1. Go to Manage Feed > Product Filters
2. Add filters for groups of items you want included in the feed. Examples:
   • product_type contains "best sellers"
   • price greater than 100 (use the number data type)
   • title starts with "Armani"
   • brand equals "Coach"

Include Specific Items

1. Go to Manage Feed > Search by Keyword.
2. Type in a portion of the product ID or title, and click the item listing to see the Product Details.
3. On the Product Details page, click the green plus icon to mark the product for inclusion.
4. Repeat for each item.

Review the Results

1. Go to Manage Feed > Product List.
2. In the Filtering State (Items) drop-down box, select Unfiltered Only to see the items that will be submitted.
3. Select Filtered Only to see the excluded items.

How to view all products matching one or more specific filters

Use the instructions below to only enable a specific filter (or set of filters), and then view the products that match that filter in the product list.

1. Go to Manage Feed > Product Filters
2. Note the filter status, i.e. which ones are enabled and disabled. You can take a screen shot.
3. Click the Check All button
4. Click the Set to Disabled button
5. Check the filter or filters you want to view
6. Click the Set to Enabled button
7. Go to Manage Feed > Product List
8. Select Filtered Only in the Filtering State drop-down

   The product list will show all filters matching the selected products. Strike-through text formatting means the product is filtered out.

9. Repeat the steps above to restore the original filter status (enabled/disabled).

Free Feed Generator

Setting up a Free Feed in Google Merchant Center (GMC)

NOTE: These instructions are specifically for our Free Google Shopping Data Feed Generator. For our paid feed service, please refer to the Google Shopping Feed Setup Guide.

1. Go to Google Merchant Center (GMC) and sign into your account.
2. If you have not already set up your website URL, tax, and shipping settings in the GMC, please refer to our Register your Data Feed instructions. These settings are required.
3. On the Products > Feeds page, click the plus icon in the Primary feeds section.
4. Enter or confirm the following settings for each step of the New primary feed setup, and click Continue after each step:

   Step 1: Basic information

   • Type: Online products
   • Country of sale: United States
   • Language: English
   • Destinations: Shopping ads, Shopping Actions, etc.

   Step 2: Name and input method

   • Primary feed name: Atensoftware Free Feed
   • How to set up your feed and connect your data: Scheduled fetch

   Step 3: Setup

   • File name:
     Enter the file name part of your feed URL, but replace the "-ABCD.zip" with just ".txt". For example, "mystore-ABCD.zip" becomes "mystore.txt".
   • Fetch frequency: Daily
   • Fetch time: Select a random time
   • Time zone: Select your time zone
   • File URL: Enter the URL you received in your email.
   • Username/Password: Leave blank
5. The Atensoftware Free Feed feed will appear in the list of Primary feeds. Click the Atensoftware Free Feed link in the Feed name column.
6. Click on the Settings tab for the data feed.
7. Click on Feed settings.
8. Select the settings below and then click the Save button:
   • Encoding: UTF-8
   • Delimiter: Tab (\t)
   • Use quoted fields: Unchecked
9. No other changes are needed. Default currency can be left as No default currency, and no changes are needed on the Rules tab.

Upon completion of these steps, you will have a data feed file registered in your Google Merchant Center account. Google will automatically fetch the product listings file from our system on a daily basis. To start seeing your products appear in Google Shopping, you still need to set up an Adwords Shopping Campaign.

How to open a tab-delimited text file in Google Sheets from a URL

These instructions describe how to quickly and easily open small, tab-delimited text files from a URL in Google Sheets for easy viewing.

• Log in to Google Sheets
• Click the + Blank template under Start a new spreadsheet
• Click on cell A1 (the top-left cell)
• Type the following:
  =importdata("http://sample.com/sample.tsv")
  Be sure to replace the sample URL with your own URL.
• Type the Enter key
• You will see a Loading... message, and then the data will appear in the spreadsheet

Note, if the file is too large, the cell will contain #N/A and it will have a note attached saying Error - Resource at url contents exceeded maximum size. The file size limit is not documented, but it appears to be less than 4 MB.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does your service do?

Our web-based software allows you to submit product listings from your online store to shopping search engines like Google, Bing, etc. Your monthly service fee pays us to ensure your feeds are running as scheduled, update your feeds when specifications change, and provide technical support.

What services are not included?

While we are responsible to submit your product data feed, unfortunately, we do not offer bid management for cost-per-click advertising campaigns at this time. We suggest that merchant's manage their campaigns directly, or hire a company that specializes in that type of service.

What do you charge?

We charge a flat fee of $24.90/month for your first data feed, and $8.40/month for each additional data feed.

A data feed is one store/shopping engine combination, and includes unlimited products and submissions. (Custom data feeds are $14.10 extra per month.) We offer a variety of data feed optimization services for an additional charge.

How long does it take to get my products listed?

You can register an account right now and submit your first data feed immediately. Most shopping engines (including Google) will start displaying your product listings in search results within a day or two.

How long have you been in business?

We have been submitting daily data feeds to Google for over 19 years, since May 2004. We currently submit over twelve million unique product listings to over a dozen shopping engines.

Do you have any references?

Please see our Reviews of Aten Software Data Feed Service page for links to reviews. Please contact us if you would like contact information for our references.

How do I get started?

1. Register an account - sign-up is free; no credit card needed
2. Create a merchant account for the shopping engine - sign-up links
3. Add the data feed - refer to our setup instructions
4. Submit the feed from your Aten Software account
5. Check your merchant account to see the status
6. Schedule your feed to run automatically

How do I pay for your service?

Your account starts with a $24.90 free trial credit. Monthly service fees are deducted each day in a small amount. When the balance gets low, you will receive low balance emails with a link to purchase credit. Follow the link to complete your payment.

We accept payments via Paypal. To simply pay by credit card, select Paypal and then click the link, Don't have a Paypal account?.

We do not store credit card information or do automatic billing.

What is the monthly fee for?

• Daily, automated feed submission by our servers
• Fixed feed URL, also refreshed Daily
• Monitoring of feeds for system errors
• Phone and email technical support, especially for item errors and warnings, and feed suspensions or disapprovals
• Automatic updates of feed templates to the latest specifications
• Fast, bug-free, and continuously upgraded account management dashboard

General Information for Online Merchants

How to use Microsoft Access as a front-end for a MySQL Database

To connect Microsoft Access (MS Access) to the edit tables in a MySQL database, you will need to download and install the MySQL ODBC Connector. Look for the Connector/ODBC 5.1.11 MSI Download for your platform.

Then, use these instructions for the setup: Using Microsoft Access as a Front-end to MySQL

Use the instructions here to set up the data source: Configuring a Connector/ODBC DSN on Windows

Here is the information you need to set up the data source:

• Data Source Name: Edit Tables on Aten
• Description: (leave blank)
• Server: mysql.atensoftware.com
• User: (provided by email)
• Password: (provided by email)
• Database: (provided by email)

Microsoft Access crashes when linking tables if the name of the MySQL table is too long. We will set up your tables with short names (less than ~15 characters) to avoid this. Each table also needs to have a primary key defined.

Google Shopping Ads (PPC/CPC/SEO) Campaign Management References

We do not offer Shopping Ad (PPC/CPC) campaign management, keyword optimization, or general SEO services. The companies listed below can manage your pay-per-click shopping advertising campaigns with Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, etc. This list is compiled from companies that we know have worked with our e-commerce clients.

• 24HourViews - Feed Manangement and Managed Services for Google & Microsoft - New company by the former co-founders of Sales & Orders
• Samyak Online: SEO & Digital Marketing - based in New Delhi, India and servicing USA-based online stores
• Tinuiti - full-service, pay-per-click feed management (formerly CPCStrategy)
• True Online Presence - Specializing in Google Shopping Management solutions with a personalized touch. PREFERRED PARTNER
• Agital (formerly Exclusive Concepts) - full-service, pay-per-click feed management
• Electric Eye - Electric Eye helps Shopify stores grow their sales
• Triangle Direct Media - Many years experience with PPC management, Google feed management and (PLA) campaigns, and SEO
• MINT PPC Management - small, UK-based firm with good results
• Finch - PPC for eCommerce - full-service, pay-per-click feed management
• NationalPositions - internet marketing and SEO
• Voltage Search Media - Google Shopping PPC management
• AdNabu - pure SaaS solution for managing ad campaigns

Note: Listing here is not an endorsement. It is provided for reference only.

Batch Download Images using Wget

If you are comfortable with Access, SQL queries, or Excel, you can easily set up a batch file to download a large number of images from a website automatically with the wget.exe command line tool.

In your database or spreadsheet, just create a new field that generates output like this:

wget.exe -N -q -O widget-acme.jpg http://yimg.com/image11212
wget.exe -N -q -O foo-product.jpg http://yimg.com/image34324
wget.exe -N -q -O bar-product.jpg http://yimg.com/image56575

The above command downloads the URL and saves it with the specified file name in quiet mode. The -N switch tells it to skip the download if the file has already been downloaded and is up-to-date (based on time-stamping).

Next, copy and paste that column into notepad and save it with a .bat file extension.

Download wget.exe and put it in the same folder as the batch file.

Double-click the batch file to run it and wait for the images to download.

You can press Ctrl+C to cancel execution. Just double-click the batch file again to resume the downloads, and it will pick up where it left off.

If you run the batch file again after several weeks, only the images that have changed on the website since the last download will be re-downloaded, saving time.

See the following article for an example: Can I backup, download, or export all my Yahoo store images?.

Duplicate content and DMCA takedown notices for copyright violations.

If another website is copying your product images, product descriptions, or other content, it is a good idea to take action. If you do not, Google and other search engines may penalize your site for containing duplicate content, even if your site was the original source.

Most of the time, simply contacting the individual by email or letter requesting that they remove the content is sufficient. You may have spent hundreds of hours painstakingly developing your content, and it is usually worthwhile to spend a few hours identifying violators and writing them notices.

If you have limited time, there are DMCA takedown services that can perform this service for you, often for a fixed fee and guaranteed results. Just search in Google for DMCA Takedown Service to find a company that provides this service.

Google Merchant Center Suspended Fixes

Resolving Data Quality Suspension for Inaccurate Sales Tax Information

This 'How To' provides a solution for fixing the Inaccurate tax information suspension of your product feed in Google Merchant Center.

Problem

You may receive an email from Google Merchant Center that says:

Subject: Data Quality Suspension Warning Of Your Merchant Center Account

We've found product data that doesn't meet the Shopping Ads requirements in your Merchant Center account. You have until the deadline below to update your account and products so that they meet Shopping Ads requirements. If the issues aren't resolved by the deadline, your Merchant Center account will be suspended and your Shopping ads will no longer appear on Google.

Deadline: Jan 1, 2021

Your Merchant Center account presently does not meet the following Shopping Ads Product Data Specification requirements:

Inaccurate tax information

For many of your items, the tax information in your product data doesn't match the tax information on the product pages.

If you can't provide accurate tax information, you may provide data that matches or overestimates the average tax rate users visiting your site from Google would pay. Keep in mind that no matter what tax amount you provide for Shopping ads, you're still responsible for collecting the appropriate amount of tax from your customers.

Using the correct product data will help optimize your ads' performance. Update your product data to meet the specifications on tax.

Resolution

The product feed itself typically does not contain any tax information (i.e. the tax attribute is left blank). Instead, the tax settings are configured at the account level here:

Tax Settings - Google Merchant Center

If you recently started collecting sales tax for certain states, please update your tax settings there. Remember to also carefully check or uncheck the box for charging tax on shipping. It has to match your store exactly.

The email from Google will have some sample zip codes where they detected incorrect tax.

To determine the state of any zip code, simply search for 12345 zip code in any search engine.

If you are unable to locate the email from Google with the sample zip codes, go to Message Archive - Google Merchant Center to find all recent notifications from Google.

After verifying that the tax settings are correct, click the Request Review link in your Google Merchant Center Account under Products > Diagnostics > Account Issues.

Be sure to check carefully, because Google sometimes limits reviews to one every seven days. If you are at or past the deadline, and the review fails, your campaigns will be offline for at least seven days before becoming eligible for another review.

If you do not see a Request Review link, then use this form to contact Google:

Google Merchants - Contact Form for Disapproved Feeds

Items disapproved due to shipping terms in the product description

Google Shopping prohibits items with words like "free shipping" or "free ground shipping" anywhere in the product listing, including titles and descriptions. These items will be disapproved or disallowed by Google.

Google's content policy states, "Text relating to shopping or store policies should not be included in your feed."

To see all your disallowed items, click on the "Products" tab in your Google Merchant Center Dashboard. In the "Status" drop-down box, select "Inactive". Click an item title to see the product details.

• The best way to resolve this is to remove the policy text from your product descriptions/captions, titles, and other fields. We recommend moving policy text to fields such as 'availability', 'headline', and 'promo-text'.

  If you decide to move the policy text to another field, then you may have to modify your RTML page template to display that text. You could also move the policy text to an image, a custom field, or another store field.

• If there are not that many items, you can ignore the error or filter those items out with a product filter.
• If you need a quicker solution, you can upgrade to a Custom feed and we can customize your data feed to remove the policy text. We may charge a small programming fee to set up the filtering rules specific to your store.

Restricted Items

Another common reason for disallowed items is keywords that indicate restricted items, such as human body parts and weapons. For more information, please see our article titled: Can you help if my feed was disapproved by Google?

Google Product Ads Disapproved in Google Merchant Center

If you have item listings that are disapproved for Product Ads, it only affects the ad campaigns in Google Adwords that are based on the your item listings. If you are not advertising with Adwords this way, then these disapproval messages are irrelevant and do not affect your listings in Google Shopping.

Product Ads may appear as disapproved in your GMA Diagnostics. If you have disapproved items, a red line will appear in the Products Overview > Product Ads Chart. When you hover your mouse over the line, the number of disapproved items will appear.

Reasons for Disapproved Product Ads

• Google may not yet have reviewed the Product Ads for compliance with Adwords policies
• There is no Adwords campaign with a product target matching the listings
• Product Ads may have failed the review, especially due to violations of strict rules for trademarked terms

To find out the cause of the disapproval, you generally need to contact Google using the GMA Contact Form for Disapproved Items. Note that they generally reply with a canned response at first, but if you reply back, they should clarify the issue.

Resolving Inaccurate Tax Information Warning in Google Merchant Center

In order to fix the "Inaccurate Tax Information" Account Issue in your Google Merchant Center account, go to your Google Merchant Center Tax Settings and define your sales tax rates for each state where you collect sales tax. For detailed diagnostic and resolution instructions, please continue reading.

Background Information

The email notice from Google might look something like this:

Subject: Data Quality Suspension Warning Of Your Merchant Center Account [Store Name, US] Dear Google Merchant Center User, Merchant Center Account: Store Name (12345) We've found product data that doesn't meet the Shopping Ads requirements in your Merchant Center account. You have until the deadline below to update your account and products so that they meet Shopping Ads requirements. If the issues aren't resolved by the deadline, your Merchant Center account will be suspended and your Shopping ads will no longer appear on Google. Deadline: Apr 31, 2020 Your Merchant Center account presently does not meet the following Shopping Ads Product Data Specification requirements: Inaccurate tax information For many of your items, the tax information in your product data doesn't match the tax information on the product pages. If you can't provide accurate tax information, you may provide data that matches or overestimates the average tax rate users visiting your site from Google would pay. Keep in mind that no matter what tax amount you provide for Shopping ads, you're still responsible for collecting the appropriate amount of tax from your customers. Using the correct product data will help optimize your ads' performance. Update your product data to meet the specifications on tax. Examples of violations: Red Widget - sku100 - https://www.store.com/red-widget.html Value in landing page - 9.99USD Value in the data feed - 0.00USD Zip code - 90210

Step 1: Verify your checkout shows the sales tax indicated

1. Follow the product page link for the first example in your email
2. Add the item to your cart and checkout as Guest
3. Search Google for 90201 zip code to determine the state
4. Enter a sample address with zip code 90210 and state CA
5. Continue checking out until the cart displays a sales tax amount, and verify that it is $9.99USD as indicated in the example.

If the sales tax displayed in your cart is not the same as the "Value in landing page" indicated by Google, then Google is having a problem reading the sales tax from your cart. In this case, open a support ticket with Google using their Contact Form for Disapproved Items. For phone or chat support, please see Google Merchant Center Contact Information.

Step 2: Check your tax settings for the state

1. Go to the Google Merchant Center Tax Settings
2. Verify that a tax rate is set up for the state mentioned in the example
3. Add tax rates for all states for which you collect sales tax

Checking Google's Computed Sales Tax for a Specific Product

1. Go to Google Merchant Center > Products > All products
2. Click the filter icon and add a filter like id equals sku123
3. Click the item title to view the item details
4. Scroll down to the Shipping and tax rate calculator section
5. Enter the destination zip code, e.g. 90210, and press Enter
6. Compare the Tax calculated by Google to the sales tax in your checkout. They should match.

Can you help if my feed was disapproved by Google?

Google has recently disapproved feeds of many of our clients due to stricter enforcement of Restricted Products. Even a single restricted item can result in disapproval of all your items!

Please beware that although you may be selling an item that is allowed, it may still contain keywords that make it appear to be a restricted item in Google's view. This may result in disapproval of your entire feed.

Thankfully, Google has also published an extensive set of restricted keywords in their documentation of Restricted Products. Please review those rules carefully, as well as the Google Shopping Program Policies.

To resolve the issue, you have to email Google until they tell you which item or items are causing the disapproval, a process which may take a week or two of emailing back and forth. You can start the process by contacting them using these forms:

• Google Merchants - Contact Form for Disapproved Feeds
• Google Contact Form for Data Feed Upload Issues
• Call Adwords free phone support via your Adwords account.

Common Reasons for Disapproval

• Submitting out of stock or discontinued items as being "in stock"
• Submitting used or refurbished items as "new"
• Submitting items in or related to any Restricted Product category, particularly supplements and weapons

Additional Tips and Advice

For a great overview of why Google disapproves feeds and how to get approved again, please refer to Celebird's Product Search Disapproval Checklist.

For many issues, you may find assistance or advice in the Google Merchants Help Forum.

We have a separate article that explains how to solve the issue when your items are disapproved due to shipping terms in the product descriptions.

A common cause of disapproval is non-compliance with the policy regarding Affiliates, cataloged drop-shipping programs, and multi-level marketing. See the program policies for more details.

If your items do not have unique identifiers, but Google has disapproved them, then you can contact Google to request an exemption or exception from the unique identifier requirement.

If your entire feed is disapproved and Google is not responding, unfortunately, we can not provide any support. This issue is between the merchant and Google, and there is nothing we can do about it. We do not have any knowledge of, and can not advise on a workaround. We do not have an 'inside' contact at Google. Creating a new Google account and resubmitting does not work, and is not recommended.

'Misrepresentation' or other Account-level Policy-related Suspension

In some cases, like 'Misrepresentation', Google will not tell you the reason for the suspension. In this situation, consider hiring a specialist to help you resolve the suspension. You can find resources on Fiverr using this link:

Fiverr search results for 'Fix Google Merchant Center Suspension'

Google Product Feed Setup Guide

Step 1: Register a Data Feed in Google Merchant Center Next Account

Use the instructions in this step only for Google Merchant Center Next. If you still have a Google Merchant Center Legacy account, then complete the instructions in LEGACY Step 1 instead.

1. Go to Google Merchant Center
2. If you are not signed in, then either click the Sign In button or click the Start now button.
3. Complete all onboarding steps that appear on the page, except Adding products.
4. Click the Gear Icon > Data Sources link, once you are signed in and have completed on-boarding steps.
5. Click the Add product source button under Primary sources
6. Select the Add products from a file tile
7. Select the Add a file using SFTP or Google Cloud Storage radio button
8. Enter your store name in lower-case ending with ".zip" in the Enter your exact file name input box.
   Examples:
   www.mystorename.com mystorename.zip
   www.mystorename.co.uk mystorename_co_uk.zip
   www.mystorename.com.au mystorename_com_au.zip
   www.mystorename.com targeting Canada mystorename-canada.zip
   www.mystorename.com targeting Australia mystorename-australia.zip
9. Click the View SFTP and Google Cloud Storage details link, and make note of the Username and Password, for later entry into the Modify Settings page of your feed. Click Create Password or Reset Password to get a new password.
10. Click the Continue button
11. Click the Your setup tab on the feed source details page
12. Click the pencil icon next to Source Name
13. Replace the existing Source name with the file name you entered above
14. Click the Save link

LEGACY Step 1: Register a Data Feed in Legacy Google Merchant Center Account

Use the instructions in this step only for Google Merchant Center Legacy accounts. If you have a newer Google Merchant Center Next account, then complete the instructions in Step 1 instead.

1. Go to Google Merchant Center and sign up for an account, or sign into an existing account.
2. If you have multiple stores, request a multi-client account so you can manage them all from a single Google account.
3. On the Business information page, enter the website URL of your store in the Website section. If it does not say "Claimed", please see our Website Url Verification Tutorial for further instructions.
4. On the Tax and Shipping pages, add your tax and shipping rules. You can add estimated shipping if none of the options exactly matches your shipping policies.
5. Click the vertical dots icon and select SFTP / GCS. In the SFTP Settings section, generate a new password. Make sure to note the password somewhere, as it will only be displayed once. You can reset it easily if you lose it.
6. On the Products > Feeds page, click the plus icon in the Primary feeds section. (If you in a new Merchant Account, then click the Create a feed (advanced option) link at the bottom of the Products tab that says "How do you want to add your products to Merchant Center?".)
7. Once you are on the New primary feed page, enter or confirm the following settings for each step of the setup, and click Continue after each step:

   Step 1: Basic information

   • Target Countries: United States, plus any others
   • Language: English, or the language of your store
   • Destinations: Check all destinations, or disable ones you do not want

   Step 2: Name and input method

   • Primary feed name: Use your store name in lower-case ending with .zip
     Examples:
     www.mystorename.com => mystorename.zip
     www.mystorename.co.uk => mystorename_co_uk.zip
     www.mystorename.com.au => mystorename_com_au.zip
     www.mystorename.com targeting Canada => mystorename-canada.zip
     www.mystorename.com targeting Australia => mystorename-australia.zip
   • How to set up your feed and connect your data: Upload

   Step 3: Setup

   • File name: Same as Primary feed name
   • (Click the following if you see the error: Feed file name is not unique.)
8. The mystorename.zip feed will appear in the list of Primary feeds. Click the mystorename.zip link in the Feed name column.
9. Click on the Settings tab for the data feed.
10. Click on Feed settings.
11. Select the settings below and then click the Save button:
    • Encoding: UTF-8
    • Delimiter: Tab (\t)
    • Use quoted fields: Unchecked
12. No other changes are needed. Default currency can be left as No default currency, Fetch Schedule can be left as None, and no changes are needed on the Rules tab.

Upon completion of these steps, you will have a data feed file registered in your Google Merchant Account ready for the SFTP upload of the product listings file from our system. To start seeing your products in Google Shopping, you still need to set up the feed in our site, and set up an Adwords Shopping Campaign.

Step 2: Set up your Store Source Settings

Follow the instructions below for your store platform.

BigCommerce

Continue on to Step 3.

Shopify

Continue on to Step 3.

Yahoo Store

1. Log in to your Yahoo Store Manager, and click the Search Engines link.
2. Scroll down to the Enable Store Contents Export section, and select "Enabled" (or "Enable, but do not syndicate") for both objinfo.xml and catalog.xml export formats. Note the URLs labeled "Download:". These end in catalog.xml and objinfo.xml (not .dtd).
3. If your exports were disabled, then republish your store.

Magento Community and Enterprise, all versions

Refer to the Magento Shopping Feeds Setup Guide.

Volusion

Refer to the Volusion Data Feed Setup Instructions.

AspDotNetStorefront

Follow the AspDotNetStorefront Store Export Installation Instructions to install the export script on your site.

Step 3: Add a Data Feed for Google Shopping

1. From My Account, click the Add Feed link.
2. Enter a store name, select your shopping cart, and create a new Standard feed using the Google Shopping template.
3. After the feed is created, continue on to the Modify Feed Settings page.
4. Follow the on-page instructions and enter the Source Settings for your store. Click the question mark icons for instructions.
5. Enter the SFTP settings you configured in Step 1.
6. For the feed file name, use your store name in lower-case ending with .txt. The zipped file name will appear as you type, and should match the file name you registered in your Google Merchant account.
   Examples:
   www.mystorename.com => mystorename.txt
   www.mystorename.co.uk => mystorename_co_uk.txt
   www.mystorename.com.au => mystorename_com_au.txt
   www.mystorename.com targeting Canada => mystorename-canada.txt
   www.mystorename.com targeting Australia => mystorename-australia.txt
7. Click Update.

Step 4: Test your Google Feed Settings

1. Go to My Account > Manage for your Google feed.
2. Click the Test button to test your store URL and SFTP settings.
   NOTE: It might take up to 15 minutes before Google's SFTP server recognizes a new SFTP username/password.
3. Go back to My Account > Manage.
4. Click the Refresh button. Wait for the process to complete. (Closing your browser will not interrupt the process.)
5. Go back to My Account > Manage.
6. Go to the Product List, and review some product details to ensure that everything imported correctly.

Step 5: Submit your Google Feed

1. Go to My Account > Manage for your Google feed.
2. Click the Submit button. Wait for the process to complete. (Closing your browser will not interrupt the process.)
3. Log into Google Merchant Center and check the status of the data feed.
4. Google typically processes your file within minutes, but it may take longer. It then takes about 24 hours for the items to become searchable in Google Shopping. There may be additional lag time before image thumbnails appear.

Step 6: Schedule your Google Feed

1. Go to My Account > Manage for your Google feed.
2. Click the Modify Settings link.
3. Select the Daily update frequency, and click Update.
4. Add funds to your account from the Purchase Credit page to ensure continuous service.

Step 7: Optimize your Google Feed

The default feed settings work for most feeds, but several optimization steps may be needed for best results.

1. Configure a filter to exclude items with errors
2. Configure a default google_product_category
3. Configure the identifier fields, MPN, Brand, and GTIN/UPC
4. Go to My Account > Manage > Google Validation Report. If there are any errors listed, click the View and Help links to resolve the error.
5. Don't forget to set up and fund your Google Shopping Campaign.

We strongly recommend our Google Shopping Optimization Service. For a one-time fee, we will optimize your feed for you and send you a customized optimization report. Click here to Request Data Feed Optimization

Step 8: Set up Adwords Shopping Campaign

1. Go to Account Linking > Google Ads in your Google Merchant Account
2. Verify that there is a Google Ads customer ID in the Linked state with a green check mark.
3. Create a Shopping campaign in your linked Adwords account.
4. Make sure the campaign is Active
5. Make sure your Adwords account is funded
6. Check the Paid clicks graph on your Google Merchant Account Dashboard to make sure you are getting clicks.

Please contact Adwords technical support or a Google Shopping Campaign Management Company for assistance with your Google Adwords Shopping campaigns. Our service is limited to submitting your latest product listings to Google Merchant Center on regular basis.

Google Shopping

How will I benefit from being listed in Google Shopping?

Google Shopping allows people shopping for items to find your items via the Google search engine. It helps you reach buyers when they are actively searching for items to buy. Google Shopping lets your control product listings, allowing you to provide highly relevant and fresh results to shoppers.

Listings in Google Shopping are enabled via Product Listing Ads, which lets you control the pay-per-click bid (as little as $0.01 per click) and daily budget. Along with advanced targeting options, this allows you to optimize your advertising campaign for the best results.

How long does it take for my products to be listed?

Our service allows you to submit your products immediately. Google will process the submission within twenty-four to forty-eight hours. The steps are listed below:

• Submission - Our server uploads your data feed file to Google's server (via FTP file transfer)
• Pick-up - "Data Feeds" tab shows "Processing..." and time of upload.
• Processing complete - "Data Feeds" tab shows number of items inserted or an error message
• Items Inactive - Items will listed in the "Inactive Items" tab as "Published... searchable soon"
• Items Active - Items will be listed in the "Active Items" tab as "Published and searchable"
• Statistics and Quality - Available in "Data Quality" and "Performance" tabs (always delayed one to two days)
• Image Thumbnails - thumbnail images will appear as image not available until Google’s server fetches them

How does this service categorize my products?

By default, our feeds leave the product categories exactly as they are defined in your store.

For shopping engines that have their own, official category list or taxonomy, you can define a default category that applies to all your items via your settings.

We also offer categorization services for data feeds, where we can categorize your items on an ongoing basis.

Will my images be submitted to Google and other shopping engines?

Yes, our system reads the image URLs from your product data catalog. Our software correctly determines the image links, and submits them in the data feed.

Some of our feeds can also be configured to submit additional image URLs besides the main image of the product. Doing so may improve your ranking in the shopping engines.

How are item options submitted?

Product options are automatically recognized and submitted. They are added as a custom attribute for Google Base feeds in a readable format, e.g. "Smily Face T-Shirt - Options: Size: S, M, L - Color: White, Black". More keywords in the description help your search result rankings for longer, multi-term queries. Longer queries tend to have higher conversion rates.

Is additional information for books, music, or videos submitted?

Yes, you can add the information as attributes of your data feed.

Why don't product sections, products with zero price, or items marked non-orderable show up in the product list?

The following types of listings are filtered out automatically by our feed system, and will not appear in the product list.

• Product listings with zero price or no price
• Product listings where Orderable is 'No'
• Section or category pages

Google, and most other shopping engines, require item listings to have a purchasable product on them with a minimum price of $0.01.

How much additional traffic (or clickthroughs, leads, sales) will my store attract if it is listed in Google?

You may or may not receive additional traffic. It depends on many factors including your product mix, pricing, Google's search algorithms, and buyer tastes. This service only manages data submission, and does not guarantee that your products will be accepted by Google, or that you will see a traffic increase. Please see the Terms of Service for details.

I have multiple stores, can I set up multiple feeds?

Yes, you can set up any number of stores of any type from within one account on our system.

We recommend maintaining one account to save on fees and to simplify administration. You are welcome to open multiple accounts if, for example, you must keep the billing separate.

For Google Shopping, you can manage all your stores from within one Google Merchant Account. All you have to do is follow the instructions to convert to an advanced account, which will give you a new multi-client account (MCA).

Bing Shopping also allows you to manage multiple stores from within one account. Other shopping channels generally require you to have a separate account for each store. Please check with them to confirm.

What should be my data feed settings in Google Merchant Center?

When you create your data feed, select 'Products' as the type, 'googlebase' as the format, and enter a file name ending in '.txt'. The default settings will work with our system, but if you need to verify them, follow these instructions:

1. Go to GMA Product Feeds
2. Under the Upload column, make sure that it says Create schedule or Paused schedule
3. If there is an active schedule, click on it, and then click the Pause Schedule button
4. Click Settings under the data feed file name
5. Verify the settings below:
   • Filename: your store name ending in .zip
     Examples:
     www.mystorename.com => mystorename.zip
     www.mystorename.co.uk => mystorename_co_uk.zip
     www.mystorename.com.au => mystorename_com_au.zip
   • Encoding: UTF-8 (Autodetect is not reliable)
   • Delimiter: Tab
   • Use quoted fields: No
   • Default Currency: US Dollar (The 'No default currency' option is not reliable.)
   • Click Save changes

1. Log into your Aten Software account
2. Go to My Account > Manage Feed > Advanced Settings.
3. Set the the "File Enclosure" setting to "None" and click 'Update'

Notes

Disabling quoted fields is the default and recommended setting.

Note that attributes that consist of multiple sub-attributes, such as 'tax' and 'shipping', do not work if enclosed in quotations. Therefore, we recommend to set Use quoted fields to "No".

Setting "Encoding" to "Autodetect" usually works fine, but if you add any special characters to your titles or descriptions, then there is a chance that Google will not detect the encoding and then they would reject those listings. Google's auto-detect logic is not perfect (it may only look at the top 100 lines of the data feed file). Therefore, it is safer to set "Encoding" to "UTF-8".

What is the difference between Google Base, Merchant Center, and Product Search?

Google Shopping (previously known as Google Product Search) is Google's shopping search engine for end-users.

Google Merchant Center is the site for merchants to upload their product listings.

Google Base is the site for uploading other types of listings to Google, such as real estate and job postings. (Previously, product listings were uploaded here too.)

Is it possible to change my product descriptions before they are sent to Google Shopping?

This is not possible. Our system passes your product descriptions as-is to Google Shopping. The only changes made are to comply with their requirements. For example, the feed automatically strips HTML tags. It truncates the description (on a word boundary) if it is too long. It also substitutes the product title if the description is blank.

Google Shopping requires that the description submitted match the description displayed on your site. Therefore, in order to make changes, you must edit the product descriptions in your store. This is also better because your content has a single source, so you only need to edit it in one place.

My product listings now appear in Google Shopping, but not all of my images.

Images thumbnails are shown after the products are listed. It can take days for their system to process all your product images into thumbnails.

How I can optimize my data feed to create more traffic to my website and boost sales?

Look through our support articles to find numerous optimization strategies. We offer a variety of optimization services, which you can read about here: Services for Data Feeds.

How do I get my store reviews or ratings to appear in Google Shopping?

Unfortunately, there is currently no way to control any aspect of your seller reviews or ratings in Google Shopping via data feeds.

Google provides some advice regarding seller ratings in the links below. Basically, the domain registered on the third-party review site must match the domain registered in your Google Merchant Account, and there must be at least 30 reviews. Meeting these requirements is not a guarantee that the reviews will be listed.

Changes are coming soon though. They are now accepting reviews from Bazaarvoice and PowerReviews, if you subscribe to their paid review services. Google also hopes to add additional partners, as well as a self-submission model.

• Google Shopping seller ratings
• Working With Bizrate for Trusted Seller Reviews and Ratings
• Announcing the Google Product Reviews Program

How do I configure free shipping for Google Shopping?

If all your products have free shipping, then you can configure this via your GMA Shipping Settings. Simply create a flat-rate shipping rule, and set the price to zero.

Otherwise, if only certain items have free shipping, then configure your default shipping costs in the Google Merchant Account, and then override the shipping cost for individual items using the instructions below. These instructions also apply to Bing Shopping, which uses the shipping cost format.

1. Add the following custom/meta field to your store catalog: google-shipping.
2. Set the value to 'US:::0.00' (without quotes) on the items that qualify for free shipping.
   • Leave all the other items blank, so that the shipping cost for these will still be based on the account-level shipping rates.
   • To set other shipping rates, please see the Google Shopping shipping attribute instructions.
   • The Google shipping attribute is composed of country, region, service, and price. You can specify multiple shipping rules for a single product by separating each by commas.
3. Click the Refresh button from the Manage Feed page of your Google Shopping feed.
4. Go to the Manage Feed > Analyze Source Data page to confirm that the custom field has been imported, and note the exact name.
5. Edit the 'shipping' field on the Define Fields page of your Google Shopping feed, and set the Field Name to 'google-shipping' or the exact name that appeared on the Analyze Source Data page.
6. Click the Submit button from the Manage Feed page of your Google Shopping feed.

Important Tips

• For more flexibility, add a 'shipping-label' field to your store catalog instead of the above. You can make up and assign labels to each of your items. For example, you might set up labels like 'freight', 'free', 'ground', etc. Then, in your GMA, you can set up the different rates and assign labels to them. Google will use the shipping_label values assigned to each item to choose the rate for the item.
• We recommend setting ship-weight to the actual ship weight of the items, as opposed to setting it to zero to trigger free shipping.
• One other thing you will need to do is log into your Google Merchant center account, and ensure that "Use Quoted Fields" setting is set to "No". Instructions for doing so are here: Google Feed Settings.

How do I set my store name in Google Shopping?

To change the way your store name is displayed in Google Shopping results, you must set it in your Google Merchant Center dashboard on the Business Information page.

For other shopping engines, the store name is also set via the merchant account of the shopping engine.

The Store Name setting in our system on the Manage > Modify Setting page is only for internal use, and does not affect anything in any search engine.

Why doesn't Google Shopping show all my results?

When you search in Google Shopping by your store name, you may or may not see all your products in the search results.

To do an accurate search, you should search by Account ID rather than store name. Your Account ID can be found in your Google Merchant Account Dashboard on the top-left of the page. (Account ID may also be known as accountid, sellerid, authorid, seller ID, or author ID.) Enter the URL as follows into your browser:

http://www.google.com/products?authorid=1234567

You can also use this form to run an AuthorID search in Google Shopping:

Google Account ID		(e.g. 1234567)

It is no longer possible to see the approximate number of matching items or navigate to the last page of results to get a count of the listings (unless there are less than about 100 results).

Note that the search results may vary by your geographical location and may vary over time as Google's search index is distributed and updated over time.

The only correct way to see your searchable items is to log into your Google Merchant Account Dashboard, go to the Products tab, and select the "Status" as "Searchable". Note that the item count here is also an estimate, and you can only see accurate item counts on the "Data Feeds" tab.

Configuring Sale Price for Google Shopping

By default, our Google feeds submit the sale-price as the price, and this works for almost all customers since they generally do not use sale-price for specials, but rather for the ordinary, day-to-day pricing. If you are interested in submitting true, advertised sale pricing, please read below.

When using the Google's sale_price attribute, Google has the following requirements:

• It is a requirement to display both the non-sale and sale prices on your product landing pages.
• The non-sale price is [required to be] different from the list price and must be a price you have previously sold the item for.
• Source: Google Products Feed Specifications, Submitting your sale information

If you use the sale-price for true, advertised specials, then you can configure your feed to submit the sale-price as described below. Note that this Google attribute is experimental, and it is not yet clear how exactly it is to be used and how it affects your listings in Google. Please use the instructions below only as a guideline.

1. Go to Manage Feed > Define Fields
2. Click Edit next to the price field.
3. Enter regular (without quotes) as the Price Source and click Update.
4. Click Edit next to the sale_price field.
5. Enter sale (without quotes) as the Price Source and click Update.
6. Click Edit next to the sale_price_effective_date field.
7. Enter the name of a catalog field that contains this information, and click Update.
8. Resubmit the feed from Tasks > Submit a Task

Configuring the 'condition' attribute for Google feeds.

By default, our feed sets all items to have the 'new' 'condition' value. If the 'condition' of your items varies, then follow these instructions.

1. Add a custom field to your store catalog called 'google-condition' with a default value of 'new'.
2. Set any items as 'refurbished' or 'used' as needed.
3. On our site, go to Manage Feed > Define Fields > Edit 'condition'.
4. Enter google-condition in the Field Name box, and then save the settings.
5. Run a Refresh task, and then you can review the changes in the product list before running a submission.

Google only accepts 'refurbished', 'used', and 'new' as the condition. Your catalog must only contain these values. For an explanation of what these values mean, refer to the Google Product Feed Specifications.

Google Feed Preliminaries Setup Checklist

In order for us to set up and optimize your Google Shopping feed, you will need to complete the following steps:

• Register an Account on our website (no credit card needed; free trial included)
• Create or sign-in to your Google Merchant Account
• Verify and claim your Website URL under GMA Business Information - Website
• Add tax and shipping settings for each country where you intend to sell under GMA Tax Settings and GMA Shipping Settings
• Grant us access to your Google Merchant Center Account
• Submit a Setup and Optimization Request (you can leave all fields blank)

Google Required Attributes for Apparel Items (US-sellers)

In Google's Product Taxonomy, the Apparel and Accessories category includes Shoes, Clothing, and Jewelry. You can assign the category of each item via the google_product_category attribute.

Any items assigned a category (or any subcategory) of Apparel and Accessories will require the information listed below.

• gender - 'male', 'female', or 'unisex' are the only allowed values
• age_group - 'adult', 'kids', 'newborn', 'infant', and 'toddler' are the only allowed values
• color - must be the dominant color of the pictured item
• size - required for Clothing and Shoes; accepted size values
• material - if applicable
• pattern - if applicable
• image_link - the image must be of the specific color, material, and pattern (the specific size is recommended too)
• brand - required unless item is custom-made
• google_product_category - required (providing only the top-level category is okay, as long as you differentiate between Shoes and Clothing at a minimum)

See the following Google support articles for more information:

• Best practices for advertising apparel and accessories
• Google Products Feed Specification

In order to meet these requirements, you have a couple options:

A. Submit Only One Variant for Each Product

You will need to add values to your store catalog for color, size, material, pattern, gender, and age_group. If a value is the same for all items, e.g. 'gender=female', then you can define a default value on the Manage Feed > Define Fields page.

For some store, you can also submit the first color and/or size option value. In that case, just make sure the main product image coincides with the first size/color option.

B. Submit All Variants of the Product

We have the capability to submit all variations of your items based on supplemental data you provide to us. This service requires a Custom feed and there is a setup fee. For more information, please refer to our Product Feed Multiplication Service.

Please consider our Data Feed Optimization Service. This one-time, flat-rate service, includes a review of your store data, configuration of your data feed, and a customized optimization report that includes a strategy for meeting the new requirements.

Options for Submitting Color Values in Data Feeds

There are several options when it comes to dealing with 'color'.

1. Set a default value that applies to all items, e.g. "Black".
2. Use the contents of a custom attribute or meta field, e.g. "google_color". You have to populate that manually in your catalog.
3. Any combination of 1 and 2 is possible with our Standard feeds, and can be configured on the Manage Feed > Define Fields page.
4. Custom programming to extract the actual product colors and split the item by each color (size, etc.). We have a service called Product Feed Multiplication to do this. This requires a Custom feed.

The above information also applies to other apparel attributes, such as 'age_group', 'gender', and 'size'.

Why is my item or product missing from Google Shopping?

In order to determine why items or products are not showing up in Google Shopping search results, please follow the instructions here. This will help you find out why the product listing is filtered, declined, disapproved, inactive, missing, under review, pending, disabled, hidden, etc.

Check Filtering Status

1. Go to My Account
2. Click Manage Feed for your Google feed
3. Click Search by Keyword
4. Type in the item ID/SKU or title. You can enter partial IDs and titles.
5. If the item does not appear in the results box, please contact us.
6. Click on the item in the results box to go to the Product Details page.
7. If the product details have a strike-through effect, then the item is filtered out. Look at the top of the page to see matching filters.
8. For example, a common filter is item_errors != ''.
9. Look down in the product details for the item_errors or other field, to see the contents of the field. The item_errors field will contain all the errors that apply to the item.
10. If the item has item_errors, go to Manage Feed > Google Validation Report to see a summary of the errors, with Help links explaining how to correct the errors.

Check Google Merchant Account

1. If the item is not filtered out, then log into your Google Merchant Account
2. Click on the Products tab
3. Type in the full item ID in the search box, and click Lookup
4. If the item does not appear, please contact us.
5. If the item has a green check mark, then it is actively searchable in Google Shopping. If it has a yellow icon, it is not searchable and is under review. If it has a red icon, it is disapproved.
6. If the item is disapproved, click the item title to view the item details. A message indicating why the item is disapproved will be visible.
7. If the message is vague or generic, you must contact Google using their disapproved items contact form
8. If the item has a yellow icon, wait a day or two for the review to be completed. If the yellow icon stays longer than that, please contact Google.
9. If the item has a green icon, it is searchable in Google.

Check Google Search

1. Search for the full, exact item title in Google Search, and you should see the item.
2. If you are searching by other keywords, check if the exact search terms you are searching for appear in the product details, especially the first 70 characters of the title, and the first 140 characters of the description.
3. If the search keywords do not appear in the product details, then Google's ranking algorithm has little reason to display your listing. Try adding the keywords to your title/description.
4. If the search keywords do appear in the product details, then Google's ranking algorithm has decided not list your item for unknown reasons. You will have to try changing various product details until the item starts appearing again.

How To Remove or Delete Listings from Google Shopping

Use the instructions below if you need to immediately remove some or all of your Google Shopping product listing ads.

Remove All Listings from Google Shopping

1. Go to the GMA Product Feeds page
2. Check the box next to the data feed file name.
3. Click the Delete selected button

Items can be restored by adding the data feed file back and resubmitting a feed.

Removing Individual Listings from Google Shopping

1. Go to the GMA Product List
2. Look up items by id using the search box, or page to the desired items
3. Check the boxes next to the items you wish to delete.
4. Click the Delete button

Items can be restored by resubmitting a feed containing the listings.

Removing Items Permanently from your Feed

Note that items may be re-uploaded with the next automated feed submission. If you need items to be removed from the feed permanently, please see these support articles:

• How to configure filters to exclude or include products
• Hand-picking most profitable items for inclusion in PPC sites

The best practice for filtering items is to add a include-in-google custom attribute to your store catalog as a boolean yes/no field. Then, add a filter to exclude the items where include-in-google is false. This is described in detail in the Using your Store's Catalog section of the feed filtering instructions.

Feed file name is not unique - Google Merchant Center Error Solved

If you have a multi-client Google Merchant Center account, data feed file names must be unique across each sub-account. Otherwise, when you try to create the feed, you will see the error message: Feed file name is not unique.

To solve this problem, simply make up a different file name for each sub-account when you create the feeds. For example, you can set up file names like googlebase.zip, googlebase1.zip, googlebase2.zip, etc. Then, in our system, update the File Name setting under Manage Feed > Modify Feed Settings for each Google data feed. Now, each feed will be uploaded with the correct file name.

File names are case-sensitive, so be sure they match exactly. If the file name that is uploaded does not exactly match the registered file name, you will get an email from Google similar to the one below:

Subject: Google Merchant Center problem with data feed file: "GoogleBase.txt"

On February 12, 2012 1:01:01 AM PST you uploaded to Google Merchant Center via FTP a file named "GoogleBase.txt", but you don't have a data feed registered with this name. Please verify that you provided the correct file name, including correct capitalization.

How to set up Google Trusted Stores

Google Trusted Stores is a new program for merchants that allows you to submit your on-time shipping and service metrics to Google in exchange for special "trusted store" badge in search results. The program is now open to all merchants.

There are significant restrictions to the program, such as the requirement to have more than 100 orders on a rolling 28-day basis. Refer to the Performance Standards for details.

We do not currently support the shipping and cancellation data feeds that are required for this program, and we do not have a time-frame from when we might offer something. According to Google, they are working on direct, simplified integration with major e-commerce platforms. We do not have any knowledge of when this may happen.

For more information, please refer to the following links:

• Google Trusted Stores - What's Involved for Merchants by Robert Mangiafico at lexiconn.com
• How to become a Google Trusted Store by Shawna Seigel at 1choice4yourstore.
• Google Trusted Stores Merchant Guidelines, by Google Trusted Stores Merchant Support

Google Merchant Center increase feed maximum item, product, offer quota or limit

By default, Google Merchant Center limits the number of items you can submit per file and per account. When this happens, you may see an error like Offer quota full, items rejected. The limit varies, and may be in the range of 50,000 to 200,000 or more.

If you need to submit more items to Google Shopping, you can use this special form to contact Google to request a increase in the maximum product count.

We can submit all the items in one feed, or we can split your feed into parts, with each file limited to 100k items. The maximum products per file is configurable, so that limit can be modified. This is part of our Standard feed service, so there is no additional charge. Please contact us if you need this set up.

Automatic item updates with schema.org microdata

Google Merchant Center recently added a feature called "Automatic item updates". This feature relies on schema.org microdata on your product pages to obtain up-to-date price and availability information about your products.

If you do not have schema.org microdata embedded in your product pages, you can not and should not enable this feature. If you do, then you will see errors in your account like, "Automatic item updates: Incorrect microdata price information" and "Missing schema.org microdata availability information". You can simply disable "Automatic Item Updates" to fix those errors.

Microdata is a short snippet of HTML that contains your product information. It has to be formatted a certain way. Here is a condensed example:

<body>
  <div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Product">
    <meta itemprop="sku" content="abc123" />
    <div itemprop="offers" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Offer">
      <span itemprop="price">229.95</span>
    </div>
  </div>
</body>

The main advantage of this feature is that reduces the chances of a temporary item disapproval due to mismatched price or availability. However, you can achieve the same results by re-submitting your product feed whenever your price/availability changes substantially. Here are our recommendations:

• Ensure your feed is set to Daily submission frequency from the Manage Feed > Modify Feed Settings page.
• If available for your store platform, set your feed to Daily Plus submission frequency. This will automatically run a submission at least once per day and also within about an hour after you publish your store.
• After significant changes to your catalog, run a Submit task on-demand by going to the Manage Feed page and clicking the Submit button. (There is no need to Refresh before submitting, because the Submit task also refreshes your product data.)

Remember, we do not charge any per-submission fees, so resubmitting/refreshing your feeds is always free. Also, our system fetches the latest product data from your store every time a feed is refreshed or submitted.

Invalid or Missing microdata for condition

You may see a Missing microdata for condition notification in your Google Merchant Account. This message can be found under Diagnostics > Current Issues > Items, and likely affects all or most of your items.

To resolve this issue, first check to make sure Automatic item updates are disabled. In your Google Merchant Account, go to Settings > Automatic Item Updates and make sure to disable the settings if they are not already disabled.

If the setting is already disabled, then it is safe to ignore the message, because it is just a notice and does not affect your listings.

This issue appears to be a glitch on Google's part, because they should not be checking microdata on your website if you have disabled automatic item updates. Most likely, Google will correct the issue and the notice will disappear.

If you are still concerned, you can contact Google by phone, chat, or by using their contact form for item errors.

Of course, if you are one of the few merchants who has added microdata tags in your product pages, then you should leave the automatic item updates setting enabled, and verify that your microdata tags are there in the correct format. For more background information, see Automatic item updates with schema.org microdata.

Recommended Settings for Automatic Improvements in Google Merchant Ctr

Learn the recommended settings for Automatic Improvements in Google Merchant Center, along with reasoning for the recommendations.

Automatic updates

We recommend to disable all three types of automatic updates. The page should say:

• Prices not updated automatically
• Availability not updated automatically
• Condition not updated automatically

Automatic image improvements

We recommend to set it to Images improved automatically if and only if you have Promotional overlay on image [image link] errors in your Google Merchant Center Diagnostics.

In all other cases, leave the setting at Images not improved automatically.

Rationale for Automatic Update Recommendations

Because we submit a accurate and up-to-date feed to Google with all your product data on a regular basis, there is no need for automatic updates for price, availability, and condition.

The way the automatic updates works is that Google's web crawler (Googlebot) scans your website periodically and guesses the values. Based on what we see on our clients merchant accounts, the guesses are often incorrect affecting about 1-5% of the product catalog. When the guess is incorrect, product listings will have warnings and errors, curtailing their visibility.

• Warning - Automatic item updates active [condition]
• Warning - Automatic item updates active [availability]

Disabling automatic updates will fix these errors and warnings.

Rationale for Automatic Image Improvements Recommendations

Google's specifications for image_link prohibit images with promotional overlays, such as calls to action, price/sale information, and any other text that covers the physical product image. Overlays can also be watermarks, brand names, and logos not part of the actual product.

By enabling "Automatic Image Improvement", Google will attempt to detect and remove the overlay using software. Because it could inaccurately remove legitimate parts of your product images, it is best to leave the setting off unless you have products that are disapproved for overlays. If you have products disapproved for overlays, then enabling this setting will fix that error.

Recommended Settings for the 'Found by Google' Data Source

We recommend disabling the Found by Google data source in the Google Merchant Center Data Sources page.

Even though the page may say, "Google found additional products on your online store.", and provide a link asking you to "Start managing these products", this setting is not recommended.

Your feed service keeps your product listings up-to-date on a regular basis, using every possible product from your store. The feed filters out items that should not be listed, such as disabled products, hidden products, products with zero price, products with no images, etc. Therefore, enabling the 'Found by Google' setting will result in increased errors and warnings, and interfere with the feed service.

If the setting is already enabled, click the three dots icon under the Actions column, select Stop managing products, and then click Confirm. This will disable the setting.

For additional information, see our blog post, Automated Feed Website Crawl vs File Upload in Google Merchant Center.

How to migrate a Google Products feed

If have an existing Google Shopping feed and are switching to a feed uploaded by our system, here is the recommended procedure to migrate your feed.

First, you do not need to change your Adwords campaign.

In your Google Merchant Center (GMC) account, add a new feed called googlebase.zip and configure it as per instructions in our Google Feed Setup Guide.

Do not delete any existing feeds from your GMC account. Once the new feed is uploaded and processed, you can check for errors and resubmit if needed. You will see a warning that items are being uploaded through multiple feeds.

Once the googlebase.zip feed is processing well, you can delete the old feed from your Google Merchant Center Account and resubmit the feed from our system to get rid of that warning.

At this point, you may need to update Adwords campaign settings if any content changed between the feeds.

The feed uploaded by our system automatically removes and updates listings uploaded via any other feeds. However, if your listings were previously being uploaded via the API (rather than manually or by FTP), then the feed from our system will not remove those old listings. As long as the API updates have been turned off, those listings will expire automatically after 30 days. If those listings need to be removed sooner, please contact us and we can help you with that.

How to grant a user access to your Google Merchant Center account

Please follow the steps below to grant us Standard user access to your Google Merchant Center account. We recommend reading the instructions through before proceeding.

Access to your account is NOT required for your feed service. It can be helpful for troubleshooting though.

1. Sign in to your Google Merchant Center account
2. Click the gear (⚙) icon at the top of the page, near the center.
3. Select Account access
4. Click the + Add user link under the Users heading
5. Enter the following email address:
   Copy to clipboard
6. Click Add User
7. Select the Standard role and uncheck all other roles
8. Uncheck all email notifications
9. Click Add User

The user will appear as Pending until we accept the invitation that Google sends us by email.

Alternate Option 1 - Screen shots

For quick troubleshooting, you can email us screen shots of relevant pages in your account using a free tool like Snipboard.io.

Please do not Email your Google Account Login and Password

We never require your Google account login/password, and we will never ask you for it. Please do not send us your Google account login/password. Even if you send it, it will not work, because Google requires two-step verification which we will not be able to bypass.

NOTE: Never send any account login/password by email, because email is inherently insecure. If you have sent it by email already, be sure to change your password. Instead, if necessary, you can use our Secure Login and Password Form to send us your non-Google credentials securely.

For increased security, we store merchant account logins provided to us off-site in an encrypted password manager.

Revoking Access

To revoke access, refer to the full instructions provided by Google here: User access for Merchant Center.

Automatic image resizing to fix 'image too small' errors

Google requires images to be a minimum size of 100x100 pixels (250x250 for apparel products). Here is what the specifications state:

For apparel products, images must be at least 250 x 250 pixels and can't be larger than 64 megapixels. For all other products, images must be at least 100 x 100 pixels and can't be larger than 64 megapixels.

Do not scale up images or submit thumbnails. We recommend the product to take no less than 75%, but not more than 90%, of the full image

You may see the following errors in your Google Merchant Center Diagnostics:

• Image too small, resolve by September 1, 2016
• Images too small

We can set up hosted image URLs in your Google Shopping feed that automatically resize your images to meet the new requirements. Our smart resizing algorithm automatically adds white-space, centers the image, and/or scales as necessary to create the perfect, proportional product image with the least amount of scaling.

This service can keep your products listed while you work on permanent improvements to your catalog. Please contact us for a quote.

NOTE: This service can also be used in Facebook Product Ads Feeds, to provide a perfectly-squared, distortion-free, 600x600 product image.

If you just have a few problematic images, you can use our free online image resizing tool for Google and Facebook

How to grant Standard User access to your Google Ads (Adwords) account

To grant us Standard User access to your Google Ads account, please follow the new, greatly simplified instructions below:

1. Sign in to your Adwords Account
2. Click Tools > Setup > Account Access from the top-right
3. Click the blue plus button (Add User)
4. Select Standard - Read only access, plus edit the account and its campaign as the Access Level
5. Enter as the Email address
6. Click the Send Invitation button

References

• Manage access to your Google Ads account
• How to grant Standard User access to a Google Merchant Center account

Google Search Console Product Snippets Structured Data Issues

In Google Search Console or via an email from Google, you might see errors and warnings regarding your product pages like:

1. Missing field "aggregateRating"
2. Rating value is out of range
3. Value in property "reviewCount" must be positive
4. No global identifier provided (e.g., gtin, mpn, isbn)
5. Missing field "url"
6. Missing field "brand"
7. Missing field "review"
8. Missing field "priceValidUntil"
9. Invalid price format in property "price"
10. Missing field "hasMerchantReturnPolicy" (in "offers")
11. Missing field "shippingDetails" (in "offers")
12. Missing field "highPrice" (in "offers")

These errors and warnings are not regarding your Google Product Search data feed. Instead, they are regarding the product markup in the product pages on your website.

Briefly, Product Markup is a set of tags for denoting product data (like price, title, image URL, ratings, etc.) hidden in the HTML of your product pages. Other terms for product markup are: Microdata, RDF-a, JSON-LD, structured data, or rich snippets.

Since Google is receiving your product data directly and regularly via an optimized data feed, the product data on your website is redundant.

Therefore, it is not necessary to resolve the errors and warnings for your Shopping Campaigns to be effective. However, for organic search results, you may want to resolve them

We do not provide any support for Google Search Console issues beyond the general advice here. Questions regarding those issues should be directed to your e-commerce platform or store developer.

Please refer to Providing product data to Google Search for current information on how Google prefers to receive merchant data.

Google Price-Inventory Supplemental Feed for High Frequency Updates

We offer Google Price-Inventory update feeds for Shopify and other shopping engines. These feeds include only three fields: id, price, and availability. They are useful for stores where price and availability changes frequently, and needs to be updated frequently.

These feeds run in 'reduced' mode so they can run faster. 'Reduced' means the amount of data retrieved from your product catalog is limited. For example, for Shopify, there is a big difference in speed because the feed does not individually fetch meta-fields for each item.

On a Shopify store with 200,000 items, the Price-Inventory feed runs in under fifteen minutes, as compared to the full feed which takes approximately two hours.

You will need to set up a Supplemental feed in your Google Merchant Center Account to process this feed. You can do this by creating a supplemental feed and using the "Take latest" rule to update your primary feed.

The Price-Inventory feeds are Standard feeds. If you need a custom schedule for the feed, please let us know.

WebGains Affiliate Product Feed

Our Google Shopping feed is fully compatible with the WebGains Product Update Data Feed.

You can find the URL of the Google Shopping feed on the Manage Feed > Download Data Feed File page of your account.

Select the format TSV, not CSV, in the WebGains feed section of your WebGains Advertiser Account.

Google Product Category for WebGains

Google Shopping now recommends that you leave google_product_category blank so that they can auto-categorize your items. WebGains requires google_product_category and will reject the feed if it is left blank.

If you are leaving google_product_category blank in your Google Shopping feed, there are two ways to resolve this conflict. You can subscribe to our Categorization Service were we set the google_product_category for your products. Or, can create a copy of the Google feed for WebGains and set a Default Value for google_product_category

Support Policy

While you are welcome to use the Google Shopping feed URL for any purpose, we can only support one channel per feed. If you require customization or full support, we can quickly create a copy of your Google Shopping feed specifically for WebGains (or other destination).

Can I have Google crawl my images again using the product feed?

In order to have Google re-crawl your product images immediately, we can append "?v=1" to each image URL. Google sees these as new images because the URL is different, and re-crawls them immediately, usually within a few hours.

The re-crawl may take up to 1-2 business days for stores with tens or hundreds of thousands of products in their feed.

Adding a URL parameter like "?v=1" to the image URL has no effect on the image itself, and the feed in general has no effect on organic search results.

If nothing is done, Google re-crawls images according to a slower schedule, presumably every three days based on their error messages.

This technique is helpful after you have made mass changes to images. It is also helpful when you encounter missing or invalid image errors, and the issue no longer exists.

After the re-crawl is completed, the "?v=1" can be removed or left in place. If another re-crawl is needed, then it can be changed to "?v=2", "?v=3", etc.

To add the URL parameter, you can contact us or follow these steps:

1. Go to My Account > Manage Feed > Define Fields
2. Click Edit for the image_link field
3. Append "?v=1" to the Display URL value
4. Click the Update button
5. Go to Manage Feed > Submit a Task, and click the Quick Submit button

Image Hosting Service

What is the image hosting service for Yahoo Stores?

Our image hosting service solves the problem of missing images caused by out-of-date image URLs. As you may know, Yahoo Stores change the image URL every time your store is published. With daily feed updates, this is generally not a problem.

For those who publish very frequently or have other special feed requirements, image hosting provides a stable, unchanging image URL for each product. This URL redirects to the latest, up-to-date image on your Yahoo Store.

Copies of your images are not stored on our servers. For this reason, our image hosting service can not function as a backup service. However, by using redirects, our service leverages Yahoo's high-availability, load-balanced, unlimited bandwidth image servers. The refresh rate is also faster because the images are never copied to our servers. Best of all, since we do not have to maintain image hosting resources, we can offer this service for no extra charge.

How does image hosting work?

The system maintains static image URLs for each product with the following format:

http://ih.atensoftware.com/FeedId/OfferId.jpg

Our system actually ignores the file extension, so ending the URL with .gif, .png, etc will still redirect to the same image hosted at Yahoo. Image hosting data is refreshed every half an hour, ensuring that your new images will be accessible at the static URLs within half an hour after you republish your store.

What effect does image hosting have on ranking in Google?

If you publish your site frequently (more than once per day), then enabling image hosting may have a positive effect on your ranking in Google. Google appears to penalize listings when the image is not found. Since Google updates images throughout the day, some images would not be found between the time when you publish your site and the next, nightly data feed update. By enabling image hosting, image URLs will be static, and there will only be about half an hour of downtime should you re-publish your store.

The first time you enable image hosting, you may notice a temporary negative effect on your ranking, but that should clear up within two to four days as Google re-indexes your items. Note that Google's ranking algorithms are secret and change all the time, so the above statements regarding Google's ranking methodology are educated guesses.

How do I enable image hosting for my data feed?

Image hosting can be enabled from "Manage Feed > Advanced Settings", and is independent of update frequency. It may take up to half an hour for the hosted image URLs to become active. You can enable or disable image hosting on a per-feed basis.

How much does image hosting cost?

Image hosting services are provided for no extra charge.

International Feeds

Data Feed Currency Conversion

We support currency conversion on all feeds, included as part of our Standard feed service. We use openexchangerates.org to obtain up-to-date conversion rates at the time your feed is generated. We can convert between all major international currencies.

Please note that many US-based shopping search engines require a US presence. Please contact the shopping engine's merchant support to confirm.

Supported Currencies

Albanian Lek - ALL
Algerian Dinar - DZD
Aluminium Ounces - XAL
Argentine Peso - ARS
Aruba Florin - AWG
Australian Dollar - AUD
Bahamian Dollar - BSD
Bahraini Dinar - BHD
Bangladesh Taka - BDT
Barbados Dollar - BBD
Belarus Ruble - BYR
Belize Dollar - BZD
Bermuda Dollar - BMD
Bhutan Ngultrum - BTN
Bolivian Boliviano - BOB
Botswana Pula - BWP
Brazilian Real - BRL
British Pound - GBP
Brunei Dollar - BND
Bulgarian Lev - BGN
Burundi Franc - BIF
CFA Franc (BCEAO) - XOF
CFA Franc (BEAC) - XAF
Cambodia Riel - KHR
Canadian Dollar - CAD
Cape Verde Escudo - CVE
Cayman Islands Dollar - KYD
Chilean Peso - CLP
Chinese Yuan - CNY
Colombian Peso - COP
Comoros Franc - KMF
Copper Pounds - XCP
Costa Rica Colon - CRC
Croatian Kuna - HRK
Cuban Peso - CUP
Czech Koruna - CZK
Danish Krone - DKK
Dijibouti Franc - DJF
Dominican Peso - DOP
East Caribbean Dollar - XCD
Ecuador Sucre - ECS
Egyptian Pound - EGP
El Salvador Colon - SVC
Eritrea Nakfa - ERN
Estonian Kroon - EEK
Ethiopian Birr - ETB
Euro - EUR
Falkland Islands Pound - FKP
Fiji Dollar - FJD
Gambian Dalasi - GMD
Ghanian Cedi - GHC
Gibraltar Pound - GIP
Gold Ounces - XAU
Guatemala Quetzal - GTQ
Guinea Franc - GNF
Guyana Dollar - GYD
Haiti Gourde - HTG
Honduras Lempira - HNL
Hong Kong Dollar - HKD
Hungarian Forint - HUF
Iceland Krona - ISK
Indian Rupee - INR
Indonesian Rupiah - IDR
Iran Rial - IRR
Iraqi Dinar - IQD
Israeli Shekel - ILS
Jamaican Dollar - JMD
Japanese Yen - JPY
Jordanian Dinar - JOD
Kazakhstan Tenge - KZT
Kenyan Shilling - KES
Kuwaiti Dinar - KWD
Lao Kip - LAK
Latvian Lat - LVL
Lebanese Pound - LBP
Lesotho Loti - LSL
Liberian Dollar - LRD
Libyan Dinar - LYD
Lithuanian Lita - LTL
Macau Pataca - MOP
Macedonian Denar - MKD
Malawi Kwacha - MWK
Malaysian Ringgit - MYR
Maldives Rufiyaa - MVR
Maltese Lira - MTL
Mauritania Ougulya - MRO
Mauritius Rupee - MUR
Mexican Peso - MXN
Moldovan Leu - MDL
Mongolian Tugrik - MNT
Moroccan Dirham - MAD
Myanmar Kyat - MMK
Namibian Dollar - NAD
Nepalese Rupee - NPR
Neth Antilles Guilder - ANG
New Zealand Dollar - NZD
Nicaragua Cordoba - NIO
Nigerian Naira - NGN
North Korean Won - KPW
Norwegian Krone - NOK
Omani Rial - OMR
Pacific Franc - XPF
Pakistani Rupee - PKR
Palladium Ounces - XPD
Panama Balboa - PAB
Papua New Guinea Kina - PGK
Paraguayan Guarani - PYG
Peruvian Nuevo Sol - PEN
Philippine Peso - PHP
Platinum Ounces - XPT
Polish Zloty - PLN
Qatar Rial - QAR
Romanian New Leu - RON
Russian Rouble - RUB
Rwanda Franc - RWF
Samoa Tala - WST
Sao Tome Dobra - STD
Saudi Arabian Riyal - SAR
Seychelles Rupee - SCR
Sierra Leone Leone - SLL
Silver Ounces - XAG
Singapore Dollar - SGD
Slovak Koruna - SKK
Slovenian Tolar - SIT
Solomon Islands Dollar - SBD
Somali Shilling - SOS
South African Rand - ZAR
South Korean Won - KRW
Sri Lanka Rupee - LKR
St Helena Pound - SHP
Sudanese Pound - SDG
Swaziland Lilageni - SZL
Swedish Krona - SEK
Swiss Franc - CHF
Syrian Pound - SYP
Taiwan Dollar - TWD
Tanzanian Shilling - TZS
Thai Baht - THB
Tonga Pa'ang - TOP
Trinidad & Tobago Dollar - TTD
Tunisian Dinar - TND
Turkish Lira - TRY
UAE Dirham - AED
Ugandan Shilling - UGX
Ukraine Hryvnia - UAH
United States Dollar - USD
Uruguayan New Peso - UYU
Vanuatu Vatu - VUV
Venezuelan Bolivar Fuerte - VEF
Vietnam Dong - VND
Yemen Riyal - YER
Zambian Kwacha - ZMK
Zimbabwe dollar - ZWD

Checklist for Currency Setup for Product Feeds

Complete the steps below to ensure successful product feeds in non-USD currencies.

1. Ensure that the correct currency code is entered on the Define Fields page of the feed for the price and sale_price fields.
2. If the BigCommerce store supports multiple currencies, add "&setCurrencyId=N" to the link field.
3. For Google Feeds, go to the Feed settings and ensure the Default Currency is set to the appropriate value.
4. For Google Feeds, look at the countries assigned to the feed. For each country assigned to the feed, ensure that the Shipping Rates are in the same currency code.

Please contact for assistance with multi-currency product feeds.

International Google Shopping Feeds to the UK and Other Countries

Google Shopping requires you to submit a separate product feed for each country that you want to target. The feed content must be in the local language and currency.

If you have English-content, then we can set up Google Shopping feeds for the following, English-speaking countries:

• United Kingdom (GBP - British Pound)
• Switzerland (CHF - Swiss Franc)
• Australia (AUD - Australian Dollar)
• Canada (CAD - Canadian Dollar)

The feed will convert your US Dollar prices to the local currency automatically.

For all other countries, Google requires translated product listings. We do not provide translation services, but if you have content in the local language, we can submit your feed. (Our feeds are encoded as Unicode/UTF-8.)

Requirements

You will need to make some modifications to your website to comply with the Google Shopping requirements for international product listings.

Google requires that the product price be displayed in the local currency on your product page.

It is not sufficient to select the currency based on the IP address of the visitor. The page must show the price in the local currency regardless of the visitor's location.

The ideal solution is to set up a URL parameter, like "currency=USD", that we can appended to each URL via your feed settings. Your store's product pages should be programmed to display the currency based on the URL parameter. Your store should remember the selected currency via a cookie, and have a drop-down box in the header to switch between currencies.

If you have a Yahoo Store, you can add the Currency Convertor Add-on for Yahoo Stores to your website.

At this time, it appears to be sufficient to provide a link or button to a currency convertor on your product pages, but this may not hold for much longer.

We recommend adding a widget or pop-up to your product pages, rather than linking to an external site, so you can keep visitors on your page.

Oanda provides a Free Currency Convertor Widget, as well as a subscription service specifically for merchants. Many other providers also provide free widgets. Just search Google for free currency converter widget.

We provide free currency conversion with our Standard feed service. Your product price in USD will be converted to another currency using the conversion rate (as provided by Yahoo! Finance) at the time the feed is generated.

Setup

There is no need to set up a separate Google Merchant Account or Adwords account. You can simply add the feeds into the same Merchant Account. You may need to add some additional shipping rules.

In your account on our site, we will create a copy of the feed with a different file name like googlebase-uk.txt, and add the currency conversion settings.

Example of Requirements for UK

• Products must be listed in English.
• Product landing pages must be in English.
• Product prices must be listed in pounds sterling (GBP), including all applicable taxes [e.g. VAT tax] and charges except shipping.
• Products must be shippable throughout the mainland UK. If you ship from outside the UK, your shop must cover all custom charges.

Google Shopping Canada

Please be aware that Product Listing Ads for Canada only appear on google.ca, because there is currently no equivalent to Google Shopping in Canada.

Multi-Language Feeds Character Set Support - UTF-8

Our system is implemented end-to-end with the UTF-8 character set, providing full compatibility with any language.

UTF-8 character set is used everywhere in the system, including how data is imported, how it is stored in our system, how it is displayed on our website, and in the feed files that are generated and submitted.

You can rest assured that international feeds in any language will be generated correctly by our system.

Often times, product catalogs built from a variety of sources will contain encoding errors that result in gibberish characters and text. This is frequently the case with content generated using Microsoft Office products, which use Windows-1252 encoding that translates poorly to UTF-8. Our system has the capability to automatically correct these errors if needed.

Magento Product Data Feeds Setup Guide

Magento Extension Installation

We recommend installing our exporter script, but you can also install our Magento Extension via Magento Connect.

OPTION 1 (PREFERRED) - Script Installation

Upload our exporter script to your website using the Magento Product Export Script Setup Instructions.

OPTION 2 - Automated Installation (via Magento Connect)

1. Log into your Magento Admin Panel
2. Go to System > Magento Connect > Magento Connect Manager.
3. Log in again to MagentoConnect Manager
4. If you see a message saying Warning: Your Magento folder does not have sufficient write permissions., please configure the FTP Connection from the MagentoConnect Manager Settings page.
5. Next, go to Aten Software Product Export for Data Feeds and click Install Now to obtain the Extension Key. (You can choose either Magento Connect 1.0 or Magento Connect 2.0 format.)
6. Go back to the MagentoConnect Manager page, and enter the extension key into the box labeled: Paste extension key to install:
7. Click Install
8. Click Return to Admin
9. Go to System > Configuration in the main menu
10. Select Advanced > Advanced in the left side-bar
11. Expand the Disable Modules Output section. If you see AtenSoftware_ProductExport with a setting of Enable, then the extension has been correctly installed.
12. Continue with Add Magento API User and Role.

OPTION 3 - Manual Extension Installation

1. Visit Aten Software Product Export for Data Feeds, and install the extension into your Magento Admin.
   1. Use these steps for a manual installation:
   2. Download the AtenSoftware_ProductExport-14.3.13.0.tgz package.
   3. Unzip it to a temporary folder
   4. Copy the AtenSoftware folder into ./app/code/community/
   5. Copy the modules/AtenSoftware_ProductExport.xml file into ./app/etc/ folder so its final path is: ./app/etc/modules/ AtenSoftware_ProductExport.xml
2. The extension key is:   AtenSoftware_ProductExport
3. To verify that the package is installed correctly, go to System > Configuration > Advanced and expand the Disable Modules Output section. If you see AtenSoftware_ProductExport with a setting of Enable, then the extension has been correctly installed.

Add Magento API User and Role for Magento Connect Extension

These instructions apply to the Magento Connect extension.

1. Go to System > Web Services > (SOAP/XML-RPC) Roles in your Magento Admin.
2. Click Add New Role
3. Enter atensoftware as the Role Name
4. Click the Role Resources tab
5. Check the Aten Software > Get Product Export checkbox
6. Check the Core checkbox
7. Click the Save Role button
8. Go to System > Web Services > (SOAP/XML-RPC) Users in your Magento Admin.
9. Click Add New User
10. Enter the following:
    User Name: atensoftware
    First Name: Aten
    Last Name: Software
    Email:
    API Key: Make up a a password here. Here is a random one for your convenience: 6wmvpkf9
    API Key Confirmation: Re-enter the password
    This account is: Active
11. Click the User Role tab
12. Click the radio button for the atensoftware role
13. Click Save User
14. Continue with Configure Feed Source Settings for Magento Connect Extension.

Configure Feed Source Settings for Magento Connect Extension

1. Go to System > Manage Stores in your Magento Admin.
2. Hover your mouse over the Store View Name of the store you want to use, and note the ID number. It is typically 1, but could be anywhere from 1 to 10 or more. If you do not see it as a tooltip, look at the URL of the link to find the store_id parameter.
3. In our site, go to Manage Feed > Modify Settings for your Magento feed (assuming you have added it already).
4. Enter the API URL as follows into the Product Catalog URL setting:
   http://atensoftware:password
   @www.yourdomain.com
   /api/?wsdl&storeId=1
   Make sure to replace the bold parts in the above URL with the API username, API password, domain, and ID number of your store.
5. To determine the correct API URL for your store site, you can look at the Base URL setting under System > Configuration in the main menu, in the General > Web > Unsecure section. The URL will be that with /api at the end.
6. To test the API connection, go to Manage Feed > Test Settings after saving the settings. You will see the results of a test connection with detailed error message.

Technical Settings

The settings below are technical in nature and are generally not required. Please contact us if you see internal system errors or products are missing, and we can assist you with the settings.

includeDisabled

Default value is "0"

Set to "1" to include disabled items in the export, "0" otherwise.

Set this if you are missing a lot of products.

itemsPerRequest

Default value is 5000

Number of items to fetch per request.

Set lower to lower server memory requirements.

excludeOutOfStock

Set to "1" to exclude out of stock items in the export, "0" otherwise.

Default value is "0"

Use this setting if you have a large number of out of stock items in your export that is slowing the export down.

Add the settings at the end of the URL in the following format. The setting names are case-sensitive:

&includeDisabled=1& itemsPerRequest=100& excludeOutOfStock=1

If you leave out any setting, the default value will be used for that setting.

Note: There is a known bug where if the itemsPerRequest is set too low, some items may fail to export. If that happens, set includeDisabled to "1" to ensure all the products are exported. The disabled items can be filtered out of the feed using product filters instead.

Resolving the error: SOAP extension is not loaded

You may receive the error "SOAP extension is not loaded" when setting up a Magento Connect data feed.

Our Magento Connect extension connects to your Magento Store API via SOAP requests, and it requires the PHP SOAP extension to be installed on your website.

You can verify if PHP SOAP is installed on your website by accessing this page:
http://www.mystore.com/shop/api/v2_soap
(Remember to change www.mystore.com/shop to your Magento shop URL.)

Usually, you can simply ask the web hosting company that hosts your website to install PHP SOAP for you. Note that it can not be installed via the Magento admin login. It has to be installed by the web hosting company, or by someone with root access to the web server.

Please see the Api Error - 0 SOAP extension is not loaded for other potential fixes.

Magento Visibility and Status Constants

In the Magento catalog, the 'visibility' field could have the following possible values:

VISIBILITY_BOTH = 4
VISIBILITY_IN_CATALOG = 2
VISIBILITY_IN_SEARCH = 3
VISIBILITY_NOT_VISIBLE = 1

Mage_Catalog_Model_Product_Visibility

For Shopping Feeds, it is generally advisable to exclude items where 'visibility' != 4.

If you have are using the Magento API-based export method, then visibility values will be 'Catalog, Search', 'Catalog', 'Search', and 'Not Visible Individually'. In that case, the filter should be set up as 'visibility' != 'Not Visible Individually'.

In the Magento product catalog, the 'status' field could have the following possible values:

STATUS_DISABLED = 2
STATUS_ENABLED = 1

Mage_Catalog_Model_Product_Status

By default, our exporter extension excludes items where 'status' = 2, so no special filters are typically required.

Export All Products via Magento API

Instead of using our exporter script or extension, our system can connect directly to the Magento API to export product data. We recommend using this method only if there are technical issues with the exporter script/extension, because exporting via the API is very slow.

Examples of When to Use API-based Export

• url_key or url_path not getting exported
• category information not exported or missing
• category/product flat tables are disabled in your Magento settings
• other problems getting the extension or exporter script to work

Set up Magento API Role and User for Product Export

1. Go to System > Configuration > Services > Magento Core API in your Magento Admin.
2. Set the General Settings > Enable WSDL Cache setting to Yes, and click the Save Config button.
3. Go to System > Web Services > (SOAP/XML-RPC) Roles in your Magento Admin.
4. Click Add New Role
5. Enter atensoftware as the Role Name
6. Click the Role Resources tab
7. Check the Core checkbox
8. Check the Catalog checkbox
9. Check the Catalog Inventory checkbox
10. (Our system only needs read access. For additional security, you can uncheck all the write permissions under the Catalog and Catalog Inventory trees. These include the following: Update, Assign, Delete, Remove, Add, Create, Rename, and Move)
11. Click the Save Role button
12. Go to System > Web Services > (SOAP/XML-RPC) Users in your Magento Admin.
13. Click Add New User
14. Enter the following:
    User Name: atensoftware
    First Name: Aten
    Last Name: Software
    Email:
    API Key: Make up a a password here. Here is a random one for your convenience: 2ldwq2l6
    API Key Confirmation: Re-enter the password
    This account is: Active
15. Click the User Role tab
16. Click the radio button for the atensoftware role
17. Click Save User

Configure your Feed to Export Products via the Magento API

Go to Manage Feed > Modify Settings, and set the Product Catalog URL to the following:

http://atensoftware:password@ www.yourdomain.com/api/?wsdl

Enable Flat Product and Category Tables in Magento

To enable flat table support in Magento, go to System > Configuration > Catalog > Frontend in your administration dashboard.

Change the Use Flat Catalog Category and Use Flat Catalog Product settings to Yes and click the Save button.

In Magento 2+, edit vendor\magento\module-catalog\etc\config.xml to set flat_catalog_category system value.

After enabling the settings, go to System > Index Management and update the flat data indexes.

Magento Exporter Troubleshooting

Problem 1: Inconsistent Product Counts or Insufficient Products Exported

What you see

The number of products exported varies significantly each time the exporter runs, even though you made no changes to your product catalog. Also, all the products are not exported.

Expected

The number of products exported should be consistent every time the exporter runs, as long as no products have been added/removed/modified. Also, all the products should be exported.

Solution

This usually happens if an execution timeout is implemented in the web site or PHP configuration. You can confirm this by noticing that the download time is almost identical every time, and that the last line of the export file is incomplete. The download time will typically be a round number around 1 to 2 minutes, typically 60 seconds or 100 seconds.

The exporter script overrides PHP's max_execution_time setting to 4 hours, but there are other timeouts that could affect how long the script is allowed to run. Check the configurations of PHP, the web server (e.g. Apache), and any web server protection software (e.g. Suhosin).

Problem 2: 504 Gateway Timeouts or 503 Backend fetch failed

What you see

If you have a cache server between your Magento server and the Internet, you may see 504 or 503 error codes in the response when you run the export. This happens because the cache server expects the Magento server to respond within a certain amount of time, typically 30 seconds. But the exporter script may take many minutes to respond and complete, so the cache server returns a "504 Gateway Timeout" or "503 Backend fetch failed" error when its internal request to Magento times out.

Solution

To resolve the problem, turn off caching on the exporter URL. Examples of caching server settings that can cause a problem are listed below.

• Cloudflare Proxy Cache - Cloudflare configure a Page Rule to disable caching/security for a specific path or URL
• Varnish Server Nginx Reverse Proxy Timeout
• Varnish cache server - Bypassing the cache for specific URL patterns

Resolving 403 Forbidden due to CloudFlare

Reproduce Instructions

1. From a shell prompt, run curl --verbose 'https://www.mystore.com/aten_exporter_for_magento.php?Command=Export&Store=1&Password=xxx'
2. The return value contains:

   HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
   ...
   cf-mitigated: challenge
   ...
   <title>Just a moment...<title>

3. Go to CloudFlare Dashboard > Security > Events for your store domain
4. Scroll down to Sampled logs
5. You should see a Managed Challenge coming from your IP address, with the same date/time as the curl request, and with a Path of aten_exporter_for_magento.php

Solution

1. Go to CloudFlare Dashboard > Security > WAF for your store domain
2. Click on the Tools tab
3. Under IP Access Rules:
   Enter your IP address
   Select Allow as the Action
   Select All websites in account
   Enter Aten Software Product Exporter in Notes
4. Click the Add button
5. Repeat the test above
6. You will see:

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   ...
   x-atensoftware-version: 2021-06-23
   ...
   "sku","name"...
   

Note, adding a Page Rule or WAF Managed rule exception on the URL or specific path did not work for this specific scenario.

JetRails 404 Not Found Error

Problem

You are using Jetrails, and the page gives a 404 error: Page not found. error.

Solution

You may need to "ask Jetrails to open the access for external usage" and "add the provided PHP file to the allowed PHP entry point list."

Microsoft Shopping Campaigns (Bing)

How to set up a product feed for Bing Shopping

Overview

The detailed, step-by-step instructions below will show you how to list your products in Bing Shopping using our data feed service.

Here is a summary of the steps:

1. First, create a Store and Feed in your Microsoft Ads account.
2. Next, create a Standard feed in your account on our site, which will automatically upload the feed file daily by FTP.
3. Finally, create a Microsoft Shopping Campaign to display the ads.

Multiple Stores

If you have multiple stores, you can manage them all from within one Microsoft Ads account. (Microsoft Ads was previously known as Bing Ads, Bing Shopping, and Microsoft Adcenter. Bing Rich Captions are no longer supported.)

Sign up for Microsoft Ads

1. If you have not already, sign up for Microsoft Ads.
2. Add a credit card under Billing & Payments > Payment methods (You will not be charged anything unless you set up pay-per-click ad campaigns.)

Register a Data Feed in Microsoft Ads Merchant Center

1. Log in to Microsoft Ads
2. Go to Tools > Merchant Center
3. Click the Create Store button.
4. Enter your Store Name and Store Description.
5. Select a Domain validation method and Destination URL. (If you haven't already, then you will need to verify and claim the website URL using the instructions on the site.)
6. Check the box for Use SSL Checkout so that it says Yes
7. Click the Next button
8. Leave the Block aggregators checkbox unchecked and click the Next buton.
9. Enter your email address and click the Create store button
10. Click on the Feeds tab in the left side-bar.
11. Click on Default Catalog.
12. Click on Update feed.
13. Change Input method to Upload via FTP/SFTP
14. Type in bingshopping exdactly into the File name box. Do NOT include any file extension.
15. Click the Update feed button.
16. Click the Feeds link in the breadcrumbs at the top
17. Click the Settings link in the left sidebar.
18. On the FTP/SFTP tab, enter a Username and New/Confirm Password. We suggest that you use your store name as the Username. The password must contain at least one number and one symbol, e.g. password1$ Make a note of the FTP username/password, because you will need to enter that into the feed settings on our site.
19. Click the Submit button.
20. If your store offers free shipping, click the Shipping (US Only) tab and check the Free Shipping checkbox.

Create a Standard Feed

1. Go to My Account > Add Feed.
2. Enter your Store Name, select the Bing Shopping Template, and click Create Feed.
3. Continue to Modify Settings, and configure the Source Settings.
4. Enter the FTP Username and FTP Password from the FTP/SFTP Settings tab in your Microsoft Merchant Center account. Set the submission frequency to Daily. Click Update to save the settings.
5. Run a submission task to perform your first upload.
6. Remember to set up and fund your Microsoft Shopping Campaign.

How long does it take to get listed?

Prior to publication through Microsoft Ads all initial feeds must undergo and pass an editorial review. This process may take up to three weeks. Accurate MPN/UPC data may speed up the process.

You will receive an email from Microsoft Ads once they activate your account. You will need to set up a Microsoft Shopping Campaign with a daily budget and bid.

Contacting Microsoft Ads Support

Please use the Microsoft Ads Contact and Support page if you have any questions about the status of your listings.

Bing Product Categories - What are they and how do I set them?

In the Bing product_category field, you can use Google Product Categories directly. Bing no longer has their own product taxonomy. To configure the field, follow these instructions:

1. Go to My Account > Manage Feed > Taxonomy Search on our site.
2. Look up an appropriate category for your products.
3. Go to My Account > Manage Feed > Define Fields on our site.
4. Click Edit next to the product_category field.
5. Enter the category into the Default Value box.
6. Click Update to save the settings.
7. Resubmit the feed from the Tasks > Submit a Task menu item.

Alternatively, you can add a custom field to your store catalog called "bing-product-category", and fill in the appropriate category there. You can also subscribe to our Categorization Service.

Checking the status of a Bing Shopping data feed

Use the following steps to check the status of your Bing Shopping data feed listings.

Verifying Feed Submissions

1. Log in to Bing Ads.
2. Go to Tools > Bing Merchant Center.
3. Click on your Store Name.
4. Click on the Store Summary tab.
5. The Product Overview graph will show you approved/disapproved listings. Look at the Store info > Status for any error messages. It should say Approved.
6. Look at the Store reports section for any downloadable reports. (For example, a report will be generated if the uploaded file name does not match the catalog file name.)
7. Click the FTP Settings tab.
8. Verify that the FTP account status is Active.
9. Click on the Catalog Management tab.
10. Next to your Catalog Name, the Status column should the list number of items inserted successfully.
11. Click on your Catalog Name.
12. In the Recent files section, look for daily uploads with a status of Product catalog received and OK.
13. In the Product offers section, you will see the number of offers published and not published, or a message like Feed processing will be completed shortly.
14. If there are rejected offers, click the Download details link next to the rejected item count to get a spreadsheet of item errors. You can get additional information by downloading the other reports.

Viewing your Items in Bing Search Results

1. Go to Bing Search and search by one of your product titles.
2. If Product Ads are working, you will see your ads in the display ad areas of the search results. Note that your Product ads campaign must be active, account funded, bid sufficiently high, daily budget not exhausted, etc., in order for the ads to display.

Contacting Bing Shopping

Currently, Bing only offers chat and phone support, both of which are accessible via the Bing Ads website.

What is Bing Shopping?

Bing Shopping is a major shopping venue linked to Microsoft's Bing search engine. Bing Shopping was previously free, but now is a pay-per-click comparison shopping engine.

Bing Shopping has gone through numerous incarnations, including Jellyfish, MSN Live ProductUpload, Bing Cashback, and Bing Rich Captions.

What are the links for Microsoft Ads?

• Microsoft Ads - Sign up here
• Microsoft/Bing Ads Shopping Forum for Merchants

How to grant Standard User access to your Microsoft/Bing Ads account

1. Log into Microsoft Ads
2. Click the Tools icon in the top-right, and select Account access in the menu that appears.
3. Click the Invite user button on the User management tab.
   (If you only see the Direct Managers tab, then log out and log back in as an account administrator, or switch to the parent account.)
4. Enter the following information:
   • First name: Aten
   • Last name: Software
   • Email:
   • Display Language: English - United States
   • Account Role: Standard User
   • Click Allow access to all current and future accounts
5. Click the Send button.

Monitoring Service for Google Shopping

What is the Monitoring Service for Google Shopping?

Have confidence that your Google Shopping listings are active with our exclusive feed monitoring service!

Our service will count the number of items actually listed in Google Shopping every day, and send you a detailed email report whenever the number drops below a minimum that you specify.

You may be unaware that hundreds of your items are unlisted because the standard Google Merchant Center notifications do not tell you about disapproved items. Google disapproves items at whim and often without notice, according to their ever-changing policies and enforcement decisions. Be prepared with our monitoring service, which will notify you of disapproved products. See below for a complete feature comparison:

Feature	Google Merchant Center Notifications	Aten Software Monitoring Service
Email Frequency	Only when feed updated	Daily
Email Options	Every time or only on error	When active listings drop below a minimum you specify
Raw item count	No	Yes
Filtered item count	No	Yes
Inserted item count	Yes	Yes
Processed item count	Yes	Yes
Disapproved item count	No	Yes
History	No	Yes
Download disapproved items	No	Yes

In addition to notifying you about disapproved items, our monitoring service records all key product counts to enable you to know about and quickly find the source of any listing issues with your feed. You may lose sales when your item listings are not appearing in the search results, so our service can help you reduce lost sales.

Setup is simple. All you need to do is click a button to give us access your Google Merchant Account, and then set the minimum listing count.

Feed monitoring services are only available for feeds submitted via our system.

Feed monitoring settings are entirely separate from Feed Safeguard settings.

How do I set up monitoring for Google Shopping?

1. Go to My Account on our website.
2. Go to Manage Feed > Monitoring Settings for your Google Shopping feed.
3. Click the Enable button.
4. Complete the prompts to sign in to your Google and grant us access to your Merchant Account.
5. Once you are back on the Monitoring Settings page, enter the minimum listings you expect to have active in Google Shopping, and click Update.
6. If your feed is not set to Daily or Daily Plus, click the Modify Feed Settings link to update that settings.
7. If you would like to run a status check immediately, click the Submit a Task link and click the Check Status button.
8. You can return to this Manage Feed > Monitoring Settings page anytime to view detailed monitoring reports and history.

Can I download the monitoring results or history?

Our system tracks the history of the product counts. This allows you to see an independent count of how many items were listed in Google Shopping over time.

You can download the product counts going back at least three years in comma-separated values (CSV) format.

Pinterest Data Feed

Overview of our Pinterest Shopping Ads Feed Service

Introducing Pinterest Shopping Ads

Pinterest Shopping Ads allow you to automatically create and promote product Pins on Pinterest using your store's product catalog. Pinterest is the fourth-most-popular social media platform in America, outranking Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter and WhatsApp!

Pinterest Shopping Ads do not require any separate targeting setup of keywords or interests, as that information is derived from your product feed. By setting up a Campaign and setting a pay-per-click bid and budget, your product Pins will appear on all surfaces within Pinterest.

Top 5 Pinterest Categories1

1. Art, Art Supplies, Hobbies
2. Flowers, Food, Drinks, Gifts
3. Home, Garden, Pool/Spa
4. Health and Beauty
5. Clothing and Apparel

What our Pinterest Data Feed Service Does

Our Pinterest feed service helps you list your products on Pinterest by automatically refreshing a product feed on a daily basis and making it available at a fixed Data Feed File URL. Pinterest picks up the feed file from the URL on a regular basis. We have feeds for the following e-commerce platforms:

• AspDotNetStorefront to Pinterest Data Feed
• BigCommerce to Pinterest Data Feed
• Magento to Pinterest Data Feed
• Shift4Shop (3dcart) to Pinterest Data Feed
• Shopify to Pinterest Data Feed
• Squarespace to Pinterest Data Feed
• Turbify (Yahoo) to Pinterest Data Feed
• Volusion to Pinterest Data Feed
• Wix Store to Pinterest Data Feed

Getting Started

Get started today by using our:
Do-it-yourself Pinterest Feed Setup Guide

Or, save time by purchasing our:
Pinterest Feed Setup and Optimization Service

1 Source: Statista 2019

DIY Step 1: Create a Pinterest Data Feed

Create a Pinterest Data Feed

1. Go to My Account > Add Feed
2. Fill in the form and select the Pinterest Template, then click the Create Feed button
3. Continue to the Manage Feed > Modify Feed Settings page
4. Configure the Store Source settings using the instructions for your e-commerce platform
5. Leave the FTP Settings blank, select Daily, and then click the Update button.

   NOTE: Pinterest feeds are fetched from our server, not uploaded by FTP to Pinterest. Therefore, FTP settings are not required for these feeds.

6. Continue to the Test Feed Settings page and confirm there are no errors
7. Go to the Manage Feed page
8. Click the Refresh button. (It runs in the background.)
9. Go to the Manage Feed > Download Data Feed File page
10. Copy the File URL for use in Step 2

→ DIY Step 2: Create a Pinterest Catalog Data Source

DIY Step 2: Create a Pinterest Catalog Data Source

1. Login to the Data Sources tab of Pinterest > Ads > Catalogs
2. Click the Add data source button (or Edit if a data source is already configured)
3. Name - Enter "{YourStoreNameHere} Catalog via Aten Software".
4. Feed URL - Copy and paste the File URL from the Manage Feed > Download Data Feed File page on our site
   EXAMPLE: https://www.atensoftware.com/ p400_12345.php
5. File format - CSV
6. Country/Region - Choose what matches your store, e.g. United States
7. Language - Choose what matches your store, e.g. English (US)
8. Feed login details - Leave both Username and Password blank
9. Default currency - Choose what matches your store, e.g. USD - United States Dollar
10. Default availability - NONE
11. Time - Enter 10:15 AM (This is a random time between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM)
12. Timezone - GMT-04:00 America/New_York
13. Click the Create Pins button
14. Sometimes the Create Pins button may be disabled or grayed out, and you will not be able to proceed. We are not sure why this happens, but you can try one or more of the following: a) click somewhere else on the page b) add your billing information c) verify and claim your website URL d) try again a day or two later.

On the initial setup, the Status will appear as Pending, and Reporting Status will show Under review, This usually takes 1-2 days. Return to the page in a day or two to check the processing report.

→ DIY Step 3: View Errors in Pinterest Catalog Processing Report

DIY Step 3: View Errors in Pinterest Catalog Processing Report

1. Login to the Data Sources tab of Pinterest > Ads > Catalogs
2. The Status should appear as Active
3. Review the table listing the date and product count for recent updates
4. Click the View Issues button under the Actions column to see errors and warnings for the feed

→ DIY Step 4: Set up a Pinterest Shopping Campaign

DIY Step 4: Set up a Pinterest Shopping Campaign

The basic steps below are needed for your ads to start appearing on Pinterest.

1. Create a Pinterest Advertiser Account and set up billing
2. Claim your Website on Pinterest
3. Create Pinterest Shopping Ads Campaigns

The above is not an exhaustive list, but just a gentle reminder that our feed service alone is not enough for ads to start appearing in Pinterest. Please contact Pinterest for assistance with the steps listed above.

Pinterest Feed Setup and Optimization Service

Give us the access we need and we will set up and optimize your Pinterest product feed for you. For a one-time, $49.00 fee, we will save you a lot of time and give you an optimized feed with high data quality. Here's what is included:

• Set up a product feed in our site
• Set up a Catalog data source in your Pinterest Ads account
• Minimize errors and warnings with optimization techniques
• Email you specific advice on improving your feed's data quality

Get started today by completing the three DFY (Done-For-You) steps that follow!

→ DFY Step 1: Grant access to your Pinterest Ads Catalogs

DFY Step 1: Grant access to your Pinterest Ads Catalogs

1. Go to Pinterest Business Manager
2. Make sure Your business is selected in the top
3. Click the Partners tab
4. Click the red Add partner button
5. Select the option labelled:
   Invite this partner to access to your ad accounts and tools
6. Enter the following Partner business ID
   862369166055869619 Copy to clipboard
7. Click the Add partner button
8. Select your Ad Account on the left
9. Click the Catalogs checkbox. No other permissions are needed.
10. Click the Assign permissions button

We will receive a "You've been invited to partner" email and the process will be completed once we accept the invitation.

→ DFY Step 2: Create a Pinterest Data Feed

Reference: Share and manage access to your ad accounts

Note: DFY means 'Done For You'. These instructions cover the prerequisites you must complete so we can do the feed setup and optimization for you.

DFY Step 2: Create a Pinterest Data Feed

NOTE: If you have an existing feed for your store already active, then skip ahead to the Submit a Setup Request section.

1. Go to My Account > Add Feed
2. Fill in the form and select the Pinterest Template, then click the Create Feed button
3. Continue to the Manage Feed > Modify Feed Settings page
4. Configure the Store Source settings using the instructions for your e-commerce platform
5. Leave all other settings as-is and click the Update button

→ DFY Step 3: Submit a Setup Request

DFY Step 3: Submit a Pinterest Setup Request

1. Go to the Request Feed Setup and Optimization page
2. If you have insufficient credit, then please Purchase Credit
3. Select the Data Feed you created earlier, or just select Pinterest as the Shopping Engine
4. Enter notes if desired, and leave all other fields blank
5. Click the Submit Request button

We will confirm receipt of your setup request by email within 1-2 business days. Feel free to contact us for a status update anytime.

If you have not already, remember to Set up a Pinterest Shopping Campaign in your Pinterest Ads account. This is required for any ads to display.

Pricewatch Data Feed

How do I set up a Pricewatch data feed?

1. Visit Pricewatch.com and apply for a dealer account.
2. Wait for Pricewatch to approve your account.

1. Login to our site and add a feed using the Pricewatch template.
2. Enter the objinfo.xml URL and optionally, the catalog.xml URL.
3. Click 'Update' to save the settings.
4. You may need to configure your fields to correctly submit manufacturer and manufacturer part number information. You can do that on the "Manage Feed > Define Fields" page.
5. Go to "Manage Feed > Download Data Feed File".
6. Select the "File URL" setting and copy it for later use.
7. Use the link to generate a data feed file if it does not exist.
8. Login to your Pricewatch Dealer/Merchant account and click the "Fileimport" button in the top menu bar.
9. Paste the File URL in the "Enter file location here (URL) " box, check the box labeled "Enable file retrieval and price updating ", and then click "Submit File URL". Do not check the box labeled, "Delete all Price Watch ads not found in file."

1. Contact Pricewatch to make sure the listings are being received correctly.

Promotions and Offers

BigCommerce vs Yahoo Store vs Magento vs Volusion Comparison

This article provides a high-level comparison of the following shopping carts: BigCommerce, Yahoo Store/Merchant Solutions, Magento Commerce, Volusion, and AspDotNetStorefront

We often get asked by merchants who are interested in switching e-commerce platforms about what platform we recommend. This is a difficult question to answer, because each platform has several hundred features, and the needs of a merchant vary. While we do not provide consulting on this, here are some opinions to consider as you research the platforms.

February 2018 Update: This list is sorted by number of feeds added in the last 18 months by customers using our service, and should give you an indication of the current most-popular e-commerce platforms.

1. Shopify

• Monthly fee plus a transaction fee
• No transaction fee if you use Shopify Payments for credit cards
• Unlimited products and bandwidth
• Excellent API support
• We have full support for your Shopify Google Shopping Product Feed

2. BigCommerce

• Flat, monthly pricing based on sales volume
• Excellent API support
• Good technical support
• Simple customization via templates
• We have full BigCommercedata feed support
• We are a BigCommerce Partner - Sign up here

3. Magento

• Free, open-source software; you only pay for hosting
• We recommend Nexcess.net Magento Hosting because this software is demanding
• Server/hosting plan administration knowledge may be required
• Supported, Enterprise edition starts at over $1,000/month.
• Excellent API support
• Open-source code base; Hire your own PHP developer; Although PHP is widespread, it may be difficult to find a good developer.
• Extensive set of add-ons and fully customizable
• We have full support for your Magento Google Shopping Product Feed

4. Yahoo Store

• Outdated platform
  • Incomplete API support
  • Poor out-of-the-box SEO optimizations
  • Poor out-of-the-box mobile support
  • Undocumented and arcane customization language (RTML)
• Monthly fee plus 1.5% to 0.75% sales commission
• Auto-scaling, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited storage
• Free phone support
• We specialize in the Yahoo Store Google Shopping Feed

5. Volusion

• Flat monthly pricing based on number of products and bandwidth; Beware of costly overage
• Excellent API support
• Good support
• We have full support for your Volusion Google Shopping Product Feed

6. AspDotNetStorefront

• Hosted plans start at $180/month
• Or you can self-host and buy the source code for $5500
• Server/hosting plan administration knowledge may be required
• Performance may be slow without adequate hosting
• Easy to customize by modifying templates or hiring an ASP.Net developer
• Excellent API support
• We have full support for your AspDotNetStorefront Google Shopping Product Feed

Besides platform choice, you have to consider disruption to your SEO ranking and business, which can be very costly. Please see Yahoo Small Business Spinning Off; Re-platforming Advice for an excellent discussion.

We do not endorse or recommend any specific vendor. The information on this page may be out-of-date and only represents an opinion for informational purposes. Please verify all information directly with the vendor.

Rakuten (Buy.com) Data Feed

Buy.com/Rakuten Marketplace Feeds Setup Instructions

If you meet the requirements below, then we can set up a Buy.com Marketplace Inventory Feed. This type of feed tells Buy.com which items you sell, the item condition, the qty you have available, shipping costs, and the price.

1. Each product must have a UPC code
2. Each product must already exist in the Buy.com Marketplace

Buy.com now supports automated upload of data feed files via FTP from our server.

Please contact us for a quote to set up a Buy.com Inventory Listings feed.

Buy.com may require you to list a certain minimum number of unique SKUs with a New SKU feed (described below) before allowing you to set up an Inventory feed.

New SKU Feeds

If your items are not in the Buy.com Marketplace already, then you need to submit a Buy.com New SKU Feed. This feed tells Buy.com all the product details for your items, like title, description, image, UPC, manufacturer, manufacturer-part-number, price, and qty on hand.

The following attributes are mandatory at the item level:

1. Buy.com category ID
2. GTIN (i.e. UPC, EAN, ISBN, etc.)
3. manufacturer (or brand)
4. manufacturer part number
5. image - minimum 500x500px, white background, no additional text

Some categories have mandatory category-specific attributes as well. For example, for vacuum cleaners, there is a 'vacuum_cleaner_type' attribute. It is required, and you must specify one of their predefined values like 'upright', 'canister', 'portable', etc.

Refer to the Category Attributes documentation for your category. The attributes listed in square brackets are mandatory. For each attribute, you must provide one of the values listed in the Attributes section of the document.

For example, in the Sports category, the Ice Hockey > Goalie Skates sub-category has a Buy.com category ID of 14988. One of the mandatory attributes for this sub-category is Gender. The Gender attribute only accepts values of Female or Male.

Please contact us for a quote to set up a Buy.com New SKU Feed.

Resolving Google Shopping Feed Errors

Google Merchant Center Phone Number, Chat, and Email Contact Forms

How do I contact Google Merchant center?

You can contact Google Shopping / Merchant Center support by phone, email, or chat. Read below to find the phone number, hours of operation, email contact forms, and chat instructions.

USA Phone Number and Hours

+1-855-607-0431 or +1-866-246-6453
USA, 9 am - 8 pm ET, Monday - Friday, English, Spanish
Verified on Jun. 10, 2024

The Current Phone Number and Hours of Operation for your Region

Google Merchant Center no longer lists their phone numbers on their website. Instead, you must use the Contact Us Form - Google Merchant Center. Read below for more specific instructions. You can still directly Call Google Ads Experts.

Google Merchant Center Support Email Address

No email address is provided for opening a ticket. Instead, to open a written ticket, use one of the Contact Forms listed below, or the Send Message instructions that follow.

Google will respond by email from shopping-support at google.com, but this address has changed frequently over time, and you can only reply to it once a ticket has been opened. If you email this address to open a new ticket, you will get an auto-response saying it is an unmonitored address.

Chat or Send Message to Google Merchant Center

1. Sign In to Google Merchant Center Get Help page
2. Type phone (or anything) and click Next Step
3. Click Account Suspension (or anything) and then click Next Step
4. Click the Email button. Chat or Call Us buttons may also be available.
5. Fill in the form to continue

Pro Tips and Advice

We recommend using phone support for urgent issues.

Phone support is time consuming and follow-up is difficult. For a more reliable resolution to your problem, use the contact forms below.

Expect email response time of 1-2 business days. For complex issues, expect about 3-8 correspondences to achieve a resolution to your issue, as issues go from boilerplate responses, to low-level support, up to high-level support gradually. Be aware that responses can be frustrating, especially when your ads are down. For best results, be persistent and courteous.

Links to Google Merchant Center Contact Forms

Google Merchant Center does not provide a general email address for support inquiries. Instead, to initiate an email support ticket, use one of the forms below.

• Disapproved accounts, feeds, or items - Google Merchant Center Contact Form - most common
• Data feed upload issues - Google Merchant Center Contact Form
• Instructions for Requesting an Advanced (multi-client) Account
• Request for additional quota of items, feeds or sub-accounts - Google Merchant Center Contact Form
• Google Merchant Center Support Home - help articles and documentation
• Content API Support - This is the only way to get API support

Disapproved Feed Resolution Services

We provide assistance and advice and to our data feed clients on navigating Google Merchant policy disapproval, errors, and warnings.

Register Today (free trial, no credit card needed) to try our Google Shopping Data Feed service.

I submitted my feed through your system, now what?

Check the status in your Google Base account. If it says "success", then they have successfully processed the feed.

I submitted my feed, but the status doesn't appear in Google Merchant Center.

It can take 24-72 hours for processing status to appear in Google Merchant Center. Click here for more information.

Google Merchant Center status says 'invalid file name', how do I fix this?

Set the filename property in your feed settings, and make sure this exactly matches the filename configured in your Google Merchant Center account.

I emailed Google Shopping Support, but have not heard from them.

Google Shopping technical support always replies, but it can take up to two weeks to receive a reply.

How do I view the status of my data feed in Google Merchant Center?

There are three places in your Google merchant account where you can find errors and warnings for your data feed.

Log In to Google Merchant Account

1. Log in to Google Merchant Center
2. If you have a multi-client account, click on the Display Name of your store from the Accounts tab.

Products overview

On the Dashboard tab, look at the graph labelled Shopping ads products overview. Hover your mouse over the green line and you will see your active item count. If the count seems too low, you may have item errors. If you see a line in red, that means you have disapproved items. A yellow line means items are awaiting review. See below for more information.

Item Errors and Warnings

To view the latest item level errors/warnings for your feed, follow these instructions:

1. Click on the Products > Feeds page
2. Click the file name of your active feed, e.g. googlebase.zip
3. Click on the Processing tab, if not already selected
4. Click the errors and warnings label that looks like 1234 errors, 123 warnings. Click each message that expands out to see sample items.
5. If there are no issues, you will only see this message:

   File pre-processing: Completed - 1234 valid / 1234 processed Basic product data completeness and correctness

Item errors and warnings are updated typically within a few minutes of running a submission to upload the data feed file. You can identify and resolve most item errors by going to Manage Feed > Validation Report in our system.

Diagnostics

Click on the Products > Diagnostics page to see all account, feed, and item-level issues related to your account. This analysis is automatically updated by Google once every 24 hours or so. Check the Latest date to see when it was last updated.

Click in the graph to see historical item counts and issues.

Click on the Account, Feeds, or Items boxes below the graph to see details on specific errors or warnings, as well as lists of affected items.

Disapproved Items

1. Click on the Products > List page (it may be slow to load).
2. Select Inactive from the Status drop-down to see any disapproved items. These items will have a red icon (circle with a slash) to indicate that they are disapproved.
3. Click on the Title of an item to see the item details. A reason for disapproval may be displayed as well, but usually, it will just have a generic message saying, "Disapproved or invalid".

When there is no specific error message for a disapproved item, you must contact Google using the Disapproved accounts, feeds, or items contact form to identify and resolve disapproved items. We are unable to provide support for disapproved items.

Disapproval status is typically updated within a few hours of running a submission.

How do I resolve an "Error: Missing Attributes" message from Google Base?

You may see one of the following errors from Google Base, which may cause some or all of your products to not be processed.

• The item is missing a required attribute.
• We were unable to match the attributes in this dsv (delimiter separated values) data feed line to the corresponding attributes in the header (first) row.
• You must enter an item title. *Title* is a required attribute.
• Product name missing
• We didn't understand the header (first) row of your file. Please make sure you're using valid attribute names.

To resolve these errors, please check the settings in your Google Base account as described in this support question.

How do I configure the shipping 'weight' attribute?

1. Go to the Manage Feed > Define Fields page for the feed.
2. Click 'Edit' next to the 'weight' field.
3. Enter a Default Value, which will apply to all products. Leave blank if not applicable.
4. Enter the name of the shipping weight field in your store catalog in the Field Name box. It may be named weight, ship-weight, or objinfo_Weight, for example.
5. Save the settings and run a Submit task to update your listings. You can also review the Product List of the feed to make sure the weights are being retrieved properly.

What do I do if there is no status (or 'None') in Google Merchant Center?

You may encounter a problem where our system shows a successful submission, but you do not see any items uploaded in your Google Merchant Center account. It may say "None" under the "Last upload date & status" column in your Google Merchant Center account. If you see "Success" on our site, it only means that our system successfully uploaded the data feed file to them, not that they have processed the file.

To resolve this, check that the file name is exactly the same in both our site and in Google. The file name must end in .txt and it is case-sensitive. Also, remember that Google may take 24-72 hours to display the status of a recently uploaded file. If more than that time period elapses, you can contact Google.

What do I do if there I get an email saying "Data feed upload failure"?

You may occasionally receive an email from Google Base with subject, Google Base data feed file status on "file.txt": Data feed upload failure. You receive it even though you have not changed any feed settings and your feed has been working correctly. In your Google Base dashboard, you will see the following status message:

Outcome: Data feed upload failed. No items are live.   help
Number of items processed:              0
Number of inserted items:               0
Uploaded at:  Oct 19, 2008 1:40 am PDT
Processed at: Oct 19, 2008 10:11 am PDT

There would be no further details on the error message, and our system would show 'success' in the task history. This problem is usually due to a system error at Google Base. To resolve the issue, you simply have to resubmit your feed from your account.

For further information, you can view the following post in the 'Google Groups - Submitting Data Forum': Data Feed Upload Failure.

What do I do if I can't find my products in my Google Merchant Center account?

Please check the status of your data feed in your Google Merchant Center account first. It would be most helpful if you can send us a screen shot or the detailed, line-by-line error messages.

How do I resolve "No items inserted" or "Internal error" emails?

Google may send you an email saying "No Items Inserted" or "Internal error, feed was not fully processed" for your data feed. This error is usually spurious and can be ignored. You have several options:

• Ignore the error and wait for your next scheduled submission
• Resubmit the feed manually
• Contact Google to notify them and obtain clarification

You can also check the Google Merchant Center Forum to see if others are experiencing the same problem. If you continue to receive the same error email multiple times, contact us and we can check on your feed.

----- Sample Message ---- From: googlebase-noreply@google.com To: info@store.com Sent: Thu, November 10, 2009 8:02:31 AM Subject: Google Merchant Center data feed file status on "googlebase.txt": 0 of 1999 items inserted or Internal error, feed not fully processed or No items inserted 0 of 1999 items inserted or Internal error, feed not fully processed or No items inserted Uploaded at: November 10, 2009 2:28:42 AM PST Processed at: November 10, 2009 3:52:36 AM PST For more details on the status of your data feed, go to http://www.google.com/ merchants/showfeedsummary?fid=111111 This is a computer-generated email. Please do not reply. You can change your notification settings at http://www.google.com/ merchants/basicsettings

Problem: Submission is successful, but Google doesn't recognize feed

You can view your task results on the Manage Feed > View Results page for each data feed. If the task shows a successful submission, that means our server was able to upload the file via FTP to Google's FTP server. It does not mean Google has processed, or will ever process, the file.

If your GMA Product Feeds page does not show that the feed is processing within an hour or so, check the following settings:

1. Check that the file name you have specified on the Manage Feed > Modify Settings page exactly matches the file name on the GMA Product Feeds page. The file name is case-sensitive.
2. Check that the FTP Username and Password you have specified on the Manage Feed > Modify Settings page exactly matches what you have set on the GMA FTP Settings page. Both username and password are also case-sensitive.
3. Make sure you are logged into the correct Google account. Also, if you have a multi-client account with Google, make sure you are checking the settings for the correct sub-account.

Google Shopping Products Awaiting Review Status Meaning

Occasionally, your products may be flagged for review by Google Merchant Center. When this happens, they will be removed from Google Shopping for up to two business days.

In your Google Merchant Account Dashboard, items awaiting review will appear as a yellow line in the Product Overview Graph. You can also find the status of the items in the Products Tab.

If your products have been Awaiting Review for an extended period of time, you can contact Google using their Data Feed Processing Contact Form. Google Merchant Center does not provide a phone number. You can expect 1-2 business days response time via the contact form. You can also contact Adwords phone technical support for free, but our clients have reported that they are generally not very helpful for this type of issue.

Reasons for products to be flagged for review are listed below.

• recently registered feed
• content changes by the merchant
• Google's enforcement or implementation of new policies
• data feed changes that affect the content

For more information, refer to Google's support article: What is the status of my products?

Missing Shipping Information Warning in Google Merchant Center

You may receive the following warning on the Data Feed Status page of your Google Merchant Center account:

Missing Shipping Information
 
Please specify at least one active shipping method for each targeted country, either in the 'shipping' attribute or in your account settings. Make sure that the shipping method is applicable to this item. For example, carrier-calculated rates have a limit on weight and are not applicable to heavy items. Note: Allow 15 minutes for account settings to take effect before uploading a new feed.

Potential Solutions

• Create a shipping method for each targeted country in your GMA Shipping Settings.
• If you already have a carrier-calculated rate set up, then some of your items may be overweight. In this case, add another shipping method for the items that are overweight.
• You can add item-specific shipping rates to your catalog, and then those can be submitted in the feed. This requires more work, but is also much more accurate.

Resolving the "Attribute 'shipping weight' is too high" error

In your Google Merchant Center feed processing report, you may see the Attribute 'shipping weight' is too high error message with a message saying Attribute 'shipping weight' must be smaller.

According to the shipping_weight Google Feed specifications, the allowed range for imperial units is 0–2000 lbs, and for metric units is 0–1000 kgs. To fix the error, edit the item in your product catalog and set the weight lower.

If you are unable to edit the weights, we can add a rule to your feed to blank out the high shipping weight values.

If the weights are not in the correct units, we can add a rule to convert the weight units, e.g. from grams to kilograms, ounces to pounds, etc.

Sears Marketplace Data Feed

Sears Marketplace Data Feed

Unfortunately, we do not fully support the Sears Marketplace data feed at this time.

While we have the capability to set up the feed format itself, we would require you to provide us with the exact specifications. Sears Marketplace feeds can be complex, and we do not have the resources to research the specifications for you at this time. There are over 80 attributes just in the general items feed format; most are optional and can be left blank.

You would need to manually prepare a working, tested data feed file with a few sample items that matches the Sears feed specifications. You would have to look up the Sears feed specifications, determine which feed format to use, and rely on their feed support for technical assistance. You can prepare the sample file in spreadsheet software.

Once your sample feed passes their validation checks and is 100% accepted by their system without errors, you would send us the tested file, and then we would set up the mapping in our system so the feed file can be generated automatically for all your products.

ShareASale Data Feed

How do I set up a ShareASale data feed?

1. From My Account > Add Feed, create a ShareASale feed for your store and configure the settings. Leave the FTP Username, Password, and Server at their default values for now.
2. From Manage > Define Fields, edit the Merchant ID field and enter your ShareASale Merchant ID in the Value box. You can obtain your Merchant ID by logging into your ShareASale account and looking in the header of the page.
3. From Manage > Define Fields, edit the Category and Sub-category fields (not Merchant Category). Look up the appropriate number from the ShareASale data feed file format specification, and enter it in the Default Value box. You must supply both the category number and sub-category number.
   For example:
   Category: DefaultValue = 6, CatalogField = blank
   Subcategory: DefaultValue = 47, CatalogField = blank
4. If you have multiple categories of products, add a custom field to your store catalog and populate it with the category numbers. Enter the name of this custom field in the Catalog Field box.

How do I set up my ShareASale merchant account?

1. Once you have configured your data feed in our system, generate the data feed file from the Manage > Download Data Feed File page.
2. Download the file and add it to a zip file, e.g. shareasale.zip.
   OS-X: Right-click the file and select Compress “sharesale.txt”
   Windows: Right-click the file and select Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder
3. Log into your Shareasale Merchant Account
4. Go to Creatives > Datafeed and click the Upload New Datafeed button. (You only have to do this manually the first time.)
5. Click Browse..., select sharesale.zip on your computer, and click the Upload Datafeed button.
6. Start an email to ShareASale by clicking Help, Submit a Ticket, and then Next.
7. Enter the following subject:
   FTP credentials request Copy to clipboard
8. Enter the following message:
   I have uploaded my first data feed file for your review. I would like to receive instructions on uploading the file via FTP upload. The server from which the file will be uploaded has an IP address of 23.111.149.90. Please CC your response to
   Copy to clipboard
9. You will receive an email with an FTP Username and Password. Enter those on the "Manage > Modify Settings" page, and set Submission Frequency to Daily.
10. Run a Submission to test that the settings are working correctly.

Multiple Stores

If you have multiple stores in your ShareASale merchant account, please contact us so we can add the StoreID field to your feeds. Also, you can contact ShareASale to increase your feed upload limit to 31 uploads/month per store.

Turn off SFTP

This is very uncommon, but if ShareASale has enabled SFTP for your ShareASale account, please email them and ask them to disable it. We upload the feeds by FTP. If SFTP is enabled, then you will see this error when the feed is submitted:

Error logging in to FTP server 'datafeeds.shareasale.com:21'. Check your credentials. ftp_login(): SSL Strength insufficient.

How to grant us access to your Share-a-Sale Account to Manage Listings

1. Log in to your Share-a-Sale Merchant Account
2. Navigate to My Account > Account Details
3. Click the Logins icon under the Manage Features heading.
4. In the Manage Logins window that appears, select Add New Login
5. Fill in the form as follows:
   (Tip: Use Copy to clipboard buttons so you can quickly copy and paste each value.)

   Login:	YourStoreName_AtenSoftware (Replace YourStoreName with your actual store name)
   Password:	QpWUtrqH2	Copy to clipboard
   	This is a random password for your convenience.
   Full Name:	Aten Software LLC	Copy to clipboard
   Email:		Copy to clipboard
   Permissions:	· Login, View Merchant Home Page, Account Balance · View Creatives · View Help Center/Submit Trouble Tickets

6. Click the Add button.
7. Go to our Secure Login and Password page (opens in a new window) to send us the UserName and Password that you created.

Note: To remove the login, uncheck all the permissions and then click the Update button.

Shift4Shop (3dcart) Product Data Feed

Shift4Shop REST API Product Feed Setup Istructions

1. Log into your Shift4Shop Store Dashboard
2. Click on Modules
3. Type rest in the Search modules... input box
4. Click the Settings button for REST API
5. If Aten Software Product Data Feeds already exists, delete it first.
6. Click the Add button
7. Enter the following in the Public Key input box:
   98ee715042eb4f65dd89a7089bcde765 Copy to clipboard
8. Click the Save button
9. Click the Authorize button in the prompt requesting Read permission to Categories, Products, and StoreSettings.

Shift4Shop (3dcart) Product Data Feed Export CSV Setup Instructions

We support Shift4Shop (formerly 3dcart) data feeds to shopping engines.

You must set up a product export from your 3dcart store of all product data.

1. Log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager
2. Go to Products > Product List
3. Click the Export/Import button
4. Under the Export section, expand the Products section
5. Select the All Fields Export Set (Leave all drop-downs set to All)
6. Click the Schedule Recurring button
7. Select the settings listed below:
   • Enabled - checked
   • File Name - products (NOTE: do not include any file extension)
   • Run every - 1 Hour (For large stores, use 6 Hours)
   • Starting at - 0:00:00
   • Action - Save File (Folder: assets/exports/)
8. Click the Save button

If applicable, repeat the above steps for Product Options, and set the file name to productoptions.csv.

If applicable, repeat the above steps for Bulk Pricing, and set the file name to bulkpricing.csv.

After you set up the product export, you can set up the feed in your account using these instructions:

1. Go to My Account > Add Feed
2. Select the appropriate template and add the feed.
3. Go to Manage Feed > Modify Settings
4. Enter the Product Catalog URL as:
   http://www.yourstore.com/ assets/exports/allfields.csv
   Be sure to replace www.yourstore.com with your own store domain.

Please contact us if you have any questions or would like a 3dcart feed set up for you.

Minimum Export Set

If the All Fields export set experiences a Timeout error, then you can setup a customized export set with the minimum set of fields needed for a successful feed. Below is the list of fields needed in the export set. Do not use aliases, and the order of the fields does not matter.

catalogid
categories
description
gtin
id
image1
image2
image3
image4
keyword
manufacturer
mfgid
minimumorder
name
onsale
price
saleprice
show_out_stock
stock
weight

Shopify Product Data Feeds

What data do you import from Shopify?

Our system imports all products with published_status set to 'published', along with their variations, returned by the products.json REST API endpoint.

Availability (in stock/out of stock) is computed automatically and correctly.

All product data is imported by default.

Our system is capable of importing a wide variety of additional product-related data for special cases, such as:

• Product-level meta-fields (imported by default)
• Variant-level meta-fields
• Publication IDs (via GraphQL)
• Smart collections
• Custom collections
• Shop locales
• Language translations
• Inventory item cost
• Shopify global currency exchange rates (via HTTPS)
• Product category/Standardized product type (via GraphQL)
• Shop information

Currently, the data is imported using a combination of REST API and GraphQL API calls. Coming soon, all data will be imported by the first-class GraphQL API of the latest revision.

How to add custom fields (metafields) to a Shopify product catalog

Shopify supports metafields, which allow you to add custom fields to your product catalog. Metafields can be attached to both product and product variant resources.

Our system always loads product-level metafields. If you need access to variant-level metafields, please contact us and we can turn on that setting. It slows down the feeds and is rarely needed, which is why it is not turned on by default. We also can load collection-level metafields if needed.

Shopify does not provide a way to add and edit the metafields out of the box, but you can install the free Metafields Master app to allow you to do this easily.

Common custom fields you may want to add are google_product_category, gender, age_group, and promotion_id. Below are instructions for adding a google_product_category to a product. Similar instructions apply to other metafield apps, like the tried and true Metafields Editor, which no longer has a free plan for new customers.

1. Launch the Metafields Master app
2. Click on Products
3. Click on a particular product
4. Click the Create New button
5. Enter the following:
   Namespace = google
   Key = product_category
   Description = leave blank
   Type = String
   Value = Home & Garden
6. Click the Save button

To quickly look up Google Product Category values for your items, go to Manage Feed > Taxonomy Search and start typing to find categories matching your search strings as you type.

Click the Refresh button from the Manage Feed page to load the data into our system. Namespace and Key are combined to create a field named google_product_category, which can be mapped to any feed attribute from the Manage Feed > Define Fields page.

Here are some recommended metafield names for some other commonly used fields:

Namespace	Key	Example Value
google	product_category	Home & Garden
google	age_group	kids
google	gender	male
google	promotion_id	Christmas Sale
google	custom_label_0	BestSeller

You can also bulk load metafields using an Excel spreadsheet. Although it is beyond the scope of this article, we highly recommend learning how to do this, as it will save you considerable time versus adding metafields one-by-one to individual products. If you need a starter template (Excel), please contact us.

System Questions

Available Feed Scheduling Options: How often can I submit my feed?

Standard Feed Scheduling Options

The Standard feed plan has the following feed scheduling options included at no extra charge.

• Daily (or Daily Plus) - Strongly recommended for all feeds
• Triweekly - Mon/Wed/Fri
• Biweekly - Tue/Sat
• Weekly - Sundays
• Monthly - 1st of month
• Never - Disabled

Recommended Option

Daily (or Daily Plus for Turbify Stores) is recommended for all feeds for these reasons:

• There are no extra charges for Daily (or Daily Plus) submission.
• Ranking in search engines is maintained by keeping the feed fresh based on the last uploaded date, even if nothing has changed.
• Issues with the feed are detected sooner.

Time of Day When Feeds Run

Feeds run in the overnight hours, approximately 1:00 AM to 4:00 AM Eastern time zone. In the case of a missed update (e.g. due to a widespread system issue), the feeds may be resubmitted during the daytime hours. You can view feed update history on the Manage Feed > View Feed Results page in your account.

See below for the 'Custom' scheduling option, which is available for an additional charge.

Custom Feed Scheduling Options

The Custom feed plan has the following feed scheduling options included at no extra charge. This scheduling option is available for Standard feeds for an additional charge of $3.00 per month.

• Multiple times per day, up to Hourly*
• At specific times of the day
• On specific days of the week or month

* The 'Hourly' update may be limited for very large feeds, e.g. > 500,000 SKUs, due to the run time.

Send us your requirements and we can add the 'Custom' schedule option to your feed. There is no setup fee or commitment, and you can remove the option by simply emailing us.

High-Frequency / Real-Time Scheduling

Feed tasks are put into a background task queue, and run on a 'best effort' basis. During times of high system load, feed tasks could be delayed due to the size of the queue. The normal background queue is not suitable for feeds that need to run reliably at a set time, or at a high frequency.

A separate real-time queue is available for feeds with more demanding requirements. Please contact us for high-frequency and/or real-time scheduling options and pricing.

Manual Feed Updates

You can submit or refresh the feeds anytime via your account from the Tasks > Submit a Task page, in one button click.

There are no restrictions on when or how often you submit these tasks, and no extra charges.

Tasks submitted manually go into the 'user queue', which takes priority over any background tasks running on the system.

Related

• How do I set my data feed file to be refreshed only and not uploaded?

How reliable is this service?

Our submission technology has been running continuously since early 2003, just after Froogle's inception in late 2002. We process millions of listings each day. Submissions run every morning and throughout the day as product information changes. Our system is available 24/7 to process data feed submissions on-demand. Our secure, dedicated hosting is provided by Pair Networks.

Custom Import and Google Feed Conversion

Our software can import data from your product catalog in almost any format. We can set up a Custom feed that can import from the data sources listed below. Your feed will include all of the features of our data feed service.

Request a Free Custom Feed Programming Quote
(Please include links to your product catalog and/or inventory files.)

• Flat file format
  • Tab-delimited text file (.txt)
  • Comma-separated text file (.csv)
  • Pipe-delimited text file (.txt)
  • Fixed-width text file (.txt)
  • CSV or TXT feed files for other shopping engines
  • Any delimiter, enclosure, or escape character
• XML Format
  • Google Atom XML files
  • Generic inventory or catalog XML files
• Excel Format
  • Excel 2003 XML format (.xml)
  • Excel 2007 .xlsx file format (Office 2003)
  • Excel 5 (BIFF) .xls file format (Office 95)
  • Symbolic LinK (SYLK) .slk file format
  • OpenOffice Calc .ods file format
• PC/UNIX/Mac file formats
• UTF-8, ANSI, and other character sets
• Automatic duplicate record handling

Please refer to our Integration Guide for best practices on how to develop an export routine for your website or store platform.

What shopping price comparison engines does your system submit to?

We now support a multitude of engines and can easily support more. Please see Data Feeds For Shopping Channels for a list of supported engines.

I received a Data Feed Error Notice but my FTP settings are correct.

If your FTP settings were previously working, then you can generally ignore the emailed notice about the failed FTP attempt. The FTP servers are relatively unreliable, and often will fail to accept a login even though a correct user name and password are supplied. Our automated system makes multiple attempts when it encounters an FTP error. Our system will email you if all the attempts fail. This is a relatively common occurrence with all the shopping engines.

To view the historical results of processing tasks, just go to "Manage Feed > View Results". You can quickly spot one-time errors there. To test your FTP settings, simply click the "Manage Feed > Test Feed Settings" link. If you see "success", then the error was a temporary one and can be ignored.

Generally, you can ignore the error and simply let the system retry on the next scheduled submission. However, if you want to refresh your product listings immediately, just resubmit your data feed manually.

What FTP settings can be configured?

You can configure your data feed to upload to any FTP server. On the Modify Settings page, configure the FTP server, username, and password. Use the Advanced Settings page to configure the port, initial directory, and mode (port/passive).

Why do you use insecure FTP instead of SFTP to upload the feeds?

We primarily use FTP uploads because most shopping engines only support FTP at this time. Furthermore, the data that is in the feed files is data that is publicly available from your product pages, so it is not private or proprietary information. The information does not need to be secure or encrypted.

We fully support SFTP (FTP via SSH), along with other upload methods such as FTP over SSL (FTP/S) and Amazon S3. These can be enabled upon requests.

Google Merchant Center now requires SFTP uploads, so that is enabled by default on all Google Feed Templates.

How do I change the display URL of my products?

Our feeds include a product URL for each item. You can customize these URLs by changing the Display URL setting in your data feed. Here are some of the reasons why you may want to customize the product links:

• Add tracking codes for Google Analytics, Yahoo Analytics, etc.
• Use the product URL from a custom field in your store catalog
• Change the domain name of the URLs
• Convert a non-www domain to a www domain
• Add your own, custom tracking codes
• Convert a file name to a full URL with domain name

To change the setting, please follow the steps below and contact us if you need assistance:

1. From the Manage Feed > Define Fields page, look for the appropriate Product URL or link field, which will have a Display URL parameter.
2. Click Edit for the field and follow the instructions on the page.

How do I set up feeds to the shopping engines?

Below is an overview of the steps required to set up data feeds to the various shopping engines.

1. Check our Supported Feeds page to see if we support the shopping engine.
2. Click the 'Merchants' link there, and sign up for a merchant account with the shopping engine. (Please contact us if we do not support a particular site.)
3. You may have to make a minimum purchase or meet other requirements of the shopping engine.
4. Once your merchant account is approved, check our Support page for feed setup instructions for the engine, if available.
5. Add the feed to your Aten account from 'My Account > Add Feed', configure any fields as needed, and then run your first submission.
6. Contact the shopping engine or check your merchant account dashboard to see if the feed was processed correctly.

If you get stuck on any step, feel free to contact us. If you would like optimization/set-up assistance, you can submit an Express Setup Request, and we take care of the feed setup. You would still be responsible for obtaining the merchant account, configuring your merchant account, managing bids, etc.

What is the static IP address of the server?

The static IP address of our server is:

23.111.149.90

Copy IP address to Clipboard

This is the origin IP from which data feed files are uploaded. A few shopping engines, such as ShareASale, require this IP address for restricting access to upload to their FTP server. If you have IP restrictions on your website or firewall, you can white-list this IP.

IPv6 IP is 2604:4500:6:353:ec4:7aff:fe9b:853c

Quantity / bulk pricing and minimum quantity / unit pricing

Quantity / Bulk Pricing

Products sold in bulk:
Submit the price for the minimum number of products that you require a user to purchase.

Source: Product data specification : price: Definition

Based on the above, it follows that:

• You can not submit the discounted price for a bulk quantity.
• You can not submit the price for a single item if a minimum purchase greater than one is required.

Google provides no mechanism to submit bulk quantity pricing discounts, so you must submit the price for the lowest purchasable quantity.

Our system always submits the lowest of the regular price or sale price. If this price corresponds to the total price for the minimum purchase quantity, then there is no issue.

However, if the price is for a single item, and there is a minimum purchase requirement, then we can program the feed to multiply the price times the minimum purchase quantity in your catalog

We can also program the unit_pricing_measure and unit_pricing_base_measure fields.

For example, if you sell stationary in packs of 12, we can set unit_pricing_measure = 12 ct and unit_pricing_base_measure = 1 ct. If the price of the 12-pack is $12, then using this information, Google can display the price as $1.00 per ct.

Why do I see the message, "Store information no longer available"?

Sometimes, you may see the message, 'Store information no longer available', for one or more tasks in the "View Tasks" page. You will see this message when you have recently deleted a feed from your account. Deleting the feed deletes all the feed settings and results, but the task history will be preserved in your account. The tasks and messages will drop off the page after seven days.

How to update the ASPDNSF product export code.

1. Go to Free Product Data Exporter for AspDotNetStoreFront
2. Enter your password (This can be found in the "URL of CSV Data" setting on the "Manage Feed > Modify Settings" page.)
3. Check the box to accept license agreement
4. Download code file 1 of 2
5. Download code file 2 of 2
6. Replace the current files in your server's web root folder with the new files
7. Ensure that the permissions are set correctly on the files

Resolving character encoding issues in your data feed.

In Google Merchant Center, you may see an error that says:

Encoding problem in attribute: description - Some of the characters in your items seem to be invalid. Please verify all the characters in your feed are valid for your selected encoding.

To resolve this, take the following steps.

1. Verify that your data feed's "Encoding" setting in Google Merchant Center is set to "UTF-8".
2. In your product descriptions and titles, replace the Windows characters listed below with the corresponding HTML entities.

   If you see this in your store	then, replace it with this
   •	•
   ”	”
   “	“
   ’	’
   ‘	‘
   ™	™
   ®	®
   °	°

3. If you still have encoding issues, copy and paste the raw description from your store's edit product page into the Javascript Count Character Occurrences Online tool. Click the Display/Update Counts button, and look for non-standard character in the list. Remove non-standard characters from the description.

Discussion

Microsoft uses a proprietary encoding (called CP-1252) for the bullet symbol and some other special characters, whereas most websites and data feeds use UTF-8. When you copy-paste from a Microsoft product into a website, some characters may appear as junk. Our system generates data feeds in the UTF-8 character encoding, which many shopping engines now require.

How to integrate your shopping cart with our data feed engine

Our data feed engine can integrate with your shopping cart if it provides a source data feed file that meets the following technical requirements and specifications.

• What to Include: Any and all item data should be exported (except sensitive information like cost, supplier name, etc.). See below for details.
• Format: product data export file in flat-file format (e.g. tab-delimited, pipe-delimited, comma-separated; XML is also supported)
• Preferred Format: Excel-compatible CSV preferred - comma-separated, double-quotes enclosure, and double-quote escape character, CR/LF or LF as line separator.
• Header: The first line must be a header that describes the column names.
• Column names can be anything, in any order. They can be renamed or rearranged at any time. There is no restriction.
• Location: on a fixed/unchanging HTTP or FTP URL
• Unbuffered: start sending data immediately without long delays
• Headers: include an accurate, last-modified HTTP header. This is optional and not important
• Submit one line for each variant, if applicable.
• There is no size limit
• Export must deliver the data as fast as possible (finish within 30 minutes)
• Compress the file for improved performance and reliability. You can use any common compression format, like zip, gzip, etc. The archive file and contents can be named anything. All the files in the archive will be decompressed and merged verbatim into a single file.

Once you have prepared the above, all you would provide us is the link to the file and then we would set up your data feeds. We can also provide you with an FTP location where you can upload the file. Please contact us for a quote. Example URLs:

http://www.store.com/data-export.csv
ftp://user:password@ftp.store.com/data-export.csv

Content Guidelines

• The product must be purchasable online from your website.
• The following product information is recommended:
  • unique identifier (SKU, product ID, product code, etc.)
  • non-zero price
  • image URL, link, file name, or path
  • product URL, link, file name, or path
  • product name or title
  • product description or caption
  • product condition (new, used, or refurbished)
  • product availability (in stock, out of stock, etc.)
  • UPC (universal product code), EAN, or ISBN (if available)
  • manufacturer part number (MPN)
  • brand (or manufacturer)

Set Up Instructions for Oodle Data Feed (Backfill Program)

These are the instructions to add a feed for Oodle's free backfill data feed program. The backfill program is limited to 15,000 items, and has numerous other restrictions.

Add Data Feed

1. Go to the My Account > Add Feed.
2. Select the Oodle Template and click Add.
3. Enter your store source information and click Update. Leave FTP settings blank.
4. Go to the Manage Feed > Define Fields.
5. Edit the 'category', 'address', 'city', 'state', and 'zip_code' fields and enter an appropriate Default Value for each.
6. Go to Tasks > Submit a Task and click Refresh.
7. Go to Manage Feed > Product List and note the item count.
8. Go to Manage Feed > Download Data Feed File and copy the File URL.

Set up Oodle Account

1. Go to the Oodle Submit Feed page.
2. Select Stuff as the Feed Category.
3. Enter the Number of Listings in Your Feed that you noted above.
4. Select Delimited Text as the File Format.
5. Select CSV as the File Delimiter.
6. Select Via URL as the Transfer Mechanism.
7. Paste the File URL that you copied above into the Full URL of the feed box, and hen click Test Feed. You should see a message "Feed looks good. Please enter contact information below and click Submit. All fields are required. " at the top of the page.
8. Fill in the remaining information in Step 2: Contact Information and Step 3: Your Website Information and then click Submit.
9. The feed setup is complete. You should see a message saying "Thank you for submitting your feed request. You should receive an automated e-mail response shortly and then our Feed Management team will follow-up with your request.".
10. Oodle will not provide technical support for the backfill program. But if you have questions, you can contact them via the Oodle Classifieds - Help Contact Form.

Can non-US merchants or sellers list products in the shopping engines?

In general, the US-based shopping engines only allow merchants based in the US.

Please contact the shopping search engine or refer to their terms and conditions to determine if they allow non-US based sellers.

We act as an intermediary, so merchant policies would still apply to you. While we can set up feeds for your store, you are ultimately responsible for determining if your listings are acceptable to the shopping website.

Item Error and Warning Help

id missing

'id' is a required attribute and should be set to the unique identifier, SKU, or product ID of the product.

title missing

'title' is a required attribute and should be set to the product name.

description missing

'description' is a required attribute and should be set to the product description.

image_link missing

'image_link' is a required attribute and should be set to the main product image URL.

invalid image_link

'image_link' must be a valid image URL starting with 'http'

yahoo error image detected

Yahoo store error-img.gif was detected
Related: Error images (all red square images) in Turbify (Yahoo) Store feeds

magento no_selection image detected

Magento product/no_selection image was detected, which is not a valid image URL.

volusion nophoto.gif image detected

Volusion nophoto.gif image was detected, which is not a valid image URL.

link missing

'link' is a required attribute and should be set to the product URL.

invalid link

'link' must be a valid product URL starting with 'http'

price missing

'price' is a required attribute and should be set to the product selling price.
Related: Why don't product sections, products with zero price, or items marked non-orderable show up in the product list?

price is zero

Items with zero price are not allowed.
Related: Why don't product sections, products with zero price, or items marked non-orderable show up in the product list?

zero sale price detected

Items with zero sale price are not allowed.
Related: Why don't product sections, products with zero price, or items marked non-orderable show up in the product list?

invalid condition

'condition' must be one of the following values: 'new', 'used', or 'refurbished'
Related: Configuring the 'condition' attribute for Google feeds.

invalid availability

'availability' must be one of the following values: 'in stock', 'out of stock', 'backorder', or 'preorder'
Related: How to configure Google Shopping Availability attribute

invalid online_only

'online_only' must be one of the following values: 'y', 'n', or ''

invalid age_group

'age_group' must be one of the following values: 'adult', 'kids', 'toddler', 'infant', 'newborn' or ''
Related: Google Required Attributes for Apparel Items (US-sellers)

invalid gender

'gender' must be one of the following values: 'male', 'female', 'unisex', or ''
Related: Google Required Attributes for Apparel Items (US-sellers)

2 of 3 of brand/MPN/GTIN are required

A minimum of two of the three identifier fields (brand, MPN, and GTIN) must be filled in with properly formatted and factually correct data.
Related: Configuring product identifiers Brand, MPN, and GTIN/UPC Fields

invalid UPC

UPC must always be 12 numeric digits. Use leading zeros if needed.
Related: Configuring product identifiers Brand, MPN, and GTIN/UPC Fields

invalid GTIN

GTIN must be a valid UPC, JAN, EAN, or ISBN.
Related: Configuring product identifiers Brand, MPN, and GTIN/UPC Fields

invalid JAN

JAN must be 8 or 13 numeric digits.
Related: Configuring product identifiers Brand, MPN, and GTIN/UPC Fields

invalid EAN

EAN must be 8, 13, or 14 numeric digits.
Related: Configuring product identifiers Brand, MPN, and GTIN/UPC Fields

invalid ISBN

ISBN must be 10 or 13 numeric digits, or 9 numeric digits followed by an 'X'.
Related: Configuring product identifiers Brand, MPN, and GTIN/UPC Fields

invalid MPN

MPN must be three or more characters.
Related: Configuring product identifiers Brand, MPN, and GTIN/UPC Fields

prohibited text '{x}' found in {x}

The specified keyword is not allowed in any field and will cause the item to be disapproved.
Related: Items disapproved due to shipping terms in the product description

10000 character limit exceeded in {x}

Each attribute may only have up to 10,000 characters.

age_group required for apparel items

Age_group must be set to one of the following values for apparel items: 'adult', 'kids', 'toddler', 'infant', or 'newborn'.
Related: Google Required Attributes for Apparel Items (US-sellers)

gender required for apparel items

Gender must be set to one of the following values for apparel items: 'male', 'female', or 'unisex'.
Related: Google Required Attributes for Apparel Items (US-sellers)

invalid google_product_category

'google_product_category' must be one of the official categories from the Google taxonomy. Only one category can be specified. Spacing is important, but capitalization is not. You must use the 'Text' format, either with or without double-quotes.
Related: Google Product Category and Product Type attributes

id too long

'id' must be 50 characters or less.
Related: Google Feed Warning: Value too long in attribute: id

link too long

'link' must be 2000 characters or less.
Related: Google Feed Warning: Value too long in attribute: id

mobile_link too long

'mobile_link' must be 2000 characters or less.
Related: Google Feed Warning: Value too long in attribute: id

image_link too long

'image_link' must be 2000 characters or less.
Related: Google Feed Warning: Value too long in attribute: id

additional_image_link too long

'additional_image_link' must be 2000 characters or less.
Related: Google Feed Warning: Value too long in attribute: id

brand too long

'brand' must be 70 characters or less.
Related: Google Feed Warning: Value too long in attribute: id

mpn too long

'mpn' must be 70 characters or less.
Related: Google Feed Warning: Value too long in attribute: id

gtin too long

'gtin' must be 50 characters or less.
Related: Google Feed Warning: Value too long in attribute: id

item_group_id too long

'item_group_id' must be 50 characters or less.
Related: Google Feed Warning: Value too long in attribute: id

custom_label_0 too long

'custom_label_0' must be 100 characters or less.
Related: Google Feed Warning: Value too long in attribute: id

custom_label_1 too long

'custom_label_1' must be 100 characters or less.
Related: Google Feed Warning: Value too long in attribute: id

custom_label_2 too long

'custom_label_2' must be 100 characters or less.
Related: Google Feed Warning: Value too long in attribute: id

custom_label_3 too long

'custom_label_3' must be 100 characters or less.
Related: Google Feed Warning: Value too long in attribute: id

custom_label_4 too long

'custom_label_4' must be 100 characters or less.
Related: Google Feed Warning: Value too long in attribute: id

description less than 15 characters

The description is recommended to be at least 15 characters long.

title over 150 characters

The title is over 150 characters long.
Related: Title Length for SEO: Importance of the 70 character limit for Google

missing google_product_category

Google_product_category is a strongly recommended field.
Related: Google Product Category and Product Type attributes

outdated google_product_category

The google_product_category is outdated. Please use a category from the latest official taxonomy.
Related: Google Product Category and Product Type attributes

missing product_type

Product type is a recommended field. It is not required. Set a Default Value if desired by going to Manage Feed > Define Fields and editing the field.
Related: Google Product Category and Product Type attributes

color required for apparel items

A 'color' value is required for all items in Apparel & Accessories. The color must be the dominant color of the pictured item.
Related: Google Required Attributes for Apparel Items (US-sellers)

invalid identifier_exists

'identifier_exists' must be one of the following values: 'true', 'false', 'yes', 'no', or ''

identifier_exists false but identifiers provided

When a minimum of two of the three identifier fields (brand, MPN, and GTIN) are provided, 'identifier_exists' may not be 'false'.
Related: Configuring product identifiers Brand, MPN, and GTIN/UPC Fields

size required for clothing and shoes

A 'size' value is required for items in Apparel & Accessories > Clothing and Apparel & Accessories > Shoes. Specify the size of the pictured item, or the most common size of the item.
Related: Google Required Attributes for Apparel Items (US-sellers)

GTIN missing for designated brand

The brand is designated to require a GTIN.
Related: Configuring product identifiers Brand, MPN, and GTIN/UPC Fields

Submitting duplicate copy of store to shopping engines is not allowed

All of the major comparison shopping engines have policies that prohibit merchants from submitting the same product listing multiple times via different stores under the same ownership. If they were to allow it, then the shopping engines would be full of spam and this would create a poor experience for shoppers.

Google Shopping enforces this policy by disapproving your listings without notice or explanation. Your account could be suspended in its entirety.

Using the Google network to gain an unfair traffic advantage in Shopping campaigns.
Examples: ... duplicate listings
(Google Shoppingn Policies - Abuse of the network)

Avoid submitting duplicate websites containing similar content to avoid account disapproval. Learn more about our policies on duplicate content.
(Set up a multi-client account)

Bing Shopping enforces this policy during the merchant review period when you first add your store to their merchant account. Your account will never be activated.

We have no control over feed disapproval by shopping engines, and provide no refunds of any kind due to feed disapproval due to policy violations, whether the reason for the disapproval is known or not.

We do not advise of and strongly discourage any workarounds for submitting listings multiple times via different stores or merchant accounts.

The only workaround we support is via product filtering and duplicate exclusion techniques. We can submit unique subsets of your products from each store, thereby ensuring that each product is only listed once.

For example, suppose Store A and Store B contain the same 200 items. We can submit 100 in the feed for Store A, and the other 100 in the feed for Store B. This will send some traffic to each store, and comply with Google policies.

BigCartel to Google Shopping Data Feed

We support BigCartel data feeds to the shopping search engines.

Use your JSON store export URL in the feed settings. It will look like this: http://api.bigcartel.com/storename/products.json

Please note that the BigCartel product export does not contain UPC, Google Product Category, or Manufacturer Part Number fields. If you need that information submitted in your feed, you will have to embed that information in the product description. We recommend embedding it using microdata format. You can copy/paste the HTML code below:

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Product"
    style="display:none;">
<span itemprop="googleProductCategory">
  Electronics > Communications > Telephony</span>
<span itemprop="model">ME305LL/A</span>
<span itemprop="gtin13">0885909727445</span>
<div itemprop="brand" itemscope
     itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization">
  <span itemprop="name">Apple</span>
</div>
</div>

Please contact us if you have any questions or would like a BigCartel feed set up for you.

osCommerce to Google Shopping Data Feed

We support osCommerce data feeds to the shopping search engines. We support most versions of osCommerce, including osCommerce 2.2, osCommerce 2.3.x, and CRE Loaded.

Please contact us if you have any questions or would like a osCommerce feed set up for you.

CSCart data feed to Google Shopping Setup Instructions

We now support data feeds for CSCart to Google Shopping, Bing Shopping, Facebook Product Ads, Pinterest, Wholesale Central, Shareasale, etc.

For setup, you will need to add a new Data Feed in your control panel, and configure it to run automatically using cron. This will allow our system access to your product data. See below for setup instructions.

Please contact us if you are interested and we can provide further assistance.

Data feeds Add-On for CS-Cart

1. Go to Add-ons > Manage Add-ons > CS-Cart
2. Click Install or Activate for the Data feeds add-on.
3. Click the Data feeds add-on, or continue to the next section.

For more details, refer to the CS Cart Manual pages on Data Feeds and How To: Set Up the Data Feeds Add-on.

Data Feed Settings

1. Go to Add-ons > Data feeds in your CS Cart control panel.
   It may also be under Administration > Export data > Data feeds
2. Click the plus icon to add a new Data feed.
3. Enter the following settings on the General tab:

   Layouts

   general_data_feeds

   Data feed name

   catalog.csv

   File name

   catalog.csv

   Enclosure

   " (double-quote character)

   Product type:

   Leave unselected

   Language

   English

   Images directory

   exim/backup/images/

   Price decimal separator

   . (period character)

   Category delimiter

   > (right angle bracket character)

   Features delimiter

   , (comma character)

   Directory for the files of downloadable products

   exim/backup/downloads/

   CSV delimiter

   Comma

   Exclude disabled products

   Check the box

   Status

   Active

   Server directory

   (leave blank)

   FTP server

   ftp.atensoftware.com

   FTP username and password

   (contact us)

   Export by cron to:

   FTP

4. Enter the following settings on the Exported items tab:

   Categories

   Remove all categories until it says Any category

   Products

   Remove all products until it says Any product

5. On the Fields mapping tab, add each field that may contain useful information using this procedure:
   1. Click the icon to add a field
   2. Select the next Field type
   3. Type in the Field type name in all lower case in the Field name box
   4. Leave Pos column blank
   5. Repeat for each field in the list. Recommend to click Save as you progress to save your work.
6. Click Save to save the export

Crontab Scheduled Export Setup

You will need the username/login for SSH access to the web server to complete these steps. You can also can forward the instructions below to the web hosting company.

1. Download PuTTY or you can use any other SSH client
2. Run PuTTY and log into the server
3. Type export EDITOR=nano and press Enter
4. Type crontab -e and press Enter
5. Go to your store admin, select the data feed you created above, go to the General settings tab, and look under the Export by cron to line. Copy the line to your clipboard.
6. Paste the command onto a blank line into nano, with a prefix of 0 23 * * *. It should look something like this, all on one line:
   0 23 * * * php /path/to/cart/admin.php --dispatch=exim.cron_export --cron_password=MYPASS --switch_company_id=0
   Remember to change /path/to/cart/ to the correct path for your server.
   The above will run the export at 11 PM local time of your server.
7. Press CTRL+O and then Enter to save changes
8. Press CTRL+X to exit the nano text editor

How to set minimum required listings for the Feed Safeguard feature

Each feed has a Minimum Listing Requirement setting that you can set on the Advanced Feed Settings page. By default it is set to zero, and we recommend setting it to around 60-80% of your active listings count.

The Feed Safeguard will email you and stop the feed from being uploaded (or written to the Feed File URL) if the system detects that the number of listings is too low. The purpose of this is to prevent temporary error conditions from causing listings to be inadvertently deleted.

When you receive the email notice, you can either lower the Minimum Required Listings setting to allow a smaller feed to be generated, or you can contact us to troubleshoot the feed.

Here are the detailed steps for enabling or disabling this feature:

1. Go to My Account.
2. Click Manage for the desired feed.
3. Make a note of the unfiltered listing count.
4. Click Advanced Feed Settings.
5. To enable the Feed Safeguard feature, enter a number in the Minimum Listing Requirement setting that is somewhat less than the unfiltered listing count. You will want to set it low enough such that normal changes to your store do not trigger the safeguard.
6. If you want to disable the Feed Safeguard feature instead, enter zero in the Minimum Listing Requirement setting.
7. Click the Update button to save the settings.

Feed Safeguard settings are entirely separate from Feed Monitoring for Google Shopping settings.

11 Main Product Data Feed

We now offer product data feeds to 11 Main.

Our 11 Main product data feed follows the latest 11 Main template and feed specifications, and includes all your product images. We refresh the feed with your latest product catalog on a daily basis, with automatic adding, updating, and deleting of items. We can also submit your product variations of size and color, with proper formatting of parent and child rows.

The 11 Main product data feeds are currently in beta and require a Custom feed, so please contact us for information on setting one up.

WooCommerce Data Feed Service (WordPress Shop)

We provide support for WooCommerce/Wordpress product data feeds to Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Pinterest Product Ads!

We fetch your product and variation data directly using the WooCommerce API, so there is no need to install any third-party extensions or perform any manual steps.

We can submit your feed to all major shopping engines. Please contact us if you do not find a template for your shopping channel.

WooCommerce is a freely available eCommerce plugin that enables shop facilities on your WordPress website.

To get started, simply complete the steps below.

REST API Setup Instructions

1. Log into your WooCommerce admin
2. Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced > REST API
3. Click the Add Key button
4. Enter the following:
   Description: atensoftware
   User: Select your user or create a user named 'atensoftware' in a separate tab
   Permissions: Read
5. Click the Generate API key button
6. Enter the Consumer key and Consumer secret on the Modify Settings page of your feed.

At this point, you can use a Setup guide from our Support section, or submit an Express Setup Request where we set up and optimize the feed for you.

How do I add fields or attributes to my data feed?

These instructions describe how to add fields or attributes to your data feed.

1. Go to Manage Feed > Define Fields.
2. Select Public | Catalog Field in the Add Field drop-down box, and click Add to go to the Add or Modify Field page.
3. Enter the name of the field as you want it to appear in the feed in the Name box.
4. If you have a Custom feed, select where you want the new field to be located in the Position drop-down box. The position defaults to the end of the feed. You can always move the field later from the Define Fields page.
5. Leave the Default Value box blank. You can enter a value if you want something filled in automatically by our system when the value for the field in your catalog is blank.
6. In the Field Name box, enter the name of the field from your catalog. You can also select it from the Available Fields drop-down box to auto-fill it.
7. Select Enabled. If you select Disabled, the field will not be in the feed output file, but you can still view the data in our system and add filters on the field.
8. Click Add to finish adding the field.
9. Refresh the feed or resubmit the feed from the Manage Feed > Submit a Task page to generate a new feed file.

You can go to the Manage Feed > View Random Product to see a sample item listing and verify that the field showed up.

If you need HTML removed from the values, then select the Public | Catalog Field (HTML-stripped) field type.

Kibo Commerce Data Feed Support

We currently support KiboCommerce data feeds to Google Shopping, Bing Shopping, etc. We can connect to your store's product catalog using the Mozu API. If you would like us to set up your feeds, please contact us for more details.

Express Feed Setup Prerequisites Checklist

Platform-specific instructions

To give our system access to your store data, please refer to the Set up your Store Export Instructions.

Google Shopping Setup Prerequisites

• Create a Google Merchant Center account
• On the GMA Business Information - Website page, enter your website URL, and then verify and claim it.
• On the GMA Tax Settings page, configure your tax rates.
• On the GMA Shipping Settings page, add shipping rates for each country where you will list your products.
• On the GMA Adwords Settings page, link your Google Merchant Account to an Adwords account.

Bing Ads Setup Prerequisites

• Create a BingAds Account
• Add a payment method in the Accounts & Billing
• Under Tools > Bing Merchant Center, click Create a store and follow the instructions
• Make sure your website URL is verified in Bing Webmaster Tools

OpenCart to Google Shopping Feed Setup Instructions

We can set up an OpenCart feed for your store to Google Shopping, Bing, etc. There is no way to set up this feed from your account at this time. Please provide us the information below and we can set up the feed for you.

Our system connects directly to your MySQL database to read the product data required for the feed. It does not require API access or any API plugin.

For additional security, we suggest to create a separate MySQL user with read-only permissions to the database, instead of sending the MySQL user/pass used by OpenCart.

Required Information

MySQL Database Name

Required

MySQL Server Host Name

Required

MySQL User Name

Required

MySQL Password

Required

Store URL

Required. Example is https://acmeproducts.com

Optional Information

If known, please send the following optional information. Otherwise, we can assign defaults and adjust the settings as needed.

MySQL Server Port

Default is 3306 if unspecified

Table prefix

Optional, since we can determine this for you.

Language ID

Default is "1" if unspecified

Store ID

Default is "0" if unspecified

Customer Group ID

Default is "1" if unspecified

One prerequisite is that you must ensure incoming connections to your MySQL database server are permitted from our server IP address of 23.111.149.90. You can send us the information above, and then we can let you know if there are any issues connecting to your MySQL database.

Pricefalls Setup Guide

Please complete the steps below to set up your feed for Pricefalls.

1. Add a feed a Pricefalls feed for your platform from the Add Feed page in your account.
2. Make sure to select the Pricefalls template. If you do not see it in the list, please let us know your store platform and we will add it.
3. Configure the store source settings on the Modify Settings page for the feed by using the Store Source Setup instructions.
4. Contact your Pricefalls account representative, and ask them to set up an FTP account for uploading your feed.
5. Enter the FTP username and password onto the Modify Settings page for the feed.

Shopping Cart Migration Services

We do not offer migration services to move your store templates, product data, and images from one e-commerce platform to another.

We recommend Cart2Cart Shopping Cart Migration Services, which specializes in this type of service for a reasonable cost.

You can also check with your e-commerce platform, as they may have special offers to migrate your store.

Shopbot.ca Data Feed Setup Guide

Please contact us if you have any questions or would like a Shopbot.ca feed set up for you.

Infrequent or one-time product feed set up instructions

If your store changes very infrequently — less than once per month — then you can just run the feed when the feed changes to save money.

The hosted feed file URL on our site expires after 30 days, and also, our feed billing stops automatically 30 days after the last activity on the feed. Refer to our billing policy for details.

To set this up, you will need a website (typically your store's files or images folder) where you can host the feed file. Once you have that arranged, then complete steps:

1. Set the feed to 'Never' submit on the 'Modify Settings' page.
2. Refresh the feed in your account.
3. Download the feed file to your computer.
4. Upload the feed file to your website.
5. Note the URL where the feed file is on your website.
6. Configure your destination merchant account (e.g. Google, Bing, Facebook, Pinterest) to fetch the feed file from the URL on your website. We recommend a daily refresh when given the option.

When your product information (especially availability and pricing) changes, and you need to update the feed, follow these steps:

1. Purchase a minimum amount of credit in your account
2. Refresh the feed
3. Download the feed file
4. Upload it to your website to the same location with the same file name

By setting it up this way, you would only pay for the months you use the feed, rather than all 12. Please contact us if you need assistance with setting this up.

'Smart' product category selection for product_type

Problem: Multiple merchant categories assigned to items

Google and other channels require a product_type to specify the merchant's category for each product.

Google recommends only one product_type be specified, so what happens when you have multiple categories assigned to an item?

To solve this problem, our optimized feeds calculate a field called 'aten_smart_product_category' based on your categories.

Solution: 'aten_smart_product_category' picks the best category

When an item is classified under multiple categories in your store, our system automatically selects the most appropriate category for use as the product_type.

If available for your store platform, the field will be named 'aten_smart_product_category' or something similar.

'aten_smart_product_category' will be mapped to 'product_type' on the Define Fields page, and also can be used for our Categorization Service.

How does it work?

The algorithm assigns a score to each merchant category based on the following criteria:

• How many 'levels' are the path? (higher is better)
• How many characters long is the category? (higher is better)
• Several other proprietary checks reduce the score.

It then picks the highest scoring category.

Next, it applies a clean-up rule to remove text from the category that is irrelevant to product type, such as 'All', 'Sale', "Holiday', etc.

This proprietary scoring algorithm has been developed and refined over many years, and works well for almost all merchants. It does not use any artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms.

The rules can be tuned to for the specific needs of a merchant by demoting specific categories such that the other categories are picked instead. Please contact us if you require adjustments to the 'aten_smart_product_category' logic.

Pepperjam Product Feed Setup Instructions

1. Log into your Pepperjam Network Merchant Account
2. Go to Settings > Product Feed
3. Enter the following settings:
   Update type: Automatic
   Feed URL: (Copy and paste your feed URL from My Account > Manage Feed > Download Data Feed File. It will look something like this: https://www.atensoftware.com/ p400_12345.php)
   Feed Type: Pepperjam Network Advanced Format
   Feed Delimiter: Tab
   Download Intervals: Every Day
4. Click the Update Feed Settings button
5. Check back the next day to review the Product Catalog Error Report

Do you support a Newegg Business data feed?

Unfortunately, at this time, we do not support data feeds to Newegg, so we can not list your items in the Newegg Marketplace Seller Portal.

However, we can provide a reliable, frequent product and inventory feed from your store to a multi-channel integrator. You can manage your marketplace listings, inventory, and orders using the multi-channel integrator. Below is a list of the integrators that are used by our customers:

1. Channel Advisor
2. Sellbrite
3. SolidCommerce

Based on our experience, the above provide robust services to help you manage all aspects of your multi-channel marketplace listings.

Squarespace to Google Shopping Product Feed Setup Instructions

Get your Squarespace products listed in Google Shopping and Pinterest using our product data feed service! Refer to Pricing and Features for additional information.

To get started, generate an API key using the instructions below.

1. Log into your Squarespace site
2. In the left nav, click Settings > Advanced
3. Click Developer API Keys
4. Click the GENERATE KEY button
5. In the dialog, enter Aten Software under KEY NAME
6. Under PERMISSIONS, select the following two:
   Inventory API > Read Only
   Products API > Read Only
7. Send us the key using the Secure Login and Password Form in your account

Squarespace feed support is in an early stage, so please contact us for next steps and assistance with the setup and optimization.

Tracking Code for Google Analytics and YWA

Can I add tracking codes to my product URLs?

Our feeds are pre-configured with tracking codes for Google Analytics. These codes are also compatible with Yahoo Web Analytics and other web analytics software.

Our Google feeds are further pre-configured with settings for the adwords_redirect and adwords_queryparam feed attributes. This allows you to separately track traffic from free Google Shopping listings, paid Product Listing Ads, and paid Product Extension Ads. You can also separate traffic by product target.

Here is a sample product URL with and without tracking codes:

WITHOUT tracking codes:

http://www.wonka.com/fizzy-lifting-drink.html

WITH tracking codes:

http://www.wonka.com/fizzy-lifting-drink.html ?utm_source=googleshopping &utm_medium=cse

You can customize or remove the tracking codes easily by simply editing the Display URL setting on the Manage Feed > Define Fields page. You do not need to change anything in your store catalog.

References

• How to Set Up Tracking Codes for Google Analytics
• Display URL Setting
• Google Analytics Campaign URL Builder Tool
• Google URL Builder: A Comprehensive Guide
• Tracking Your Performance: Google Shopping

How to view campaign traffic in Google Analytics

No special setup is needed for campaigns in Google Analytics. Google will track whatever is defined in the source/campaign parameters of the URL.

1. Log into Google Analytics.
2. Click on Traffic Sources > All Traffic in the side-bar.
3. Select the Source as googleshopping to see free traffic
4. Select the Source / Medium as googlepepla / pla to see traffic from Product Listing Ads
5. Select the Source / Medium as googlepepla / pe to see traffic from Product Extension Ads

For other shopping engines, refer to our analytics tracking code reference.

Analytics Tracking Code Reference

The list below shows the tracking codes that are pre-configured by our data feed system.

Google Shopping Tracking Codes

Google Shopping

utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=cse

Other Comparison Shopping Engine Tracking Codes

Bing Ads

utm_source=bing &utm_medium=ppc

Connexity/Shopzilla

utm_source=shopzilla &utm_medium=ppc

Facebook Product Ads

utm_source=facebook &utm_medium=ppc

Oodle

utm_source=oodle &utm_medium=ppm

Pinterest Shopping

utm_source=pinterest &utm_campaign=shopping

Pricewatch

utm_source=pricewatch &utm_medium=ppc

Shopbot.ca

utm_source=shopbotca &utm_medium=ppc

ShopMania

utm_source=shopmania &utm_medium=ppc

ShopTab for Facebook

utm_source=shoptab &utm_medium=ppm

Sortprice

utm_source=sortprice &utm_medium=ppm

Wholesale Central

utm_source=wholesalecentral &utm_medium=ppm

Feeds Without Tracking Codes

The following shopping engine feeds are not pre-configured with tracking codes.

• 11 Main
• Amazon Marketplace
• Buy.com Marketplace
• Catalog-on-Demand
• ClixGalore
• Commission Junction
• Custom Feed
• Fruugo
• Google Local Inventory
• Houzz
• LinkConnector
• Monitus Web Analytics
• MyShopping.com.au
• Optimise Knowledge
• Pepperjam
• PowerReviews
• ShareASale
• SnapChat
• Wish.com

Turbify (Yahoo) Store Help

Does your system support legacy Yahoo stores?

Yes, we fully support legacy stores. Just supply the objinfo.xml URL and leave the catalog.xml field blank when you set up your feed. Our system even supports a workaround so that you can create custom attributes for your legacy store.

Yahoo Store product name/title contains path/category prefix

You need to turn off the compound-name variable in your Yahoo Store's Store Properties.

1. Log into your Yahoo Store Manager and go to Store Editor
2. Click Contents in the tool bar
3. Click Variables in the tool bar
4. Expand the Store Properties section
5. Set Compound-name to No
6. Click the Update button and then publish your store

How do I bulk delete items via the Yahoo Store Catalog Manager?

If you do not have that many items to delete, you can delete them from Catalog Manager directly. See How do I delete an item in Catalog Manager?.

Otherwise, download your catalog CSV file from Yahoo, then change the Path of the items you want to delete to a path like 'TODELETE'. Then, upload the file and commit. Now, you can just navigate to the 'TODELETE' section in the Store Editor, and delete it. All the items in that section will also be deleted. See Uploading and Downloading Items via Catalog Manager for more information.

See this page for more information on deleting sections and all the items in them: Deleting a Page in the Store Editor.

For additional support on this topic, please contact Yahoo Store Merchant Support directly.

Yahoo Store Design and RTML Development Companies

We specialize in data feeds, so we do not offer Yahoo Store design services or RTML template development.

We have had clients who have worked with the companies listed below. We do not endorse any of these companies, but provide this list for your reference only.

• FastPivot - a high-end Yahoo Store design company
• YTimes - advanced RTML development for Yahoo Store
• Nakamoa - Yahoo Store RTML and add-ons

You can also consult the Aabaco Merchant Solutions Developer Network website, which has a listing of many design companies.

If you require Magento store development services, consider these providers:

• Expresscommerce.co
• Nexcess.net Partners

Product Data Entry and Amazon Listing Service Providers

If you need help adding product listings or product data to your website or onto Ebay, Amazon, Alibaba, etc., then consider the following providers:

• Vikas Solanki of Softwebwork.net - provides services to fix images, find and add UPC/GTINs, create Amazon Listings, etc.
• Product Data Entry Services by A1MobileGlass, one of our clients

Wrong number of fields detected (x instead y)

Your Yahoo Store might give you a message that says, "WARNING: Wrong number of fields detected(6 instead 7)" when you upload a CSV file from Excel into your Yahoo Store Editor or Catalog Manager via Database Upload.

This is an Excel problem. Sometimes, Excel does not put trailing commas if the last few fields in a row are blank. In that case, Yahoo thinks the field is missing. As a workaround, just rearrange the columns so that a column with full data is the right-most column. For example, you can just move the 'id' column to the end.

An example is below.

Tue May 1 10:40:10 2011
Database upload	default-table Uploaded
Field names=(:ID :MANUFACTURER-PART-NUMBER :BRAND :GOOGLE-PRODUCT-TYPE
:UPC :NAME :MANUFACTURER)
600 records are loaded for add.

Warnings and Errors
Record	Detail
16 [Show]	WARNING: Wrong number of fields detected(6 instead 7)
17 [Show]	WARNING: Wrong number of fields detected(6 instead 7)
18 [Show]	WARNING: Wrong number of fields detected(6 instead 7)
19 [Show]	WARNING: Wrong number of fields detected(6 instead 7)
20 [Show]	WARNING: Wrong number of fields detected(6 instead 7)

"Enabled, but do not syndicate" option in Yahoo Store

Under Promote > Search Engines in your Yahoo Store Manager, you will find links to two store export files, objinfo.xml and objinfo.xml, that contain all the data in your store catalog. (Legacy stores only have objinfo.xml.) Each store export file has three settings, Enabled, Enabled, but do not syndicate, and Disabled. This article explains the definition of each option.

Disabled

This means the store export files will not be available for download from your store. If someone tries to access the URLs, the server will return an error.

Enabled

This means the store export files will be available for download by anyone from your Yahoo Store. Furthermore, Yahoo will submit an automatic data feed to their partner search engine, PriceGrabber. (You would still need a paid PriceGrabber account to actually receive clicks.) We are not aware of them submitting to any other search engine automatically.

Enabled, but do not syndicate

This also means the store export files will be available for download by anyone from your Yahoo Store. However, Yahoo will not automatically submit the files to PriceGrabber.

We recommend our customers to use the Enabled, but do not syndicate setting because the automatic feed from Yahoo to Pricegrabber interferes with the PriceGrabber data feed submitted from our system. Yahoo's automatic feed to Pricegrabber is generally not reliable or customizable, so many merchants prefer to use our data feed service to submit to them.

How do I add custom fields to my Yahoo Store?

You can easily add custom fields to your Yahoo Store catalog in order populate item-specific values. Check out the excellent video by 1choice4yourstore, Yahoo Store Database Uploads Video Tutorial, for a helpful overview. You can also refer to the Adding, editing, and removing attributes from tables instructions and contact Yahoo Store technical support for further assistance.

How to Add a Custom Attribute

1. Log into your Yahoo Store Manager
2. Go to Catalog Manager > Products tab > Manage Tables
3. Select your product table using the Manage table drop-down menu.
4. Click the Add New Attributes link to the far right of the the Custom Attributes heading.
5. In the Add New Attribute dialog box, enter the following:
   • Attribute Name: my-custom-field
   • Format: text
   • Leave the Required checkbox unchecked.
   • Leave the Default Value field blank.
   • Leave the Description field blank.
6. Click Add
7. If you get an error like, 2000 : Invalid attribute name. 'upc' is a reserved attribute name, then click the Add New Attributes link to the far right of the the Shopping Attributes heading instead. You will be able to check the fields you want to add. Generally, do not make them required and do not enter any default value.

Suggested Fields to Add

The fields below can be added as 'Shopping Fields' to the table in Yahoo Store Catalog Manager. The fields in bold are pre-configured in our Google feeds.

• product-url
• manufacturer
• yshopping-category
• merchant-category
• brand
• upc
• manufacturer-part-number
• condition
• ypath
• color
• yahoo-shopping-category
• ean
• promo-text
• classification
• in-yshopping
• model-number
• gender
• age-range
• age-group
• size
• style-number
• msrp
• medium
• isbn
• style

We recommend adding the following custom fields in the 'Custom Fields' section of the table, when applicable:

• google-product-category
• google-shipping
• google-tax
• google-online-only
• google-condition

Populating the Fields

After adding the custom fields, use the Yahoo links below for instructions on how populate the data using Excel or OpenOffice Calc.

• What is the Upload/Download feature?
• Yahoo Store New Catalog Manager Help

Power Tips for Yahoo Store Merchants

Videos on how to use Catalog Manager

They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words, so certainly, a video could be worth 10,000. Our friends over at 1Choice4YourStore have put together some awesome Yahoo Store Help Videos on how to make the most of the Database Upload feature of the Yahoo Store Catalog Manager. Spend a couple hours watching these videos and it could save you days of tedious work in the Store Editor!

iMacros Add-on for Firefox

You can automate your busy-work with the iMacros Add-on for Firefox. After installing it, press F8 to see sample macros and play/record buttons in a side-bar. Then, click Record to record your actions. When you're done recording, click the Play button to play back your actions. It will save you a lot of time on some repetitious tasks!. For example, you can set up automatic addition of property fields to Yahoo Legacy store items.

Tip: To work with the Yahoo Store Editor, switch the mode from 'html tag' to 'x/y' before recording. After recording your actions, delete the GOTO URL line and then replace the form and attr lines with the '*' symbol. You may have to create multiple macros depending on the position of the buttons on various types of pages, e.g. pages with multiple products per page vs. pages with a single item.

Legacy Yahoo Store RTML Template to Export Custom Attributes as CSV

To support legacy stores, we can now install a special template in your Yahoo Store that can export your custom item attributes or properties, such as UPC, brand/manufacturer, and manufacturer part number (MPN). The template exports the data in CSV/Excel format, which is picked up by our system whenever a data feed is generated. The data can be mapped to any data feed attributes with a Custom Feed. The template installation costs $99. Please follow the instructions below to get started.

1. Log into your Yahoo Store Manager, and click the Access link under the Site Settings section, (found on the right-most column of the page.)
2. Give Store Editor access to .
3. Submit a request using this link: Request Legacy Yahoo Store RTML Installation - $99.00
4. Send us an email with the names of the custom attributes that you want exported.

Attributes

The attributes to add are listed below. If you do not use an attribute or the value is always the same, then there is no need to add it.

brand (required)
mpn (required)
upc (required - leave blank if not available)
google-product-category (if other than default value defined in feed)
google-condition (can be 'new', 'used', or 'refurbished' only)
google-availability
size, color, gender, age-group (see apparel requirements)
uc-category (optional, for Unbound Commerce)
pg-category (optional, for Pricegrabber)

Objects and Types in Yahoo Store Editor

When you create an item, it is assigned a "type" by the Yahoo Store. The "type" defines the properties of the item, such as name, caption, UPC, brand, etc.

The Yahoo Store comes with a number of built-in types with standard properties. You are not able to add properties to the built-in types, so it is better to create a custom type based on the built-in type. If you have not already, we recommend that you copy the "item." type to create a new custom type called "c-item".

On the "c-item" type, you can add properties, and these will be applied to all items based on that type. If your items are based on the default "item." type, then to add properties, you must add them to each item individually. You can do that quickly by using the iMacros add-on for Firefox, or use an automatic Yahoo Store property addition service.

You can not delete or rename properties added to a custom type, so add these carefully. It is not possible to change the 'type' of an item after it has been added. The item must be saved offline, deleted, and then added back.

In the "Config" section of your Store Editor, you can set the default "type" for new items to the "c-item" type that you created.

Set up your "c-item" type with the properties required by the search engines, like "upc", "mpn", "brand", "google-condition", etc. Refer to the list of suggested fields to add for a complete list.

Our template will be able to export the properties assigned to your items, whether they were added via a property override or via the "type", as long as they are named consistently in each item.

Workaround

If the data you are adding to your store does not appear in your data feed, then you may need to use this workaround. Use the Yahoo Store Editor 'Find' button to look for the 'aten-software-feed' item, click 'Edit' for it, and then click 'Update'. Once you do that, you can publish as usual. This will ensure that the Yahoo Store updates that page, and that our system is able to retrieve all the latest data.

How do I add custom fields to a legacy Yahoo store?

Please see here for a new, easier alternative to the method described below:
Legacy Yahoo Store RTML Template to Export Custom Attributes as CSV or Excel

Legacy Yahoo stores do not support the catalog.xml Store Export file that would contain extended product attributes. We can map 'manufacturer-part-number' (MPN) to your Yahoo Product ID or Code field if that works. For 'brand', we can set the default value equal to your store name if it applies to all your products. Otherwise, you can embed product-specific values for these attributes in your product captions or descriptions as follows:

<!--
<brand>Performance Golf</brand>
<upc>012345678912</upc>
<mpn>100XYZ</mpn>
<gpcategory>Sporting Goods &gt; Indoor Games 
     &gt; Bowling &gt; Bowling Gloves</gpcategory>
--> 

The fields shown above are the recommended minimum, but you can add or remove fields as needed. For example, if your MPNs are in your Code field, brand is your store name, and product type is the same for all products, then you can add the UPC as follows:

<!--  <upc>012345678912</upc>  --> 

For any products with no tags, or with missing values in the tags, our system will just leave the value blank in the feed. Therefore, you can add data over time and it will be automatically picked up in the feed as it is made available.

The information in the made-up HTML tags is commented out and will not be visible in your actual product pages, but you could use style sheets and display the information too. After you populate the data in your descriptions, you must contact us and we can set up your feed to extract the data.

Your feed will have to be upgraded to a Custom feed to support this technique.

For best results, we recommend adding a category field for each shopping engine. We can configure each feed to use the appropriate data. For the other fields like <manufacturer> and <mpn>, we can use the same data for every feed, so you do not need to make a different one for each shopping engine.

Not all the items need to have the embedded attribute values. We can define default values for those items with a value missing.

If product attributes are already in your descriptions in a consistent, standardized format, we can usually write custom fields to extract the existing attribute values.

Click the following link for more information on configuring brand, MPN, and UPC.

Below is a more extensive example of the attributes you can provide using this technique. The tags are listed in order by our estimation of importance to Google.

<!--
<brand>Performance Golf</brand>
<upc>0123456789</upc>
<mpn>100XYZ</mpn>

<gpcategory>Sporting Goods &gt; Indoor Games 
     &gt; Bowling &gt; Bowling Gloves</gpcategory>


<googleshipping>US:::0.00</googleshipping>
<googletax>US:CA:8.25:y</googletax>

<agegroup>adult</agegroup>
<gender>unisex</gender>
<color>white</color>
<size>Small</size>
<material>leather</material>
<pattern>solid</pattern>
--> 

Yahoo Store Corrupt Caption in objinfo.xml Store Export

Yahoo Store has an known bug where the 'caption' field in the objinfo.xml store export file is occasionally corrupted. The captions are truncated and mismatched after a certain point in the file, resulting in wrong product descriptions for most of the products.

Our system uses the captions from the catalog.xml, if available, which are not corrupted. Unfortunately, for legacy stores, our system relies on the captions in the objinfo.xml, and this therefore causes data feed corruption. The corruption occurs rather infrequently.

We have been contacting Yahoo regarding this for many months with no resolution. We have implemented retry logic to attempt to detect the corruption, but it is not 100% reliable.

We have an open support ticket Yahoo tech support and they say they are working on a fix.

How do I find an item by ID in my Yahoo Store?

1. Log into your Yahoo Store.
2. Go to the Store Editor.
3. Click red arrow on the far right on the Store Editor Toolbar to switch it to Advanced mode.
4. Click the Controls button in the Store Editor Toolbar.
5. Under Store Editor Setting, change the Show Find Button setting to Yes.
6. Click Update.

You will now have a Find button on your Store Editor Toolbar that will let you find items by typing in their product ID. This is helpful for quickly finding specific items, such as discontinued items or items with missing information.

Other Yahoo Store Editor Search Methods

You can also find the item by looking through the Contents, but this can be time-consuming.

On the Controls page, there is also a Search function that allows you to search your entire store by Code, Name, Caption, Abstract, Contents, Headline, or Ship-weight. The search option can be 'exact match', 'is empty', 'is non-empty', or 'contains'. For details, refer to the Yahoo Store Editor Variables Guide.

Error images (all red square images) in Turbify (Yahoo) Store feeds

Occasionally, you may find some of the images in our feeds look like a small, all-red square, with image URL http://store1.turbifycdn.com/Img/error-img.gif. The Turbiy Store error image is displayed below:

This occurs when the image is too large. Although the store editor and store will show the image correctly, the error image will show in the store XML exports.

To resolve the issue, re-upload the image for the item into your Yahoo Store via the Turbify Store Editor, and re-publish. The image must meet all of these requirements:

• Height is less than or equal to 2,000 pixels
• Width is less than or equal to 2,000 pixels
• Total pixels (Height * Width) is less than or equal to 2,000,000 pixels (Note: A 2,000 * 2,000 image is 4,000,000 total pixels, which exceeds this limit.)
• The image file size must be less than 2 Megabytes

Go to Manage Feed > Validation Report to find all the error images in your feed.

Alternatively, download your feed file and open it in Excel. Then sort by the image URL column and look for any images with the above error-img.gif URL.

Can I include external inventory data into my data feed?

Some Yahoo Stores track their inventory or stock status in an external database, which stores the product code/ID and inventory count for each product. For these stores, we have the capability to read that data and include it in your data feed. This allows you to set the quantity attribute with accurate data, or set the availability attribute to out of stock. Typically, we just add a filter to remove the out of stock items from the feed, i.e. where quantity on hand is zero or less.

We can integrate with the following inventory tracking systems:

• Yahoo Store Database Inventory
• Centrifuge Inventory System by KingWebmaster
• Your supplier's inventory file
• MySQL database

This feature requires a Custom data feed. Please let us know where your inventory database is located, and we can give you a quote for the setup.

The inventory is fetched every time your feed is refreshed or resubmitted, ensuring accurate stock data. We can set up your feed to run more frequently than once per day if desired, or to a customized schedule.

Note: Non-orderable and zero-priced items are not imported into our system, so there is no need to filter those items.

Do you have code/specifications to create the Yahoo Store Export file?

Use the information below to generate a Yahoo Store export file in XML format from your product database. This XML file can be plugged directly into our system.

There are two Yahoo store product export files:

• http://www.yoursite.com/objinfo.xml
• http://www.yoursite.com/catalog.xml

Here is an important note from the objinfo.xml files:

"Note that although the native encoding of this store's content is iso-8859-1, all the text in this XML export format has been converted to UTF-8"

We suggest sticking to UTF-8; our system uses that too.

You should set the published date in the XML tag:
<Published timestamp="1228928138"/>
and also in the 'Last-Modified' header of the HTTP request. (Our system uses the latter for caching purposes.) If it is not easy to calculate the timestamp, just set it to the current time. All the other elements in the settings section are not needed for our system.

Here are the links to the XML Document Type Definitions (DTD):

• http://store.yahoo.com/ doc/dtd/StoreExport.dtd
• http://store.yahoo.com/ doc/dtd/Catalog.dtd

You do not need to implement every possible field. Our system will work even if just the main ones are implemented, like title, url, image, price, and description. Path is a bit tricky, and can be left out. The catalog.xml file is entirely optional, but should be implemented in order to get all the attributes into Google and maintain ranking.

Sample code to add the 'Last Modified' HTTP header is below.

$lastModified = time();
// OR SOMETHING LIKE $lastModified = "SELECT MAX(DateModified) FROM Product";

$gmdate_mod = gmdate('D, d M Y H:i:s', $lastModified) . ' GMT';
$expiresDate = gmdate('D, d M Y H:i:s', time() + 3600) . ' GMT';
header("Expires: $expiresDate");
header("Last-Modified: $gmdate_mod");
header("Cache-Control: max-age=3600, private");

Note that in the objinfo.xml file, 'Description' is actually the title, and 'Caption' is actually the long description.

We recommend to flush output as it is generated. Our system has a built-in timeout if a page does not respond for a long time, so the script might not work for a larger store unless it sends the data continuously rather than buffering it before sending it. Your script might also run into memory limits if it is being buffered.

How to grant access to your Turbify (Yahoo) Store Catalog API

1. Log into Turbify: My Services (formerly Yahoo Small Business) as an Admin
2. Click on Store to go to your Store Manager
3. Click Real-Time Links
4. Click API Settings
5. Click the Add New Partner button
6. Enter this Partner ID:   ypa-005115307017
7. Check the box for Catalog API
8. Click the Next button
9. Click the Accept button

Turbify will send us an automated email with the API token.

The API access has to be manually renewed when it expires.

Reference: Turbify Merchant Solutions API Documentation

What is the 'Daily Plus' Update Frequency option?

The ‘Daily Plus’ Update Frequency option is a feed setting that automatically uploads your latest product listings to the shopping engine within a short time (about 1 hr) of your Yahoo Store being published. It submits your feed a minimum of once per day, even if you do not publish your store.

This free feature enables you to meet Google's new high-quality data requirements and provide an excellent shopping experience to your shoppers. Shopping.com also recently announced a capability to accept more frequent data feed submissions.

Instructions

1. Log into My Account
2. Click Manage for your Google feed
3. Click Modify Settings
4. Select the Daily Plus Update Frequency
5. Click the Update button to save your settings

Additional Information

Your feed will be submitted a minimum of once per day even if you do not make any changes in your Yahoo Store.

This option is currently only available for Yahoo Stores. It is also restricted to shopping engines that prefer/allow multiple updates per day, namely, Google Shopping and Shopping.com. Feeds will not be submitted if you have no credit balance, or if there are outstanding tasks for the feed.

Your feed will be automatically resubmitted (within about 1 hr) after you change field definitions on the Define Fields page for your feed. If you are testing changes, make sure to set your feed's update frequency to Never to temporarily pause the submissions.

We recommend enabling this option for all feeds, unless your product listings change independently of your Yahoo Store Publish function. For instance, this may occur if you have an external inventory status database. Contact us if you need scheduled submissions more often than Daily, e.g. every four hours.

As per our terms of service, submissions are made on a best effort basis, and no guarantee or warranty is made as to timeliness of submissions.

Catalog Field Instructions for Yahoo Store Options

Catalog fields can output the first option value or all option values (comma-separated) into the feed. This is supported for Yahoo Stores only at this time.

First Option Value

Example Field Name:

{option-first-value:Color}

To output the first value from a specified option, enter the value displayed above into the Field Name setting. Replace the word Color with the exact name of the desired option. The name is case-sensitive. In this example, if you have an option named "Color" with values "Red", "Green", and "Blue", the value "Red" would be returned.

All Option Values for a Single Option

Example Field Name:

{option-single:Size}

To output all the values of the specified option, enter the value displayed above into the Field Name setting. Replace the word Size with the exact name of the desired option. The name is case-sensitive.

Values will be comma-separated. For Google feeds and Custom feeds, commas will be stripped if there are more than 10 values.

Can I backup, download, or export all my Yahoo store images?

Please use the following instructions to download, backup, or export all your Yahoo Store images to your computer.

First, configure one of your data feeds, preferably your Google Shopping feed.

1. Go to My Account
2. Click Manage for your Google Shopping feed to get to the Manage Feed page.
3. Click Advanced Settings
4. Set Image Hosting to Enabled.
5. Wait about 10-15 minutes for your image hosting data to be loaded.

Next, prepare a folder and download the images.

1. Create a new folder on your computer, e.g. images.
2. Open the URL –
   http://ih.atensoftware.com/ 12345/download-images
   – in your web browser. Replace 12345 with your FeedId, which can be found in your browser's address bar when you click on the Manage Feed page.
3. Use your browser's File > Save As function to save the file as download-images.bat to your images folder.
4. Download wget.exe and save this file also in the images folder. This program is a free download tool for Windows.
5. Double-click the download-images.bat file, and the images will begin downloading.
6. If you receive a security warning, just click Run.
7. When you are done downloading the images, go back to Manage Feed > Advanced Settings, and set Image Hosting to Disabled.

Caveats and Notes

• This will only download the primary image for items that are marked orderable and have a non-zero price.
• If you add or remove products, you have to download and run the latest version of the download-images.bat batch file.
• You must be using a computer with the Windows operating system.
• The batch file and wget.exe must be in the same directory. You can also copy wget.exe to your c:\windows\command folder, to make it globally available on your computer.
• You can stop and restart the batch file, and it will pick up where it left off. It will not re-download images if they already exist and they are up to date.

How do I define categories for Unbound Commerce feeds?

To set up your categories for UnboundCommerce mobile commerce data feeds, please use the examples below.

DESCRIPTION                     :   SAMPLE CATEGORY
Top-Level Category              :   Nike Shoes
Category and Sub-category       :   Shoes > Nike
Category and Sub-categories     :   Shoes > Nike > Slip-on
Multiple Categories             :   Nike Shoes|Running Shoes
Multiple Categories (example 2) :   Brands > Nike|Types > Running

Tips

• Use the '>' greater-than character to separate category levels.
• Use the '|' pipe character to separate multiple categories.
• Keep category names short to conserve space on the mobile screen.

Legacy Stores

If you have a legacy store, you can embed the category information in an HTML comment inside the Caption field of each product. Add the code shown below to the bottom of every Caption, and change the category as appropriate.

<!--
<uc-category>Brands &gt; Nike|Types &gt; Running</uc-category>
-->

Remember to replace the '>' greater-than character with '&gt;' to ensure that the HTML code remains valid. For more information, see How do I add custom attributes to a legacy Yahoo store?

Google Feed Warning: Value too long in attribute: id

Google limits the 'id' attribute to 50 characters. This took effect on September 30th, 2014.

Under Manage Feed > Google Validation Report, you will see an error for the items with 'id' over fifty characters.

This problem primarily affects Yahoo Stores. Here are various options for resolving this issue.

The best option is for us to convert your long IDs to a short, unique, hash code in your feed. We can enable this option upon request.

One option is to simply filter the items with errors out of the feed.

Firstly, truncating the IDs does not work, because it could result in duplicate IDs.

For Yahoo Stores, another solution is to use the 'code' field as the ID instead of the product ID. You can use the Manage Feed > Analyze Source Data to view an analysis of your 'code' field. If it contains no duplicates or values over 50 characters, then it can be simply configured as the field name on the Manage Feed > Define Fields > Edit 'id' page. For other store platforms, you could select another suitable field with unique, short value, like 'entity_id' or 'productcode'.

A hybrid option might be to truncate the ID and append a unique code, but then this derived ID might change over time, and that may cause problems for reporting. We do not offer this option.

A final option may be for you to change the ID of the item in your store. We may offer one or more of the other options as a temporary fix, or if you have too many items to fix.

How to Change a Yahoo Store Product ID

Yahoo provides no mechanism to allow you to change the ID of an item.

You must create a new item with the new ID, copy over the product data and images from the old item to the new item manually, and then delete the old item. At the same time, you should create 301 redirects from the old product URLs to the new product URLs. This ensures that inbound links do not get broken and you do not lose any organic ranking in search engines.

You may be able to change the IDs in a batch. First, download a CSV file of your products with long IDs from Catalog Manager. Then, change the IDs and upload the file back to create the new items. Next, download the images for the old items and save them with the ID of the new item. You can use multiple image upload to upload the images into the new item. We do not provide support for Yahoo Store, so please contact Yahoo Support for more information. You can also use the links below as a starting point:

• Your Yahoo Store on Speed Part 2 - Database Uploads
• Upload and download product catalog using .csv file
• Upload multiple images to your store

Yahoo Small Business Spinning Off; Re-platforming Advice

The information below is posted with permission from Istvan Siposs, long-time Yahoo Store Developer. It was send in a February 23, 2015 YTimes email newsletter.

Lately, a lot of things have been happening around Yahoo! Small Business, and by now most, if not all of you have probably heard at least some of it. I've been getting emails and phone calls from worried merchants who, understandably, are worried and uncertain about what the future holds for their online stores. While an official communication from Yahoo is still forthcoming, I thought I'd go ahead and share with you what has been made public, what I know, and my take regarding the situation.

Starting with Yahoo! Stores (or "Yahoo Store 2.0"), you may or may not have heard that about a year ago Yahoo started building a brand new e-commerce platform. I was part of a select number of developers who worked with the new platform from the beginning, and helped develop the "themes" new Yahoo Stores customers can choose from when signing up with the new platform. This new platform has been available to the general public for some time (maybe a couple of months or so?). The new system is very different from, and not compatible with the editor-based system your store is on. Although available to the general public, the new system still has a lot of features planned but not yet done, and admittedly in its current form it is aimed at small scale stores rather than larger enterprises most of you are running.

Then, very recently came the announcement that Yahoo! Small Business is going to be spun off Yahoo! as a completely separate, independent company. This development had to do with the fact that Yahoo! is a major shareholder of Alibaba, and because of the Alibaba IPO they were going to be slapped with a big (huge) tax bill unless they could somehow get rid of a bunch of Alibaba shares. The immediate flip-side of this is that this new (yet to be named) company will be the most well funded "startup" in History. I put "startup" in quotes, because of course it is far from being a startup. The "new" company will come with a seasoned team of professionals, plus the technical background of the Yahoo! e-commerce platform. Not being part of a huge corporation such as Yahoo! may actually be an advantage in that the new company will be free to concentrate on what they know best: e-commerce. By the way, as you can imagine, the formation of the new company will not take place in a matter of days or weeks; it is going to be a process lasting most likely several months.

So where do all these developments leave you and your current Yahoo! Store? Here are the facts I know:

• The new platform is moving forward, but is not yet up to par with the current system. - The current system is not going to be shut down.
• No current Yahoo! Store will be forced to switch to the new system. Since the viability of the company depends in no small part on the existing merchants, it really means that you can continue running your business as usual, investing in new development and all, knowing that the platform you are on will not be pulled from under your business. However, I know that some of you are entertaining the idea of moving to a different platform, and others will be courted by different platforms to switch and take your business elsewhere. If you are considering re-platforming, you should keep the following in mind:
• Replatforming is expensive. Contrary to what you may hear, unless you have a cookie-cutter online store, moving it to a totally different platform will probably involve a new design (an existing "skin" can never be transferred from one platform to a different one), a brand new implementation, plus migrating your data (which, granted, some of the other platforms make it easy for you.)
• Since the new Yahoo system is not compatible with the current Yahoo store system, switching from the current (RTML-based) system to the new 2.0 system is the same as re-platforming (to a third party system.)
• It's very nearly impossible to replatform and expect your SEO to remain exactly the same.
• If your main reason to replatform is because "the other guys" said your SEO will immediately be better, it is not true. One platform is not inherently better for SEO than another. Your web site's SEO is only as good as your content.
• ... and along the same line, when you hear someone say that Yahoo Store is bad for SEO, that's not true either. This platform has more Internet Retailer Top 500 businesses than any other.
• If you want to replatform because the other platform is mobile-friendly out of the box, that's probably not entirely true either (and as a matter a fact, it is not entirely true with the new Yahoo! 2.0 platform either.) You can have a mobile-friendly "canned" template, but it will not be unique to your business. If you want a custom designed web site, there is work going into making it mobile-friendly.
• And, related to this last point, the current Yahoo! Store platform does allow mobile-friendly web sites. Email me for examples if you are interested.
• Lastly, as tempting as it may seem to cure any number of perceived ills you are experiencing by jumping to another platform, you will still be faced with needing some level of custom design, custom development and consulting services, preferably from a trusted, experienced e-commerce solutions provider, a role that Y-Times continues to fulfill.

This may be a lot to absorb especially if you haven't been up to speed on the recent Yahoo! Small business developments. Feel free to email me or call, or contact your Yahoo! account representative if you need more information.

Istvan Siposs
Y-Times Publications, LLC.
www.ytimes.com
February 23, 2015 Email Newsletter

Download inventory and upload it to ftp.atensoftware.com on iPad/iOS

Install and Configure FE File Explorer App

1. Install FE File Explorer free version (not Pro)
2. Press '+' to add a new connection
3. Choose FTP
4. Enter the following settings:
   Display Name: leave blank
   Host Name/IP: ftp.atensoftware.com
   Port: leave blank
   Path: leave blank
   Protocol: Require explicit FTP over TLS
   Transfer mode: Passive
   Charset: UTF8
   User Name: as provided to you
   Password: as provided to you
5. Press ftp.atensoftware.com under Connections
6. You should see the list of files in the folder, or no files

Download inv.csv file

Note 1: If the inv file already exists in the Files app on your iPad, be sure to delete it first before following the steps below. Otherwise, the file will be downloaded as inv 2 and won't be recognized by our system unless it is renamed to inv

Note 2: iOS will not display the .csv file extension, but it will be there in the background. You can verify this by selecting Info after selecting the file in the Files app.

1. Login to Yahoo Small Business
2. Go to your Store Control Panel
3. Click on Process > Inventory
4. Click the Download button
5. Choose All Tables and click the Download button
6. Click Download when prompted Do you want to download "inv.csv"?

Upload inventory CSV file

1. Launch the FE File Explorer app on your iPad
2. Select FE File Explorer (Cloud) from the side-bar
3. Select the Files App folder
4. Select inv file that was downloaded earlier
5. Select Copy to
6. Select ftp.atensoftware.com under Connections in the Copy to dialog window
7. Select Save
8. If the Resolve conflicts dialog appears, press Replace
9. All steps are completed at this point, and you can exit the app.
10. If you wish to confirm the upload was successful, press ftp.atensoftware.com under Connections and verify the inv file time and size

Matching Yahoo UPS Ground Shipping Rates to Google Shipping Rates

In Yahoo Store Shipping Settings, found under Store Manager > Shipping Manager > Ship Rates, it is possible to set up a UPS Ground Carrier-Calculated rate in addition to a Percentage of order total amount. The two amounts are combined to compute the final shipping charge for an order.

In Google Merchant Center Shipping Settings, it is NOT possible to set up a carrier rate and add a percent of order total to it. To solve this problem of adding multiple rates together in Google Shipping Settings, read on.

As a workaround, you can create multiple carrier rates for each order price level. For example, if you charge the UPS Ground carrier rate plus 5% of the order total, then you create the following rate:

• Rate Name: UPS Ground $0.01-$20
• Rate Type: Carrier Rate
• Service: UPS Ground
• Fixed Markup: $1.00

The above rate would be assigned in the Shipping Rate Table by Order Price to order price levels from $0.01 to $20.00. Five percent of $20.00 is $1.00, so that upcharge covers all order prices from $0.01 to $20.00.

Note that Google requires the shipping rates to be higher than or equal to the actual rate charge by your store.

You would continue adding rates like this up through your highest product amount. The next one might look like this:

• Rate Name: UPS Ground $20.01-$40
• Rate Type: Carrier Rate
• Service: UPS Ground
• Fixed Markup: $2.00 (five percent of $40)

Here is a screen shot showing a sample of how it would look:
UPS Ground Carrier Rate Plus Percent of Order Total in Google Shipping Settings

The more price levels you add, the more accurate your rates will be, but it will take more time to set up.

Volusion Product Data Feeds Setup Guide

Volusion Data Feed Setup Instructions

We support fully automated Volusion data feeds. In order to give our system access to your store, you will need to add a user to your Volusion administration area with permissions to export products. Please follow the instructions below.

1. Log into your Volusion Administration Dashboard
2. Go to Customers > Accounts
3. Click the Add button
4. Enter the E-mail Address as or you can use any alternate email address.
5. Enter an appropriate Password
6. For the Access Key, select Administrator
7. Click the Save button
8. Click the Edit Cust#XXX Access Rules link
9. Check the following checkboxes: Products and Export
10. Click the Save button

Our system will log in as this user each time the data feed runs, to generate and download the product data export XML file.

When adding the feed on our site, you will need the domain of your store and the username/password of the Volusion admin user that you created.

(Note, do not use saved exports. The saved export files are incomplete.)

Volusion Deal of the Day Pricing (QueryBank QB) Saved Export

If you use the Deal of the Day marketing feature in Volusion, you will need to do some additional configuration so our system can obtain accurate pricing for your products.

1. Log into your Volusion Store Administration
2. Go to Inventory > Import/Export
3. Select Saved Exports
4. Click Add New Query
5. Enter the following data:
   • QB (QueryBank) Customer ID: 0
   • QB Access List: Select the user who will run the export and click the right arrow to move it to the Selected box
   • QB Table: DB_EXPORT
   • QB Title: DealsOfTheDay
   • QB Query:

     SELECT Products.ProductCode, DealsOfTheDay.*
     FROM DealsOfTheDay
     INNER JOIN Products ON
     Products.ProductID = DealsOfTheDay.ProductID

   • QB Export File Type: CSV
6. Click the Save button
7. Contact us to enable the DealOfTheDay pricing integration on your feed.

The user must have the following permissions: Products, Export, LoginAsCustomer, LiveEdit

Volusion Password Reset Instructions

Problem

You receive an email about your feed saying:

The Volusion store is requesting a password reset. Please reset the password, update the feed settings, and try again.

Solution

1. Go to My Account
2. Click Manage for the Volusion feed
3. Click Modify Settings
4. Open a new tab to the Volusion Store Admin, which will be at the Store Url with /admin path.
5. Enter the Username and Password from the Modify Settings page
6. Click Log In
7. On the Password Assistance page, re-enter the Username as the Email address
8. Click the Continue button
9. Solve the CAPTCHA and click Continue
10. Check your email for a Password Reset Link. If the email address is ours, we will receive the email and complete the remaining steps for you.
11. Open the link and complete the steps to create a new password
12. Enter the new password on the Modify Settings page
13. Select Daily for the Update Frequency
14. Click the Update button
15. Click Return to Manage Feed
16. Click the Submit button to resubmit the feed immediately

Website Url Verification Tutorial

Introduction to Google Url Verification

Verification has two steps, verification and claiming. Verification proves that you have control over the URL, and claiming lets Google know in which Google account you want to use the URL. You can only claim the URL in one Google account, but you can verify it in many of them.

Verification must be done first via Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools). Claiming is done on the Google Merchant Center Business Information page. Both steps must be completed in order for your product listings to be accepted by Google.

We recommend that you verify and claim the root or parent domain of your website, without any prefixes. For instance, use "walmart.com" rather than "www.walmart.com". Verifying the former automatically verifies the latter, as well as any other sub-domains.

Step 1: Log into Google Search Console

This topic covers how to claim and verify your Yahoo Store Website URL for use with Google Merchant Center. Google requires you to verify and claim your Website URL, otherwise, your listing will be disapproved. There are a lot of steps, but the process is very simple and should only take 5-10 minutes.

First, go to Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) and log in with your Google Login.

If your domain appears in the list of website properties drop-down on the top-left, then skip down to Step 7.

Step 2: Add your Site to Google Search Console

Click the "Add Property" button from the Domains/Properties drop-down on the top-left, and enter your website domain name in the URL Prefix box as https://domain.com

Step 3: Verify Ownership of your URL in Google Search Console

After you add your site, you will be redirected to the 'Verify Ownership' window. On this page, select 'Upload an HTML file' as the 'Verification method'.

Copy the file name that you see to your clipboard, e.g. google99b9d12cd333da44.html

Step 4: Specify Sitemap Verification File in your Yahoo Store

1. Open a new browser window.
2. Log into your Yahoo Store Manager
3. Go to the 'Search Engines' page, under the 'Promotion' section.
4. In the box labeled "Google Sitemap Verification File", paste the file name that you copied from the Verify Your Site page.
5. Click 'Done' to save the settings.
6. Publish your Order Settings.

Reference: Verifying Site Ownership with Google

Step 5: Confirm Upload of Verification File

Go back to the 'Verify Ownership' page in Google Search Console.

Click the 'Verify' button. If all goes well, a success message will appear and your site should appear in the properties drop-down.

Step 6: Add Website URL to Google Merchant Center

1. Go to Google Merchant Center and log in with your Google Login.
2. Go to the GMA Business Information - Website page.
3. In the Website URL input box, enter the Website URL you entered before. If it is already entered, skip down to step 6 below.
4. Click 'Save'.
5. If you receive an error like 'Internal Error' after clicking 'Save Changes', then please try again later.
6. After the changes are saved, click the 'Claim this URL' link.
7. Your website URL should now be verified and claimed. This completes the tutorial.

Alternate: Google Sitemap Verification via META tags for Yahoo Store

If you enter the Google Sitemaps Verification File in your Yahoo Store, but it appears blank when you view it in your browser, you can try the META tag method instead.

1. Select the META tag Verification Method in Google Search Console.
2. Copy the META tag code to your clipboard.
3. Log into your Yahoo Store and open Store Editor.
4. Go to 'Variables > Page Properties > Head-tags'.
5. Copy the META tag code into the box, click the Update button, and then publish your store. The meta tag code should look something like:
   <meta name="google-site-verification" content="abdcdef" />
6. After your store is published, go back to Google Search Console and click the Verify button.

WholesaleCentral Data Feed

How do I set up a WholesaleCentral.com data feed?

We offer a WholesaleCentral.com data feed for your store. We recommend that you configure this feed to be uploaded daily to WholesaleCentral. Currently, WholesaleCentral requires you to log into their site and click a button for the feed to be processed. You will have to do this periodically, so we recommend that you bookmark the Submit Feed Page.

1. Sign into your WholesaleCentral Seller Account.
2. Click on the EZFeed link.
3. Click on "Register your store", select "Use non-Wholesalecentral.com store", and enter your store details.
4. Go back to the EZFeed page, click "FTP Account", and create an FTP username/password.
5. After you submit your first feed from our system, go to the EZFeed page again, click the Submit New Data Feed link, and click the "SUBMIT DATA FEED" button.

1. In our site, add a feed using the WholesaleCentral.com template.
2. Enter the necessary settings, including the FTP settings you defined above.
3. Run a submission from our site.
4. Check your Wholesalecentral account's 'Submit New Data Feed' page for the status of the submissions.
5. You must click the "SUBMIT DATA FEED" button on that page for the listings to go live.

If WholesaleCentral is unable to recognize the feed or can not see it uploaded to their FTP, please follow these steps.

1. Check your registration URL, especially HTTP vs HTTPS, in your WholesaleCentral account.
2. Update it if needed
3. Contact WholesaleCentral to verify that they have updated their registration file with the new registration URL. (This step must be done on WholesaleCentral's end.)

Wix Product Data Feed Setup Guide

Wix API Credentials Setup Instructions for Product Data Feeds

Use these instructions to obtain the API credentials for setting up your Google Shopping, Bing Shopping, or other product data feeds.

1. Open a tab or browser window with the Manage Feed > Modify Settings page for the feed you are setting up. This is the page where you will be pasting the API credentials.
2. Open a separate tab or browser window with the API Keys page under Wix Dashboard > Account Settings
3. Click the blue + Generate API Key button at the top-right of the page
4. Enter Aten Software as the Name
5. Select the following permissions:
   Basic Permissions
   Get Sites List (under Basic Permissions)
   Wix Stores (under All site permissions)
6. Click the blue Generate Key button at the top-right of the page.
7. Click Send code in the Verify your account prompt that appears
8. Copy and paste the confirmation code from your email into the Code box.
9. Click the blue Verify & Generate Key button
10. Click the blue Copy token and close button
    (If you lose the API key before you can save it to the feed settings, simply delete the key and start over.)
11. Switch tabs and paste into the Wix Authorization Key box on the Manage Feed > Modify Settings page.
12. Switch back to the Wix API Keys page, and click the Copy ID button in the Account ID section.
13. Switch tabs and paste into the Wix Account ID box on the Manage Feed > Modify Settings page.
14. Switch back to the Wix API Keys page, then select My Sites and click on the store you want to connect.
15. Copy the entire URL from your browser tab/window, which should look something like this:
    https://manage.wix.com/dashboard/12345678-abcd-efa0-1234-012345678912/home
16. Switch tabs and paste into the Wix Site ID box on the Manage Feed > Modify Settings page.
17. Click the Update button to save the settings
18. [Optional] Go to Manage Feed > Test Feed Settings to test the credentials.

Reference: Wix Developers API Reference: Create and use API keys