The Shopify Products feed is a versatile solution for managing your product data efficiently within the Shopify platform. Whether you're introducing new products, modifying existing details, or removing outdated items, this tool streamlines the process, ensuring your product information stays accurate and up to date. With GoDataFeed's Shopify Products feed template, you can seamlessly import product catalogs from diverse e-commerce channels like Walmart or Amazon, facilitating the creation of a new Shopify catalog. This integration simplifies tasks such as adding new products, updating existing ones, and removing outdated items, providing a comprehensive solution for effective product management.
Capabilities and Limitations
Capabilities:
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Product Creation: Introduce entirely new products to your Shopify store.
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Product Updates: Modify existing product details, including titles, descriptions, pricing, and more.
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Product Deletion: Remove products from your store that are no longer being sold.
Limitations:
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Inventory Management: The Products feed cannot be used to directly update inventory levels. This needs to be done through a separate Inventory feed or manually within Shopify.
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Image Management: Similar to inventory, product images cannot be managed through this feed. Image updates require manual intervention or alternative methods.
Required Fields
While the specific requirements might vary depending on your setup and goals, several fields are generally considered essential for the product feed:
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SKU: This unique identifier helps distinguish each product within your inventory.
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Title: The name of your product, displayed prominently on your store.
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Description: A detailed explanation of your product, often including features, benefits, and specifications.
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Price: The selling price of your product.
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Status: Indicates whether the product is active, draft, or archived.
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Product Category: Categorizes your product within the Shopify product taxonomy (available at https://help.shopify.com/txt/product_taxonomy/en.txt) for better organization and tax calculations.
Optional Fields
The Products feed offers a wide range of optional fields that provide additional flexibility and control over your product data:
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Vendor: The name of the product's manufacturer or supplier.
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Product Type: A custom label you define to categorize your product beyond the standard Shopify taxonomy.
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Tags: Keywords or phrases associated with your product for easier search and filtering.
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Options: Defines custom product options, such as size, color, or material.
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Metafields: Allows you to store additional product information not covered by the standard fields. See the "Metafields" section for more details on creating and using them.
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Product Media: Links to parent product images or videos hosted externally or on Shopify. Use
productMedia1
toproductMedia5
fields for URLs andproductMediaType1
toproductMediaType5
to specify the type of media. -
Media Source: refers to the origin of media files associated with variant products in the Shopify feed. This field provides links to images or videos related to variant products, which may be hosted either externally or within the Shopify platform. It enables the specification of the source location for media assets linked to each variant product.
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Handle: A unique string used in the product's URL.
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SEO Title and Description: Optimized titles and descriptions for better search engine visibility.
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Gift Card: Indicates whether the product is a gift card.
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Requires Shipping: Specifies if the product requires physical shipping.
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Inventory Policy and Management: Determines how inventory is tracked and managed for the product.
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Compare At Price: The original price of a product, used to show a discount.
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Barcode: The product's barcode information.
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Weight and Weight Unit: The product's weight for shipping calculations.
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Collections to Join and Leave: Specifies collections the product should be added to or removed from.
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Taxable: Indicates whether the product is subject to sales tax.
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Harmonized System Code: The product's HS Tariff code for international shipping.
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Fulfillment Service ID: The ID of a fulfillment service that handles the product.
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Inventory Item Cost: The unit cost associated with the inventory item.
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Inventory Item Tracked: Whether the inventory item is tracked.
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Location ID and Available Quantity: Allows specifying inventory levels for up to five different locations using
locationId1
tolocationId5
andavailableQuantity1
toavailableQuantity5
.
Additional Considerations
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Parent SKU: This field is used to establish relationships between products and their variants when a Shopify parentId is not available.
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Multiple Locations: The feed allows specifying inventory levels for up to five different locations.
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Feed Structure: The feed typically uses a CSV (comma-separated values) format.
By understanding the capabilities, limitations, and available fields within the Shopify Products feed, you can optimize your product data management and ensure accurate and efficient information flow within your Shopify store. Remember to consult the official Shopify documentation for the latest specifications and best practices.
Feed Template Parameters
To utilize the Shopify Product Feed template within GoDataFeed, you'll need to provide specific credentials to establish a connection and enable data transfer:
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Base URL: The web address of your Shopify store, such as https://your-store.myshopify.com.
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Admin Access Token: A unique and secure token generated within your Shopify admin panel. This token grants GoDataFeed access to your store's Admin API for product imports and updates.
Retrieving Admin Access Token
If you've previously set up a Shopify import in GoDataFeed, you can easily retrieve the Admin Access Token:
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Navigate to the GoDataFeed app.
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Click on "Import" and select "Primary Source".
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Click on "OAuth Token" to access the token associated with your Shopify import.
Import Source Setup
Quantity
For accurate inventory management, ensure your import source contains a field representing the quantity of each product available. This will enable proper synchronization of stock levels between your source and Shopify. Map this quantity field to the corresponding "availableQuantity1" field in the Shopify Products feed template.
Metafields
Metafields provide a powerful and flexible way to attach additional information to your products within Shopify, extending beyond the standard fields available in the Shopify Products feed. This additional information can serve various purposes, enhancing your product management and enriching your customer experience. Some common use cases for metafields include:
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Internal Product Management: Store internal data points such as reorder levels, supplier information, or product life cycle stages.
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Custom Product Specifications: Display unique product attributes on your storefront, such as material composition, care instructions, or technical specifications.
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Application Integrations: Integrate with third-party applications that require specific product data not covered by the standard Shopify fields.
The Metafield resource
Each metafield you create consists of the following properties:
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description: (Optional) Provides a brief explanation of the metafield's purpose or content.
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id: (Read-only) The unique identifier assigned to the metafield by Shopify. This is automatically generated when you create a metafield and is required when updating an existing metafield.
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key: The unique identifier for the metafield within its namespace, ensuring distinction from other metafields with the same namespace. The key must be between 3 and 64 characters long and can include alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores.
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namespace: A category or grouping for your metafield, such as "inventory", "marketing", or "technical_specs". Namespaces help organize your metafields and prevent conflicts between different types of information. The namespace must be between 3 and 255 characters long and can include alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores. When a namespace is not specified, it defaults to "gdf".
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value: The actual data stored in the metafield. This can be text, numbers, dates, URLs, or other formats depending on the nature of the information and its intended use. Regardless of the data type, the value is always stored as a string.
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type: Specifies the type of data stored in the metafield. Shopify supports various data types, including single-line text, multi-line text, numbers, dates, URLs, and more. Selecting the appropriate type ensures accurate interpretation and manipulation of the data.
How to Create Metafields for Products
Steps:
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Prepare Your Import Source: Ensure your import source contains fields or columns holding the values you intend to map to the respective metafields. The structure and format of your import source may vary depending on its origin.
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Map Metafields in GoDataFeed:
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Open your GoDataFeed account and access the Shopify Products feed template settings.
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Within the "Mapping" section, locate the "metafields" field.
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For each metafield you defined in Shopify, create a separate mapping rule:
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Select the corresponding field from your import source that contains the value you want to associate with the metafield.
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Structure the mapping rule using the format "namespace:key,value,type:single_line_text,description:xxx".
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Replace "xxx" with an optional description if desired.
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If you need to create multiple metafields within a single rule, separate each metafield mapping with a pipe symbol ("|").
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By following these steps and leveraging the capabilities of GoDataFeed, you can efficiently create and manage metafields, enriching your product data and unlocking further possibilities for customization and integration within your Shopify store.
In-Depth Example:
A comma-separated key-value approach is used for each of the properties when building rules to create and/or update metafields. For example:
property:value,
where “property” is one of the metafield properties mentioned above,
“value” is the actual value that will be assigned.
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Start by creating a custom rule to set the value of the field named “metafields”.
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Add a tag for each property (key-value pair) followed by a “,” (comma). The resulting value from this rule will be a comma-separated string like so,
namespace:store,key:fashion,value:skinny
It’s important to keep one property per tag to increase rule readability.
You may create multiple metafields using a single rule. This is accomplished by separating multiple metafield tags using a “|” (pipe symbol).
The resulting value from this rule will be a comma-separated string like so,
namespace:store,key:fashion,value:chino| namespace:store,key:size,value:7
As an example, to create a metafield for Store Code, Store Name, and Shipping Length, please follow the logic below. Each color represents a single metafield and the required 4 attributes.
optionName (1-5) and optionValue (1-5)
- These 10 new fields allow users to map their product variation. For example:
- optionName1: Color
- optionValue1: Blue
Important Note on Variant Labels
Shopify doesn't show a variant's title on the purchase page. If no options are set, it shows the SKU as the label. If options like Color: Blue are set, it shows the option instead. The parent product's title is always shown at the top.
Inventory Location Validation Rules
When updating inventory in Shopify, users must specify the inventory location using locationId
fields (e.g., locationId1
, locationId2
). Each locationId
corresponds to the inventory quantity at that location. For example:
-
availableQuantity1: 5
-
locationId1: 11648237683
To obtain the location id follow these steps.
Automatic (may require additional API scopes):
1) Go to the API Explorer and select (Get Inventory Locations (GraphQL))
Manual:
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Log in to your Shopify store
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On the bottom left of the page click on “settings”
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Go to “locations“ and click on the location you wish to use.
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- Copy the ID from the URL
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