Use Google’s New Online Product Inventory Update Feed For Frequent Changes
Do you find that certain attributes regarding your products changes frequently? Attributes such as:
- Price
- Availability
- Sales price
- Sales price effective date
If so, you’ll be happy to hear that making changes to this data can be done quickly by using Google’s Online Product Inventory Update Feeds. How it works is that you’ll continue to submit your full products feed; however, you’ll be able to use the online product inventory update feed to make changes to the attributes outlined above, for items you’ve already submitted in your full feed. The benefit here is that the update feeds are processed much faster than your full feeds, so Google Shopping will be able to display your most up-to-date information quicker.
How Do I Submit An Online Product Inventory Update Feed?
Glad you asked! As far as file type, you can submit the product inventory update feed either by a text or tab delimited file, or XML. What you’ll do is register a new data feed, but be sure to select “online product inventory update feed” for your feed type. It’s really as simple as that.
Okay, But When Should I Use The product Inventory Update Feed?
That, as well, isn’t too difficult. Just remember this: Your product feed is your main feed. It should be submitted every 30 days, and every time you submit a new product feed, it overwrites your previous feed (hence why it takes so long to process). The online product inventory update feed, on the other hand, can be submitted many times over, including several times throughout the day. Use it to update your price, availability, or sale price information, but only for items that you’ve already submitted with your full product feed! One of the best features of the online product inventory update feed is that even if something goes wrong with processing the feed, your main feed (product feed) won’t be impacted.
Consider yourself warned!
One of the habits we predict might happen is that online retailers will submit an online product inventory update feed, and will assume that update takes care their monthly required update to their main feed. It doesn’t. You still have to submit a full product feed at least every 30 days.
The 5 Possible Attributes For The Online Product Inventory Update Feed
There are 5 possible attributes in this field, including:
- ‘id’
- ‘price’
- ‘availability’
- ‘sale price’
- ‘sale price effective date’
The only required attribute is the ‘id’ attribute. It must match the ‘id’ value found within your full product feed so that the item is updated properly. The remaining attributes will be used depending on what and why you’re updating a product.
Get The Low Down On The Online Product Inventory Update Feed
Need a little help getting used to this online product inventory update feed? Or maybe you know that you need to make these frequent updates, but aren’t sure how or if you can manage it alone. Have no fear. OperationROI can help you wrangle the “online product inventory update feed” beast. Give us a call at 1-888-277-5429 or fill out or contact form to see how we can help you keep your products updated, and your customers happy.
