Selling your merchandise across multiple channels is a great way to reach a wider audience of potential customers. However, it also makes things like managing inventory and product listings a lot more complicated. This is where an omnichannel product feed comes into the picture, and it's a must-have for any eCommerce store engaged in cross-channel selling.
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But what does product feed management look like, exactly, when you're managing multiple sales channels? In this ultimate guide to eCommerce feed management, we'll go over the product feed optimization tips and best practices you can use to make multi-channel feed management your brand's superpower!
What Is Product Feed Management?
It may help to think of product feed management as product data management, because that's essentially what it is. It's defined as the process of organizing, optimizing, and distributing product data across multiple online platforms. The data may include things like product titles, descriptions, prices, images, and any other key information you want to share with shoppers.
Effective multi-channel feed management helps ensure that all your product data is accurate and consistent across sales channels. That way, your customers can enjoy a consistent shopping experience regardless of where they buy your products.
Common Marketplaces and Platforms for Product Feeds
Today, there are a lot of different marketplaces where eCommerce stores can sell their products, and each marketplace has its own unique requirements for product data. A few of the more popular marketplaces and platforms include:
- Google Shopping: This is a primary channel for product ads, and it requires structured product data management for improved visibility in search results.
- Amazon: The king of eCommerce, Amazon offers extensive exposure but has strict product data requirements to meet customer expectations and ensure search relevancy.
- Facebook Marketplace: Blending online shopping and social engagement, Facebook Marketplace has become an increasingly popular shopping destination in recent years.
- Walmart Marketplace: This is a growing marketplace with a unique customer base and specific feed requirements, especially when it comes to product attributes.
If you want to sell your products across these channels in addition to your BigCommerce store (and you certainly should!), then an optimized omnichannel product feed is a necessity.
Best Practices for Product Feed Optimization
Optimizing your product feed for each marketplace is a major key to eCommerce feed management. To maximize visibility and performance across platforms, here are some best practices for optimizing each aspect of your product data:
- Product Titles: Make titles descriptive and keyword-rich, but ensure they don’t exceed a marketplace's character limits.
- Descriptions: Write compelling descriptions that clearly convey value and align with the marketplace’s SEO requirements.
- Images: Use high-quality product photos that meet each platform's specific size and format guidelines.
- Attributes: Ensure product attributes like size, color, and material are filled out correctly. This supports better filtering and discovery on platforms like Amazon and Walmart.
It's always important to carefully research the specific guidelines each platform has for product feeds. To help you get started, here are a couple of useful guides to product feeds for Amazon and product feeds on Google Shopping. Our professional eCommerce development service can also assist you by creating or optimizing your company’s marketplace feeds.
Key Metrics to Track for Product Feed Success
Product feed management can ultimately have a big impact on how well your products perform. To measure the success of your product feed management strategy, here are a few key metrics to track:
- Product Visibility: Track the reach and frequency of impressions to assess how well products are displayed across channels.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): Your click-through rate reflects engagement levels and can help you gauge the appeal of your listings.
- Conversion Rates: Track the purchases generated by each platform to evaluate the effectiveness of product listings and audience targeting.
- Error-Free Listings: This is an important health metric because errors in feeds can lead to penalties or removal from some marketplaces.
If you want to further evaluate the effectiveness of your eCommerce store, be sure to sign up for Groove Commerce's free eCommerce website audit! Or, check out our case studies to see how we've helped other eCommerce companies optimize their product data feeds.
Conclusion
If you’d like to successfully sell your products across multiple sales channels, wise product feed optimization and management are essential. By taking the time to carefully set up product feeds, you can ensure that your items look the same on every marketplace and the listings are optimized for top-notch results.
Want to learn more about how to achieve omnichannel success with better product feed management? Feel free to contact Groove Commerce today for a free consultation!
