The opportunities e-commerce offers these days often go underrated. You can sell literally everywhere — Google, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest — you name it. But getting there is obviously not as easy as it sounds.
One of the first things that opens the door to other channels is the Shopify product feed. So that's what we'll focus on today. You'll discover what it is and what benefits it brings to the table.
You'll also learn how to create product feeds in Shopify manually or using the Shopify apps. So you drive targeted customers and expose your products to a wider audience with no complex configurations.
Ready to start?
What is Shopify Product Feed?
Shopify product feed is a structured data file with detailed information about your inventory. It contains data about product names, descriptions, pricing, availability, URLs, images and other details.
Example of the product feed in Shopify
Seems overwhelming, right?
It kind of is. But trust me, this file is going to bring lots of traffic and sales your way when used properly.
Once you create a product feed in Shopify you can use it to promote your products on different marketplaces, product comparison sites, social media, etc.
Why Do Product Feeds in Shopify Matter?
Optimized product feeds help you drive the "right" traffic and earn more. Thus, it is an essential part of any marketing strategy that focuses on:
- Improved product visibility — by listing your products on various marketplaces you increase the chances of them being seen, explored and purchased.
- Extended customer reach — properly structured Shopify product feed connects you with the right audience and helps customer finds your products easier.
- Better marketing campaigns — detailed and accurate product information makes your marketing campaigns more effective and targeted.
How to Create Product Feeds in Shopify?
Now that you're eager to finally create a product feed in Shopify, let's consider your options. These methods depend on the number of products you have and the time you're willing to spend on this.
Manually
One way to create product feeds manually is to directly upload them to the marketplace, e.g. Google Merchant Center. You just log in to the platform and upload every product there one by one.
Uploading products in Google Merchant Center one by one
The other way is to use the Google Sheets. Simply navigate to your Shopify admin, go to "Products" and export the selected ones in the CSV format.
Then upload the file to Google Sheets. You need to optimize it according to the shopping feed requirement of the platform you want to upload your products to. Once everything is set up you upload the file or product feed link to a preferred marketing channel.
Shopify product export in CSV file
While it seems relatively simple, note that creating Shopify product feeds manually is not dynamic. Even if you have up to 20 products.
In other words, you can't create product feed this way and let it be. You'll need to constantly edit and maintain them when you change any product information.
It's the only way to ensure that your product information is relevant to the customers searching for these products.
Automatically
If you want to spend as little time as possible on the Shopify product feeds, the best way is to use the third-party app that does everything for you.
The by Magefan is the best for the job.
The app generates and updates product feeds in Shopify automatically. You just set it up once and forget about it.
Let's see how it works.
1. Navigate to your Apps > Magefan Shopping Feeds > Product Feeds and hit the Add New Product Feed button. Then select any of the available Product Feed Templates.
We'll go with the Google Shopping feed.
Note: the Magefan app already fills out all the product feed fields for you. So, all you need to do at this point is just review all the data and click Generate to get the Shopify product feed.
2. Set the Name and File Name for your product feed.
3. Choose the Market and Locale if you have a few of them in your store.
4. Review the Mapped Attributes — Feed Attribute and Product Attribute — or set your Own Values if any. You can also add as many other attributes as you need.
5. Review the Content Options — Header, Item and Footer fields. No need to alter these. They are important technical details of your feed.
6. Define what products to include in the Shopify product feed by assigning rules to them. Create rules based on — product title, vendor, price, collection, tags and other attributes.
Note: if you want to include all products in the feed, just leave the preset "Product must match all conditions" filter.
To filter through products that are included in the product feed, choose whether a product should match all or only one of the conditions.
e.g. if you select "all conditions" and add multiple conditions, a product won't be included in the feed unless it matches all the conditions. However, if you set the "any conditions" filter, a product will be included in the feed if it matches at least one condition.
7. Hit Generate to start generating a feed, once all the information is reviewed.
Give the app a few seconds to create a Shopify product feed based on your settings. Then copy the link directly in the popup or view it in a separate tab.
Don't forget to Save the feed once you close the popup and upload it to a selected marketplace.
Pro tip: you can either upload the product feed link or a file to a corresponding marketing channel. However, the former ensures that your feed is updated dynamically. You won't need to do anything when you edit any product information within your store.
Shopify product feed is a powerful tool that allows you to populate your products within different channels. And you don't have to break your head over the technical side of the configuration. Magefan app will do everything for you.
