Feed management & automation: an insight into the world of product data marketing


From the top:
What actually is a data feed?

A data feed or product feed is

the digital file that contains an overview of the articles that are online

to be advertised online. This includes features such as title, color, size,

EAN/GTIN number and other product-specific characteristics. Data feeds

are not only used for physical goods, but can also be used for

can also contain information about travel offers or job advertisements and are thus

used in a wide variety of industries.

A data feed is usually available in formats such as XML, CSV or as a text file. As soon as a merchant uses an e-commerce platform to build his own online store, this file can usually be easily exported from the store system. Otherwise, a user-defined file (a custom file) is the starting point for feed management.

Why

is the management of a data feed so important?

Retailers using price comparison sites,

marketplaces, or affiliate networks, know that these channels can be

need product information in a fixed format, which can be easily

likely to be different from the format of their original data feed.

Exporting the product catalog for different platforms thus brings with it

that the product feed is also provided in different formats.

must be provided. 

2020 marks the year when even the last retailers will have realized the importance of online shopping compared to stationary sales.

Forecasts show that 70% of consumers will prefer the Internet for shopping for the time being, and the major advantages of online retailing - convenience, choice and price comparison - will be more important than ever.

On the part of retailers, the trend in eCommerce is increasingly moving in the direction of a multichannel strategy, combining major platforms such as Amazon or Google Shopping with niche channels in their own industry. The broader the range of channels used, the greater the sales opportunities - but also the effort required to create the feed. This is where a feed management tool comes into play.

The SaaS solution allows advertisers to reproduce their original data feed multiple times. Each time, the product information is modified with respect to the requirements of an import channel, while the original file remains. With a feed management tool, a feed is enriched with additional data, product information is filtered and content is optimized based on an if-then rule system.


Perfect

Product data is the future of e-commerce

Particularly in view of the wide range of marketing channels that is becoming increasingly important for many retailers, the importance of clever product data marketing and automation is also growing. However, fear of loss of control often arises at the same time, which quickly proves to be unfounded.
On the contrary, feed automation makes it possible to first fully overview and monitor one's own data in order to turn the decisive screws oneself without having to rely on the tech know-how of IT specialists. In this way, merchants gain autonomy and often improve the quality of their export feeds quite incidentally. A feed management tool minimizes the risk of errors and identifies problems in the feed before they are transmitted to an export channel.

In addition, Feed Management is easily extensible and lays the foundation for a

automation in online marketing. Creation features

dynamic SEA campaigns, order synchronization with marketplaces, or a

integration with Google Analytics, with which

performance learnings can be applied directly to channels, are further

puzzle pieces of optimized product data marketing.


Conclusion

.

The topic of marketing automation has long ceased to be a question of "if" and is also becoming less and less a question of "when."
Retailers who want to advertise through third-party vendors and have not yet taken the step toward product data marketing are increasingly confronted with optimization solutions and are actively engaging with them. In order to keep up with the competition and consolidate, build or defend their own market position, the use of a smart feed management solution is the key to success.

This was a guest post by Channable.