Automatic feed creation for product catalogs in Shopware

Automatic feed creation for product catalogs is an essential feature for modern online stores that want to present their products on various platforms such as Google Shopping, Facebook Ads, Instagram Shopping, price comparison portals or marketplaces (e.g. Amazon or eBay). Shopware makes it possible to create and regularly update product feeds easily and efficiently.

Here are the most important points you should know about automatic feed creation for Shopware stores:

1. advantages of automatic product feeds

An automatically generated product feed offers several advantages:

1. Time saving: Manual updating of product catalogs is no longer necessary as Shopware generates and updates the feeds automatically.
2. Data consistency: Changes to products (prices, stock status, descriptions, etc.) are automatically transferred to the feeds.
3. Scalability: An automated solution is indispensable for large product catalogs with hundreds or thousands of items.
4. Cross-platform reach: Products can be advertised and offered on various platforms (Google Shopping, Facebook, etc.) via feeds, which improves visibility and conversion rates.

2. functionality of feeds in Shopware

In Shopware, you can use product exports and plugins to create product feeds that are tailored to the requirements of the respective platforms.

How does it work?

• Data export in the right format: Product data such as name, price, description, images, stock status, etc. are exported in a structured format – e.g. CSV, XML or JSON.
• Customizability: The feeds can be adapted specifically for the platform (e.g. Google Shopping or Facebook). Here, fields are mapped to the respective requirements (e.g. price, availability, brand, etc.).
• Automatic updating: Feeds are created at regular intervals (e.g. hourly, daily) and uploaded to a server or provided with a URL that is read by the platforms.

3. automatic creation of feeds in Shopware

Shopware provides functions for product data output as standard, which can be controlled via product exports. Plugins are also available to make the process even easier.

Option 1: Standard product exports from Shopware

Shopware 6 offers the option of creating your own product data feeds at Einstellungen → Kataloge → Produkt-Exporte.

• Here you can configure the feed type (e.g. Google Product Feed, CSV, XML) and data fields.
• Simple templates are provided, e.g. for Google Shopping.

An example of a Google Shopping XML feed customization:

<item>
    <g:id>{$product.id}</g:id>
    <g:title>{$product.translated.name|escapeHtml}</g:title>
    <g:link>{$product.url|escape}</g:link>
    <g:price>{$product.calculatedPrice.totalPrice}</g:price>
    <g:availability>{% if $product.available %}in stock{% else %}out of stock{% endif %}</g:availability>
</item>

Option 2: Plugins for product feeds

To optimize and extend the feed creation, you can use plugins from the Shopware Store. Examples:

• Google Shopping Product Feed: Enables automated feeds specifically for Google Shopping.
• Store information & price comparison feed creation: Exports data for price comparison portals.
• Facebook Product Feed: Creates feeds that are specifically geared towards Facebook Ads and Instagram Shopping.

Option 3: External tools

You can also use third-party tools and feed creation services such as Channable, DataFeedWatch or ShoppingFeeder. These tools help you to create and optimize feeds across platforms. They often offer additional features such as:

• Automatic mapping of attributes.
• Error checking and quality assessment of the feeds.
• A/B testing for product data (e.g. different titles / keywords).

4. requirements and best practices for feed creation

There are a few important points to bear in mind to ensure that your feeds are optimally displayed and accepted on platforms such as Google Shopping:

Important fields in product feeds

Most platforms require the following basic data fields:

• id: A unique product ID.
• title: Product name, optimally with keyword integration.
• description: A consistent, clear product description.
• link: URL to the product page in the store.
• image_link: URL to the product image.
• price: The price, incl. currency.
• availability: stock status of the product (in stock, out of stock, etc.).
• brand: Brand name.
• gtin/mpn: Global trade number or manufacturer article number (important for Google Shopping).

Best practices for feeds

• Regular updates: Make sure that prices, availability and stock levels are always up to date to avoid rejections or incorrect ads on platforms.
• Optimized titles and descriptions: Create search engine friendly titles and descriptions to increase the findability of products (keywords, specific features etc.).
• Quality of the images: Use high-resolution images that meet the specifications of the respective platform (e.g. minimum size 800×800 pixels for Google Shopping).

Typical errors (pitfalls)

• Invalid feed formats: Incorrect encoding (UTF-8 required) or missing fields lead to rejections.
• Missing data fields: Not all platforms accept incomplete feeds, e.g. GTINs or prices are sometimes missing.
• Incorrect stock status: Check carefully whether “Availability” is displayed correctly, otherwise “unavailable” products could be listed or available ones rejected.

5. automatic updates & scheduler

One of the greatest strengths of automatic feed creation lies in the planning of regular updates. In Shopware, you can set up cronjobs for the export function that create feeds at a fixed interval. This works like this, for example:

1. Activate cronjobs in Shopware (provided they have been activated in the server configuration):

php bin/console scheduled-task:register

Create a cronjob (e.g. at /etc/crontab) for the daily feed generation, for example with the console command contab -e

0 2 * * * php /path/to/shopware/bin/console scheduled-task:run > /dev/null 2>&1

Examples and areas of application

• Google Shopping Feed: One of the most common applications. Shopware generates structured feeds that are uploaded to Google Merchant Center to create ads on Google Shopping.
• Facebook & Instagram Shopping: Selling products on social media – Shopware creates feeds for the Facebook product catalog manager.
• Price comparison portals (e.g. Idealo): Automated feeds ensure that prices and availability are always up to date.

Automatic feed creation in Shopware is an indispensable tool for making your products available on various platforms quickly and easily. It saves time, reduces errors and ensures that your product catalog is always up to date – whether on Google, social media or price comparison portals. By using plugins or third-party tools, you can also significantly increase the quality and efficiency of your feeds.