Product Feed Specification

The first step to getting the Site Search 360 ecommerce search up and running in your online shop is to add a product feed.

You can upload your feed or provide a feed URL under Feeds. If you do not see a Feeds section, please sign up for a trial of our ecommerce search or contact support.

This guide outlines the requirements for a product feed to be successfully processed by the Site Search 360 ecommerce engine.

Product Search Feature

This is available in all plans with the ecommerce search feature as well as in the Site Search 360 apps and extensions for Shopify, Shopware, Adobe Commerce, Oxid, and Modified.

Basic data feed fields

Field Name

Description

Example

Required?

Unique Identifier

Unique product ID from your ecommerce system database (e.g., article number, SKU, MPN, EAN, order number, or similar)

79002A33_RD

yes

Product Name

Product name or title

Canon EOS 4000D DSLR Camera

yes

Product URL

Absolute canonical URL to the product detail page

http://example.com/products/product?id=2417

yes

Image URL

Absolute URL path to the product image

http://example.com/assets/product_images/3234.jpg

yes

Product Category or Breadcrumb

Category path, product type, or navigational breadcrumbs

Home > Camera&Photo > Digital Camera > Digital SLRs

yes

Group identifier

ID used for clustering your product variants into one master product from your e-commerce system database.

If this doesn't apply to your products, ignore this column.

79002A33

no. Recommended if you want to group product variants in one result card instead of showing a result per variant

Product Description

Long or short text description of the product

The Canon EOS 4000D is a combination of high image quality, incredible performance and superior features that satisfies the needs of the most demanding professional or advanced amateur photographer.

no

Price

Current available price (currency can be set later)

$359.95

no

Manufacturer

Product manufacturer or brand

Canon

no

Global Trade Item Number (GTIN)

There are different types:

• UPC (in North America/GTIN-12): 12-digit number (convert 8-digit UPC-E codes to 12-digit codes)

• EAN (in Europe/GTIN-13): 13-digit number

• ISBN (for books): 13-digit number (convert ISBN-10 to ISBN-13). If you have both, include only the 13-digit number

012345678905

no. If you have it, make sure to map it to the "articleNumber" field when importing your product feed.

Manufacturer's part number (MPN)

Manufacturer-assigned part or model number

4000D

no

Product attributes or features

Additional product attributes or features

E.g., dimensions, material, display size, memory size, etc.

no

Meta Attributes

Any meta attributes that can be used for ranking purposes.

E.g., sales count, availability, CTR etc. See more examples below.

no

User Reviews

User reviews including soft, subjective attributes.

Nice design, long battery life.

no

2. Meta attributes and business metrics to include in the feed

The following are additional parameters that the Site Search 360 engine can process and apply for different ranking strategies:

  • Stock Availability

  • Internal margin, e.g., final price minus purchase price / profit margin

  • Private label indicator (isPrivate flag)

  • Number of customer ratings

  • Average customer rating

  • Sales figures / Sales rank / Sold amount

  • Discount

  • Has delivery costs

  • Max delivery days

  • Return rate

  • Cancellation rate

  • Previous click-through rates per product. Note: if the Site Search 360 tracking script is integrated, this information is already available in Site Search 360

  • Product list CTR

  • Release date to push new products

  • Click-to-cart/add-to-basket rate per product

  • Product rating numbers from other systems (e.g., Prudsys Bestseller, Amazon rating)

3. Integrating your feed into Site Search 360

Check out our video tutorial:

There are several ways to transfer your product data to Site Search 360. Start by going to Data Sources > Feeds and select one of the available options:

  • Site Search 360 downloads a *.csv file at agreed times via HTTP from a specified URL.

  • Site Search 360 downloads a *.csv file at agreed times via FTP from a specified server. Note: This is a custom importer - please reach out to our support team for help with the setup.

  • Upload a *.csv file to an FTP server of Site Search 360, Site Search 360 checks the directory for changes and starts with the product update as soon as a new feed is available. Note: This is a custom importer - please reach out to our support team for help with the setup.

  • Use of the SS360 ecommerce extensions: Magento, Shopware, Oxid, Modified Shop, Shopify* (coming soon).

  • Connect your ecommerce platform or inventory control system/PIM to the Site Search 360 API. This also allows individual products to be updated quickly.

Incremental updates are also possible. A full update should be run once a night to ensure a consistent dataset.

4. Structure of a perfect Data Feed in CSV format:

A semicolon should be used as the primary separator (";"), the pipe symbol ("|") as the secondary separator.

Note: please make sure that you have one product per line.

Option 1

All product attributes in one column delimited by a secondary separator (default: pipe symbol). Example:

name

attributes

iPhone 13 case

color = silver | feature = slim | material = plastic

The secondary separator can also be used for the categoryPath attribute.

Download a sample feed: https://cdn.sitesearch360.com/sample%20CSV%20product%20feed%20option%201.csv

Option 2

An attribute per column. Example:

name

color

feature

material

iPhone 13 case

silver

slim

plastic