Product feeds: how to send your catalog to every channel without redoing it

What a feed is

A feed is how your catalog reaches another system. It can be a CSV file you upload to a marketplace, a file a channel reads periodically or an API connection that sends changes as they happen. In every case, the destination sets the rules:

• which columns it wants and under what names;
• in what order and with which separator;
• which values it accepts in each column, for example categories from its own tree or specific units;
• what is required to publish a product.

Google Merchant Center, for example, publishes a product data specification with the attributes it requires, the ones it recommends and those that only apply to certain products or countries.

One feed per channel, one product record

The classic mistake is keeping one spreadsheet per channel. At first it seems practical; a few months later each sheet says something different and nobody knows which is right.

The alternative is to have one product record per product and build one feed per channel from it. The feed decides which columns go out, under what name and in what format, but the data is the same. If you change the description, it changes in every feed.

What usually fails

1. Empty cells that erase. In some destinations, an empty column does not mean “no change” but “delete the value”. Sending an incomplete feed can erase data the channel already had.
2. Multi-value separators. If an attribute has several values and the destination expects a different separator from yours, the channel reads one strange value.
3. Encoding. A CSV that is not UTF-8 turns accented letters into symbols.
4. Categories that don't exist in the destination. Each channel has its own tree; sending yours as it is usually ends in rejection.
5. Inconsistent identifiers. The SKU or GTIN changes between uploads and the channel creates duplicate products.

Before sending: how many will be complete

Before generating a feed, it helps to know how many products will come out complete with the columns that channel requires and how many have a gap. With that count you decide whether to send everything, leave out incomplete products or complete what is missing first.

File or connection

A file is simple and works with almost any destination, but it depends on someone generating and uploading it. A connection —a module in the store or an API— sends changes without intervention, but it has to be set up once. Many catalogs use both: a connection with their own store and files for marketplaces.

Updating without breaking

The first feed is easy; keeping it up to date is the hard part. A few rules help:

• Change the record, never the file. If you fix a value in the file, the next export puts it back wrong.
• Don't change identifiers. The SKU and the variant group identifier must stay the same on every upload.
• Read each upload's error report. It is the most precise list of what the channel did not accept.
• Watch for column changes. If a channel adds a required field, adjust its feed before the next upload.

How Bruxel handles it

In Bruxel each channel defines its columns, order, multi-value separator and language, and you can start from a template. Before downloading you see how many products will come out complete, and you can leave incomplete rows out so nothing gets erased at the destination. Exporting costs no credits. For your own store, Bruxel connects natively with Adobe Commerce and has a public API with notifications (webhooks) for any other system. The export guide shows it step by step, and the Adobe Commerce guide explains the module.

Where to start

Pick the channel that sells the most and download its data specification. Compare it against your catalog: which columns you already have, which are missing and which have a different format. That comparison is your first work list, and the first feed worth automating.