Best Practices for Configuring Product Feeds in Magento 2

In the world of eCommerce, product quality alone does not determine a store’s success. Instead, they are various factors which need to be considered, adding to the complexity of running a successful online store. One such factor is how well you have optimised and structured your product feeds.

It is quite obvious that Magento 2 store owners tap into Google Shopping, Facebook, Amazon, eBay, and other platforms to maximise product visibility. However, one needs to understand that simply integrating the Magento 2 store product catalogue with these platforms is not a guarantee of success.

Instead, merchants need to optimise the product feeds for the best results. How does one do that? It is precisely what we plan to discuss in today’s article. The focus will be on the best practices for configuring product feeds in Magento 2 for platforms like Google Shopping, Facebook, eBay, Bing, and others.

What is a Product Feed?

Before we move forward, let’s get a comprehensive understanding of product feeds. In simple terms, it is just a file containing structured information about all (or selected) products in your online store. The file can be CSV, XML, or any other format. The information can include details such as the product title, category, attributes, images, pricing, variants, availability, and more.

This file is used by third-party channels such as Google Shopping, eBay, Facebook, and others to display products to potential customers. Therefore, depending on how well your product feed is optimised, your products can enjoy a higher visibility since the platforms can understand the product in greater detail. Ultimately, this will lead to more clicks and conversions.

Steps for Configuring Product Feeds in Magento 2

It is pertinent to mention that Magento 2 has no in-built feature for creating a product feed. Instead, the only option for Magento users is to use a third-party extension such as FME’s Magento 2 Product Feed Extension. This extension allows merchants to configure a detailed product feed for eBay, Google Shopping, Facebook, and numerous other platforms.

Before diving into best practices, it’s important to understand how to configure product feeds in Magento 2. By default, Magento 2 does not provide built-in functionality for creating product feeds, but several extensions are available to generate customized product feeds for multiple platforms. It uses a variety of CSV and XML formats to create rich product feeds.

Apart from this, the extension allows you to set specific conditions for each product, allowing merchants to retain control over the products and how they are displayed. For more information about this extension, we recommend checking out its frontend and backend demos. It will give you an idea about the numerous features and how to configure it for your store.

Best Practices for Configuring Product Feeds in Magento 2

After setting up the product feed, it is important to optimise it. Here’s how to do it:

1. Use Accurate and Relevant Product Titles

First, always use accurate and relevant product titles. Suppose you are selling handbags. If you simply write the product as ‘black handbag’, it makes little to no sense at all. Instead, ‘black Dior leather bag women’ makes a lot more sense. Therefore, when writing product titles, look at them from the end user perspective. Do they communicate enough information that they warrant a click?

2. Optimise Product Descriptions

Secondly, keep in mind that all platforms utilise keywords to serve relevant content to their users. Therefore, merchants should try their best to insert primary or at least secondary keywords in the title or description. At the same time, don’t get carried away as this can lead to keyword stuffing.

Instead of improving your search visibility, keyword stuffing has the opposite effect. Also, merchants try to highlight unique information about the products to make them stand out. For example, use labels such as handcrafted or ethical sourcing to attract a specific niche of potential customers.

3. Ensure High-Quality Images

When shopping online, customers don’t have the luxury of feeling the product in their hands, trying it on, or looking at it from different angles. Instead, they only have images and/or videos to rely on. Therefore, we recommend merchants use high-quality images to allow users to view the product in detail.

One more thing, ensure that the background is consistent in all the images. Don’t include watermarks or any promotional text as it leads to negative user experience. Apart from this, Google Shopping and other platforms automatically reject such images.

4. Keep Pricing and Stock Information Up to Date

When buying online, customers spend hours researching different products, reading reviews, and conducting a cross comparison. So, after all this, if a customer finds out their selected product is out of stock, they won’t be happy. Therefore, update your product feed regularly. Most third-party extensions then automatically update the information across all platforms. Automation ensures fewer errors and higher user satisfaction.

5. Use Custom Labels for Segmentation

To further stand out from the competition and enhance online visibility, we recommend using custom labels. The labels can be ‘Best Seller’, ‘Limited Stock’, ‘50% Off’, ‘Seasonal Item’, or anything similar.

6. Map Correct Product Attributes

Online platforms like Google Shopping are quite strict when it comes to product attributes. For example, Google Shopping requires merchants to enter attributes such as the gtin (Global Trade Item Number) and brand. If a merchant enters incorrect information or tries to skip the process altogether, most platforms won’t display your products at all. Therefore, read the platform policies beforehand to avoid any penalties.

7. Regularly Audit and Improve Feed Quality

Even if you don’t make changes to your product catalogue, it is important to review the product feed. The purpose is to look for shortcomings that are undermining the feed’s performance across various platforms. Of course, doing it manually is not ideal nor recommended. Instead, use Magento 2’s in-built tools for this purpose.

You can also use a wide range of other tools such as Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel. These two are free to use and provide detailed insights into the feed’s performance. Based on the reports, make changes accordingly. Remember, product feed is not a set-it-and-forget-it type of process.

Conclusion

This concludes our take on the best practices for configuring product feeds in Magento 2. While these practices set you on the right path, there are not absolute. You may need to tweak them according to your store and other requirements. If you require help with a specific issue in your product feed, then reach out to our support team. They’ll identify the issue and recommend the best fix.