Product data · 11 Nov 2026 · 9 min read
Product feed explained: what it is and what it needs
A product feed is the file that carries your catalogue to shopping channels. This guide covers what goes in it, where the data comes from and how to stop it drifting away from your website.
The short answer
A product feed is a structured file or data connection that lists every product you sell, with fields such as ID, title, description, link, image, price and availability. Shopping channels read it to build listings and ads. Keep it accurate by treating your store as the single source of truth, syncing automatically and checking it against the live pages.
What a product feed is and who reads it
A product feed is a structured list of the products you sell, written in a format that a shopping channel can read. Each entry is one sellable item. Each field inside an entry, such as the title, the price or the image address, is called an attribute. Google Merchant Center, social shopping tools and comparison sites all take a product feed and turn it into listings or ads.
Google's Merchant Center help now calls the place where product data lives a data source, and treats "feed" as the older word. Both are still in everyday use. This guide says product feed for the data itself and data source for the connection you set up inside Merchant Center.
Your website already holds all of this information for human shoppers. The feed repackages it for machines. That is why nearly every feed problem comes down to one of two faults: the feed is missing something the channel requires, or the feed says something different from the page the shopper lands on. The rest of this guide is about preventing both.
A feed is not the same thing as structured data. Structured data is markup inside each product page that describes the product to search engines. Merchant Center can use structured data, and it can also read products from your site automatically, but a feed gives you direct control over exactly what is sent and when.
The data a product feed needs
Requirements differ by country, product category and channel, so treat this table as a map and read the current product data specification for your market before you build anything. For standard online products Google lists ID, title, description, link, image link, price and availability as required. The other rows apply to many products, and Google's help says when each one is required.
| Attribute | What it holds | Where it usually goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| ID | A unique, stable code for each product, usually the SKU | IDs change when the catalogue is re-imported, so the channel sees old products as new ones. Google's help says to keep an ID unchanged when you update your data |
| Title | The product name as a shopper would search for it | Supplier wording copied unchanged, or sale slogans that do not belong in a name |
| Description | Plain wording that says what the product is and does | Left empty, or one sentence reused for every variant |
| Link | The address of the product page | Points to a redirect, to a page showing a different product, or to a domain other than the one you verified |
| Image link | The main product photo | Shows a logo, a placeholder, promotional text or a watermark instead of the product |
| Price | What the shopper pays, with the currency | Differs from the page, or treats tax differently from the page |
| Availability | In stock, out of stock, preorder or backorder | Says in stock while the page says sold out |
| Brand, GTIN, MPN | The maker's name and the product codes | Guessed or invented codes, or spreadsheets that strip the zeros from the start of a code |
| Item group ID | Ties together variants such as sizes and colours | Missing, so every variant looks like an unrelated product |
| Shipping | The delivery cost to the destination country | Left out in countries where the channel requires it |
| Condition | New, used or refurbished | Left blank on used or refurbished stock, where it is needed |
Identifiers need particular care. Submit a GTIN only when you are sure it is correct, because Google's help says never to guess or invent one. If a product has no manufacturer-assigned GTIN, Google asks for the brand and an MPN instead. For your own-label products, the SKU can serve as the MPN and your store name as the brand.
Where the data comes from
Product data should start in one place, normally your store platform or inventory system, and flow outwards from there. Typing it again into a separate spreadsheet creates a second copy, and second copies drift. How the data reaches Google depends on the size of the catalogue and the technical help you have.
| Method | How it works | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| File upload | You upload a text, XML or TSV file, or fill in a Google Sheets template. A direct upload does not update itself, so you upload again after every change | A small catalogue that rarely changes |
| Scheduled fetch | Merchant Center collects a file from a web address you give it, on a schedule you can change | Stores whose platform or plugin can publish a feed file |
| SFTP or cloud storage | Files are delivered to a location Google reads, and the data refreshes when a new file arrives | Stores with a developer or an inventory system that exports files |
| Merchant API | Software sends product changes directly. Google's help says it suits large catalogues or frequent changes and needs technical knowledge. The older Content API for Shopping is deprecated | Large or fast-changing catalogues with developer support |
| Automatic collection | Merchant Center reads products from your online store, or from an ecommerce platform you connect | A starting point for stores with clean product pages |
Automatic collection has a limit. Google's help says automatic item updates suit a small part of the catalogue and do not replace accurate product data, so do not treat them as the whole plan.
On a hosted platform the feed usually comes from a built-in sales channel or an app, and apps are a running cost, as the guide to Shopify store costs beyond the plan explains. On a custom build, the feed export is a feature that someone has to specify and build, which is one of the differences discussed in custom ecommerce website vs Shopify. Either way, check the platform's own documentation for what it can send.
How to keep a product feed accurate
Accuracy means the feed says what the page says, every time a shopper clicks. Google compares the two. It can disapprove products whose price or availability in your data does not match the landing page, and a mismatch can also count towards enforcement on the whole account, beyond the single item.
Make the store the single source of truth
Change prices and stock in the store only. Edit the feed by hand just to correct a data fault, never to change a price. If a spreadsheet really is your source, name one person as its owner and agree when it is updated.
Match the page as Google receives it
Google's help says its crawler reads the HTML your server returns, so a price or stock message filled in by JavaScript after the page loads can look like a mismatch. Put the price in the page that arrives from the server. Availability should agree across the product page, the checkout, any structured data and the feed.
Watch the timing
If the site updates at one moment and the feed is collected much later, shoppers see the gap. Google's help suggests matching the scheduled fetch time to your website's regular updates. Sale prices need start and end dates, and those dates need the right time zone. A sale that ends on the site but not in the feed is a mismatch.
Do not hide stock problems
Marking a product as out of stock to take it off Google for a while is the wrong tool. Merchant Center has a pause option for temporary breaks, so check the current documentation for how it works and how long a pause can last.
Treat automatic updates as a safety net
Merchant Center can correct price and availability from your landing pages. Google's help says this may not suit products whose price or stock changes more than once a day, so a store with fast-moving stock still needs a proper sync.
Variants, bundles and multipacks
Each variant is a separate product in the feed. A mug sold in four colours is four entries, each with its own ID, its own image and its own availability, and all four share one item group ID. Google's help says not to squeeze several colours or sizes into a single value.
Clothing and shoes need more. Colour, size, gender and age group are required for apparel in free listings, and size is required for clothing and shoes in several major markets. Google asks for "unisex" when a garment has no gender. The exact list depends on your country and category, so check the specification.
This is where store set-up and feed quality meet. If your platform keeps sizes and colours as options inside one product, the feed tool must split them into separate entries, each with the right image and stock count. Test a few multi-option products first.
Bundles follow their own rule. If the manufacturer created the bundle, Google's help says to use the bundle's codes. If you created it, use the main product's codes. A bundle also needs its own price and its own availability, and that availability depends on every part being in stock.
Using the same clean data on your own site
The attributes that feed Google also drive your own store. Consistent colour, size, material and brand values in the feed are the same values that filters and the search box rely on. A shopper who types "navy" finds nothing if half the catalogue says "dark blue". The guide to improving ecommerce site search shows how those fields shape results.
Titles and descriptions follow the same logic. Write them for the shopper first, then reuse the plain facts in the feed: product name, then the detail a buyer searches on, such as size or colour. The guide to writing product descriptions that sell covers the page copy that the feed draws from.
Pricing rules need a decision. If you run member-only prices through a loyalty programme, decide which price counts as the product price on the page and send that same price in the feed. A feed that carries a price the public page does not show is a mismatch waiting to happen.
A weekly check for whoever owns the feed
- Open the issues report in Merchant Center and read every error and warning, not just the count.
- Spot-check a handful of products against the live page on a phone: price, availability, image and link.
- Look at what changed this week: new products, sale items, restocks and sell-outs.
- Confirm that scheduled fetches or syncs ran, and when they last ran.
- Write down what you changed and why, so the next person can tell a one-off fix from a rule.
If the feed needs development work, such as an export from a custom store, the ecommerce solutions page describes the store building and development work Liftup Technologies does.
Related guides
- Ecommerce solutions
- How to write product descriptions that sell
- Custom ecommerce website vs shopify
- Ecommerce Site Search: How to Improve Results
- Product photography for online stores basics
- Wishlists and save for later for online stores
Questions and answers
What is a product feed?
A product feed is a structured file or data connection that lists every product you sell, with attributes such as ID, title, price, availability, image and link. Shopping channels read it to build listings and ads. In Google Merchant Center the older word feed has been replaced by data source.
What data does a product feed need?
For standard online products Google lists ID, title, description, link, image link, price and availability as required. Brand, GTIN or MPN, an item group ID for variants and shipping details apply to many products too. Requirements change by country and category, so check the current product data specification.
How do I keep a product feed accurate?
Make your store the single source of truth, sync the feed automatically and make sure price and availability match the live page. Match fetch times to site updates, give sale prices start and end dates, and read the issues report every week.
Can I use a spreadsheet as a product feed?
Yes, for a small catalogue. Google accepts text, XML and TSV files and a Google Sheets template. The risk is staleness, because an uploaded file does not update itself. A scheduled fetch from a web address, or a platform sync, reduces that risk.
Is a product feed the same as structured data?
No. Structured data is markup on each product page, while a feed is a separate list you send to the channel. Merchant Center can use either, and it can also collect products from your site. A feed gives the most direct control over what is sent.
Do product variants need separate entries?
Yes. Each size or colour is its own product with its own ID, image and availability, and all of them share one item group ID. Do not combine several colours or sizes in one value.
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