To create a product feed ChannelAdvisor has provided a simple guide that walks you through each step of the process. Whether you are creating a feed designated for a Comparison Shopping Engine or a Flex Feed designated for any other destination you will need to complete each step of the guide starting with the first step of designating the feed destination.

Prerequisites

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There are a couple of steps that that should be completed before beginning the feed creation process. 

1. Category Mapping -  Many Comparison Shopping Engines require categories to be designated in order to ensure that your products display in the most appropriate provider categories. The process of mapping your existing categories to the defined taxonomy for each site is referred to as “Category Mapping”.You will need to contact your provider to verify if this is a requirement.
    
2. Reference Field Mapping -  Once your inventory is in the system and prior to creating any feeds, you'll need to let ChannelAdvisor know which fields in your ChannelAdvisor Complete inventory contain the data to be used in your feeds.  The process of populating these fields is referred to as 'Reference Field Mapping'. If your inventory fields are properly mapped ChannelAdvisor will replace the reference field with the corresponding inventory field on all default templates. This will ultimately save you time and effort during the feed creation process.

 

Tasks to Complete

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Once you enter the Feed Creation Guide you will need to complete a series of steps beginning with the selection of your feed destination. To enter the guide follow the steps below.

1. Navigate to your Feeds > Product Mapping > Feeds view. 
2. Select the New Feed button. 
3. Choose a feed destination site (Comparison Shopping or Flex Feed).

 

Selecting a Comparison Shopping Feed Destination

On the Comparison Shopping Engine tab you will see a list of the CSE sites that ChannelAdvisor supports. 

1. Select the desired CSE from the list (If you don't see the desired option you will need to create a Flex Feed).
2. Give your feed a descriptive name (The name will default to the name of the selected CSE).
3. Enter the FTP credentials supplied by the Account Manager of the Shopping Provider in question. For many shopping providers we have provided the correct domain of the CSE's ftp site, you just need to provide a filename and potentially a folder name.  If we have not provided the correct ftp domain, you should specify the entire ftp path starting with "ftp". and ending with the file name, using ".txt" extension. (Example:  e.g. ftp://upload.ftp.com/folder/filename.txt)
4. Optionally, provide your CSE merchant account login (This will allow ChannelAdvisor to monitor your feeds and trouble shoot any issues more easily).
5. Select Next to continue.

Selecting a Flex Feed Destination

On the Flex Feeds tab you will see a list of feed destinations that ChannelAdvisor Supports as well as any custom sites that you may have already created.

1. Select the desired Flex Feed site (If you don't see the desired option you will need to create a new Flex Feed site) 
   • Select the 'Create New' button. 
   • Give your feed destination a descriptive name 
2. If you chose to create your own destination, classify the Site by selecting one of the available classification options from the dropdown menu. 
• Affiliate
• Other
• Personalization
• Retargeting
• Review 
3. Choose to track the performance of the feed or not.  All user-created destinations use our parameterized tracking, which appends a tracking parameter to your URL and does not use redirects.  
4. Give your feed a descriptive name (The name will default to the name of the selected Flex Feed). 
5. Enter the FTP credentials supplied by your Provider.
• The format of the 'Complete FTP Url' should include the entire ftp path starting with "ftp". and ending with the file name, using ".txt" extension. (Example -  ftp://upload.ftp.com/folder/filename.txt)
• To use a secure FTP format on a user-created destination, begin your URL with sftp://, ftps:// (for implicit SSL), or ftpes:// (for explicit SSL).  Before using a secure FTP format, you should verify that the destination FTP server supports one of these formats. 
6. Select Next to continue.

 

Setting Up Cost Data

Cost Data refers to the advertising costs incurred when working with Comparison Shopping Engines (CSEs).  Most shopping engines will use a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) cost model that charges a small fee based on each time a shopper clicks on one of your items and is redirected to your online store. Cost Data is important to incorporate into Performance Reporting in order to understand the profitability and success of your advertising with CSEs.  

Currently only 6 providers are equipped to return cost data to ChannelAdvisor. To learn more about configuring this setting please refer to the Setting Up Cost Data page of the SSC. 

For the remaining CSE providers who do not return Actual Cost data, ChannelAdvisor has set up an Estimated Cost value.  Estimated Cost is an approximate average CPC that is multiplied by the traffic we track coming from a CSE. Follow the steps below to setup your estimated cost data:  

1. Enter in the CPC dollar amount
2. (Optional) Choose to adjust your click to pixel ratio. This will be set to 100% by default.
3. (Optional) Enter a start and end date 
4. Or choose the default settings