Sure, you built your business on your own, and you can probably manage your product feed going forward.
It’s possible... but is it optimal?
You might pour hours into your product data only for it to contain one tiny error that prevents products from showing up on your desired channels. This tragedy intensifies when you realize that you might never get to the bottom of that error.
That’s why you need to get back to actually running your business by enlisting the help of a product feed tool.
What is a product feed tool?
A product feed tool (otherwise known as a data feed tool or shopping feed tool) is software that enables the bulk optimization of product data and the automation of product feeds across multiple channels.
Using a product feed tool simplifies your life and boosts your business in a few key ways:
Multichannel selling
In order to sell across channels like Amazon, Google, and Facebook, your product data must be tweaked to meet the requirements of those channels.
With a product feed tool, data comes in structured one way, it gets optimized, and then gets pushed to your preferred channels.
How it needs to be, where you want it, when you want it – all while saving time and resources.
Multichannel selling is crucial to the success of your ecommerce store, and a product feed tool enables multichannel flexibility.
Automated optimization
You should never rely on unrefined data.
A product feed tool comes with features that enable easy data optimization – optimized data is key to successfully selling across channels.
Optimization happens in four key ways:
- Mapping - channel-specific fields get assigned to the fields used by your source data. With a few clicks, all relevant source data can be mapped to a new channel's schema.
- Rules - custom-made to your data's needs, rules simplify what would otherwise be a multitude of data-enhancing alternatives.
- Filters - specify which products get sent where. Take a full catalog of products and filter it at the feed level to designate which products to include on each channel.
- Categorization - manual, tool-assisted categorization or rule-based categorization ensures that your products get funneled into the right product category on each channel.
Don't just copy and paste your products across channels, sharpen them for peak effectiveness. With a product feed tool, bulk data optimization is automated and greatly simplified.
Increased conversions
A product feed tool doesn't just dump your data across multiple channels.
Well, it can... but it enables much more. You should never use the same unoptimized data across channels; the importance of optimization cannot be overstated.
Simple and automated bulk optimization isn't just for channel compliance (although that's pretty important). Properly formatted products – with proper SEO and channel-specific best practices in mind – yield increased (and more reliable) conversions.
A good product feed tool makes multichannel success more attainable and more sustainable.
Listing accuracy
Your product inventory is constantly changing – sometimes, it can be hard to keep up with.
With a product feel tool, that's hardly a concern. Product feed tools automatically update and submit your updated data multiple times a day to ensure that everything is as accurate as possible.
You can rest easy knowing that your shoppers are always seeing accurate information regarding your products. That’s just part of the magic behind a product feed tool.
Easy scalability
When you have hundreds, thousands of products available on your ecommerce store, managing your product data on your own becomes a nearly impossible feat; scalability becomes increasingly daunting.
Not with the right tool. Using a product feed tool gives your brand the best possible bet to scale.
With the right features and an organized approach, product feed tools create the perfect environment to nurture the growth of your ecommerce business. You won't have to worry about the minutiae of manually formatting your products, manually updating your inventory, or scaling without support.
The right software can enable easy scalability in what would otherwise be a very difficult situation.
Choose the right tool
The success of your campaigns relies upon the quality of your product data.
Product feed tools – including yours truly, GoDataFeed – greatly simplify the process of managing your product data.
If you're still be wondering: to use a product feed tool or not to use a product feed tool? Ask yourself this: Do I want to run my business, or do I want to get caught up in the endless task of manually managing my product data?
The right choice is pretty clear. Product feed automation is practically essential for the success of your business.
